Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Contextualisation, embedding and mapping: the CEM model, a new way to define and engage staff and students in the delivery of an English language and study skills support programme: a case study of Heriot-Watt and Northumbria University

Abstract

Olwyn (2013) Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Contextualisation, embedding and mapping: the CEM model, a new way to define and engage staff and students in the delivery of an English language and study skills support programme: a case study of Heriot-Watt and Northumbria University. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 50 (3 Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University's research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) This paper presents a pedagogical solution to challenges in delivering English language and study skills support to the diverse range of students now entering Higher Education. It presents a new definition of study skills, responding to the call within the literature to move away from the bolt on approach associated with the deficit model of student support. A rationale is presented, together with research underpinning the design and development of a model of study skills delivery built on the three areas of contextualisation, embedding and mapping, resulting in the CEM Model. Discussion will show how the model informs delivery of study skills at two universities, identifying key issues from the three perspectives of the student, academic subject specialist and English language specialist. Analysis of the impact of using the CEM Model on classroom pedagogy informs the current debate on the delivery of study skills. Finally the discussion will show how the model has helped to communicate and inform the design of study skills support classes and more importantly impacts on the role of study skills as part of the delivery of academic programmes. YesKeywords: study skills support, CEM Model, student support, English language; IntroductionThis paper presents a pedagogical solution to the challenges facing UK Higher Education (HE) institutions providing English language and study skills support programmes to international students. The British Council's research, Student Decision Making Survey, canvassing 115,000 students from 200 countries, identified that...

Engaging with quality via the CEM model: Enhancing the content and performance management of postgraduate in-sessional academic skills provision

“…Sloan and Porter (2010) offered a framework for ensuring that lessons learned from implementation of the CEM Model at Northumbria University were not lost in the transfer to other contexts. In the transfer and implementation of the CEM Model to (Remove brackets and change to Heriot-Watt University)[institution] (Sloan, Porter and Alexander, 2013) the authors noted the importance of further engaging with the student body to identify what students prioritise as the most important content they wish to be delivered in the academic skills workshops.…”

“…At Heriot-Watt University, developing study competence as opposed to study skills (Waters & Waters, 2001) and exploring how students are expected to write within their disciplines (Lea & Street, 1998) have been the main aims of in-sessional academic skills provision since its inception in 2009. The CEM Model was introduced in Heriot-Watt University in 2009 (Sloan, Porter and Alexander, 2013) to assess its transferability to a new context. It has provided an effective framework for an internal action research project to evaluate and enhance in-sessional provision for taught postgraduate programmes.…”