Undergraduate students’ knowledge outcomes and how these relate to their educational experiences: a longitudinal study of chemistry in two countries [Scholarly Article - Higher Education, 2022]

Title:

Undergraduate students’ knowledge outcomes and how these relate to their educational experiences: a longitudinal study of chemistry in two countries

 

Authors:

Paul Ashwin, Margaret Blackie, Nicole Pitterson & Reneé Smit 

 

Published:

Higher Education, 23 November 2022

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-022-00962-1

 

Abstract:

Are the ways of engaging with the world that students develop through higher education particular to bodies of knowledge they study? In this article, we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of chemistry in England and South Africa changed over the three years of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a longitudinal phenomenographic analysis of 105 interviews with 33 chemistry students over the course of their undergraduate degrees in four institutions, we constituted five qualitatively different ways of describing chemistry. These ranged from chemistry as something that happens when things are mixed in a laboratory to a more inclusive account that described chemistry as being able to explain molecular interactions in unfamiliar environments. Most students expressed more inclusive accounts of chemistry by the end of their degrees and the level of change appeared to be related to their educational experiences. In contrast to approaches that emphasise the generic student outcomes from higher education, these findings highlight the importance of recognising the distinctive outcomes that students gain from their engagement with particular bodies of disciplinary knowledge. It further highlights the importance of students understanding their degrees as an educational experience that requires them to commit to engaging with these bodies of knowledge. 

 

Visualising tensions in undergraduate education: Clark’s triangle revisited [Scholarly Article - Teaching in Higher Education, 2022]

Title:

Visualising tensions in undergraduate education: Clark’s triangle revisited

 

Author:

Deanna Meth

Learning and Teaching Unit, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia

Published:

Teaching in Higher Education, 6 August 2022

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13562517.2022.2107392

Abstract:

This paper presents a new visualisation of tensions in developing and delivering undergraduate higher education. It links qualitative research on academics’ perceptions of education in one English research-intensive university to known models of knowledge, curricula, pedagogies, student engagement and identities to propose a new conceptual framework. Reworking the 1980s Clark triangle, with its apices of academic oligarchy, state authority and market denoting system tensions, a common apex now merges state and market agendas, and societal pulls are introduced at the third. The paper acknowledges today’s complex higher education environment and responds to critiques about the original triangle’s static nature, recognising oscillation within the space and adding a fourth apex representing students’ identities. The adapted model, supported through academics’ lived experiences, makes explicit the spectrum of choices and desired educational outcomes. It offers an important aid to debates on the purpose of higher education and learning and teaching policy and practice.