Transformative Learning Support Models in Higher Education: Educating the Whole Student

The title of this book may sound strange at first sight. This collection of papers, however, shall answer many of the questions related to new developments in higher education (HE) and perhaps disperse our uneasy feelings about it.

Students' approach to education is increasingly changing. Approaches to education are often non‐linear and students expect flexibility and support embedded in their courses. This requires institutions to adopt new approaches to enhancing student learning. Or, as the subtitle suggests, we need to educate the whole student.

The authors, a team of international contributors (of which we will need a few) state in this book that technology is enabling new ways of support that may blend education, work and home.

The book is accordingly about students, the professional staff that supports them, and their expectations of each other. It attempts to show how these three constituents of the system “are being remodelled and utterly transformed through purposeful delivery of increasingly integrated learning support services” (p. XIII).

Most writings discuss developments that are at grass‐root level. As a consequence, the chapters are deliberately varied and eclectic as declared by the editor. It would be incorrect to complain about that.

The 13 chapters are divided into three parts. Part 1 discusses strategic issues, first of all government‐level policies in the UK and New Zealand. Chapter 1 by Les Watson, an educational consultant gives us a bird's eye‐view of the British HE. We learn here that we have to be aware of the fact that it is characterised by “massification” and the introduction of student fees.

Chapter 2 explores the barriers and enablers of collaboration between different HE players by using a case study of collaboration between student learning support services, library services and academics at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Chapters 3 and 4 address again the British environment, in particular the University of Cumbria and the University of Bradford.

Part 2 begins with two chapters on the role of space and its impact on student learning. It fits well into the guiding idea of this part: the shaping of the learning environment. The next two chapters address learning support in distributed institutions and networks and focuses on online media, the integration of physical and virtual environments. To this, latter a European perspective is offered by Peter Brophy with a plethora of perspectives and practices. The next chapter seems to be interesting for a wide spectre of readers. It is namely about an initiative of the John Ryland University Library, a programme which makes young people, students of secondary schools to its resources with the aim to improve their willingness to go to university, and in particular to the University of Manchester.

Part 3 begins with a chapter on the role of student affairs and learner support professionals from a US perspective. The next chapter considers the role of research in building transformative learning support using the experiences of the first two years of the UK Open University's Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

The editor does not seem to be superstitious as the last chapter is the 13th. It is the work of Margaret Weaver and Philippa Levy and it discusses the role and importance of multidisciplinary practitioner research on enhancing learning support practice.

The back‐cover of the book promises that the book addresses a number of key issues:

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  the changing profile of learners;

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  the redesign of learning support;

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  engaging learners by reshaping learning environments;

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  next‐generation learning spaces;

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  the integration of physical and virtual environments;

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  engagement in widening participation;

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  learning partnerships; and

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  learning using research‐informed approaches aligned to pedagogy.