Assessing Retention

1. Assessing Retention Dr Sue Jackson Head of School of Continuing Education Birkbeck, University of London s.jackson@bbk.ac.uk

2. This workshop explores: • how first year continuing education students facilitate and negotiate active and effective learning; • how teachers and continuing higher education institutions incorporate, adapt or change their pedagogic approaches in order to facilitate and negotiate the development of an individual’s capacity to take responsibility for her/his learning, to be an effective learner and to learn from experience; • how effective continuing education for first year students can be developed.

3. Outline: • Considering lifelong learning, ‘difference’ and diversity • 3 key areas: i) student facilitation and negotiation of active and effective learning; ii) teachers: adapting and changing pedagogic approaches; iii)institutions: adapting and changing pedagogic approaches • Assessing retention

4. Student facilitation and negotiation of active and effective learning • Naomi Sargent shows that the three main reasons given for participating in learning are work-related; education and progression; and personal development (Sargent et al, 1997). For many continuing education students this is predominantly personal development.

5. The University of the Third Age (U3A) Members responsible for choosing and setting the curriculum, times and modes of study, subject content, teacher and optimum number of learners.

6. The WEA (Workers Educational Association) “provide high quality learning opportunities for adults from all walks of life, but especially those who may have missed out on learning in early life, or who are socially and economically disadvantaged”

7. Discussion points: • How can continuing education institutions build on the work of organizations like the U3A or WEA to enable student facilitation and negotiation of active and effective learning? • Can this be done effectively through creative and innovative methods of assessment?

8. Teachers: adapting and changing pedagogic approaches Discussion points: • How can teachers adapt and change the curricula to include and value the diverse experiences of their students? • How can subject content be made more relevant? • How can teachers encourage and enable the use of personal experience in theoretical and analytical approaches? • What is the relationship between curricula, assessment, active participation and retention?

9. Feminist pedagogy: • to strive for egalitarian relationships in the classroom; • to try to make all students feel valued as individuals; • to use the experience of students as a learning resource; • to question the role and authority of the teacher; • to consider questions of difference; and • to consider personal experience.

10. Discussion points: • how might these pedagogic principles be used to enhance the experiences of continuing education learners in formal educational classrooms? • What pedagogic challenges are faced by teachers of learners? • What is the relationship between such pedagogic practices and assessment?

11. Institutions: adapting and changing pedagogic approaches Basil Bernstein (1996): ‘we can ask about the acoustic of the school. Whose voice is heard? Who is speaking? Who is hailed by this voice? For whom is it familiar?’ (Bernstein, 1996, p7).

12. Discussion points: • Can validation committees agree more flexible methods of and criteria for assessment? • Do all courses need to be accredited in order to obtain funding? • Will linking methods of assessment to prior experience, especially in the first year, help embed diverse voices into the academy?