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This article examines a longitudinal case study exploring the experience of a cohort of part‐time, adult, work‐based learners, mostly experiencing higher education for the first time. A wide range of instruments, including diaries and interviews, were used to collect data to explore, in some depth, the nature of the learning experience. Data analysis was undertaken using a matrix framework focusing on the positive and negative dimensions of the experience using the twin perspectives of learning context and individual identity. The study is shown to be part of a longer action research cycle. The study identified tensions between individual anticipation and anxiety and an institutional tension between positive conceptualisations of a supportive learning community contrasted with manifestations of higher education as an alien environment that actually hampers learning. The research was driven by the need to explore the development of a support infrastructure that addresses student needs. At one level the purpose of the research was to develop the course with a view to continuous improvement of the student learning experience. However, at the same time the research underlines the power of action research as a means of improving practice by formalising tacit reflection on learning and teaching and how this benefits both tutors and students by improving engagement and awareness of the learning process.
Phil Askham (Wed,) studied this question.