Universities are becoming more accountable for their own funding and for establishing their own societal relevance. As Governments respond to the demands of industry and commerce to fit graduates for the workplace, universities are being asked to provide students with the knowledge and skills for learning and working in an ever-changing workplace. There is a strong implication here that the traditional theory-based learning associated with higher education needs to be augmented (and complemented) by an experiential component that enables students to develop a 'feel' for the workplace and 'an instinct' for what they are likely to be doing when they are working. Demands for such a change are not only coming from industry: students are asking that their university programs be made more 'relevant' to the reality of work rather than merely for the next step in the higher education ladder which requires the 'skills of research'. Recently there has been a strong move throughout the western world towards 'cooperative education' or 'work-integrated education'. Local initiatives at individual institutions are beginning to emphasise the importance of universities developing more symbiotic relationships with the industries in which their graduates are likely to be employed. In Australia, Griffith University has, for example, set up through its Griffith Institute of Higher Education (GIHE) The Griffith Graduate Project, which is attempting to develop an institution-wide policy in this area so that a concerted and coordinated response can be made. As convenor of a Griffith University workplace-based experiential course in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, I find this study has provided an opportunity to examine the key determinants of success for a workplace-based course and to consider in detail the teaching and learning processes involved. The aim was to examine the fine-grained processes underlying the construction of new knowledge as students accommodate to the demands placed upon them. The methodology adopted was based on an interpretive constructivist paradigm and addressed a number of questions that considered the roles of the different stakeholders in a specific workplace-based course, the formal and informal expectations held of them, and the role-conflicts these stakeholders tended to experience. This meant that the basic process followed was inductive rather than deductive, worked from the specific to the general and required a methodology that did the same. Because the nature of the work in criminal justice agencies often must deal with feelings and emotion, it was assumed that the students' emotional responses could affect their learning so the methodology allowed for the subjective interpretations and responses (both appropriate and inappropriate) made by all stakeholders and the data was collected as verbatim reports of both factual reports and feeling responses. These were then analysed according to the students' own reports of learning and key principles of procedure for the design and implementation of such courses across the career spectrum were extracted. The values and approaches of action research were central to the responsive case study methodology that was developed. The study found that at its best, the course was conducted according to principles that enabled the student to experience an intuitive 'felt reality' while still making decisions on a strong cognitive base. The acquisition of knowledge appeared to depend on transactions that occurred between teacher and learner, supervisor and student in the workplace milieu. The thesis concludes with a number of recommendations and implications for developing best practice in the field. Ways in which the findings may be incorporated into university policy are also considered, as are the implications for change in the design, conduct and teaching of university professional studies courses.

BA – Was steckt dahinter? Etwa „Billigstudium mit Abschluss“ oder „Büffeln auch am Abend“? Eher dass Zweite, aber nicht eigentlich. Die Fach- und Ingenieurschulen in Sachsen suchten nach ihrer „Abwicklung“ im Zuge des politischen Umbruchs einen „Rettungsring“ und fanden ihn im BA-Modell. Mit Gründung der Berufsakademie Sachsen im Jahr 1991 wurde im tertiären Bildungsbereich ein neues Ausbildungsmodell eingeführt, das sich am Baden-Württembergischen Vorbild orientierte. Ein Glücksgriff, verfolgt man die Entwicklung dieser Bildungsstätten von 1991 bis 2009.

This study aimed to explore the students perceptions of science learning environment and teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behavior, and the relationships of these with students&rsquo / cognitive and affective outcomes. In this study, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), the What is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Science Attitude scale were used as measuring instruments. This study was conducted in conveniently selected 5 schools throughout the Yenimahalle district of Ankara with a total of 722 eighth grade students in the second term of 2003-2004 semester. Data obtained from the administration of the measuring instruments were analyzed by using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), multiple regression, bivariate correlations and multiple regression. Results indicated that the students generally perceived a positive science classroom learning environment in Turkey. Students perceived that their teachers displayed cooperative behaviors (leadership, helping / friendly, and understanding) rather than opposition behaviors (uncertain, dissatisfied, and strict) in terms of interaction with them. In addition, analysis indicated that there is relationship between students perceptions of classroom environment (learning environment and teacher interpersonal behavior) and students&rsquo / cognitive and affective outcomes. Moreover, data indicated that girls rated their learning environment and teacher interpersonal behavior more favorably than do boys. Lastly, students viewed science learning environment of their male teachers&rsquo / classes more cooperative than female teachers&rsquo / classes and students rated their male teachers that display more strict behavior than female teachers.

Co-operative education (co-op) is a form of work-integrated-learning that involves university undergraduate students undertaking full-time paid and discipline-related employment as a structured part of their program of study. Co-op programs provide learning opportunities for students that enable them to integrate their work and their academic experiences. Such opportunities, provided that a number of conditions are met, can lead to deep level learning. Deep level learning results when students engage in and interact with the material that they are learning so that the material is integrated into their knowledge and personal understanding. Whether or not deep level learning occurs through co-op, depends on various factors including the learning opportunities provided by co-op employers, the students' own commitment and ability to learn, and the commitment of university staff to support this learning. Insufficient resourcing of co-op programs by universities and ultimately the government places a major constraint on the programs' potential effectiveness in bringing about the desired learning outcomes for students. This is particularly the case in Australia where universities are under enormous pressure of reduced government funding and the long-term sustainability of co-op programs is under threat. In order to justify more funding for co-op programs, it is important to identify and measure the outcomes associated with undertaking co-op. There has been a great deal written about the outcomes of co-op programs and the associated benefits that accrue to the major co-op stakeholders; students, graduates, universities and employers. Most of the measurement of these outcomes has, however, taken place in North America. Furthermore, studies have generally focused on the outcomes for one, or sometimes two, stakeholder groups. The results of many of these studies have been limited by confounding variables and have been very mixed; with some providing evidence that supports co-op and others providing evidence that does not. Little work has been done to estimate the costs associated with running co-op programs. This thesis considered the research question of what is the added value of a cooperative education program. A positivistic paradigm was adopted and empirical measures of learning and employment outcomes were analyzed for co-op compared to non co-op students and graduates. The graduates taking part in the study were matched in an effort to overcome some of the methodological limitations of other studies. The majority of the graduates had completed an Economics, Finance or Commerce degree at one of two major universities located in Melbourne, Australia: one university provides a compulsory co-op program, the other does not. Through the analysis of the learning outcomes of co-op, this study found that co-op led to a reduction in the proportion of students adopting a surface approach to learning. The shift from students adopting a surface approach to students adopting a deep approach to learning as a result of co-op, was not evidenced as strongly as expected. This may have resulted in part, from the lack of funding necessary to provide the level of learning support required to bring about these learning outcomes. There is, however, evidence to suggest that co-op has a significant impact on the academic performance of students and particularly for those whose academic performance pre co-op was low. When employment outcomes for co-op graduates and non co-op graduates were analyzed, it was evident that 90% of co-op graduates, compared to only 19% of non co-op graduates, found discipline-related employment within one month of actively seeking a job. Furthermore, co-op graduates took an average of two weeks to find employment whereas non co-op graduates, with no undergraduate discipline-related work experience, took an average of three-and-a-half months. There is evidence that employers recognized, through increased salaries, the benefit of the co-op year over and above the experience that can be gained from summer placements, traineeships and post co-op discipline-related work. While the starting salary for co-op graduates, was significantly higher than for non co-op graduates, this difference disappeared when both cohorts had the same number of years of industry experience. Even though this result, which is consistent with other studies, appeared not to demonstrate the increased salary advantages associated with co-op, there is another factor that needed to be taken into consideration. The co-op graduates in this study had a range of academic achievements yet their graduate employment outcomes were at least the same as those for the non co-op graduates who were all high academic achievers. The impact that co-op has on the achievement of relevant strategic goals and key performance indicators specified by the co-op university was considered and an estimation was also undertaken of the cost of providing this co-op program over and above the government funding received for its support. It was found that while the co-op program attracted students with the same university entry score as the non co-op program, the non co-op graduates would, with hindsight, have chosen a co-op degree. This suggests that the pool of quality students applying for entry into the university offering co-op programs could be increased with more effective marketing of co-op to secondary school-leavers. Academic progression rates and retention rates, two university key performance indicators, were high for co-op students and co-op was a significant factor in achieving the university objective of graduate employability. While co-op has had a significant impact on the achievement of relevant university goals, it was also found that the university that offers co-op incurs a funding shortfall of approximately $1,300 for every Economics and Finance co-op student. This amounted to a total funding shortfall of $41,600 for the 32 co-op students included in this study. One option that is available to the university to find support for the long-term financial sustainability of co-op programs is to seek a share of the significant cost savings experienced by the two other major stakeholders in a co-op program - the government and the employers of co-op graduates. The estimated savings in graduate recruitment costs as a result of co-op students returning to companies as graduate recruits varied from $1,100 to $3,000 per graduate. This resulted in a total saving of between $19,000 and $51,000 for the 17 Economics and Finance students in this study who returned to their co-op companies as graduate recruits. The impact of co-op on social welfare payments made by the government was also quite significant. It was estimated that co-op led to savings of approximately $15,000 in social welfare payments for every co-op graduate - the total social welfare payments made to all the non co-op graduates being $147,000 higher than the total social welfare payments paid to the co-op graduates included in this study. To achieve these benefits of co-op, the government funds co-op programs at a rate of $1,800 per student. For the 800 RMIT Business students who currently undertake co-op each year, the funding shortfall experienced by RMIT was extrapolated to be $1.04m. The associated saving to graduate employers was estimated to be between $500,000 and $1.37m and the expected saving to the government in social welfare payments was estimated to be over $4m while the total funding of co-op programs for the 800 students by the government was $1.44m. These figures provide a strong case for an increase in the financial support of co-op programs. In conclusion, while there is a need to extend the research into the added benefits of a cooperative education program to a longitudinal study also covering other discipline areas, there is evidence to show that improved academic and employment outcomes occur for co-op graduates compared to non co-op graduates. There is also evidence of significant cost savings that accrue to the Australian Federal Government and to graduate employers as a result of co-op. If these data can be used to transfer resources to the universities that provide these programs then greater efforts can be made to direct the resources in a way that will further enhance the learning and the employment outcomes for co-op graduates.

Syftet med följande arbete är att undersöka hur elever i årskurs 9 ser på sam- och särundervisning i ämnet idrott och hälsa med fokus på genus. Undersökningen har genomförts i form av en kvantitativ enkätundersökning (N=80). Denna undersökning visar att elever i årskurs 9 har olika tankar om hur de skall bli indelade i ämnet idrott och hälsa där en andel av eleverna anser att de skall delas in i samundervisning vid vissa moment medan andra elever anser att de skall delas in i särundervisning i vissa moment. Eleverna anser att de skall delas in i sam- eller särundervisning i olika områden i ämnet idrott och hälsa. Vissa elever anser att de skall ha samundervisning i området friluftsliv och en stor del av eleverna vill bli indelade i särundervisning när de skall ha simning i ämnet idrott och hälsa. Ett annat resultat som kom fram i undersökningen var att större delen av eleverna anser att de inte skall delas in i ämnet idrott och hälsa utefter kompetens medan en mindre del av eleverna anser att de skall delas in efter kompetens. I fortsatt forskning föreslås att man skulle kunna intervjua elever för att få djupare kunskap om varför de till exempel anser att de skall ha särundervisning i ämnet idrott och hälsa medan andra anser att de skall ha samundervisning. / This work is about how pupils in grade 9 look at cooperative education and divided education with focus on gender in the subject of physical education in school where a quantitative survey (N=80) was conducted. The purpose of the study was to investigate how pupils in grade 9 are looking at interpersonal education in the subject physical education with a gender perspective. The study is conducted in the form of quantitative survey. This study shows that pupils in grade 9 have different thoughts of how they should be divided in the physical education, where a proportion of the students in the study think that it should be a divided education at some points while other students consider that it should be cooperative education in some events. Some of the pupils in grade 9 consider that they should have cooperative education in outdoor education, while the results show that a large proportion of the students want to be divided when swimming is on the schedule. Another aspect that emerged from the survey was that most of the students consider that they should not be divided in terms of competence, while a minority of the students want to be divided according to competence. I am suggest that further research could interview students to get deeper answers to why they, for an example, will have cooperative education in physical education while other will have divided education. By conducting an interview , the investigator receives more specific answers than was done in this survey.

The primary motivation for conducting this study was the apparent conflict between Texas Education Agency guidelines for a vocational cooperative education program and the realities of actual program operation. In the program the mid-management student receives instruction, through a cooperative arrangement between the college and employers, in both academic courses and related vocational instruction.

Cooperative education program was introduced into undergraduate hospitality degree program to help students be better prepared for their careers. A cooperative partnership between the industry and universities results in both sides receiving benefits. This study identifies the benefits industry partners receive from a cooperative education program. The implications of these benefits leads to the evaluation of hospitality cooperative education. From the results of the evaluation, recommendations are proposed for redesigning the cooperative education program.

Construction education is dynamic and practice oriented. As such, effective construction programs require significant collaboration with the construction industry. This collaboration, in the form of internship or cooperative programs, increase the student readiness for the job market by providing valuable field experience. Construction programs in the United States (US) established several internship requirements that range from being optional to multiple required internships. This study focuses on scanning the current internship requirements set by construction and engineering technology programs in the US by gathering information including; 1) Number and length of required internships, 2) Internship prerequisites, 3) Internship deliverables, 4) assessment method. The outcome of this study is expected to help construction programs improve their internship or cooperative requirements by considering the prevailing practices developed by other schools. Additionally, the study provides recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of internship for positive experiential learning.

The benefits of involvement in work-integrated learning programs, also known as cooperative education have been touted since inception in 1899. Unfortunately, little research has been published related to the factors that impact enrollment within these programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that have influenced the historically low enrollment numbers within the cooperative education program at a public community college located in the southeastern United States. Guided by Kolb's experiential learning theory, the conceptual framework provides a direct link between classroom learning and work experience. A qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of 11 cooperative education program alumni. Data were collected via a semistructured interview process using open-ended questions during focus groups. The data collected were transcribed for coding and triangulated for validation by comparing the multiple data results. Through data analysis, 3 fundamental themes emerged: recruitment, communication, and experiences. A 4th theme, website development, was highlighted within the policy development as an essential part of the initial 3 themes. The results may allow administrators to gain insight into how cooperative education enrollment numbers are being influenced by specific variables within the classroom, college, industry, community, program marketing, and program experiences. The implications for social change reach far beyond the study site. Through the determination of factors that impact enrollment numbers within a specific program, other institutions may be provided guidance in how to address the enrollment issues within the institutions' programs.

This research shows that the expansion of cooperative education programs and university-industry partnerships can help to address some of the problems that engineering education in Armenia is facing today. These problems include lack of connections between universities and industry, outdated curricula, shortages of funding for university staff and facilities, and limited success in helping students qualify for job-related demands of the global economy. In order to identify requirements for developing effective cooperative education programs in Armenia, this study analyzes the characteristics and features of highly successful cooperative education programs in the United States that might be applicable to the requirements of Armenian engineering education programs. The lessons learned from international best practices of cooperative education in this research, provide guidelines that can be used to expand cooperative education programs in Armenian engineering education.