It is Welcome Week at Manchester and the air is as buzzy, with excitement and nerves, as it is crisp with chilly autumn sunshine. Oxford Road is crowded with people handing out flyers for pizzas and clubs. Academics and PS colleagues are welcoming students onto campus and getting ready for the start of teaching.

Over the coming couple of weeks, some of the students currently arriving will volunteer to be Academic Representatives; to act as  “the link between” their student cohort and the University “on all things course-related”. Their important role is to “listen to (students’) thoughts and ideas about (their) course and feed this back to the University.” Student Union website.

What enables people thrive in the academic rep role? That’s the question the student change lab will focus on. In our first investigation of the year, we will be working with Reps to explore a set of initial hypotheses about the ‘Rep Learning Doughnut’. We will be asking them to position a set of given hypotheses in relation to what is called “Learning Doughnut”.

What is the Learning Doughnut? It’s a teaching and learning tool to define level of challenge. It takes the form of ‘doughnuts’, formed by three concentric circles. When we are asked to do things which are familiar and low stakes, we find ourselves in our Comfort Zone. This will feel safe and easy but we are unlikely to learn much in this space. However, when we are asked to do things well outside our comfort zone; something completely new; something which feels risky and high stakes, we are likely in our Panic Zone. The Panic Zone is not conducive to thriving nor learning either. Between these two zones we find the Learning Doughnut. The zone where we are able to build on what we already know and can do; where we can practice existing skills in a new context; where we can develop new skills and expertise.

What do we mean with hypotheses? We simply mean statement which explain what is happening but need testing. Our hypotheses are about motivations and barriers that reps might encounter. We developed them through discovery research last year.  To test these hypotheses and understand their relative importance, we could ask the question openly “what motivates you? What challenges do you face?” Alternatively, we can ask reps to respond to our hypotheses; rejecting, nuancing, and ordering in terms of importance.

Below you will see some examples:

Initial hypotheses:

The role of the Academic Rep is a challenging one. Some challenges give us an opportunity to develop skills and resilience, and some mean it difficult to succeed. We will explore, refine, and prioritise these possible experiences. We have identified these as our initial hypotheses about experience which might prevent reps from thriving in their role.

At the point of signing-up:

I sign up to become a Rep because I want to build my CV. I know that I need to demonstrate more than just academic achievement to future employers. I am not totally sure about what this means in practice.

I sign up to be a Rep because I want to make the most of being here. I am excited by lots of different extra-curricula activities. I am not totally sure about what any of these entail or how I will fit them round academic work, paid work, and other commitments.

In the first few weeks of being a Rep:

I attend the Rep training and although I still think the role is important, I realise that it isn’t really something I am comfortable doing or actually interested in doing.

I attend the Rep training and am excited about doing this important role. When I try to collect feedback it turns out to be much harder than I thought it would be. I don’t get many responses from my peers and I am not sure about how best to coordinate with other student reps.

Experiencing the meeting with academic staff:

I have done what I was asked to – collecting feedback and presenting it at the meeting – but I don’t feel like the meeting went well. Staff didn’t feel open to what I was saying or didn’t seem to understand the points I was trying to make. I didn’t really feel very comfortable.

I presented feedback to the academic staff but I don’t feel like anything changed because of the work I did. I feel demotivated and not interested in putting that work in again.

When we have a sense of which experience it seems important to prioritise, we will the co-designing possible interventions and testing different approaches to learn what works.

By Professor Sarah Dyer