Degree, Degree, Just a Picture on the Wall? Student´s Experiences of Learning Transfer between Higher Education and the Workplace.

Author(s):

Gisela Oliveira(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 03, Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-07

13:30-15:00

Room:

305. [Main]

Chair:

Jonas Almqvist

Contribution

Work placements and supervised work experience have increasingly become an important area of educational policy (European Commission, 2013). Placements are believed to improve students’ employability (Auburn, 2007) by making the transition from school to work smoother (European Commission, 2013) and by providing benefits such as the reduction of a cultural shock (Jackson, 2014), better access to work communities of practice and the tools they use (Stanley, 2013), and, the development of generic skills and personal attributes (Wilton, 2012).

The focus on placements as an instrument towards employability can also be explained by the belief coming from several stakeholders, including parents, students and employers, that education should prepare graduates for the world of work (Jackson, 2014) and that graduate’s employability is Higher Education Institutions’ wider responsibility (Cole and Tibby, 2013). This pressure on Higher Education coming from the private sector is further reinforced by Governments and international organizations that advocate for the private and social benefits of more education (inter alia, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2013; OECD 2013, 2012; UNESCO, 2013). However, others criticize this focus on employability for its narrow view of the transition between University and the world of work and for the instrumental purpose of graduates’ education (Atkins, 1999) and marketization of education (Wolf, 2002).

Despite these opposing views, placements are an important instrument to investigate students’ transitions between Higher Education and the workplace and to assess the relevance of the widely advocated benefits of placements for graduates’ employability and their claimed smooth transition.

Here, I propose to investigate students’ University to work-placement transitions by using a learning transfer model as an analytical framework. Within this model, learning transfer is defined as a consequential and developmental process of transformation, experienced by individuals, regarding their knowledge, their behaviours and their identities. Consequently, the learning transfer model is formed of three interrelated dimensions, knowledge, self, and social interactions, and each of these is supported by physical and conceptual mediational means that either exist in the context or are created by the individuals. Context, framed here as a community of practices (Wenger, 1998; Lave and Wenger, 2001) is also a relevant aspect of the model as it frames all the actions and further reinforces the social and contextual feature of the model. These dimensions were developed from literature on transfer and from an attempt to integrate relevant contributions from classical (Thorndike, 1906; Woodworth and Thorndike, 1901), cognitive (Bereiter,1990) and situated perspectives on transfer (Beach 2003) and tested against empirical data coming from interviews and observations of students undergoing a placement year.

The following research questions directed the questioning that supports this paper:

1. How do students experience the transition between Higher Education and the workplace in their placements?
2. In what way and to what extent are students’ experiences congruent with the developed learning transfer model?
1. a. Do students transfer different types of knowledge to the workplace?
2. b. Which tools (artifacts) do students use to promote their transfer?
3. c. Do students consider social interactions relevant to their transfer and in what way?
4. d. Do students adapt their identity as a student to a professional identity and in what way?
5. e. Do students experience intercontextuality between Higher Education and the workplace and in what way?
6. f. Are context features relevant to their transfer and in what way?
7. 3. In what way are student´s experiences and understandings of the transition between Higher Education and the workplace congruent with the employability framework provided by Human Capital Theory?

Method

This paper is based on empirical data collected for a doctoral research focusing on learning transfer between Higher Education and the workplace of students from the University of Leeds, that had a one-year work placement in the academic year 2013/2014. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews with the students and from observation of the students in their placements. All three students were interviewed six times, during and after the placement and two students were observed in the placement at three different moments. For the third student, observation of the placement was not allowed due to confidentiality clauses and due to health and safety conditions of the placement. Secondary data was also gathered through weekly blog reflections about the placement of the same two students and from a placement handbook developed by the employer of the third student. The interviews were designed to allow, on the one hand, the comparison of patterns between the students (Flick, 2009) and, on the other hand, the investigation of emergent topics in depth (Kvale and Brinkman, 2009) and focused on collecting information about the students experiences of the University, of the placement and of the transition between both. Consequently, they focused on students’ meaning making (Miles et al., 2014) of, (1) the reasons and expectations for having a placement; (2) tasks, social interactions and development in the placement; and, (3) the transition back to University. The observations were conducted with the purpose better understanding the placement´s settings, environment, people and of the participant´s engagement and interactions with the workplace activities (Eraut and Hirsh, 2007). The interviews were fully transcribed into a word document and, along with the observation field notes and secondary data were introduced into Nvivo and coded with the support of a codebook (DeCuir et al., 2011) that was developed to ensure consistency in the data coding process (McQueen et al., 1998). Data is now being analysed through thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and cross-case analysis (Miles et al., 2014).

Expected Outcomes

This paper aims to present the learning transfer model as an analytical framework to investigate students’ transitions between Higher Education and the workplace and discuss its usefulness and relevance in this specific context. It will also present data collected using the model to discuss students’ views of the placement experience and offer a critical reflection on their constructions of the relevance of the degree and the placement towards their own employability. Consequently, the paper draws on research about the implementation of placements in higher Education and on recent discussions about graduate´s employability. It will use a combination of theoretical concepts and frameworks and an examination of empirical evidence gathered from students undergoing one-year placements. Ultimately, it aims to frame the students’ experiences within the International, European and National agenda for developing Higher Education and to sketch a new framework based on learning transfer to critically assess those agendas and Universities’ practices.

References

European Commission. 2013. Study on a comprehensive overview ontraineeship arrangements in Member States. Final Synthesis Report. Luxembourg:Publications Office. AUBURN, T. 2007. Identity and placement learning: student accounts of thetransition back to university following a placement year.Studies in Higher Education, 32,117-133. JACKSON, D. 2014. Modelling graduate skill transfer from university to the workplace. Journal of Education and Work, 1-33. STANLEY, T. 2013. Bridging the Gap between Tertiary Education andWork: Situated Learning in Accountancy. Issues in Accounting Education,28,779-799. WILTON, N. 2011. The impact of work placements on skills development andcareer outcomes for business and management graduates.Studies in Higher Education,37,603-620. COLE, D. & TIBBY, M. 2013. Defining and developing your approach to employability:A framework for higher education institutions. York:The Higher Education Academy. DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION AND SKILLS 2013. The relationship between graduates and economic growth across countries. BIS research papers.London: BIS. OECD 2013. What are the social benefits of education? Paris:OECD. UNESCO 2012. Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work,UNESCO Publishing. ATKINS, M. J. 1999. Oven-ready and Self-basting: taking stock of employability skills. Teaching in Higher Education, 4, 267-280. WOLF, A. 2002. Does Education Matter? Myths about education and economic growth, London,Penguin Books. WENGER, E. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity,Cambridge: University Press. LAVE, J. & WENGER, E. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, New York:Cambridge University Press. THORNDIKE, E. L. 1906. The Principles of Teaching based on Pshycology, New York,The Mason-Henry Press. BEREITER, C. 1995. A Dispositional View of Transfer. In: MCKEOUGH, J., LUPART, A. & MARINI, A. (eds.) Teaching for Transfer: Fostering Generalization in Learning. New Jersey: Erlbaum. BEACH, K. 1999. Chapter 4: Consequential Transitions: A Sociocultural Expedition Beyond Transfer in Education. Review of Research in Education, 24, 101-139. FLICK, U. 2009. An Introduction to Qualitative Research, London, SAGE Publications. KVALE, S. & BRINKMANN, S. 2009. InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing,SAGE Publications. MILES, M. B., HUBERMAN, A. M. & SALDAÑA, J. 2014. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook, Thousand Oaks,California,SAGE Publications. ERAUT, M. & HIRSH, W. 2007. The significance of workplace learning for individuals, groups and organisations - SKOPE Monograph 9. Oxford:Oxford University Department of Economics. DECUIR-GUNBY, J. T., MARSHALL, P. L. & MCCULLOCH, A. W. 2011. Developing and Using a Codebook for the Analysis of Interview Data: An Example from a Professional Development Research Project.Field Methods,23,136-155. MACQUEEN, K. M., MCLELLAN, E., KAY, K. & MILSTEIN, B.1998. Codebook Development for Team-Based Qualitative Analysis. Field Methods,10,31-36.

Author Information

Gisela Oliveira (presenting / submitting)

University of Leeds

School of Education

Monte real

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