The Social & Organisational Mediation of Learning

This study sought to increase and extend our understanding of the learning outcomes of an increasingly diverse higher education system and how these are mediated by the social context of study and by curriculum organisation.

The study explored the relationships between three conceptions of learning outcomes - as cognitive development, as academic and professional identity, as personal identity and conception of self - with a primary focus on three academic subjects (biology, business studies and sociology) in a range of institutional contexts. Collaborating throughout with the Academy for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTSN centres and the ILT) and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the study sought to enhance the quality of learning in these and other subject fields - with particular emphasis upon the roles played by student assessment, programme specifications and subject benchmarks - and to support fuller public and academic recognition of a wider range of learning outcomes than are typically measured.