Enhancing the First Year Student Experience
Village Greens, Magnetic Walls
& Polished Concrete
Michael Gorman
Senior Learning & Teaching Fellow
http://twitter.com/macgormain
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/artschool
Nottingham | Jun 2014
Contexts | Manchester
• World’s First Industrial City
– “Cottonopolis” | Rutherford Splits Atom | World’s First Computer
• Media City
– BBC | Northern Quarter | Diversity/Regeneration
Contexts | Manchester School of Art
• Founded in 1838
– 3500 students | 14 degrees | 59 nationalities
• Part of Manchester Metropolitan University
– New £35 million building programme,
– Architecture; Art; Design; Media/Theatre
Genesis | Teeside
Genesis | Questions
Why are Universities erecting so many “statement” buildings?
What do these buildings say to our first year students?
Why do we lose so many first year students in the early weeks of the
programme (when many students are in a liminal state)?
Genesis | Questions
“The apparent connection between day-to-day premises maintenance and learning
may need to be drawn to the attention of institutional managements. It seems that
small things may make a big difference to learning: grand architectural statements
may not be necessary.
We need a better understanding of the role of space in the dynamics of creating
more productive higher education communities and its connections with learning
and research. This should be the subject of further research. The literature throws
almost no light on managerial decision-making about space issues affecting
students or staff: this is a topic where further work would be useful.”
Genesis | …and Les Watson
“We spend a lot of time trying to change
people. The thing to do is to change the
environment and people will change
themselves.”
Les Watson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Glasgow Caledonian University
Genesis | …meanwhile Down Under
“While research into the student experience
has focused on what students do and how they
engage, research into where students are
engaging and how this influences their
engagement is needed.”
Context | HE in the UK
League table rankings
Russell Group
to invest
£9 billion in buildings
Cap on Recruitment
Numbers lifted
in 2014-15
Change!
Retention
National Student Survey
And
Student Satisfaction
= key policy concern
How do we manage transition?
Dynamic change to secondary system
Context | The Canon
Yorke & Longden (2008)
Astin (1975, 1984)
Kift (2004)
Cook & Rushton (2009)
STAR Project
First Year
Student Experience
Tinto (1977, 1993)
Chickering & Gamson (1987)
Kuh (2001, 2003)
Context | The Canon
Temple (2007)
HEA Report
Jamieson (2003)
Oblinger (2005)
Montgomerie
( 2008)
Physical
Environment?
JISC (2006)
Webb, Schaller & Hunley (2008)
Bennet (2007)
Methodology
Understanding the physical environment
Visits
Focus Interviews
with Key Staff
Including
Architect
Tensions!
Case Study
Manchester
School of Art
Questionairre
Surface
1. Navigation, Colour & Coding
2. Light/Sound/Temperature
3. Signage
4. Permission
5. Room Booking…
6. Workshops
7. Interactivity
8. Security and Openess
9. Reception
Concepts | Spaces
Contested…
Boundary
Digital (including the VLE)
Dialogic
Making (Writing)
Savin-Baden (2010) Learning Spaces McGraw Hill
Submerged
1. Anomie (Durkheim)
2. Liminality (Savin-Baden)
3. Interaction or transaction? (Berne)
4. Engaging the senses…(NLP)
5. Cultural capital (Bordieu)
6. Communities of Practice (Wenger)
…sense of belonging routed in
curriculum engagement…
Next
1. Encourage sensual exploration
(drawing/photography/film…use instagram/pinterest)
2. Open Open Open Day for First Years – permission!!
3. Dialogic/Making Spaces – be explicit!
4. Leave room for Boundary/Liminal spaces…
5. Encourage communities of practice
6. Understand where students come from
7. A Learning Building (ie a Building that Learns)
8. Student (and Staff) voice?
9. Pilot?