E-raamat: Researching Student Learning in Higher Education: A social realist approach

"Many contemporary concerns in higher education focus on the student experience of learning, battling with the dual concerns of a larger and much more diverse intake than ever before and the limitation of funding; questions are being asked afresh around the purposes of higher education. As much as the central questions in higher education focus on student enrolment in programmes, student retention, progression and success, graduate fitness for work, the actual student tends to be absent in so much of this rhetoric and even scholarly literature. The central questions are then of grading, selection, conversion and efficiency but these analyses have not really yielded much apart from providing some indication that the system is hugely inefficient. This bookturns this conversation on its head, by inserting a full consideration of student participation into the context of higher education. Working sociologically, it explores the influence of the social context on what the individual student achieves. It utilises a social realist approach to researching student learning, illustrating its potential value by a detailed exploration of student learning within one particular discipline: engineering education "--

Focusing on student experiences, Case (chemical engineering, U. of Cape Town, South Africa) considers student agency in higher education and the influence of social context on what they achieve. She outlines a framework that takes into account individual choice and decision making and illustrate this approach through narratives from third-year chemical engineering students at the U. of Cape Town who participated in a study investigating their experience of learning in a course on advanced reactor engineering. She argues that researchers cannot focus on teaching and learning without considering the context of these interactions and focuses on the changes in student agency that might be desirable outcomes for higher education and how the system will need to adapt to better enable them. She draws on the social realist theory of sociologist Margaret Archer, which brings structure and culture into the discussion of agency and change. She outlines the international and historical higher education context and contemporary movements in student learning research; the theories of critical realism, the concepts of Archer, a realist perspective on knowledge and curriculum, and how these theories can be drawn together to focus on the development of student agency; her research and the data in terms of student choice to study engineering, the experience of being an engineering student, engagement with peers and educators, and engagement with studies; and the potential significance of this information for student learning and change in the engineering education and higher education systems. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Many contemporary concerns in higher education focus on the student experience of learning.With a larger and much more diverse intake than ever before, linked with a declining unit of resource, questions are being asked afresh around the purposes of higher education. Although much of the debate is currently focused on issues of student access and success, a simple input-output model of higher education is insufficient.

This book turns this conversation on its head, by inserting a full consideration of student agency into the context of higher education.Working sociologically, it explores the influence of the social context on what the individual student achieves. The theoretical tenets of a social realist approach are laid out in detail in the book; the potential value of this approach is then illustrated by a case study of student learning in engineering education.Employing Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, an analysis of student narratives is used to work towards a realist understanding of the underlying mechanisms that constrain and enable student success.Building on this analysis, the book develops a novel set of proposals for potential ways forward in improving student learning in higher education.