Student engagement with reflection – Re-imagining PPDP for the Social Age

Andrew Middleton

Head of Academic Practice & Learning Innovation

Student engagement with reflectionRe-imagining PPDP for the Social Age

Simon and his camera CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Graham Holden

Director of Learning & Teaching

@GrahamJHolden @andrewmid

#shult15

"[The] changing external higher education landscape; the changing needs of employers and the changing demands and expectations of our students, necessitate a step change in the way the University supports the transition of students into and through its undergraduate and postgraduate provision and beyond."

Learning and Teaching Strategy 2020

Joshua Tree National Park CC BY-2.0

‘The best thing any education can bequeath is the habit of reflection and questioning.’ AC Grayling, 2000

So why is it so difficult to engage our students with reflection and PPDP?

What do you think?

Simon Powell CC BY-2.0

Based on: Dacre-Pool, L and Sewell, P, (2010), Moving from conceptual ambiguity to operational clarity: Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education, Education and Training, 52, 1, 89-94. Also online

Employability

DegreeKnowledge,

Understanding& Skills

CareerDevelopment

Learning

ExperienceWork and Life

Generic Skills EmotionalIntelligence

Reflection and Evaluatione.g. PPDP

Self-efficacy Self-confidence

Self-esteem

Recognising Lifewide Engagement

Learning ecologies

Transform the ways in which students engage with, reflect on,

and record their journeys to ‘becoming professional’.

Ashley Holmes (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

An integrated and lifewide viewof PPDP and employability

PPDP needs to be habitual and develop thinking approaches that are fit for life

PPDP needs to be established during pre-enrolment so that the rich baseline data of transition into university helps to form the reflective habit

PPDP needs to be understood as relevant from Day 1

Course-long and course-wide engagement with PPDP means that PPDP becomes a key tool in tutoring

Daniel Go CC BY-NC-2.0

PPDP needs to be concretised; that is it needs to be removed from the abstract and made real

Conclusion

Re-imagining Personal & Professional Development Planning requires that universities develop PPDP as a lifewide learning practice:

Habitual learner engagement from first contactreflecting on action in and out of the classroom

Peggy2012CreativeLenz (CC BY 2.0))