- Title
- 'Noticing the unnoticed': empowering enabling students through sociological theory
- Creator
- Bunn, Rosalie J.
- Relation
- 9th Conference of the New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators. Making the Links: Learning, Teaching and High Quality Student Outcomes: Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators (Wellington, New Zealand 29 September - 1 October, 2010) p. 15-26
- Publisher
- Unitec Institite of Technology
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2010
- Description
- In these changing times in education, enabling programs are beginning to be recognized as important areas within university strategic plans. Consequently, strategies to increase retention rates are being canvassed and, following the Bradley review of tertiary education in Australia, an appeal to wider socio-economic participation in education is being sought. This twofold challenge of keeping students in courses and appealing to an increasingly diverse student population poses certain risks when considering curriculum design, content and topics for broader discussion. Maintaining interest in subject matter as well as motivating students who may have had damaging prior experiences of education is a tricky business. This paper addresses the use of sociological theory where it encourages reflective learning and critical thinking as one way in which students report meaningful engagement in their studies. When invited to engage in consideration of topics that are directly connected to their own lives, sociological theories, perspectives and concepts act as a catalyst to knowledge production for students, not only as content but also as a journey of self and social discovery. When students report being empowered by learning to notice the previously ‘unnoticed’ in their everyday lives then assessment tasks that are both relevant to their future studies and meaningful for them personally, serve the dual purpose of broadening their general knowledge and honing their analytic skills. Examination of unidentified) unsolicited comments made in student workbooks reveals that personal experience serves as a critical basis for knowledge building and skill acquisition. Sociological theory provides a validating framework for those experiences. Opening up possibilities within classroom discussion and assessments that allow students to apply the sociological imaginations they have acquired is a valuable tool in knowledge acquisition. In addition, enabling students to express themselves in their own words, rather than through genres such as academic essays, validates the importance of students’ life experiences and also enriches their learning by positioning them within it.
- Subject
- tertiary education; enabling programmes; sociological theory; learning
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/935167
- Identifier
- uon:11991
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780473189358
- Language
- eng
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