"The confidence to do things that I know nothing about" - Skills development through extra-curricular inquiry activity

Authors

  • Jamie Peter Wood University of Manchester
  • Sabine Little University of Sheffield
  • Louise Goldring University of Manchester
  • Laura Jenkins University of Sheffield

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.v0i3.59

Keywords:

Skills Development, Students as Partners, Inquiry-Based Learning, Centres for Excellence

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a survey given to students engaging in educational enhancement activities in inquiry/enquiry-based learning at two Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). The students involved were asked to comment on the skills they felt that they had developed as part of their roles as 'interns' and 'ambassadors'. These comments were analysed inductively and several strong themes emerged. Students valued the opportunity to engage in such activities, which they felt developed a wide range of transferable skills and impacted positively upon their academic work and their prospects for future employment. While there is a considerable amount of literature on Higher Education and skills development, a growing body of work on how curricular IBL impacts upon students' capabilities, and a plethora of studies on how paid and unpaid extra-curricular activities impact upon students' educational achievement, few studies have sought to relate these areas of research.


Author Biography

Jamie Peter Wood, University of Manchester

Department of Religions and Theology

Leverhulme Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow

Downloads

Published

04-04-2011

How to Cite

Wood, J. P. (2011) “‘The confidence to do things that I know nothing about’ - Skills development through extra-curricular inquiry activity”, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (3). doi: 10.47408/jldhe.v0i3.59.

Issue

No. 3 (2011)

Section

Papers

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).