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Title of case study:
Students’
Postcards: gathering feedback from large groups
Name: Kay Sambell & Mel Gibson
University: Northumbria University
Key Concepts/Threshold Concepts: student voices, using e-learning, working with large groups, encouraging student presentations/communication.
Background: Module
- Perspectives on Childhood.
• Key theory module on BA Joint Honours in Childhood Studies
The module introduces first year undergraduates to key theoretical perspectives
on the academic study of childhood. 120 students, many of whom are ‘non-traditional’,
lack confidence and are not sure what to expect.
Aims: State issue you were
trying to address
Many of our students are not sure what is expected of them when it comes
to writing about childhood at university level and tend to ‘put
off’ the whole business of committing their ideas to paper until
the summative assignment deadline looms, which is when they start thinking
about writing. The postcards activity acts as an ‘ice-breaker,’
allowing them to begin to express their ideas, at first informally and
provisionally, in a variety of ways.
It is importantly focused on their feelings about undertaking the first assignment on perspectives of childhood, and takes place in the very first session of the first academic year, when we are introducing new students to the course and outlining the ways in which childhood will be studied during the three years of their degree. The activity enables lecturers to recognise and explore their students’ preconceptions about assessment and writing at university, helping them to express any anxieties and share their areas of confidence. It allows us to unpack our views of writing being much more than students’ essays as products submitted for marking, presenting, instead, academic literacy as a process by which students develop ideas about childhood and develop ways of expressing those ideas. Moreover, it enables us to reassure students that the development of ‘thinking writing’ skills (Mitchell, 2003) will take time and, importantly, practice to develop and that the course and tutors are there to help facilitate this process.
Strategy
Students are offered a blank postcard on which they may write and do drawings
about how they feel about having a go at their first childhood studies
summative assignment (which is due after about 12 weeks of study). The
idea is that this is a swift exercise that isn’t about heavy reflection
but enables people to express their hopes and anxieties. It allows them
to make a start, in a non-threatening way, as they are actively encouraged
to write and articulate their ideas about learning the subject of childhood.
In this way it can help new students position themselves as active learners,
rather than passive listeners, thus starting off on the right foot.
The cards are addressed to us as module tutor(s) and we gather them in at the end of the first teaching session. In this way the postcards work similarly to the ‘one-minute paper’ (Ross & Angelo, 2001. As childhood lecturers, of course, we can’t resist alluding, too, to the Ahlberg’s classic The Jolly Postman: or Other People’s Letters’: other people, not just the addressee, will importantly read, reinterpret and discuss what’s been inscribed on the cards.
Working with students’ postcards
The completed postcards can be used in a number of ways. For example, we usually look for the range of metaphors students use to describe their feelings about the first CS assignment and learning about childhood at university, which we can then share and discuss with them the next time we all meet.
Examples of the sorts of things students write and draw include the following:
Here, for instance, on the one hand students appear to be anxious, threatened, and intimidated. They see the assignment as a threat and something to be frightened of: a big obstacle to scale, a set of hurdles, or something that simply reduces them to ‘The Scream.’ ‘I feel confused, anxious, unsure, puzzled.’ On the other hand, the sense of challenge is not universally perceived negatively. Some represent a sense of excitement and productive journeying: ‘I am raring to go and excited to learn more.’ ‘I’m excited about learning about childhood and having a new perspective on it.’. What a number also do is to put forward a notion of reward and satisfaction. This may be depicted as completing the degree (never mind the immediate assignment) or as a smiley face.
In addition, what some students do is to begin to map out graphically what they think is the best way to approach the assignment they have been set. These are particularly productive postcards for students to begin to explore together. Several of the images involve an incremental, steady approach to the learning journey: climbing up through the stark block of flats floor by floor, for instance, or ‘eating the elephant bit by bit.’
Evaluation
Lecturers’ views
Having looked at the metaphors and narratives students choose to tell, we’ve found it’s been really useful to pick out a few postcard stories that reflect generally held views within the group. These are then shared and discussed in the second session. This has helped us to highlight the importance of ‘learning by doing’ and acts as a means of validating students’ voices in the classroom, helping them see themselves as active participants in the course, whose views are important, right from the word ‘go’. This is especially important in large-groups, and in the early days of students’ university careers, when many expect to attend lectures ‘passively’ writing down whatever information the lecturer imparts. In short, in helps to establish a sense of belonging and collective endeavour, rather than reinforcing a view of learning and writing about childhood as a matter of gathering and regurgitating information which the lecturer possesses.
Further, it enables us as tutors to identify areas of common anxiety, and therefore address students’ concerns directly and explicitly. For instance, if students are anxious about feeling lost with the material, they can be reassured that there will be ample time and opportunity as the module unfolds to develop and demonstrate their learning in an incremental and formative way, thus building their confidence and capabilities before they are summatively assessed. Students often comment that it was really helpful to find out that other people were worried and that it was useful to begin to identify and reflect upon the different ways in which learning about childhood could be viewed and approached. Hopefully this might go some way towards helping students see writing as a means of developing confidence and understanding in the field of childhood studies, rather than simply viewing writing as a matter for being judged or graded (see Mitchell, 2003) [http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/]. Focusing discussion, early on in a students’ academic career, on those metaphors which represent writing and assessment as a ‘hurdle’ offers an important opportunity to help students consider and question the roles that academic literacy and student writing can play, as well as allowing lecturers to occupy a responsive, formative role.
Students’ evaluation
‘The postcards really helped, because I was a bit nervous, but found out everyone else was, too. And I now know that once I understand the course a bit more and get help from the tutors I will enjoy the course and feel much more relaxed.’
‘I still feel nervous as it is a subject I don’t have any prior knowledge of, but I am looking forward to it.’
Advice to others thinking of using this activity
A selection of anonymised students’ postcards can be displayed, with their permission, either on their notice board, or on the e-learning portal. This, too, can help new students feel a sense of ownership and belonging in the early days of being at university, as well as helping them to share their experiences and gain insider insight into ‘other people’s letters,’ and other people’s approaches to learning.
Sambell, K. & Gibson, M. ‘Students’
postcards: gathering feedback from large groups’ in the MEDAL Casebook,
MEDAL Consortium (2006).
http://medal.unn.ac.uk/casestudies/postcards.htm