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Learning Development
[edit]Learning Development is an emerging field in higher education concerned with developing the most effective manner to support students to learn effectively in Higher Education (HE). Whilst, of course, most universities have provided learning support in a number of guises for many years, the Learning Development approach seeks to create a more holistic approach to
There is a UK-based Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) and a journal the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education JLDHE.
Characteristics of Learning Development
[edit]The characteristics of a Learning Development approach include:
- Whole institution approach - learner support is best delivered through a combination of activities including within the curriculum, one-to-one support, co-curricular support, resource based support and e-learning
- Developing both the academic skills required to learn effectively in higher education and understanding the academic practices that underpin learning processes
- The approach is intended to provide an alternative rationale to 'deficit' models of study support where students who need support are viewed as failing and are dealt with in discrete units apart from the normal learning and teaching process.
Learning Development within the curriculum
One aspect of learning development is that students need supporting within the normal taught curriculum. As well as teaching the subject discipline, students need introducing to the academic skills and practices relevant to the field. This may be particularly important for new students who have previously encountered a different type of learning and teaching. UK students have typically encountered more-supported forms of learning with a greater degree of direction from tutors in pre-university education. International students may have different transition issues as they adapt to learning in a new context. This approach draws upon the work of the academic literacies and Writing Across the Curriculum movements amongst others in stressing the importance of learning how to learn not just the subject matter contained within the curriculum.
Typical Learning Development Activities within the curriculum may include:
- Discussions about how students are expected to learn in HE
- Formative writing tasks
- Reviewing exemplar assignments
- Peer support from students in later years
One-to-one Learning Development
Many staff interested in Learning Development provide one-to-one support to students as at least part of their role. One-to-one support typically involves students working with a professional adviser to review aspects of their own working practice, or deal with specific problems they are facing, typically an assignment with a pressing deadline. One-to-one support is most commonly provided for students needing help with a written assignment such as an essay or report, with fewer staff providing a similar service in mathematics.
Typical one-to-one Learning Development activities may include:
- helping the student to articulate what they understand the assignment to be about
- helping the student to organise their thoughts and plan the assignment
- less frequently help with grammar or sentence construction
- Very few advisers will actually proof-read a student's work, this can be a source of contention between the adviser and student 'customer'.
Co-curricular Learning Development
This typically means workshops or lectures provided by skills specialists. These are sometimes embedded as guest lectures into the curriculum or provided as a timetabled programme of stand-alone sessions. These may be provided centrally by the institution or locally by the academic school or faculty.
Typical activities include:
- Lectures or workshops available to large groups in academic skills such as referencing or organising an assignment
- Sometimes the co-curricular approach will deliver workshops to groups of students in a manner similar to one-to-one support but to small groups of students
Resource-based support
Those involved in learning development are increasingly interested in the process of developing learning resources for lecturers to embed into their working practice, for one barrier to lecturing staff embedding a wider range of academic skills
Key elements of resource-based support:
Origins of Learning Development
[edit]Although presaged by online discussions in many other HE networks, there are a number of key incidents in the development of learning development as a discrete body. The first was the creation of the Learning Development in Higher Education Network (LDHEN) discussion list in 2003 on the Jiscmail service. In addition to an active discussion group, there is an annual LDHEN conference.
A large number of those staff involved in LDHEN also became involved in developing the Learnhigher CETL (2005 - 2010). Learnhigher is a collaborative CETL of 16 UK universities working co-ordinated by Liverpool Hope University. Learnhigher exists to develop learning resources for staff and students, and to build a research and evidence base to inform learning development.
In 2007, at the LDHEN symposium, the Association of Learning Development in Higher Education was launched. In 2009, the the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education JLDHE published its first edition online.
External Links
[edit]Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE)
the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education JLDHE
Learning Development in Higher Education Network (LDHEN)
Higher Education Funding Council for England & Wales HEFCE)
Learnhigher CETL