Concepts of Personal Development among students at a diverse university

1. Concepts of Personal Development among students at a diverse university MajaJankowska University of Bedfordshire Higher Education Academy Annual Conference 5-6 July 2011

2. An overview of the story so far • A few words to set the scene • Initial ideas and approaches • Context and rationale • Some preliminary findings • Major shit in understanding and approaches • Future directions

3. The story begins... Aims of the PhD study at the outset: • To examine representations and experiences of personal development held by students of different cultural backgrounds. • To explore international students’ engagement in PDP practices and their wider experience of adaptation to learning in a foreign culture. • To contribute to the debate on the implementation of PDP in HE and internationalisation of HE.

4. Initial research questions • Does culture influence students’ perceptions and representations of PD and PDP? • What does PD and PDP mean to students from different cultural backgrounds? Is it important and to what extent? • Can concept maps capture the representations (PD) of students from different cultural backgrounds?

5. The context Definition used for Higher Education context: ‘PDP is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development.’ (NCIHE, 1997; Universities UK, 2007)

6. Process of structured (and supported?) PDP Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) Kolb’s experiential learning cycleKolb, Fry, 1975 http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ced/themes/personal-development/index.html The Effective Learning Framework (ELF), 2005

7. Some issues • clash of agendas at work (governmental, institutional , staff, students?). • the PDP cycle – the assumption that everyone can (and should?) benefit from the cycle of planning, doing, recording and reflecting or reviewing. • reflection (What is reflection? Do all students know how to reflect? And on what? Why should they reflect?). • focus on employability (but within the UK context) – how transferable (and useful) our approaches are to diverse students?

8. The story evolves...Overview of methodology Grounded Theory Approach to analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)

9. Overview of studies conducted African, Central Eastern Europeans, Chinese, British students.

10. Staff perceptions: ‘Expert study’ – group maps

11. Researcher’s ‘collated’ view in the form of a concept map – an attempt to incorporate all the important concepts from the three groups’ maps (2007)

12. A shared vision of PDP at the University? Jankowska, M., Atlay, M. 2007

13. Students representations of PD in the form of concept maps - examples

14. Students representations of PD in the form of concept maps - examples

15. Students representations of PD in the form of concept maps - examples

16. Students’ perceptions- some findings from concept mapping

17. Closer investigation Some categories important to all students but meanings differed – for example ‘family’ was highly important for all the groups but: Africans mention marriage, children, caring for elderly and siblings; family and religion are linked. Chinese talked about love, respect and social obligations and responsibilities. CEE mentioned family as a source of support and social heritage.

18. Some cultural tendencies African students’ concept maps: Religion, spiritual development, fulfilment. Professional development – focus on career and achievement, also financial gain. Family and social life – these students mention marriage, having children and caring for others more often than students of other backgrounds (although it is also mentioned by Chinese students and may possibly be explained by more collectivistic nature of these societies) Culture – their own cultural background as well as other cultures often Health – keeping healthy, eating healthy and exercising seemed also to be an important topic (both for some Africans and Chinese).

19. Central Eastern European students’ concept maps:Academic life – concentrate on their academic studies and often talk about university, knowledge and the ways of acquiring it. Some of them also mention skills, goals, ability to study, time effectiveness, problem solving or curiosity as well as learning for fun.Self-actualisation, personal satisfaction , the need to improveCareer– quite important but the focus is slightly different than for African or Chinese students. Eastern Europeans think about skills development and the personal fit for job as well as personal satisfaction. Culture – talk less often about their own background but rather concentrate on openness to other cultures, learning from/ about other cultures, etc. Travelling is probably linked to this.Family is mentioned rather as a source of support and the social heritage and seem to have less influence on their future path (in a way that Chinese family has on their children). Environment – some of Eastern Europeans mention the importance of environment which could/ should support personal development.

20. Chinese students’ concept maps:Education– degree, academic studies – the concepts well defined and specific, explicitly connected with acquiring a degree and hence future career development, social status and financial benefits.Money– mentioned money frequently and were not shy about expressing their expectations of high salary and a good quality of life. Also other materialistic things mentioned (e.g. a car, a house).Family and social networks – love and respect for the parents as well as the obligations and social responsibilities, also friends and other people around. Socially respected people’s opinions are valued and often followed to the letter.Social life – some Chinese marked the importance of helping others, serving their society (but not all).Development of personality/ character – the need to harness the character, build its strengths, concentrate on perseverance and put a lot of effort (this may possibly be connected with the importance of discipline and Confucian belief that hard work will pay off?).

21. British students’ concept maps:Education– quite important but treated as a necessary step for career development. Hence they are less likely to study for the sake of the studies (unlike CEE).Skills – British students mention skills, opportunities, feedback, experience, etc. – their language is often ‘career loaded’ (they use professional expressions more often than other students which may be a sign or career orientation, but may also be linked to the language proficiency).Interests, hobbies, leisure time are mentioned by some.

22. PDP activities and reflection from students’ perspective • IE: So it’s really hard to reflect on (module) • IR: mhm • IE: Ok, they say: reflect on your learning and understanding but (.) • IR: mhm • IE: of, of what? Of what I’ve learned? Or what I gained for my future? Or how I learned it??? {voice expresses confusion} or • IR: mhm, hmh • IE: should I say what will I do in the future? • IR: mhm • IE: and if yes, what should I focus on? How could I do it? I don’t know! I would like to learn how can I improve my skills but I don’t know what other tolls to do it

23. IR: And in your previous degree did you have any modules to do with personal development? • IE: yes • IR: Can you tell me something about it? You know, what kind of the things did you do? Was it good or bad? (what did you learn?) • IE: Seriously? • IR: Seriously. Yeah • IE: Oh, it was so useless • IR: OK, so what kinds of things it involved doing? • IE: In particular, eh, (.), yeah colouring egg, wrapping in the paper and then throwing it out of the window and we went downstairs and ( to see if it broke or not), uhm (..) different stuff, I think it was useless • IR: Mhm (..) so it didn’t [help you (.) at all • IE: NO, no, no, no] • IR: in terms of your personal development • IE: no • IR: No. So how long did you have this for? • IE: Uhm, 1 semester • IR: Mhm. Any (other things that you’ve done there?) Uhm [() • IE: We] we were supposed to work on things like teamwork, then your discussion and stuff like that but I don’t know if building a teamwork during like through colouring egg and doing this stuff is the right way so (..) and then also we, we were supposed to work on CVs and covering letters but (.) like different ways how to work personal development, you know • IR: mhm, mhm • IE: I personally found it (..) pretty useless so (.) • IR: mhm • IE: Maybe someone liked it, hard to say

24. IE:I have actually, for example in the first year we’ve done this e-portfolio which  is a very good practice, where you have got a lot of questions which can be similar but it’s for you to go in-depth with yourself. And then we have written, well, I have written what I’ve been achieving throughout my first year and I will do it over the next two years as well, keep revising that e-portfolio • IR: mhm • IE: Yes, it was questions, for example saying that, uhm. Have you had a subject where you have had, have to examine two complex problems. That’s the question for example [yeah • IR: oh] • IE: and then I would write, yes, in two modules I have had a case questions which I had to analyse so I had to prove it and then elaborate on it • IR: ok, and you found it very helpful • IE: yes, very helpful because we actually do a lot of things at the university, sometimes you are not realising that oh that here you are actually doing research or here you are actually expanding your knowledge in way you didn’t think about. It’s good it can be difficult actually to [put • IR: Oh, sure] • IE: your thoughts down on paper and therefore it took time, um (.) but very helpful. A lot of people don’t do regard it as anything in my class, very few people have submitted it • IR: so it wasn’t obligatory? • IE: it is actually in a way, but not properly which is a bit disappointing um by the module which is Legal Skills and Literacy (.) they said it was important to fill it out and submit it, we’ve had it now for two semesters. A lot of people are not interested at all because they don’t understand the concept of it

25. Summary • Students coming from various cultures tend to concentrate on various aspects of personal development. • There are common themes (like gaining education, career development or importance of a family) but even these have a different hierarchy of importance and often different meanings under the same concepts’ labels. • In attempt to make the PDP tasks more useful and engaging, perhaps a more individualised attitude towards introduction of personal development is needed.

26. Some suggestions • sending a clear and simple (if possible!) message about PDP. • understanding the fact that the first and most important thing to consider should always be student’s ‘self’. • Understanding that the students need to be prepared for a global world (students flexible, adaptable, able to work in multi-cultural world, so that they can function well in various systems and compete on a global market). • Consideration need to be given to how far students should adapt to ‘our way’, why, and whose interests it serves. • Raising intercultural awareness and creating opportunities for intercultural tasks.

27. The story shifts... Analysis of in-depth interviews raised several issues: • Some themes were common to people who shared particular individual circumstances or prior experiences, regardless of their cultural background. • Samples too small to allow meaningful cross-cultural comparisons. • Diversity within the studied groups.

28. Changes/ future directions • Focus shifted from cross-cultural comparisons to individual experiences and understandings of personal development among diverse body of students. • Research questions re-phrased. • Method of analysis changed from grounded theory analysis across the four cultural groups to more narrative approach where each individual is treated as a ‘case’, followed by thematic analysis across the samples. • More analysis will follow.

29. Selected references • Ausubel, D. (1963). The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning. New York: Grune & Stratton • Barnett, R. (1997). Towards a Higher Education for a New Century. London: Institute of Education, University of London. • Burnapp, D. (2006) Trajectories of Adjustment of International Students: U-curve, Learning Curve, or Third Space. Intercultural Education,17(1), 81-93.. • Jankowska, M. (2009). Concept mapping technique as a vehicle for gaining insight into students’ understanding of personal development, ICERI 2009 proceedings, ISBN: 978-84-613-2953-3. • Jankowska, M. (f2011) A reflection on adaptability, achievement motivation and success of Central and Eastern European students in one English university, COMPARE – a journal of international and comparative education (forthcoming) • Jankowska, M. (2010). Enabling Student Development: with socially mediated concept mapping technique, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Special Edition: Researching PDP Practice, November 2010, ISSN: 1759-667X, http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal=jldhe&page=issue&op=view&path%5B%5D=10&path%5B%5D=showToc • National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997). Higher education in the learning society. Report of the national committee / chairman Sir Ron Dearing. London : NCIHE. • Novak, J.D. (1998). Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations. Mahwah, NJ,: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates . • Novak, J.D. & Canas, A.J. (2006). The Theory Underlying Maps and How to Construct Them. Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 2008", available at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf • Universities UK (2007). Beyond the honours degree classification: the Burgess Group final report. London: Universities UK. October 2007. Available at: http://www.beds.ac.uk/learning/curriculum/structures/cre8

30. Thank you for listening Maja.jankowska@beds.ac.uk