National Action Research Network on Researching and Evaluating Personal Development Planning and e-Portfolio Practice The Coventry University Project Sarah Wilson-Medhurst, Andrew Turner

Background The Coventry University context

The USEM model of employability (Knight and Yorke, 2002, 2004)

The capability envelope (Stephenson & Yorke, 1998; Stephenson, 2001)

Coventry response Modular, credit bearing - Add+vantage suite of modules Supporting exploration (UG level 1), review (UG level 2) and demonstration (UG level 3) All undergraduates, exception accredited health courses htmlhttp:// /coventry_university/index. html

NARN Coventry Project What are the elements that support and encourage a reflective capacity?

Context for this research “Reflection is a learned skill. Students do not necessarily “know” how to reflect effectively on their learning and use those reflections to make connections between the learning that occurs in different contexts (academic, workplace, community). This indicates that we need to carefully scaffold opportunities for reflection into academic programs for students so that they have time to develop this ability” (Penny-Light et al cited in Yancey (2009) p.6.)

What are the elements that support and encourage a reflective capacity? Assignments? Review of assignment submission against assignment marking criteria? E-Portfolio support tool? Group activities? Self-evaluation activities? Others?

Interim findings 1 st AR cycle UG Students (based on 85 students 2008/9 cohort drawn from range of courses as diverse as Performing Arts, Business Management, Engineering and Computing Science) Key elements appreciated: Interdisciplinary group work Activities which scaffold the reflective process including: Peer review as part of interdisciplinary group work Review of first assignment

Summary (to date) Interdisciplinary opportunities provided by add+vantage scheme may be useful feature to draw on in supporting students in developing their reflective capacity