Dr Ian Stimpson

This project addresses the 'sophomore slump', the dip in second year engagement. In the first year the writing skills are new and in the third year they are treated seriously as part of the dissertation, but the literature synthesis in year two suffers from the perception that it is just another report, only longer. By adapting the DAPL5S approach for the whole cohort, new skills are introduced in the second year and engagement is enhanced.

The students developed an understanding of how a literature synthesis is produced, by deconstruction and then reconstruction. On a much broader level, but incorporating time- and project-management approaches, students learn how, what seems a very large and challenging task, can be broken down into a series of manageable sub-tasks spread out over the duration of the assignment, not just rushed at the end. This both increases the understanding of the process and leads to a higher-quality result, particularly important in the troublesome second year “slump”. Furthermore, the students acquire a toolkit that can be applied to not only literature synthesis type work later in their programmes, but an approach that can be equally applied not only to final-year projects but to masters’ dissertations and even PhD theses.

This case study demonstrates the adaptation of an innovation, the Developing Academic Practice at Level 5 programme, and how it can be more widely applied.

By using a literature synthesis as a vehicle for the project, this should be applicable to most disciplines. However, the documentation here does relate to the specific example of a geological study and the particular needs of that type of literature review. If this is adapted for other courses then the bespoke content would need to be changed to make it relevant to that particular cohort.