Trying to be Motivated: perspectives on learning from younger students accessing higher education

Abstract

It is suggested that the pedagogical implications of the British government's policies of widening access and increasing participation have not yet been widely explored in the literature on teaching and learning in higher education. Studies that discuss student learning processes seem to focus either on the development of generic skills, or on psychological approaches, whilst studies of 'the student experience' are mostly concerned with wider, contextual issues as these apply to mature students. This paper reports on a small-scale research project that investigated the study experiences of a group of 17/18-year-old students from families with no history of participation in higher education, following the students from the beginning of their 3-month access course to the end of their first semester at university. Possible implications of themes from the data are then discussed in the light of the changing nature and purpose of higher education in the UK.