Martin Percy

A tripartite subdivision within EAP of a study skills approach, academic socialisation and Academic Literacies is commonly acknowledged, although these approaches are not necessarily regarded as being mutually exclusive. Academic Literacies conceive literacies as social and context dependent discursive practices and discourse as the ideologically inscribed ontological foundation of language embedded within texts. Therefore, a critical approach to academic literacies, which entails the identification of hegemony and its impact on perceptions, is likely to aid hermeneutic interpretations of texts through an exploration of language, discourse and power, thereby facilitating a deep approach to learning. I view learners’ writing in terms of contested aspects of meaning making and I attempt to identify the gaps between the expectations of teachers and learners’ interpretations . I acknowledge that the construction of discourse itself arises from the relationships between the participants, practices and modes of written, spoken or multimodal communication (i.e. a socially organised way of using language and encouraging individuals to behave in a proscribed manner). The introduction of divergent, flexible and authentic assessment across the university has recently led to challenges for both teachers and learners, and has implications for disciplinary assumptions and practices. I assume a learner centred approach to teaching, and I perceive teaching as transforming understanding by focusing on breaking down barriers to learning through scaffolding and feed forward to aid navigation through identifiable threshold concepts. I assume learners’ perspectives determine what is learnt and that concepts and principles are interpreted in terms of schemata. Like all social constructivists, I view education as conceptual change rather than simply the acquisition of information. I recognise that learning may be at variance with what the teacher intended as divergent perspectives emerge and transform the way learners perceive the world and represent knowledge through their own agency.

As the Lead Advisor of the FHEA module and a teacher of postgraduate interdisciplinary Academic English modules, I have gained insights into both teachers’ and postgraduate learners’ perceptions of learning and assessment from interdisciplinary perspectives, hence bridging the staff and student experience, whilst navigating the comparatively complex assumptions of flexible assessment. Through both the FHEA module and the PG interdisciplinary Academic English classes I teach, I have tried to influence the perceptions of both teachers’ and students by facilitating their development as reflective and reflexive practitioners. Practices involve socially mediated co-operation and are shaped by practitioners’ values, interests, experiences and agencies, which drive transformations and determine what writing could be. I identify challenges faced by both the teachers and the students at a time when many assessments are undergoing transformations from the traditional logocentric essays, reports and presentations to more authentic forms of assessment. I can gain insights into the challenges facing the students and the uncertainly facing the lecturers in determining how to grade new and potentially unfamiliar forms of assessments, from the perspectives of both teachers and learners, and interpretations of the practices involved. I am also the module leader of the SEKAIA programme, preparing learners for work placements following the completion of their modules.