Educational dialogue for improving Foundation Year student outcomes
Start date
01 August 2024End date
30 November 2026What is educational dialogue?
- Learning by talking 鈥� not just answering
- Asking good questions
- Explaining your thinking
- Challenging and building on each other's ideas
- Using reasoning and evidence in discussion.
Aims and objectives
The aim of the project is to support students鈥� use of educational dialogue through:
- Developing a toolkit for educational dialogue
- Assessing whether the intervention leads to increases in use of educational dialogue, self-efficacy and belongingness
- Whether the intervention programme is associated with student retention and enrolment in degree programmes.
Objectives of the project are to:
- Develop a toolkit for educational dialogue (TED)
- Develop students鈥� use of educational dialogue in pair work learning
- Evaluate the teaching materials based on Foundation Year teachers and students鈥� perspectives
- Contribute to an understanding of how dyads (pairs) in Higher Education Foundation Year FY use educational dialogue in their disciplinary learning
- Assess whether the intervention programme leads to increases in students鈥� use of educational dialogue, self-efficacy and belongingness
- Explore whether the intervention programme is related to increases in retention, marks in the FY, and enrolment in degree programmes.
Funding amount
拢167,664
Funder
Nuffield Foundation
Team
Principal investigator
Dr Marion Heron
Associate Professor in Educational Linguistics
Biography
I joined 黑料社 Institute of Education in January 2017. I am Postgraduate Research Director, responsible for the PhD in Higher Education. I teach on the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (PGCert) and contribute to the MA in Higher Education and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshops and sessions. Prior to this I was Senior Lecturer in TESOL in the Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University, teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Second Language Acquisition, Research, and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). From 2009 - 2015 I worked as a lecturer at Zayed University, Dubai where I taught courses in the Department of English and Writing Studies and the Department of Education. From 1990 - 2009 I taught at Bilkent University, Ankara, in the School of English Language and the Graduate School of Education, working with pre-service English language teacher trainees. My doctoral research focused on the construction of teaching knowledge in pre-service trainees. This interest in the application of sociocultural theory to different learning contexts continues to be my main area of scholarly work. See the section on Research for a list of current research areas.
Co-investigators
Dr Lewis Baker
Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering - Foundation Year
Biography
Lewis is a Senior Lecturer who currently teaches both the ENG0013 - Principles of Engineering and Physical Science and ENG0015 - Physics A modules on the Foundation Year programme at the 黑料社, achieving FHEA status in 2019, SFHEA status in 2021 and CSciTeach in 2023. For recognition of the sustained development and success of this programme, the Foundation Year team won the .
Lewis' research interests lie within the fields of ultrafast photochemistry and electronic structure theory with a growing influence on educational fields such as teaching pedagogy. Recent focuses have been on the , tackling the propagation of educational neuromyths, and the .
Most recently, Lewis completed a PGCE and a Master of Arts degree in Education with the University of Cumbria awarded with distinction.
Before appointment at the 黑料社, Lewis trained as a secondary school teacher receiving qualified teacher status (QTS) in 2018, teaching Key Stage 3, G.C.S.E and A-Level groups. Prior to this, Lewis completed an MSc with distinction and a PhD in Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Warwick over the course of 2013-2017. His thesis title was "", herein the focus was on the ultraviolet absorption and deactivation mechanisms present in biologically relevant systems (such as plants or sunscreens). This utilised a combination of femtosecond pump-probe laser spectroscopy and ab initio electronic structure calculations.
Also at the University of Warwick, Lewis completed undergraduate studies in the Department of Physics gaining a first-class honours degree in Physics (BSc MPhys) during 2009-2013.
Dr Estefania Gamarra
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Educational Linguistics
Collaborators
Dr Beth Melia-Leigh
University teacher in TESOL, Sheffield University
Dr Tom Parkinson
Reader and Programme Director of the MA and PGDip in Higher Education, University of Kent
Dr Lisa McGrath
Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics, Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University.
Dr Hilary Wason
Head of Curriculum Development and Enhancement, Kingston University
Dr Robert Hatch
Director of Teaching and Learning for Biochemistry, Queen Mary University London
Advisory Board
Professor Department of Education, University of York
Professor of Educational Dialogue and Pedagogical Inquiry, Cambridge University
Emeritus Professor of Education, Cambridge University
Programme Head, Post-14 Education and Skills, Nuffield Foundation
Deputy Director of the IOE/UCL/Birkbeck Centre for Educational Neuroscience
Policy Advisor (Global Research and Innovation and Reponsible Internationalisation) Universities UK International
Former FY Students
Daniela Abreu De Sa
Psychology Student
Nicole Poh Ling Tang
Biochemistry Student
Charlie Willmott
Engineering Student