Dyslexic students preparing for examinations in higher education: strategies and a sense of control

Abstract

This thesis reports research using a qualitative approach and a social constructivist lens to explore the experience of preparing for examinations in higher education from the perspective of fourteen dyslexic students. Particular attention is paid to students' feelings about examinations as well as their revision strategies and the influences on the development of those strategies.

The research was conducted in two phases with maximum variation purposive sampling used to recruit as diverse a range of participants as possible for each. Phase one data collection activities involved in-depth interviews and cultural probes; phase two involved participant-led, conversational interviews stimulated by photographs taken by the participants prior to the interview. Data analysis combined elements of inductive thematic analysis and life-history and life-story research approaches. A profile of each participant, in their own words, was crafted as the foundation for further interpretation. Participants described strategies which could be grouped into three broad, overlapping categories: emotional, practical and cognitive. Each individual could be placed along a strategy continuum according to his or her dominant strategy. Their 'sense of control' over their academic lives emerged as a core theme.

Findings indicate that as dyslexic students gain a sense of control over their academic lives they move along the revision strategy continuum, from an initial emotional reaction to exams (emotional ‘non’-strategists/anti-strategists) through a stage of dealing with exams in a practical way and experimenting with strategies (practical emergent-strategists) to a final metacognitive stage where they have found a system, method or procedure that works for them (cognitive super-strategists). The individual's journey along the strategy and sense of control trajectory is influenced by life experiences including the diagnosis of dyslexia (and its timing) and comments made by significant others or a critical incident which may act as a turning point.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Melanie Nind: orcid.org/0000-0003-4070-7513

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