Shifting perspectives

This chapter explores first and second years as experienced and articulated by students, with particular emphasis on perceptions of students in middle phase of their studies. Feeling lost, not understanding what is required in a particular assignment, disappointed with performance, being confused and often frustrated: many students who were interviewed as part of the project described the second year as an ‘emotional rollercoaster’. Insights into student experiences, expectations and outcomes on each stage of their learning journey and understanding what enables successful transition from first to second year and beyond were the second-year experience project’s key research aims. The software automatically identifies concepts, themes and connections between them by data mining the text, and visually represents findings as a concept map. Thematic analysis demonstrated that course and lectures were most semantically important themes in Year 1 student comments. Learning as a concept lies within a close proximity to understand and interesting. To enable growth and learning, feedback should be timely.