| 8. Incorporating transferable skills into an undergraduate geography assignment
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Sue Burkill
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The development of such personal skills can be woven into the existing teaching structure through appropriate experiential tasks.
Jenkins and Pepper (1988)
Context
The importance of introducing Transferable Skills through undergraduate Geography has been emphasised over many years, and for some tutors has provided a context for student assignments (Jenkins and Pepper, 1988). The Enterprise in Higher Education Initiative (Brown and Pendlebury, 1992) recognises four broad areas of skills as important:
- cognitive skills (handling information, evaluating evidence, thinking critically etc)
- social skills (working with others, communicating with others)
- managing oneself (initiative, independence, personal organisation)
- learning to learn (knowing how you learn, deploying a range of appropriate learning strategies)
There has been a clear recognition of the need to enhance these skills at the College of St Mark and St John, where Geography is taken as a major or minor component of a BEd or BA degree. In the second year there is a core module entitled "Global Issues: Demography and Environment". This module has been used for some time as a vehicle for reinforcing a range of graphical, statistical and mapping skills as well as exploring geographical concepts and issues. In recent years an entrepreneurial approach has been adopted for assignments in this module.
In one assignment students take on the role of demographic consultants to respond to a hypothetical request from the Overseas Development Administration for advice about whether particular countries in Africa should be provided with support for their future population programmes. This has involved:
- the development of skills which are useful in the business/professional world through simulating time constraints and the process of providing information to a "customer".
- the development of generic Personal Transferable Skills: the use of information technology to solve problems and present information; an emphasis on oral presentations and on report-writing techniques; and the encouragement of group work in the formative stages of assignments.
However, this established strategy has recently been developed further so that students are now required to work in groups throughout the assignment (acting as consultancy firms rather than consultants and producing a single group report). This change resulted from two recent initiatives at the college:
- a staff development day during which the work of the USDTU (Universities Staff Development and Training Unit) was introduced. In particular, the work on assessing active learning was discussed and exemplified (Brown and Pendlebury, 1992). This allowed colleagues in the Geography group to reflect on some small-scale experiments we had been running and it gave some "validity" to the approaches we had been struggling to justify. This material makes it clear that changing the assessment procedure is one of the most effective ways of changing how and what students learn.
- the appointment of a Study Skills tutor to the college who had experience of this type of Enterprise approach and, in particular, of assessing group work. His willingness to support this initiative in Geography and to contribute to the initial briefing of the students and the evaluation of the process was an important factor.
The resulting assignment was undertaken by 57 students in 15 groups during 1993-94 (and is being adapted for use with 111 students in 1994-95). Students were divided into six seminar groups, and six sessions (two hours a week) were devoted to the assignment. For three of these sessions students had access to the departmental computer room.
Assignment stimulus material
Students were introduced to the assignment through a letter from the Overseas Development Administration (Figure 7) and asked to complete the following task:
In this practical, your group is asked to take on the role of a consultancy firm advising the Overseas Development Administration. You will be asked to focus on population aid and suggest which countries in Africa should, in your opinion, receive financial and technical assistance with the implementation of their population policies. You may also like to explain to the ODA the concerns which some development experts have regarding the provision of aid for population programmes.
Assignment aims and expected learning outcomes
Students were expected to:
- undertake relevant background reading to enhance their knowledge of the way in which international donor agencies operate. (A course reader was provided.)
- define their group objectives to show an understanding of the underlying issues.
- select appropriate sources of information to address their chosen objectives.
- use a range of IT techniques (spreadsheet, mapping software, CD-ROM).
- organise, present and synthesise the information into a logical report.
These objectives were assessed through the final report handed in by each group. Students were provided with assessment criteria at the outset of the assignment (Figure 8).
In addition students were asked to:
- evaluate and reflect upon the dynamics which developed
- consider their own role in the group assignment
- consider the role of their peers in the group assignment
How well these objectives were accomplished was assessed through a "log of meetings" - who attended, what was discussed, what were the agreed outcomes - and by completing "a peer/self assessment procedure" twice during the six weeks (Figure 9). At the end students were asked to evaluate the experience, to provide tutors with feedback.
Introduction to the assignment
Students needed initial guidance and reassurance in undertaking this assignment. Three one-hour sessions in the first week were set aside for this.
In the first session the geographical context was made clear. Students were introduced to the Geography of Aid and to the controversy surrounding the aid business in developing countries . There was a focus on aid provided for population-related initiatives, and in particular the work of UNFPA.
Copies of the publication Children by choice not chance (ODA, 1991) were made available as a key resource. The choice of particular countries for priority investment by the ODA was discussed and the possibility of deflecting aid, in particular to Muslim countries, was introduced. (Figure 7 shows the significance of this context.)
In the second session, led jointly by the Study Skills tutor and Geography tutors, students were required to reflect on "the way in which groups operate and on effective group organisation" (Johnson and Johnson, 1975). Active participation involved:
- practical exercises on the function of groups (task and maintenance functions)
- guidelines and some clarifying exercises on how to send and receive messages clearly
- some introductory exercises to allow individuals to reflect on how they behave in groups (and how they might try to behave!)
In addition students were given personal logs and peer-assessment/self-assessment questionnaires. The importance of these as an element of the overall assessment was stressed.
In the third session students were introduced to the resources available to them. These included an assignment reader and a range of IT facilities, including a spreadsheet of demographic, economic and social indicators. A new mapping package was introduced and some of its facilities were illustrated.
Student-focused group work
During the next four weeks students were responsible for organising their own meetings, planning a route through their objectives and preparing the report. This was achieved in different ways by each group and many went through a very sharp learning curve as frustration built up with the process. Some key points are:
- students were allowed to choose who to work with (after a great deal of discussion it was thought to be appropriate)
- size of groups was not fixed but a minimum of three and maximum of six was advised
- leadership of the group was left to the students to resolve.
Monitoring and working alongside the groups
During the assignment, students had open access to Geography tutors and the Study Skills tutor. In addition, technical support was available in each of the sessions when the computer room was booked.
Students were encouraged to react early and ask for help if there were signs of the group dynamics being a problem. Two formal "touch down" points were identified to help with monitoring progress and identifying problems.
- The first requirement was that students complete an interim self-assessment form in the third week. These were retained by the students (on reflection they should have been returned to the tutor).
- The second requirement was that each group should meet with a tutor in the fourth week to discuss problems and progress.
Feedback and discussion
In the final week groups were asked to report on the results of their investigations and on the decisions they had reached about the ODA population aid budget. In particular they were required to display some of the results obtained and give a reasoned analysis for their conclusions. It was recognised that some groups had not yet finalised their decisions and therefore they were able to use the session to help with their final reflections.
In addition this provided a forum for discussing the group-work assignment in detail. The assignment was due one week after the presentation (a week in which lectures are suspended for a college "reading week").
Issues arising out of the assignment
The assignment produced some interesting issues for both staff and students. Staff felt that the process was certainly one to be repeated but that there were concerns as well as advantages:
- A major advantage was the ability to respond positively to the pressure within the institution to make Transferable and Entrepreneurial Skills more overt in our assessment process.
- The level of achievement was most encouraging in the majority of cases. As one would expect, the reports were generally of a higher standard than those of individuals in the past. Students had clearly lifted their level of analysis and synthesis as a result of interacting in the production of the report. At the end of the second year students had, on average, scored 2.5% higher on this assignment than on other coursework. The group-work assignment had a mean of 58.73% (standard deviation 7.26), whereas assignment 2 (individual work) had a mean of 56.24% (standard deviation 7.25). This difference is statistically significant at 1% (n = 57).
- The reduced marking load for the tutor cannot be ignored as a positive factor given the large number of students undertaking Geography practicals.
- However, there are problems with assessing the contribution of individuals to the total group product. There is no doubt that some individuals were able to marginalise their input but still achieve a satisfactory grade. This was dealt with partly by careful analysis of the peer-assessment forms and partly by a post-assessment tutorial with each group to establish whether they felt their grades accurately reflected the input made. The degree of honesty and open discussion at this stage was most gratifying. However, there is still concern that students with learning difficulties may be disguised in this process.
- Group organisation is undoubtedly a discriminating factor in the final assessment. The most organised groups were those in which mature students with workplace experience were dominant.
Student feedback
Most individuals felt that the assignment was demanding, different and yet both personally and academically fulfilling. "It was a little bit different from the endless load of essay and seminar writing," said one BA Geography (major) student.
Individual development of skills seems to have been very important for some:
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- Group work for me offered support and help with interpretation. I have enjoyed and benefited from this task.
BEd Primary Geography (Supportive)
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- I found working in a group surprisingly beneficial. I felt I could easily be dominated by others ... but this situation was eased by Kevin who actually began to ask my opinion and ideas.
BEd Primary Geography (main)
Some could see the relevance to their future needs:
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- From an education viewpoint, I felt it was of use to analyse what it is like to work as a group, as I now feel I would have a greater understanding of what we expect of children in this situation.
BEd Secondary Geography (Supportive)
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- At first I was a bit sceptical ... but the group became better organised towards the end as the deadline drew near. This is probably what happens at work.
BA Geography (minor)
Many students did have reservations. Some of these relate to group dynamics, group size and group composition:
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- The project did have a number of merits but was in many areas overshadowed by problems encountered with the group process. The idea of group work is very good in theory because it encourages co-operation with others. The main problems encountered in our group were the group size (six) and the availability of individual members. Communication was not excellent and attendance at meetings was not very good.
BEd Secondary Geography (Supportive)
Timing also worried some students:
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- It was difficult to co-ordinate, a problem which may be a reflection of the real work but which was exacerbated by internal timetable constraints.
BA Geography (minor)
Some did not believe that the Enterprise approach worked:
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- If this were to be a real life situation we would have had more input and background knowledge not to mention time in which to complete the report.
BEd Primary Geography (main)
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- In industry there would have been a rank/grade of management and the group suffered from a lack of direction and clear leadership . . . it would naturally have followed that each individual would be given clear objectives.
BA Geography (main)
Some felt that the amount of work required was excessive:
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- Group projects like these could be carried out with less data.
BA Geography (minor)
Finally, some were not convinced by the relevance of the activity to a degree:
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- Not only did I have some reservations about my group but also the nature of the work set. We were thrust into a process in which we had to learn to work together. This is no bad thing but I would prefer to do a degree rather than some team-building course.
BA Geography (main)
On balance, this activity produced reasonably high quality work fn)m students who on reflection produced a supportive response to the assignment. There was enough evidence to encourage Geographytutorstobuildonthisexperienceandtodisseminatetheideastotutorsinothercurriculum areas.
Potential for transferability
While the knowledge, concepts and certain mapping skills needed in this assignment are subject-based, most of the approaches adopted are transferable to other curriculum areas. In particular the Social Skills emphasised in the assignment were demanding and illustrated the lack of experience students have in working co-operatively and setting up efficient channels of communication. The need to give students opportunities to develop these skills is therefore paramount.
- BEd, social science, business, language and other professionally orientated courses will see many situations in which the assignment described here may be replicated.
- Science and engineering courses already provide a forum for co-operative practical work. The assessment of this work jointly is less common. There is evidence that the approach adopted here could equally apply to these curriculum areas.
- Arts subjects may see less scope for jointly undertaken assignments and joint assessment; the subjectivity of much assessment in subjects such as English may mitigate against this approach.
Management skills - initiative, independence and personal organisation - are transferable across most subjects. These are taken more seriously by students when they are clearly identified in the assessment criteria provided with the assignment.
Some suggested approaches for the future
In designing an assignment of this type:
- Keep the subject covered manageable. There are probably too many issues raised in the introductory stimulus material (Figure 7). A more restricted memo will give students the chance to exhibit the same skills/understanding but avoid the problem of early unfocused work deflecting them.
- Make sure students have a clear idea about the objectives of the assignment and in particular the assessment criteria which will be used. These are probably very different from the conventional criteria used by the institution.
- It is a good idea to involve the students in deciding how group marks will be allocated before the groups are set up.
- Keep group size small. Four seems to be acceptable maximum.
- Think about how to use mature students with work experience. Should they be distributed through the groups? Could they be used in the early session on the organisation of group work?
- If the work includes the use of IT how will the most IT literate students be distributed? We found that this mattered to the groups although the final products did no necessarily reflect the initial IT literacy of individuals.
- On balance we would still favour groups choosing their own members.
- Do not be tempted to leave out the session on group dynamics and organisation. Initially students may not see the relevance but ultimately they do. During the next semester we shall be extending this session by working through the group exercises in smaller groups.
- Consider bringing in a careers advisor to discuss the demands of employers in relation to Transferable Skills. This could happen at the end of the assignment or could be a pump-priming exercise early in the process.
- Formally allocate time for meetings with groups and do not allow other commitments to erode this time. It is most important to debrief groups after the assignment is marked and to discuss the grades which are allocated.
Finally, this type of assignment is not an easy option for either student or tutor. There is a need to be flexible about the report content, the assessment criteria and the coursework deadlines.
Correspondence: Sue Burkill, Head of Geography, College of St Mark and St John, Derriford Road, Plymouth PL7 SHA.
References
Brown, G and Pendlebury, M (1992) Assessing Active Learning: Module 11 of Effective Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. CVCP/USDTU Loughborough University of Technology.
Gibbs, G, Habeshaw S and Habeshaw T (1988) 53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students. Technical and Educational Services Ltd.
Gibbs, G (1992) Improving the Quality of Student Learning. Technical and Educational Services Ltd.
Jenkins, A and Pepper D (1988) "Enhancing Students' Employability and Self Expression: How to Teach Oral and Group Work Skills in Geography." Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Vol 12 No. 1, pp 67-83.
Johnson DW and Johnson FP (1975) Joining Together. Prentice Hall.
Overseas Development Administration (1991) Children by Choice not Chance: Population as a Development Priority. Overseas Development Administration.
Page created 13 January 1998
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