Sharon’s helping students with the transition to University
Fri, 27 May 2011 11:23:00 BST
Sharon Frankland, tutor on the Early Years courses, is investigating the effect of higher education in student identity, in order to improve the student experience, especially with regard to work-based learning.
As she explains, ‘My research interests are around supporting students from non traditional academic backgrounds, for example those who join from vocational training courses and those who don’t come straight from school. My research has explored how we can improve the student experience by supporting them in their first year to cope with the demands of higher education study. It also looks at the role of the work-based placement and how we can work effectively with early years settings to provide a ‘community of practice’ and improve reflective practice. Reflective practice is the key way in which we learn from our experiences and is essential for making links between theory and practice.
I’ve been undertaking a study across three of our courses with colleagues from our primary teacher training and youth and community work courses to look at the effect of Higher Education on student identity. It initially started as the topic for my masters around changing student identity, and then developed into a further research project with our Academic Skills tutor, Jane Mullen and a youth and community work tutor, Jean Hatton, to look at some of the issues relating to the experience associated with becoming a higher education student.
The research gives us a greater understanding of how we can work together with early years settings to create a ‘community of practice’ so that we can improve work-based learning and the experience of our students. This fits with the government’s vision to up skill the early years sector and turn it into a graduate led workforce. It also links in with our courses leading to Early Years Professional Status, the new professional award for the sector and the increase in professionalism associated with Early Years workforce.
The original research project has been published. We presented the work at Queens University in Belfast in April 2011 and are due to present at the University of Manchester in June 2011.
Community Practitioner, December 2010, volume 83, no 12; ‘Can higher education improve the professional identity of community nursery nurses?’
