The aim of the research is to explore the first year experiences of two groups of undergraduate student nurses. The research takes a holistic approach to the investigation of the first year experience. In part, a curriculum change is used as a way to find out about the first year experience, with the research looking at how the introduction of enquirybased learning (EBL) into a curriculum impacted on the first year. The curriculum change is described in detail in chapter 1. The objectives of the thesis were to: 1. Examine the first year experience of nursing students. 2. Describe the curriculum change, the rationale for the change and the context within which this occurred. 3. Compare the demographic profiles of two groups of students one following a ‘traditional’ curriculum and the other using ‘EBL’; to compare students who chose to leave the courses with those who successfully completed first year. 4. Compare experiences with expectations of first year between nursing students undertaking a ‘traditional’ and an ‘EBL’ curriculum. 5. Propose strategies to enhance the student experience and rates of retention in first year undergraduate nursing students. The context for the research is described in chapter 1 – the literature review. This chapter explores the literature on the first year experience from both national and international perspectives. Inevitably, it reviews issues relating to student retention, which is the focus for much of the first year experience literature. The literature review argues that the contemporary context of nursing education requires nurse educators to consider the whole first year student experience when developing curricula that are fit for purpose. While the content of a course is important, the approaches to teaching need to facilitate learning within a diverse student population and need to prepare students to continue to learn in an increasingly dynamic healthcare environment. The chapter goes on to 2 argue that the issues that impact on the students’ first year experiences (e.g. relationships with peers and with academic staff, external domestic and personal circumstances) can be mitigated through curriculum development and other means (such as the availability and effectiveness of student support). The context of the particular nursing course along with the curriculum change and the rationale for the change are described. It can be argued that the retention literature takes a deficit approach to the improvement of the first year experience. Such an approach can be viewed as one that emphasises the factors that cause people to leave (or puts them ‘at risk’), and attempts to address these. On the other hand, a positive approach to the improvement of the first year is one in which measures and interventions aim to enhance the overall experience for all students, not just those who are seen as ‘at risk’. That said, the policy drivers for improving retention cannot be ignored and are discussed within the context of HE and nursing education. Finally, it is contended that the first year experience has not been widely explored within nursing literature and merits attention for a number of reasons, including the policy context and the need to determine whether student nurses have differing needs from students within other specialities. In chapter 2 the research methodology and research methods are described. An overview of case study research is provided and the approach taken within this thesis is described, along with a rationale for its use. The philosophical perspective is discussed with particular emphasis on the relationships between the methodology and the methods used to investigate the first year experience of students. It is argued that case study research is an appropriate methodology to investigate a complex area and provides an opportunity to utilise a number of methods so as to get to a ‘thick’ description of the phenomenon (the first year experience). All students in the two groups under investigation were asked to complete an expectations questionnaire, and an experiences questionnaire. Everyone who chose to leave the courses was asked to undertake an in-depth focused interview, although not all agreed. A sample of students who successfully completed first year was also asked to undertake an in-depth 3 focused interview. Finally, a sample of students was asked to complete a diary for the duration of the first year. The use of multiple methods is fitting, given the case study approach and the aim to create a ‘thick’ description, and an in-depth understanding of the first year experience. The use of the same research methods across the different groups of students allows for some comparisons to be made between the ‘traditional’ and ‘EBL’ curriculum students, and between leavers and stayers. The chapter also describes the approaches to data analysis. Chapter 3 presents the findings from the two questionnaires. Relevant demographic variables are reported, and the quality of the educational experience is measured in relation to the ways in which experiences meet expectations. This chapter shows that the two groups (‘traditional’ and ‘EBL’) are similar in terms of demographic variables. It also shows that the participants appeared to expect a ‘connected’ curriculum experience, but that the experience did not always match expectations. In chapter 4 the findings from the interviews and diaries are presented. Four themes are identified, with a number of categories in each. The themes (and categories) are: relationships with people (broadening horizons, knowing self and others, being supported and valued); the classroom experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); the practice experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); and professional education (motivation, preparedness, making adjustments). The chapter demonstrates the differences and similarities between the groups of students, before introducing the links to the quantitative findings, and to relevant research findings from the literature. Chapter 5 – the Discussion - brings together the findings from the qualitative and quantitative data as the case study. A conceptual framework is presented as a way in which the findings can be framed and through which future research can be organised. The assertion is made that the better the relationships, and the closer that experiences meet 4 expectations, the more likely it is that the student will have a ‘good’ experience and therefore be successful. The first year is seen as the foundation for future experiences on a course. While there are some areas that are particularly relevant to nursing students, it seems that the first year experience of student nurses is similar to that seen in other disciplines. Similar issues are identified within the thesis as within the wider literature, although nursing students’ issues may manifest themselves in slightly different ways (e.g. issues with practice placements/learning). In chapter 6, a number of conclusions are drawn that may enable future curriculum development to take a more holistic view of the student experience. Recommendations for practice are made and a focus for future systematic research is proposed. It is asserted that the conceptual framework that has been developed from the findings has allowed for a contribution to be made to the theoretical debate that relates to enhancing the first year experience and, in particular, to propose policy changes within the HE sector that may improve retention rates. This opening section has provided the reader with the context from which the ideas and focus for the thesis have developed, and has provided an overview of the aim and objectives of the research. It provided signposts for the full thesis and its component parts.

Les curriculums de sciences donnent aujourd’hui une place croissante aux démarches d’investigation, impliquant des professeurs de différentes disciplines scientifiques. La mise en œuvre de telles démarches suppose que les professeurs conçoivent des situations d’enseignement engageant les élèves dans l’élaboration d’hypothèses ou de conjectures.Nous articulons des approches épistémologique, didactique et ergonomique pour étudier les connaissances qui permettent à ces professeurs de concevoir de telles situations. Pour cette étude, nous faisons deux choix critiques : le choix du moment de la conception, en privilégiant celui de la préparation des situations ; le choix du contexte de conception, en privilégiant le cadre d’un collectif de professeurs de mathématiques, de sciences physiques et de sciences de la vie et de la Terre.Nous étudions les interactions à l’intérieur du collectif et leurs effets sur des évolutions des connaissances qui permettent la préparation des situations d’enseignement. Les interactions étudiées sont les interactions sociales entre les professeurs et les interactions entre les professeurs et les ressources partagées par le collectif.L’analyse de ces interactions met en évidence l’influence de deux leviers sur les évolutions des connaissances étudiées. Le premier est la conception de ressources spécifiques que nous appelons métaressources : les métaressources sont des ressources suscitant une posture réflexive sur l’activité à conduire ou sur ses effets. Le deuxième est la codisciplinarité comme forme de travail collectif. La codisciplinarité privilégie la coopération entre les disciplines, en respectant et en articulant les épistémologies de chacune d’entre elles / Sciences curricula give nowadays an increasing place to enquiry based learning methods involving teachers of different disciplines. The implementation of such approaches supposes that teachers develop teaching situations that engage students in a process of elaborating hypotheses and conjectures. We articulate epistemological, didactical and ergonomic approaches in order to study the knowledge that allows teachers to design such learning situations. We make two crucial choices in this study : the choice of the design period, focusing on the time of learning situations design; the choice of the design context, focusing on a collective of teachers in mathematics, physics and sciences of life and Earth.We study within this group the interactions between teachers and their consequences, in term of evolution of knowledge, that allows teaching situations to develop. The interactions that the study focuses on are social interactions between teachers and interactions between teachers and shared resources within the group. The analysis of these interactions show evidence about the influence of two levers that concern the evolution of studied knowledge. The first is the conception of specific resources that we call metaresources: metaresources are resources that lean to a reflexive position regarding the activity itself or its effects. The second is the concept of co-disciplinarity as a form of collective work. Co-disciplinarity favours cooperation between disciplines, keeping and articulating each particular epistemology

The purpose of the thesis is to explore excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL), its philosophical underpinnings, pedagogical implications and possibilities. How pedagogic devices can be used to encourage tutors' reflections on EBL, and is concerned with producing and sharing knowledge in relation facilitating student-centred teaching and learning practices. The study is in the tradition of practitioner research, where my role was that of an educational developer at the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-based Learning. It is centred around the development of EBL models as pedagogic instruments to facilitate tutors' reflections on their practice. The thesis investigates how to facilitate the incorporation of more student-centred approaches into tutors' practice in a UK university through employing EBL models as a tool for reflection, how these models were introduced to tutors, and the findings from the process. A critical action research approach was undertaken for the educational development practitioner research journey. The primary methods of data collection consisted of interviews with students and tutors, and data obtained during individual reflections and group discussions in a series of workshops that involved tutors studying EBL models. Thirty-one tutors were involved in these workshops and interviews where they quantitatively and qualitatively explored multiple dimensions of teaching and learning. Content analysis of the results was conducted on the data with an emphasis on dilemma analysis to gain insights into tutors' decisions about their practice, and an empirical abductive strategy was employed to inform the development of new EBL models. In the course of the action research phases two new EBL models were iteratively developed informed by the literature and stakeholders. Finally, a new Student Involvement in Learning and Teaching Model was proposed, empirically abducted from student narratives derived from photo-elicited interviews. This Model constituted the development of a new conceptual framework for thinking about EBL within the context of broader teaching and learning practice. This study articulates new student involvement dimensions which conveyed the nature of power within the proximal processes of teaching and learning. The thesis contributes towards the practice of educational development by documenting both the process and outcomes of introducing EBL and learning and teaching models to tutors as reflective instruments, and by proposing a new perspective on excellence in EBL where student involvement is enhanced when reciprocal power relationships exist in the proximal processes between tutors and students. Tutor decisions were framed as a series of dilemmas created by external contextual influences (the University social micro, meso, exo and macro-systems); and internal factors (the tutors' personal force-resource characteristics) which affected tutors' reported actual and espoused ideal practice. The data demonstrated that most tutors espoused including more EBL, but they preferred an incremental change in their practice.