Helping students see the throughline

Exploring the affective dimensions of Individual Consultations

Abstract

Individual Consultations (ICs) form a core part of Academic Language and Learning (ALL) practice. They both supplement and inform other areas of ALL practice, including the support provided at unit and course levels. This paper reports on a specific area of ICs, the affective domain. In doing this it draws on data generated in a broader research project conducted at one Australian university. That project sought to better understand ICs by exploring student and ALL-practitioner perceptions, including how and why students engage in this form of learning, and what they believe they gain through the IC process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 students and 5 ALL-practitioners, with all interviews recorded and transcribed.

For this paper we adopted Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019). This included both a process to gradually identify key themes emerging from the data, with our particular focus on the affective aspects of ICs, as well as an opportunity for the authors (both ALL-practitioners) to reflect on a relevant aspect of their practice.

Universities often evaluate programs based on the academic performance, success and retention of their students. We suggest that the opportunity afforded through ICs for students to identify and address the affective dimensions potentially impacting their learning significantly contributes to their success and retention. For that reason, the importance of addressing the affective dimensions of learning, and the role of ICs in doing this, needs to be more fully understood and acknowledged