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Fragmented Transitions: moving to the 2nd year

STEM Annual Conference 2012: Proceedings - ISBN 978-1-907207-45-7

There has been extensive research into the process of transition into higher education and first year experience with particular reference to the factors impacting on student success. Much less consideration has been given to the subsequent years of study and the student experience of academic and social transitions. Forty bioscience students across two cohorts were given video cameras as part of a longitudinal project to provide regular short videos covering whatever they felt was important to them at the time. Focus group sessions enabled discussion of specific issues that arose. Researchers not involved in the teaching or assessment of the students were engaged in viewing and coding the material.

In this presentation we will use extracts from these student video diaries to explore some student perceptions of the second year. The process of transition to university is often viewed as being a linear process. However Holdsworth when considering residential transitions of students refers to them as being ‘individualised reflective and fragmented’. It is clear from our study that the transitions and the whole university experience are fragmented and that just as with the initial transitions as well as there being a perceived transition in the pace and demands of academic study from year one to year two there may also be a very clear impact of social factors on the success of individual students

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11/04/2012
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