Description
The transition to Higher Education can be challenging for some students. Supporting retention and attainment continues to be a major focus within Higher Education Institutions (Thomas, Hill, O’ Mahony & Yorke, 2017). Research has shown that initiatives to enhance student engagement tend to be most effective when timely and contextualised (Clughen & Connell, 2012). Additionally, in practice, generic principles for integrating learning development within the curriculum include the importance of a collaborative, inclusive, interactive, holistic and reflective approach (Hill & Tinker, 2013). Learning Developers can work with subject specialist academics to achieve embedded multi-strategy design and delivery. However, there is an opportunity for recent graduates to work alongside Learner Developers within course teams to provide accessible subject-specific and pastoral support. Through use of their own experiences of the student journey, they can offer an alternative insight into issues that may affect first year undergraduate student retention, engagement and attainment.This presentation will outline a new university–wide Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) initiative utilising graduates from our university. It will explore the GTA’s collaboration with Learning Developers and course teams. The GTAs will discuss activities and issues from their distinctive perspective, including how their work is impacting on the student experience. Clughen, L., & Connell, M. (2012). Writing and resistance: Reflections on the practice of embedding writing in the curriculum. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 11(4), 333-345. doi:10.1177/1474022211429543Hill, P., & Tinker, A. (2013). Integrating learning development into the student experience. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, 5. Retrieved from: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/Thomas, L., Hill, M., O’ Mahony, J., & Yorke, M. (2017). Supporting student success: strategies for institutional change What Works? Student Retention & Success programme. Retrieved from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/supporting-student-success-strategies-institutional-changePeriod | 26 Mar 2018 → 28 Mar 2018 |
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Event title | 2018 Association for Learning Development in Higher Education: The Learning Development Conference |
Event type | Conference |
Location | Leicester, United KingdomShow on map |
Degree of Recognition | National |