POISE Framework | POISE Resources for Tutor Groups | POISE Workshop for Faculty | POISE Videos
Pace | Ownership | Innateness | Simplicity | Exactness
POISE is a framework that seeks to identify the epistemological assumptions of students and their faculty by exploring five facets of learning, each represented by its first letter: Pace, Ownership, Innateness, Simplicity, and Exactness.
POISE was established on the belief that all students are international students, operating within a global context, regardless of their discipline, nationality, or status. The POISE Project seeks to acknowledge and reinforce this truly international context by providing a consistent, supportive and transformative orientation to study, as a core provision for ALL students across ALL programmes of study.
The POISE Project is part of wider student support across any University and should be integrated into a comprehensive system of pastoral care. Originally intended to develop individually completed personal audits based on Schommer’s Epistemological Questionnaire (SEQ) and related methods, it was then intended to adapt and design a single instrument to guide the learner through a reflective self-evaluation of their epistemological perspectives, attitudes, and approaches to studying.
In practice, the project evolved into a much simpler form. Using the words and reflections of faculty and students gathered through a series of workshops in early 2013, a series of video vignettes has been developed as ‘launch’ points for students to reflect on their approaches to studying.
Engagement with reflective questions is intended to prompt the student to generate their own personal ‘audit’, which they will discuss with their tutorial support.
Teaching staff (who are also Tutors) will also have access to POISE, ensuring they share a common frame of reference. Faculty themselves may benefit from being reminded of how students can sometimes think and feel about the learning experience. Animations make this a safe and supportive window into the students’ concerns and hopes.
Atkinson, S. P. (2014) Rethinking personal tutoring systems: the need to build on a foundation of epistemological beliefs.Opens in a new window BPP University Working Papers. BPP University.
Bromme, R., Pieschl, S., & Stahl, E. (2010). Epistemological beliefs are standards for adaptive learning: a functional theory about epistemological beliefs and metacognition. Metacognition and Learning, 5(1), 7–26.
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Greene, J. A., & Azevedo, R. (2007). A Theoretical Review of Winne and Hadwin’s Model of Self-Regulated Learning: New Perspectives and Directions. Review of Educational Research, 77(3), 334–372.
Perry, W. G. (1968). Patterns of Development in Thought and Values of Students in a Liberal Arts College: A Validation of a Scheme. Final Report. Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC. Bureau of Research.
Schoenfeld, A. H. (1983). Beyond the Purely Cognitive: Belief Systems, Social Cognitions, and Metacognitions As Driving Forces in Intellectual Performance*. Cognitive Science, 7(4), 329–363.
Winne, P. H. (2005). A Perspective on State-of-the-art Research on Self-regulated Learning. Instructional Science, 33(5-6), 559–565.