Impressions of disadvantage: II-Monitoring and assisting the student at risk

Abstract

Abstract. Two studies on monitoring and assisting students at risk are presented against a contemporary perspective in higher education: that of monitoring and developing the quality of student learning. A basis for risk categorisation at an individual level is outlined, and the effects of an intervention aimed at students at risk are evaluated in two contrasting settings. 'At risk' in the present study represents, in conceptual terms, a relatively extreme set of learning behaviours.The first study approximates an ideal set of circumstances in which an individual-level intervention for students conceptually at risk is described. The second study reflects the uncompromising reality of a large first-year service course, in which a reduced form of the same intervention was pragmatically attempted. In both interventions the emphasis was on assisting students to engage manifestations of their own self-reported, contextualised study behaviour. This was the starting point of a developmental and reflective programme in which students were not taught 'study skills,' but were rather assisted to develop deeper contextual perceptions, metalearning awareness, and internal locus.The targeted students in these studies, and the basic nature of the intervention employed, differ considerably from those used in other intervention studies. The first study produced positive results, while the second study did not. An overall conclusion is that, while interventions of the type described can assist students to develop their learning potential, they can only do so in carefully managed circumstances that are sensitive to individual students' learning problems and the discipline-specific context in which these occur.

Conceptions of learning and approaches to studying among White and ethnic minority students in distance education

“…In the USA, Nettles (1988, p. 26) found no overall difference in the self‐reported study habits of Black and White students. Meyer, Cliff, and Dunne (1994) and Meyer, Dunne, and Sass (1992) found that Black students admitted to universities in apartheid era South Africa often showed ineffective approaches to studying that could only be modified by individually focused interventions. However, Watkins, McInerny, Akande, and Lee (2003) found no differences in either the motivation or the approaches to studying of Black and White adolescents at two desegregated schools in post‐apartheid South Africa.…”

Variation in medical students' approaches to diagnosis: a basis for initiating conceptual change among teachers and students

“…An important focus of many contemporary applications of research on student learning has been students' benefit, that is, how to help students to develop their study skills. Some applications, for example, have been directed towards various forms of intervention for students manifesting `high risk' forms of learning engagement 12 –15 . Other applications have used evidence of longitudinal variation in student learning as a basis for evaluating the quality of the learning environment 6 –8 .…”