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Abstracts

Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 2000

Does credit add value to Access to Higher Education courses?

Ruth Keynes and Kay Syrad, South of England OCN

The above question was a dangerous one for an Open College Network to ask for, over the past four or five years, most Access Courses have been persuaded to adopt the credit framework. Our findings are revealing, both about Access practitioners' concerns about and attitudes to credit, and about the relationship between the principles upon which Access was founded and those that underpin the credit framework.

The growth and success of the Combined Awards Programme at the University of Paisley

William Steele and Margaret Mullen, University of Paisley

This paper focuses on the University of Paisley's commitment to expanding learning opportunities and widening participation for those from non-traditional backgrounds. In particular it concentrates on the establishment and growth of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS), which was introduced at Paisley in 1990. Today, nearly a quarter of the student population of the University study within this scheme. The Combined Awards Programme (CAP) allows flexibility and choice to students in terms of qualifications sought and subjects studied. In addition to studying individual modules for professional development or interest, students can aim for an award from a Certificate of Higher Education through to a Master's Degree.

Accrediting the experience of work-based learners - a case study

Dr Kathy Doncaster, Middlesex University

Work-Based Learning Studies has been a subject area at Middlesex University since 1995, with the accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) playing a significant role in its development since the outset. In this paper, the reasons for the importance of APEL to the Work-Based Learning Studies programme are discussed. It is argued that APEL assists in programme progression and in the development of reflection, and that this helps individual learners to evaluate the tension-filled relationship between themselves, employers and the University - all of whom are stakeholders in work-based learning.

Returning to education: A question of balance?

Elaine Dawson and Pam Boulton, Sheffield Hallam University

This paper discusses one of the significant themes to arise from a three-year, qualitative study into the learning choices of adults returning to education. When adults in this study talked about their reasons for returning to learning, they discussed the need to redress a perceived imbalance, which had occurred, or which would occur, in the future. Initially, the motivation to return to education for many of the participants appeared to be vocational. However, there are many more aspects involved in adults' learning choices than these easily expressed vocational motivations. A perspective is offered of learning as a re-balancing strategy used by adults who experience 'situational' and 'dispositional' imbalance. So called 'life transitions' are related to this imbalance, and thus the paper offers new interpretations of the connections between returning to education and life transitions.

Images of ageing: Towards a contemporary theory of lifespan learning

Geoffrey Elliott, University College Worcester

He wasn't too old to me...(Madonna, in Body of Evidence, 1993)

The paper argues that popular images of ageing are typically constructed in negative terms, leading to an ageist stereotype of older people. Educational policies and practices that are informed by such constructions and stereotypes will result in impoverished provision that fails to take into account individual needs and diversity. The limitations of traditional theories of learning are highlighted, and an alternative 'contemporary' theory is suggested that, it is argued, more appropriately takes account of lifespan learning.

Cause for concern? Assessment in accredited language courses

Alison Mackenzie and Robert Turner, University of Glasgow

This paper considers student views of assessment in credit-bearing language courses offered by a University Department of Adult and Continuing Education. Questionnaire data were collected from 130 students who completed Spanish courses during the first year of accreditation. Our analysis concerns students' pre- and post-course views of oral and written assessments. In addition, we report students' perceptions of tutors' views of assessment and the possible impact of these. Results are discussed in the context of type of course and student profile.

A community-based distance learning network project in Barnsley

Nigel R Hartland, The Northern College for Residential and Adult Education, University of Glasgow

The Green Paper on Lifelong Learning (DfEE, 1998) highlighted the possible shift in learning environments within which learners will learn. Students are likely to be more mobile and not to be tied to a particular location. This report will show how a library-based model has been undertaken at Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Onsite tutorial support with learning using a number of libraries was at the centre of this project run by Barnsley College. This report assesses the impact of the project and its usefulness as a model for other localities.

Compliance and compromise or challenge and change: access without credit?

Maggie Coats, The Open University

This paper argues that any form of assessment and individual award of credit may deter the least well qualified adults from engaging in any form of structured learning and that the learning divide shows little sign of closing. It provides evidence that including assessment and accreditation in some kinds of existing threshold learning programmes can change the nature of that provision in unacceptable ways. A survey of provision for women showed how feminist pedagogy argues against compliance and compromise, poses a challenge to credentialism and argues for changes that would encourage an increase in initial access provision without awarding individual credit.

It may seem heresy to offer a paper to a journal that links access and credit in its title by suggesting that we may need, on occasions, to disentangle the two. Indeed, the question posed here is that if we are concerned to provide learning experiences that widen participation should we, in fact, reduce or remove the award of credit from that provision? Is there a case that can be made for public funded provision where learning is not assessed or accredited if it encourages adults to access learning for the first time? (See also Elliott, 1999.)

I want to look at how:

I will argue that funding linked to accreditation may discourage those groups who may want to participate and for whom the provision is designed. Although I focus on provision for particular groups of women, the findings may also apply to some groups of men and to other particular categories of adults (McGivney, 1999).

The rhetoric of education and training at the moment is about tackling social exclusion and reducing the learning divide, although there appears to be very little evidence that this divide is being reduced (Cara et al , 1999). In England and Wales at least, those who participate in adult education or training beyond compulsory schooling are those with the highest qualifications and the most successful previous learning experiences. In a study reported by Sargant et al (1997) 53 per cent of adults in the lowest social classes had not participated in any learning since leaving school. At the same time 53 per cent of those in the top social classes were currently participating in learning or had done so in the previous three years. If lifelong learning is to have any real impact upon a society it is the least well educated and trained who have to become involved, otherwise the divide between the most advantaged (economically, socially as well as educationally) and those who achieved the least is widened rather than reduced. La Valle and Finch (1999) report that one of the main obstacles that prevent 'long-term non-learners' engaging in learning is concern that they have not done any learning for a long time and worry that they do not have the ability to keep up with a course. Long-term non-learners are likely to include groups of women who are economically and socially disadvantaged but also educationally unsuccessful and vocationally unqualified (Cara et al , 1999).

Supporting access in Distance Education through student-student mentoring

Dr Sue Asbee, Ormond Simpson, and Sue Woodall, Open University in East Anglia

The topic of student-student mentoring has recently been growing in importance in post-school education. The concept (sometimes called 'peer-tutoring') involves using experienced students to support new students, particularly those most at risk of withdrawal because of their educational or socio-economic background. While there have been a number of mentoring schemes in both FE and HE there seem to have been few applications to students in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). The particular problems of ODL students such as isolation might make mentoring particularly appropriate and effective. This is a report of a small scale project to mentor new students entering the Open University on a particular course by using volunteer students who had recently completed that course. An evaluation of the project suggested that it was sufficiently successful both in its access and subsequent progress implications to be worth repeating on a more substantial scale.

Widening participation, social inclusion and partnerships An innovative vision for the Learning Age

Jo Sharma, Portsmouth Council of Community Service and Irene Selway, University of Portsmouth

Lifelong learning and widening participation have multiple meanings and these are initially explored as a context for this study. We report on an innovative project that sought to address the need for flexible accredited training for those working within the voluntary and community sectors in both paid and unpaid capacities. It illustrates the inclusive potential of using Open College Network (OCN) credit to widen participation for all groups within the community. It has brought together in a partnership users, voluntary organisations, and education and training providers to meet a wide range of individual learning needs, which did not begin with a deficit model of skill and education. Such provision has not previously been available in the Portsmouth area. However, funding issues have shaped the coherence and continuity of the Project leading us to challenge the effectiveness of lifelong learning funding strategies.

Doing it together A different way of accessing the social sciences

Pat Rickwood, Open University in the West Midlands

The case study discusses an experimental method of initiating a typical group of intending OU students into the study of the social sciences. The method consciously avoided using academic taxonomies and abstractions, however simplified, in favour of developing an understanding through the lived experience of the members, the tutor included. Together they discovered that studying the social sciences was conditional, contestable, subversive - and satisfyingly enjoyable. The purpose ultimately was to help encourage in the students a cast of mind that would serve them well as they progressed through their study with the OU.