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Facilitating the design of data-informed andragogic tools to promote hypercognition for UK access to higher education learners

Griffin, James

Facilitating the design of data-informed andragogic tools to promote hypercognition for UK access to higher education learners Thumbnail


Authors

James Griffin



Abstract

Access to Higher Education courses in the UK serve the purpose of providing a route to Higher Education level study for those without the requisite qualifications to do so. However, students on these courses tend to be disproportionately from groups underrepresented in education compared with those on equivalent routes to HE study such as A levels (QAA, 2016). Therefore, developing an understanding of how this understudied group of AHE students experience their education has potential to promote equality through the development of assistive tools and techniques. With recent advances in data science and Hypercognitive Theory (Demetriou et. al., 1993), a model of intellectual development which has explanatory power over andragogic learning , the potential for new tools to provide learning aid to AHE students is great and as such this thesis explores the AHE learning experience and develops Design Principles upon which Data-Informed Andragogic tools can be developed.
In order to investigate the AHE learning experience amid a dearth of consistent data collection on the topic, an exploratory approach to design principle development was required. This began with an autoethnographic analysis that identified areas of focus for exploration by means of a topic set. This was then used by groups of AHE students to explore their experience in focus group settings. The data from these discussions was used in two ways, firstly to inform co-design activity, and secondly to provide data for codification and analysis using a Grounded Theory approach.
By means of a Participatory Workshop method (Mor et. al. 2015), Co-design activity over the course of ten months saw students develop twenty-eight practice narratives, which they and the researcher grouped and abstracted to eight more generalised practice patterns. From these, four design principles emerged: 'Design for the Social', 'Design with Andragogic Intent' and 'Make Thinking Visible'. From codification of focus group discussion, a grounded theory was identified: 'Reciprocal Equilibria Theory'.
Conclusions drawn from this work are that an approach which focusses on the learning of the individual student fails to capture the mechanism or effect of AHE learning, that in this context, there is value in learning being viewed in the context of a co-dependent social network. In addition, data-analytic tools being developed for use with these students need to be designed for them explicitly rather than taking a broader ‘one for all’ approach to Further Education. Finally, in order to be successful at hypercognitive processing, skill development opportunities need to be exposed for explicit learner consideration.

Citation

Griffin, J. Facilitating the design of data-informed andragogic tools to promote hypercognition for UK access to higher education learners. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1490795

Thesis Type Thesis
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Keywords Education, Andragogy, Data-Informed Andragogy, Data Science Methodology, Design-Based Research, Reciprocal Equilibria
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1490795
Additional Information Corporate Creators : N/A
Award Date Mar 18, 2021

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