What Works Dispositions to Stay

1. Dispositions to Stay and to
Succeed in Higher Education
Exploring Relationships for Success.
Jamie Thompson.
Northumbria University

2. Dispositions to Stay and to Succeed
(HEFCE / Paul Hamlyn)
• Partnership with Bedfordshire and
Manchester
• Retention / Success : the seven ELLI
dimensions of learning power
• Ambiguous results re. retention
• Small significant relationship between first
year marks and two dimensions: Critical
Curiosity and Meaning Making

3. Seven Dimensions of
Learning Power (ELLI)
• Changing and learning Being stuck & static
• Meaning making Data accumulation
• Critical curiosity Passivity
• Creativity Being rule bound
• Learning relationships Isolation & dependence
• Strategic awareness Being robotic
• Resilience Fragility and
dependence

4. Learning Relationships
• Qualitative theme pursued
• Relationships between students
• Relationships between students and staff
• Perceived importance re. academic success
and student satisfaction
• Not new – but LOUD!

5. Self Authorship
(Baxter Magolda)
• Authority free – taking responsibility and
control for your life.
• Sometimes not achieved – routinely not
achieved until late twenties.
• Can this process be made more successful,
can it be accelerated in HE?

6. Model of Confidence and Competence

7. Self Authorship

9. Action contingent Collaboration contingent
Relationships

10. What is success in HE?
• As professionals what do we want for our
students?
• As a sector what would we want to claim for
the HE experience?
• What are successful outcomes in students’
terms?

11. Learning Relationships in HE
• How good are we at supporting and delivering
learning relationships in HE?
• How do we currently do it well?
• How could we do it better?
(Learning Relationships checklist)

12. References
• Baxter Magolda, M. B. (1999). Creating contexts for learning and self-authorship:
constructive-developmental pedagogy (1st ed.). Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt
University Press.
• Deakin Crick, R., Broadfoot, P., Claxton, G. (2004), Developing an Effective Lifelong
Learning Inventory: the ELLI Project, Assessment in Education, 11 (3), pp. 247-270.
• Thompson J. et al (2011) ‘ ... they will look after their cognitive needs for
themselves’: Understanding the importance of relationships in Higher Education.
ELSIN Conference Proceedings, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Williamson K., Coughlin A., Small T. and Thompson J. (2012) My Learning Power:
Using ELLI in Higher Education. Northumbria University.
• Thompson J. (2012) A Manifesto for Change in Higher Education in the UK.
Northumbria University.
• Harding J. and Thompson J. (2012) Dispositions to Stay and to Succeed: Final report
of the ‘What Works’ research project. Northumbria University
• Gower L. and Thompson J. (2102) A Good Practice Guide to Learning Relationships
in Higher Education. Northumbria University