Thanks to those who were able to come along to the Reading Club meeting on 11 May 2022, where we discussed Arina Cirstea’s paper ‘Engaging students online: an analysis of students’ motivations for seeking individual learning development support’ from March edition of the journal. The full paper is available here, the questions we used available here.
We discussed the author’s definition of student engagement (which combined emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects, see Henrie et al 2016) and unpicked some of the key findings from this small scale, mixed methods research project. We reflected on the importance and value of individual tutorials and the significance and connotations of the labels (consultation, appointment, workshop, tutorial) we use for individual LD service delivery. There was an interesting comparison of service parameters (time and frequency of appointments offered) and discussion of why particular services appealed to particular student groups and the implications of this for hard to reach students. This discussion of student groups led to sharing of links to resources which outlined meta language we use to take discussions of criticality further; see Leicester De Montfort University Critical thinking Toolkit and Four Feathers Writing Guide by Elder Shirley Alphonse, Elder Nadine Charles, and Theresa Bell (Royal Roads University, British Columbia, Canada). Please see footnote regarding permissions 1. Discussion focused on profiles of student users of one to one appointments, both in this research and the generalisability of findings to the wider student populations and it was evident there was much more to discuss here, particularly concerning different cultural norms and expectations. We were lucky to have the author in attendance and the opportunity to hear a more detailed rationale and some of the thinking behind different elements of the paper.
Towards the end we moved to considering further research and there was interest in both the use of discourse analysis to explore LD consultations and longitudinal explorations of student development, particularly those ‘frequent flyers’ with whom we develop more established relationships.
1 – Please note that the creators of the Four Feathers Writing Guide obtained permission from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers to include Traditional Knowledge in the guide. This Traditional Knowledge should not be re-used without explicit permission from the Nation.
Our next group meeting will be Wednesday 13th July at 5:30pm. We will be in touch in advance with a selection of JLDHE articles for you to vote from. We will then confirm the piece with the most votes (!) and share the zoom link a week before the event. Please contact Jenny if you’d like to be included in the email.