Keep up/Do not fall behind M 5.3

During the semester Lecturer A talked many times to the students about the significance of being consistent with the work and not cram it all in at the very last moment, before the final examination. She emphasised the responsibilities that students have to take over their studies and the fact that there will be no one else to show them how to do things, like it used to be throughout the previous years of their education. Moreover, she provided them with feedback along the way, to keep them aware of whether they were doing well or not. One way of providing them with feedback (apart from the three class tests where it was given collectively after the marking through the webpage of the module) was through sets of exercises that students had to do during lectures. These were in the form of statements and the students had to judge whether they were true or false. The lecturer gave them some time to work on them individually, and then they had to vote whether each statement was true or false. A detailed explanation was required whenever a statement was false. The following extract is from the lecture observations where the lecturer explains to the students why it is important to keep on track.

Lecturer A: But I can’t get to know you all, I can’t give you individual feedback, in a class like this, well... This module wipes the floor with people who don’t keep up, so if you don’t keep up with the main concepts each week you will find yourselves really struggling about week 5. So one of the reasons that I do this is to give you a little bit of feedback on a regular basis. So you get a sense of what you know, what you don’t know, it doesn’t cover everything but it gives you a sense of what you might want to

Although the lecturer transmitted a similar message with the use of class tests, on this occasion she stated explicitly that students had to put work in and keep up. The message was clear; students need to work independently, and invest time outside lectures regularly to succeed. The power exerted through this message was strong. The lecturer stated in a clear way what she required her students to be doing. The framing in this case as well was mixed. The control over the selection of communication was strong and with the lecturer. On the other hand, the control over the sequencing and pacing was weak and with the students. It was entirely up to them how they would structure their study in order to keep up and what was the required time spent on the study of the module to not fall behind and take action in furtherance of their learning.

Six students talked about this message during our discussions. Some of them mentioned that they had to keep up with the module and not fall behind because of the explicit message that Lecturer A transmitted. A characteristic example is Alex, who received the message early on in the semester and described how his lecturer’s words were imprinted on his mind and motivated him to work for this module.

Alex: It was sort of brought to us on day one of lectures, she said Module A will wipe the floor with people that don’t keep up well and so from that moment on whenever I had work [for module A] to do I instantaneously did it the next day because I am actually petrified of falling behind in it simply because of how much she tells us not to... I am actually, I wouldn’t say ahead but I have not fallen behind... and I am really glad I haven’t because it’s enhanced my learning... so she was right. And I’ve tried to keep that with the other ones but I haven’t done it as rigidly.

Some others received the message implicitly through the continuous effort that they had to put in for the tests. The tests control the sequencing and pacing that they have to follow; there is a deadline and they need to keep up or fail.

Owen: I think this semester sort of made me realise that the class tests... they definitely do help ’cause it means like you are forced to keep up... it is a percentage of your module at the end so you are going to want to do your best on them so you are going to have to keep up...

There were occasions though where the students understood the trans- mitted message but did not really change something in their study habits. This happened with Jeremy, who admitted that even though he received the message he did not put work in to keep on track with the module.

Jeremy: ...if I don’t get something I am trying... putting in a bit more effort but usually I don’t put in that much effort to most of the work... I don’t really do as much as I should... Sort of just because I am quite lazy... it doesn’t bother me...

As in the previous cases where the lecturer transmitted messages through the different kinds of advice, the high degree of power made the message eas- ily recognisable to the students. Although the degree over selection of the communicated knowledge was high, once again the weak framing over the se- quencing and pacing gave all the control to the students. This resulted in the following; students would either understand the message, act independently and be consistent with the work for the module or they would understand the message transmitted through the advice without putting it into practice.

On other occasions the message for keeping up was received by students in combination with the work that needed to be done for the tests.