How do you prepare students for the mysterious world of university? Sandra and Tom used their own experiences and the stories of other students to create strategies that empower learners to have a meaningful learning journey in HE. Learning Development is about demystifying practices so people can navigate them on their own terms. What Sandra and Tom want to add to that is happiness – helping students learn how to enjoy learning and find their voice in a creative, reflective space, because when students write about their learning for themselves in their own voices, they become confident in writing itself, and their academic writing improves. It’s about creating a space for students to flourish, and where they can understand that feeling fear isn’t the same as being a failure. As Sandra says, ‘that’s the joy of being a learning developer: finding HOW we can help the students’.

And how can we help ourselves with our writing? For Sandra and Tom, it’s simple: ‘When we say “write to learn” we really mean it…Quite often we do something that we don’t know yet what we want to say about it. So we’ll open a Google doc and we’ll all plunge in.’ So be brave, work with other people, and be kind.

Publication discussed:

Burns, T. & Sinfield, S. 2022. Essential study skills: The complete guide to success at university (5th ed.). Sage.

Resources mentioned:

D.W. Winnicott, Playing and Reality (2005)

The Cornell note taking system https://lsc.cornell.edu/how-to-study/taking-notes/cornell-note-taking-system/

Pattern note taking https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/globalpad-rip/openhouse/academicenglishskills/reading/note/example2/

Dave Middlebrook, The Textmapping Project http://www.textmapping.org/

Read more about textmapping in: Abegglen, S., Burns, T., Middlebrook, D. and Sinfield, S. (2019) ‘Unrolling the text: Using scrolls to facilitate academic reading’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (14). doi: 10.47408/jldhe.v0i14.467.

Jim Davis, ‘Don’t waste student work’, TEDxOttawa (2011)

Sally Mitchell (2010) ‘Now you don’t see it; now you do: Writing made visible in the university’, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1474022210361452

Theresa Lillis (2001) Student writing: Access, regulation, desire. Routledge.

Peter Elbow’s books on writing http://peterelbow.com/books.html

Molinari, J. (2022) What makes writing academic: Rethinking theory for practice. Bloomsbury.

Abegglen, S., Burns, T., Sinfield, S. (2021) Supporting Student Writing and Other Modes of Learning and Assessment. A Staff Guide. Calgary: University of Calgary. http://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/6970/1/Writing-guide-2021_2021.05.25.pdf