Learning development
Learning development describes work with students and staff to develop academic practices, with a main focus on students developing academic practices in higher education. Learning developers are academic professionals who: teach, advise and facilitate students to develop their academic practices; create academic development learning resources; and reflect on their own academic practices through a community of practice.
Hilsdon defines learning development as,
"a complex set of multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary academic roles and functions, involving teaching, tutoring, research, and the design and production of learning materials, as well as involvement in staff development, policy-making and other consultative activities."
Learning development is a term used mainly within UK and Australian academia, with some overlap with academic advising in the USA. The learning development movement in the UK has aligned itself closely with the UK Educational Development movement in light of its developmental work with academic staff. However, the primary objective of learning development remains the development of student learning.
History
The learning development movement began with the recognition of a new direction of practice emerging by founding and early members of an email discussion forum Community in 2002, which was transferred to the documented JISCMail Listserv Community LDHEN in 2003. Early members were all involved in the provision of study skills support, but recognised the limitations of a purely study-skills approach.From 2005 onward, the establishment of the LearnHigher CETL contributed greatly to the volume of publicly available learning development resources. The LearnHigher CELT was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council and comprised a consortium of teams from 16 universities, led by Liverpool Hope University to develop learning resources in 20 areas of study. LearnHigher aimed to develop and maintain a bank of open access materials for self-access by students. The CETL later referred to their work as learning development.
The LDHEN later restructured and formed the Association of Learning Development in Higher Education, who published the first peer reviewed journal dedicated to learning development, The Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. This organisation have also organised a themed national conference since 2003 and annually since 2005, contributing greatly to the development of learning development as distinct area of practice. The Staff and Educational Development Association have also provided space for ideas in learning development to develop, as have other student-focused organisations and conferences.
Conferences on learning development
| Year | Organiser | Host institution | Theme | Keynotes speakers | Resource |
| 2017 | ALDinHE | University of Hull |
| ||
| 2016 | ALDinHE | Heriot-Watt University | Professor Dave Hill, Dr Sian Bayne | Yes | |
| 2015 | ALDinHE | Southampton Solent University | Professor Mick Healey, Celia Whitchurch | Yes | |
| 2014 | ALDinHE | Huddersfield University | Learning Development Spaces and Places | Étienne Wenger, Lesley Gourlay | Yes |
| 2013 | ALDinHE | Plymouth University | Celebrating learning development | Dave Cormier, Les Ebdon, Stella Cottrell | Yes |
| 2012 | ALDinHE | Leeds University | Learning Development in a digital age: emerging literacies and learning spaces | Helen Beetham, Paul Andrews, Grainne Conole | Yes |
| 2011 | ALDinHE | Queen's University | Engaging Students - Engaging Learning | Phil Race, Sally Brown, Becka Colley | Yes |
| 2010 | ALDinHE | Nottingham Trent University | Celebrating Partnerships in Learning | Marcia Baxter-Magolda, Glynis Cousin | Yes |
| 2009 | LDHEN | Bournemouth University | The challenge of learning development | Dennis Hayes, Alan Mortiboys | No |
| 2008 | LDHEN | Bradford University | Learning Development – Who Needs It? | Ray Land | No |
| 2007 | LDHEN | Bournemouth University | How do Students Engage with Learning? | ?Ronald Barnett | No |
| 2006 | LDHEN and LearnHigher CETL | Liverpool Hope University | Excellence in Learning Development - What could it be? | No | |
| 2005 | LDHEN | Northumbria University | 'Working for Students' Success | Steven Rowlands | No |
| 2003 | LDHEN | London Metropolitan University | Plenary | No |
Allied areas of practice
Writing development
Writing development is administratively subsumed within learning development at a number of UK universities, where practices may be merged locally. However, writing development has rich tradition of research and practice, established before learning development and representing a distinct field.Information literacy
is sometimes seen as learning development, but also has its own distinct body of practice and literature.According to the SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy, Information Literacy is, "an umbrella term which encompasses concepts such as digital, visual and media literacies, academic literacy, information handling, information skills, data curation and data management."
SCONUL's seven pillars of information literacy are:
- Identify: Able to identify a personal need for information
- Scope: Can assess current knowledge and identify gaps
- Plan: Can construct strategies for locating information and data
- Gather: Can locate and access the information and data they need
- Evaluate: Can review the research process and compare and evaluate information and data
- Manage: Can organise information professionally and ethically
- Present: Can apply the knowledge gained: presenting the results of their research, synthesising new and old information and data to create new knowledge and disseminating it in a variety of ways
Mathematics support
The UK mathematics support movement is seen to have begun in 1993 with a conference held at the University of Luton and was influenced by the Minnesota model of developmental mathematics, and may be considered as a sub-movement, separate and tangential to learning development. A recent survey of mathematics support in the UK identified 88 out of 103 responding higher education institutions offering some form of mathematics support.
Mathematics support centres and services are also present in Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Statistics support for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students is often provided via a statistics advisory service.
Areas of learning development
Many learning developers resist categorising their practice into distinct subjects. For example, the use of statistics, encouraged by learning development, is cross-disciplinary, however, resources such as study guides are often categorised into distinct subjects. The following areas of learning development are taken from the LearnHigher website- Academic writing refers to the practice of writing in the style used in academic documents, such as academic books, journal articles and conference papers. It tends to be formal and objective in tone but it should also be clear and concise.
- Assessment
- Business and commercial awareness
- Critical thinking and reflection. According to Ennis, critical thinking involves: being as clear as possible; focusing on a single question or issue; trying to take into account the whole problem; considering all relevant alternatives; trying to be well-informed; seeking as much precision as possible; being aware of your biases and assumptions; being open-minded and taking a position if you have enough basis, or otherwise withholding judgment.
- Doing research involves identifying a research aim or question, planning, deciding on a theoretical framework, deciding on a method, obtaining information, describing and analysing the data obtained and drawing conclusions.
- Group work
- Information literacy
- Listening and interpersonal skills
- Note making
- Numeracy, mathematics and statistics
- Oral communication
- Reading
- Referencing is the process of properly attributing secondary material to the correct authors. It commonly involves citing sources and creating a reference list at the end of a document. Failure to reference correctly can lead to plagiarism.
- Report writing is similar to academic writing but it relates to more structured documents, such as technical reports and dissertations. These documents normally contain chapters which may be divided into sections or subsections, etc. There is often a specific genre for writing individual chapters within a report.
- Time management
- Visual practices
A developmental model
Provision for strongly performing students and the extent to which a broader base of students should engage with learning development are both currently debated issues..
The characteristics of embedded provision, one-to-one provision and resource provision are each underpinned by the developmental model adopted by learning development.