Discipline-based research into student learning in English, law, social work, computer skills for linguists, women's studies, creative writing: How can it inform our teaching?

At the Anglia Polytechnic University and University of East Anglia action research has been carried out over two years to discover more about how students learn in different disciplines. Using questionnaires and focus group interviews we have involved students in asking questions about how learning takes place, the different learning outcome demands of different disciplines and how knowledge structures, epistemologies, discourse, practices of different disciplines affect the ways in which students learn. One reason for teaching staff involvement in the project has been to use the research findings and research experience with each other to focus on the link between learning and teaching, and with our own students to encourage their engagement with improving their own learning. As a staff group, over the two years of the research we have found ways of developing the curriculum and the learning and teaching strategies we use, to better enable students in the different disciplines. First and third year students in six subject areas - Law, English, Women's Studies, Computer Skills for Linguists, Social Work, Creative Writing - have been involved in the first year, and five (less Computer Skills) in the second year of our research. These subject areas have been chosen for their diversity in demands of learning behaviours and outcomes, and their practical and theoretical interrelationships. Our analysis of data so far has produced some interesting information about students' approaches to and conceptions of learning in the disciplines. We know more about students' sense of the learning demands and achievement of the outcomes of each discipline. Involvement in the action research has been stimulating and developmental as reflective practice for both students and staff.