The University of East Anglia is collaborating with schoolteachers to help students bridge the gap between school and undergraduate-evel education - and to address perennial concerns about standards.
Dr Harriet Jones works with undergraduates in the university’s School of Biological Sciences to improve study and essay-writing skills. She gathered together a team of university and school teachers to discuss how such skills could be taught before students arrived at university. The result was a new Pre-University Skills course.
The course can be easily incorporated into sixth-form timetables, giving students the skills to help them work more effectively – and perform better - at A level and to facilitate the move to undergraduate studies. It will be launched at a conference of sixth-form teachers at Dereham Sixth Form College in Norfolk on Tuesday, September 14.
“My experience of teaching first-year undergraduates made me realise that there was a real need to equip students with a whole range of skills, from note-taking to structuring an argument and recognising the difference between quoting and plagiarising,” said Dr Jones.
“These are able students from a wide variety of backgrounds who arrive with very good grades, but the A-level syllabus often makes it difficult for teachers to find the time to develop the range of necessary study skills.”
A recent article in Times Higher Education (Mandatory academic writing classes: they’ll thank you for it later, 5 August 2010) shows that these are concerns shared by academics across the UK and beyond.
The study skills course developed by Dr Jones and the team includes classes in primary research, note-taking, revision skills, structured writing and scientific scholarship. It was piloted in the sixth forms of Wymondham High School and the City of Norwich School.
Victoria Musgrave is head teacher of Wymondham High School, where staff were also part of the course development team.
“Traditionally schools have provided opportunities for students to excel in specific subject areas and have sometimes overlooked the skills required to transfer those qualifications into the world of work or Higher Education,” she said.
“No more! We have seen a distinct improvement in our students’ work as a result of this course. The skills they have acquired will carry them forward into university life and beyond.”
The course is designed as a generic teaching resource that can be a valuable part of a General Studies programme. The first step in rolling it out regionally and nationally is to train teachers to teach the pre-university skills course.
Dr Jones and Dr Caroline Still, of the university’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, will run an initial one-day professional development course for teachers in January 2011 at the University of East Anglia and on June 30 at the university’s London study centre, depending on demand.
For more information about attending these courses, call 01603 591574, email professionaldevelopment@uea.ac.uk or visit www.uea.ac.uk/professionaldevelopment
The course can be easily incorporated into sixth-form timetables, giving students the skills to help them work more effectively – and perform better - at A level and to facilitate the move to undergraduate studies. It will be launched at a conference of sixth-form teachers at Dereham Sixth Form College in Norfolk on Tuesday, September 14.
“My experience of teaching first-year undergraduates made me realise that there was a real need to equip students with a whole range of skills, from note-taking to structuring an argument and recognising the difference between quoting and plagiarising,” said Dr Jones.
“These are able students from a wide variety of backgrounds who arrive with very good grades, but the A-level syllabus often makes it difficult for teachers to find the time to develop the range of necessary study skills.”
A recent article in Times Higher Education (Mandatory academic writing classes: they’ll thank you for it later, 5 August 2010) shows that these are concerns shared by academics across the UK and beyond.
The study skills course developed by Dr Jones and the team includes classes in primary research, note-taking, revision skills, structured writing and scientific scholarship. It was piloted in the sixth forms of Wymondham High School and the City of Norwich School.
Victoria Musgrave is head teacher of Wymondham High School, where staff were also part of the course development team.
“Traditionally schools have provided opportunities for students to excel in specific subject areas and have sometimes overlooked the skills required to transfer those qualifications into the world of work or Higher Education,” she said.
“No more! We have seen a distinct improvement in our students’ work as a result of this course. The skills they have acquired will carry them forward into university life and beyond.”
The course is designed as a generic teaching resource that can be a valuable part of a General Studies programme. The first step in rolling it out regionally and nationally is to train teachers to teach the pre-university skills course.
Dr Jones and Dr Caroline Still, of the university’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, will run an initial one-day professional development course for teachers in January 2011 at the University of East Anglia and on June 30 at the university’s London study centre, depending on demand.
For more information about attending these courses, call 01603 591574, email professionaldevelopment@uea.ac.uk or visit www.uea.ac.uk/professionaldevelopment
