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Yes / There is increasing demand for work-based learning experiences to form part of undergraduate degrees concerned with working with people. Social justice and anti-oppressive practice underpin the philosophies of many such degrees which attract students with the promise of working within diverse communities and with the marginalized and vulnerable. Benefits to students include the development of a professional identity, an anti-oppressive approach and culturally competent practices. Despite this, critical approaches to work-based learning highlight ways in which the student can be colonized by dominant values via ‘cultural voyeurism’. This can lead to power inequalities being replicated and perpetuated by the student rather than challenged. The roles of identity and alterity in these learning processes are examined and the concept of professional identity is questioned. The article concludes that the tasks of negotiating identity and alterity are characterized by uncertainty and unfinalizability, and that the notion of cultural competence is itself problematic.

This thesis reports a study of the impact of work placements on the transferable skills of engineering students. The thesis provides a review of the theoretical and empirical literature in the field of student work placements and transferable skills and provides a discussion of the measurement of impact in this field. It also describes the design of the study, methods of data collection and the data analyses used. The research project was carried out at Loughborough University from 2005 – 2008. The data was collected from 247 students and 5 DIS (Diploma in Industrial Studies) tutors from three engineering departments (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and the Institute of Polymer Technology and Materials Engineering (IPTME)) and 26 line managers from 19 different companies which take students on placements. The results shows that the overwhelming majority of the students valued work placements as a way of developing transferable skills and identified the transferable skills which work placements were most likely and least likely to develop. There was close agreement on these matters between students who had experienced placements and those that had not. All DIS tutors and 87% of the line managers interviewed considered that a work placement had a very strong or strong impact upon the transferable skills of the students. Triangulation of the responses by students, tutors and line managers revealed close agreement on these matters. Students, tutors and line managers had mixed opinions whether work placements would improve degree results. In fact, work placement students performed significantly better in degree examinations than non work placement students. The tutors and line managers stressed particularly that work placements increased the confidence and maturity of the students. They suggested holiday work, summer work, team based projects as a part of the University degree courses as alternative ways of helping the students who are not doing work placements to acquire and improve their transferable skills, although they did not think that these suggested alternatives will be as effective as the one year placement. They considered that the duration of the work experience period is a key factor in improving transferable skills.

Purpose: This research considers the design and operation of a non-modular professional doctorate to meet the needs of professionals working in the built environment who wish to obtain a doctoral qualification. It seeks to identify the essential components and support mechanisms to provide an alternative to other forms of doctorate which draws on their strengths while addressing some of their shortcomings. It answers questions regarding the suitability of a programme which can successfully operate within a reasonable timeframe. Research Design: The research is set in a real-life phenomenological paradigm concerning the experience and development of candidates registered for a professional doctorate. The conceptual framework governed both the design of the research and the design of a two-stage curriculum. Regular intervention and evaluation using action research methodology was used to improve practice. The research produced findings through multiple sources of evidence. Data were collected from course documentation, online discussion forums, focus groups, individual reflections and interviews. Findings: The work found that a community of practice consisting of candidates and staff, specifically focused on learning and the continuous development of candidates, provides a suitable vehicle for professional doctorate work. Candidates benefit from engaging in carefully constructed summative and formative assessment with prompt feedback. The assessment informed regular workshops containing an active learning format supplemented through additional support from a virtual learning environment. Crucially, all three components are required to support each other by drawing on their individual strengths. Conclusion: This action research project made a modest but significant contribution to curriculum development at doctoral level. The research developed a model which enabled academic practice to help candidates improve their professional practice. Self-motivated candidates with appropriate supervisory support can complete a professional doctorate within a realistic timeframe when there is carefully constructed synergy between their doctorate, its supporting mechanisms and their own professional practice.

Government and higher education see the employability of graduates as a priority. Anecdotal and empirical evidence from the researchers own fully accredited institution suggests there is little structure to the delivery of Personal Development Planning (PDP); it is not related to the world of work and of limited relevance to the learning that takes place. A critical review of published literature has revealed that an understanding of the links between PDP and work-based learning (WBL) could provide routes to improving professional membership. The thesis resolves this gap in knowledge enabling HE practitioners to enhance the development of skills and competencies. The research is mainly set in a positivistic paradigm with mixed methods research following a survey based methodological approach. Data collected through questionnaires, structured interviews and focus groups, are used to analyse the opinions and beliefs of staff and students in HE and experienced professionals working at the cutting edge of the construction industry. The work identifies the skills and competencies needed for academic study and employability, with PDP seen as an essential element of an academic course. Reflective practice is key to learning new knowledge and skills in the workplace and empirical investigation suggests experience plays a significant part in the learning process. All students should have an opportunity to see the application of theory with practice through WBL. The research has contributed to the body of knowledge by challenging the inadequacies in existing practice. The thesis identifies the key components and linkages in a theoretically informed model that proposes the use of a Graduate Skills Framework for Construction Management. This new-found understanding and toolkit promotes the teaching of employability skills alongside PDP in a structured programme of WBL. Research participants agree that this is expected to support the development of professional competencies and enhanced capability for the benefit of students, professionals and the construction industry.

This thesis is grounded in my work done through the Harvey Mudd College Clinic Program as Project Manager of the PilotCity Clinic Team. PilotCity is a startup whose mission is to transform small to mid-sized cities into centers of innovation by introducing employer partnerships and work-based learning to high school classrooms. The team was tasked with developing software and algorithms to automate PilotCity's programming and to extract educational insights from unstructured data sources like websites, syllabi, resumes, and more. The team helped engineer a web application to expand and facilitate PilotCity's usership, designed a recommender system to automate the process of matching employers to high school classrooms, and packaged a topic modeling module to extract educational priorities from more complex data such as syllabi, course handbooks, or other educational text data. Finally, the team explored automatically generating supplementary course resources using insights from topic models. This thesis will detail the team's process from beginning to final deliverables including the methods, implementation, results, challenges, future directions, and impact of the project.

This thesis is a phenomenological study of the experiences of students engaged in a work-based learning (WBL) degree in the community service (CS) sector in NSW. The degree – a graduate diploma in social sciences (GDSS) - was developed through an industry/community partnership in response to identified workforce development needs. Positioned as a novel pedagogy, WBL is presented in the broad context, before the specifics of the research are outlined. The thesis presents, first, a political economy of higher education (HE) and the CS sector, followed by a description of the defining principles of WBL, characteristics of practice and issues arising from these things. The phenomenological study of the student experiences is supported by a case study of the GDSS. The research is approached from an ontological and epistemological framework informed by critical theory and critical hermeneutics. The methods draw substantially on data collection through semi-structured interviews and supporting data collected form other sources. The analysis of the data is presented as five major data stories – access, self and study, work-based learning and organisation, managing learning and outcomes. In discussing the data the thesis argues that the students are strongly positioned as non-traditional students with an orientation towards issues of access to HE, as well as a concern with critical practice. The concluding comments of the thesis consider the context of work-based learning under systemic influences of the political economy of the day, notably neo-liberalism and the application of a techno-economic framing of the knowledge economy. Some final comments are offered on the practice of WBL in the CS sector, including the defence of knowledge production as a public good and the life world/system dynamics of partnership. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Association of American Colleges and Universities considers internships as one of several “High Impact Educational Practices.” While these experiential learning exercises are not new, there are resurgent calls for universities to help students find and engage in more internship experiences before completion of their undergraduate degrees. At the same time, however, the US Department of Labor has strict guidelines as to what constitutes “internships” and what constitutes “unfair labor practices.” While there is a history of the private and public sectors creating internships for students in professional-degree programs and business schools, a need exists for more internships for humanities students—particularly English and writing students. This dissertation examines considerations for faculty members working with English majors to develop internship initiatives with structures that have pedagogical foci and follow the US Department of Labor internship guidelines. Using a case study approach, this project examines the growth of Georgia State University’s English Department internship program over the past twenty years. Through exploration into the opportunities, locations, and structures relevant to an urban university, the study reveals how faculty members designed a student-focused program that serves students, the university, and the community. Relying largely upon the review of departmental archives; a study of the history of GSU in the Atlanta community; interviews with faculty members and internship providers; and an exploration into the terms “intern” and “internship,” the dissertation ultimately sets forth considerations for those working with student internship programs and a model for college and university internship program evaluation.

This thesis explores the effectiveness of a professional education model that was specifically developed for on-the-job training to assist seven child care trainees in six Child Care Centres in Queensland, Australia, to develop the competencies, motives, strategies and processes required to become expert educarers of pre-school age children. The intervention, which took place over 65 days, was implemented by six expert educarers who had previously been trained in using the Zone of Proximal Development (socio-cultural theory) to extend both the adult and the child learner’s development. The educarers were asked to assist the trainees’ demonstration of motives, strategies, and processes during daily activities, and the educarers and trainees were asked to assist the children’s demonstration of competencies in daily activities through the Zone of Proximal Development. As mass training for child care workers in group child care is still a relatively new phenomenon in Australia, and as little research has addressed both an adult and child learner’s demonstration of competencies in the workplace with a permanent work-based instructor interacting through the Zone of Proximal Development, qualitative and quantitative approaches to analysing the data were chosen. These approaches present both a descriptive and a measured analysis of the day-to-day operations in which the training occurred. The study aimed to generate substantive theoretical ideas by extending socio-cultural theory (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988) with Activity Theory (Leont’ev, 1979), Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and Cognitive Apprenticeship (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Data collection occurred through questionnaires at three periods of the study, through pre- and post-training Semantic Differentials, through the trainees’ daily journals and the professional tutors’ comments, and the educarers’ weekly and monthly reports. The study provides a triangulated perspective of two foci. The primary focus was on the changing relationship of the trainees with the educarers during the training programme, and whether this led to a converging understanding and the development of an evolving, mutual meaning structure. The perspectives are the trainees, the educarers, and their joint interactions. The personal experiences of the trainees as observers and participants in the day to day activities of the centre are interwoven with the modelling and assistance of the educarers and demonstration of the children. The results revealed that some of the trainees’ relationships with some of the educarers changed over three phases. These changes demonstrated that, in Phase I, the trainees observed and practiced activities under the supervision of the educarers who instructed them what to do and why, and discussed parents, as they started to develop a mutual meaning structure. Their relationship reflected that of a novice-expert. In Phase II the seven trainees acted independently, planning and implementing minor activities, still under the educarer’s supervision however. In this phase the educarers modelled, observed, and commented on the trainees’ performance, as an evolving mutual meaning structure that reflected an aspiring expert-expert relationship developed. Three trainees attained only Phase II, while the other four continued into Phase III. In Phase III, the four trainees planned and implemented major activities independently while the educarers observed and commented on their performance and engaged jointly in tasks. Their relationships, which evidenced a developing and evolving mutual meaning structure reflecting a converging understanding, became collaborative for one dyad, one educarer perceived the relationship was collaborative and the trainee perceived it to be an aspiring expert-expert, while the other two dyads demonstrated an expert-expert relationship. It appears that the trainees, who experienced education motives with various strategies and processes implemented by the educarers through the ZPD in the training programme, demonstrated the greatest change in the relationships. For these trainees the peripherality of participation changed from Phase I, operating at the outer peripherality of the child care practice to operating closer to the centre of the practice in Phase II. The four trainees who transitioned to the centre of the practice in Phase III experienced educarers who exhibited consistent motives with flexible strategies and processes combining a wide variety of interactions through the ZPD. Emerging from the data, a dominant authentic activity, and a secondary aspect of this study was classroom management in general and morally acceptable behaviour (MAB) in particular. The dominance of this activity reinforces Tharp and Gallimore’s (1988) finding that classroom management was the most stressful activity for first year teachers. The trainees’ appropriation of the motives, strategies and processes in episodes of morally acceptable behaviour as modelled by the educarers, showed, over the study, a convergence of understanding and the development of an evolving mutual meaning structure between the dyads. The second focus of the study provides a triangulated perspective on the changes in the relationship between the trainees and children during the training programme. The trainees’ and children’s demonstration of competencies in morally acceptable behaviour is also addressed in this section: the perspectives are the trainees, the educarers and joint trainee-child interactions. The results reveal that the trainees’ relationship with children changed over the three Phases of the training programme. With a minor focus on children in Phase I, the trainees observed and practiced implementing activities demonstrating a novice-novice relationship. In Phase II, increasing their focus on children, the trainees took responsibility in minor activities demonstrating an aspiring expert-novice relationship. However in Phase III, with a dominant focus on children, expert-novice relationships were apparent. The four competencies developed for trainees to facilitate the children’s demonstration of competencies in morally acceptable behaviour, discussing feelings and discussing actions, and showing verbal and non-verbal empathy, were acquired and used by the trainees who experienced education motives in the training programme, in Phases II and III. Concurrently, the children developed and increased their competencies in verbal and non-verbal acceptance of the interventions, and showed increased understanding of cause and effect and the ability to formulate hypotheses. Changes were also evidenced in the trainees’ conceptual understanding of educaring children as they integrated the concepts of discipline and control with three other essentials of educaring (caring, teaching and learning), into their conceptual understanding of educaring over the study. The development of an evolving, mutual meaning structure of the authentic activities that were practiced in the child care centres, showed a converging understanding was being established between educarers, trainees and children. There was also evidence of reciprocal assistance. Influence, assistance and teaching were not a one-way process. They did not flow in one direction only, from professional tutor to educarer to trainee to child. The child in turn influenced the trainee who influenced the educarer who influenced the professional tutor.

Integration of work-placements into undergraduate degrees is now established on awards linked to professional registration in healthcare. Pre-registration training forms the basis for development of capability and entry onto a professional register. This enquiry explores how key stakeholders on a programme leading to registration as a Biomedical Scientist (BMS) position themselves in their role and the subsequent impact of this upon the development of the capable BMS. It draws upon current knowledge of work-based pedagogy and utilises a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach to explore the perceptions and experiences of individuals and groups to develop an interpretative portrayal and deeper understanding of the implementation of pre-registration training in one region of England. Data gathering and analysis was divided into two stages. The first employed analysis of professional documents to provide an insight into current discourses around BMS training. This provided initial developing categories and directed the creation of a questionnaire. Questionnaire responses confirmed the relevance of the developing categories and a summary of responses provided an ‘ice-breaker’ to guide stage two of data gathering. This stage employed focus groups and interviews to enable a greater understanding of how individuals make sense of their experiences. Initial, focused and theoretical coding allowed synthesis and conceptualisation of the data gathered and presented direction for the enquiry. The findings expose the challenges of integrating professional registration training into an academic programme of study. Three theoretical categories were identified: Role conflict, Expectations and Ownership. Conceptualising the interactions and intersections of these categories enabled the recognition of ‘Doing the portfolio’ as a way of describing and conceptualising the stakeholders positioning within the current programme. The registration portfolio has become an objective reductionist measure of learning, reflecting the positivist typology of practice in this profession. This provides a theoretical explanation as to how the programme is delivered and why there is a need to rethink conceptualisation of the role of the programme in supporting pre-registration training and the development of the capable BMS. To ensure that BMS students are supported to develop not only technical skills but also professional capability there is a need for a paradigm shift from a positivist episteme to one that embraces both the positivist and socio-cultural paradigms, viewing them as complementary and parallel. The novel research approach used in this enquiry has generated rich insights into how stakeholders interact with the pressures of internal and external influences and the impact this has upon behaviours and strategies adopted. The theoretical understanding proposed, which recognises the tensions emerging from a positivist typology of practice, has a range of implications for practice and for the development of practitioner capability through pre-registration training and beyond.