Reflective conclusions

This discussion paper has been prompted by several different events in my own life this last week, including my being a participant at a staff-development one-day course on 'influencing skills', where I took away the messages that:

  • To influence people we have to move with them, rather than against them, therefore getting students to reflect is best done by asking them questions which they will be interested to answer from their own learning perspectives;
  • Influencing is not achieved by talking at anyone! (or indeed, more sobering for me as a writer, by writing at anyone).

An open, well-attended lunchtime meeting at Leeds University on 'progress files' added much fuel to my imagination about how to ensure that progress was evidenced not only factually and quantitatively, but also reflectively and qualitatively - and with a good sense of ownership by students of their resulting files.

Reading an ILT discussion paper yesterday on 'widening participation and retention' caused me to reflect on what can we do about the undoubted tensions between the two, and how best can we use both agendas to the greater benefit of all of our students, and not just those who are at risk on 'retention' grounds because of their presence in higher education on 'widening participation' tickets? This led me back to thoughts of a few weeks ago when helping to write a book chapter on 'inclusive lecturing' and my dawning realisation that 'inclusive assessment' was the greater challenge.

The time and space of a train journey to London and an evening alone in a hotel room created the opportunity to sort out my thoughts by writing about them, drafting and redrafting them several times.

As I conclude (for the moment) the muse of my own reflections on these issues, the distant ghostly figure of a verse from past times echoes in part of my memory… "if you don't ask no questions, you won't be told no lies, so watch the walls my darling while the Gentlemen goes by". It's time to stop watching the walls, and get ourselves - and then our students - reflecting, by asking lots of questions which transcend those lies so often elicited by one of our weakest of all 'questioning' devices - the ubiquitous end-of-module student questionnaire! But fighting that is another agenda, another battle, for later