RAPPORT
Issue 5 (August 2020)
It is also possible that the student
wasn’t particularly motivated and/or
may not have wanted to work on
placement. (Portfolio 1, CS1)
Further, being on placement may not be
the experience students expect and
support may be needed for this transition.
Being able to provide developmental
support on placement appears to be an
important part of the AA role, and again
this activity needs to be supported by the
university:
she was worried about the nature
and scope of the work she was
undertaking. (Portfolio 1, CS1)
I also identify a lack of information
about student profiles which would
be useful. I asked student B what her
grades were so far and rely on this
as a base for my academic advice.
(Portfolio 12, CS2)
Disseminating best practice to develop AA
support resources is an obvious ‘win’ for
any university. For example, within the
case studies drawn upon here, AAs
describe using ‘actions plans’ to improve
the support they offer to students. This
structured approach facilitates student
progress as the student can draw upon
this support outside of formal contact with
their AA:
useful for us to devise an action plan
outlining her learning needs and how
she might achieve these…a plan of
focused reading and some
shadowing. (Portfolio 8, CS2)
After our meeting, the student
decided to continue with the
semester at the host university and
persist on achieving some goals we
set in order to improve her situation.
(Portfolio 15, CS3)
In all the case studies being explored
here an underlying theme is that each
discussed how placement support took
much time and effort to be able to deliver
a continuing relationship and appropriate,
timely support that has a positive impact
upon student outcomes:
We agreed to meet regularly over the
summer until she found her
placement. (Portfolio 12, CS 2)
I now make a concerted attempt to
keep these lines of communication
open with regular emails and
informal contact. (Portfolio 8, CS 3)
We both agreed to keep in contact
about her ongoing experience…She
was very grateful for the intervention
and ongoing support…That she
didn’t leave and that she saw
improvements …demonstrates that
my input impacted positively on her.
(Portfolio 1, CS1)
With ever greater numbers of students on
placement it is important to recognise and
resource this maintain quality of provision:
widening access combined with
increasing demands on academics
can influence the time and quality of
academic tutoring. (Portfolio 8, CS3)
Conclusion
This brief exploration of AA case studies
has outlined some of the variety and
complexity of issues that students,
supervisors, and AAs themselves are
experiencing in the placement process. It
is clear, that for AAs, in addition to the
issues that students face on campus,
being in the workplace brings extra
concerns and extra workload. Given the
uncertainty about the challenges awaiting
the AA during visits, prior preparation is
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