The international context

Internationally, mature-aged students entering higher education in countries which do not practice open entry usually have to meet certain academic criteria before they enrol. It would seem from the literature that, in every Western country except New Zealand, students are required to demonstrate some competency with writing in these criteria, most commonly demonstrated through successful completion of targeted preparation courses such as those provided in New Zealand (2.1.2; 2.1.3). In the US, mature students must have reached a predetermined score on a national entry test (‘SAT’), which includes writing, before being accepted into a research university. Where that score has not been reached, students must complete some sort of preparation in a community college. Writing an academic essay is part of that preparation (University of California, 2016).

In the UK, similarly, students with educational backgrounds which do not provide traditional routes to university must complete some sort of academic preparation (referred to hereafter as access courses as that is a name applied to many of them) to gain entrance to university (Bowl & Whitelaw, 2010; O’Donnell & Tobbell, 2007; Reay, 2003). Access courses may comprise the equivalent of a year of full-time study.

Writing instruction varies on access courses. As noted above (2.1.1), the literature indicates that sometimes it is provided in an a-contextual, “study-skills” format (Lea & Street, 2006; Wingate, 2006). Bamber and Tett (2000) found this approach was not particularly helpful for their participants who were not able to relate the instruction to their as-yet unmet assignments. Those students found they learned to write as they prepared their assignments for their disciplines.

Along with their evaluation of a targeted university preparation course in New Zealand, Bowl and Whitelaw (2010) evaluated the efficacy of a study-skills approach to academic preparation conducted by a UK Further Education (FE) college. (A possible New Zealand equivalent to an FE college would be a tertiary institution offering pre- degree level courses.) From their interviews with students and staff, Bowl and Whitelaw concluded that the course helped students gain confidence, and, as its advertising suggested, equipped them with a skillset, conclusions which align with Cullity’s

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observations about the efficacy of study skills approaches to writing and preparation for mature-aged students noted earlier in this chapter (2.1.1). a major critique Bowl and Whitelaw offered about the course, however, was that it did not introduce students to a critical epistemological stance necessary for engagement with higher education.

Cullity’s (2008, 2010) research involved a comprehensive survey of preparation courses in Australia. Students on those courses learned much more than writing; they acquired some academic literacy as they experienced a gentle immersion into academic culture, experiencing lectures, tutorials, workshops, and discussions with their mature-aged peers and with their instructors. They learned to research for their assignments and how to present that research in appropriate forms of writing. Cullity (2010) notes that the preparation courses introduced students to distinctly academic ways of thinking, reading, and writing. Common components of the courses she studied (including the study-skills approach) gave students experience with aspects of specifically academic literacies:

x Language, both generic and disciplinary

x Skills for reading and study

x Skills with using computers

x Navigation of the institutional website, the library, and the electronic learning environment

x Preparation and completion of an academic paper involving research, synthesising, and referencing

x Collaboration in group work

x Management of time and coping with incorporating study into their lives

In addition, courses held on university campuses allowed students to become familiar with key locations such as classrooms, laboratories, the library, lecture halls, and the cafeteria.

A key benefit Cullity (2008, 2010) noted for the targeted preparation courses she examined (which Bowl and Whitelaw, 2010, also observed in their study) is that tutors understood and accommodated the multifaceted academic, cultural, and attitudinal needs of mature-aged students. They developed students’ writing confidence by offering specific feedback and encouragement to explore some points in greater depth. Whether the courses were discipline-based or skills-based, as participants developed confidence,

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they came to believe that they could actually participate successfully in higher education.

Cullity’s (2008, 2010) extensive research, however, does not extend to following the

trajectories of preparation course graduates through university. In a study from Scotland, Bamber and Tett (2000) followed the trajectories of a group of non-traditional mature-aged students from their preparation through to degree completion. Participants in their study, from an economically and educationally disadvantaged, “low-

participation neighbourhood” (p. 57) of Scotland, were admitted to a university through a scheme targeting “academically unqualified activists from working-class

communities, disabled people and minority ethnic groups” (p. 57). The scheme was

regarded as an “apprenticeship” (p. 58), a notion suggesting the support of old-timers in a practice working together with newcomers as they acquire new ways of being and doing in a community. Students in the apprenticeship scheme received considerable academic, sociocultural, and emotional support through their learning journeys; they were given access to a room in which to meet and study, to tutors, and the support of their peers.

Of particular interest to the initial design of the study group in this research, however, is

Bamber and Tett’s (2000) comprehensive summary of the needs of that cohort as they progressed through higher education. Their summary resonates with Whitehead’s (2012) comprehensive analysis of the multiple literacy needs of some non-traditional New Zealand students (2.6) and the observations of the New Zealand bridging educators (2.1.3). First, Bamber and Tett (2000) note a need for new ways of thinking:

They need introductory level courses in order to learn to think sociologically, politically or critically. (p. 73)

Bamber and Tett (2000) also identify measures, particularly explicit teaching, which supported these students as they learned to write for university, observing that the students benefitted from:

intensive practice and tutoring in writing, comprehension and basic study skills and from extensive verbal and written feedback on draft work by tutors, and from coaching as to how to improve work prior to submission. (p. 73)

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They favour interactive, rather than didactic, teaching styles, especially when coupled with opportunities to work collectively in small groups. (p. 73)

Bamber and Tett (2000) highlight some attitudinal characteristics of the apprentices, particularly that they were not confident learners and that they needed to meet texts at an appropriate level. They also note that the apprentices needed the opportunity to critically re-examine their prior experience through reflection in order to engage with their new learning environment and to re-negotiate their identities as learners. They observe, too, that most of the apprentices persisted with the scheme through to graduation and beyond to employment.

With relevance to the context of open entry in New Zealand, Bamber and Tett (2000) stress that access to higher education for these students did not come from merely being granted university admission; the students needed considerable support through the course of their degrees to re-negotiate their identities as learners, modify their ways of thinking and their attitudes to theory and practice in their social action, and also to learn to write appropriately for university.