Learning experiences for the transition to professional work

A better educated workforce contributes to a more informed and tolerant society with higher economic output, and this is also associated with higher levels of personal health, interpersonal trust and civic and social engagement. Against this backdrop, the role of universities has expanded, as university learning has moved beyond providing an education to preparing students for leadership positions within society. This article examines the effectiveness of final-year learning experiences from the perception of recent graduates. The aim is to improve undergraduate curriculum to facilitate the transition to professional employment. An online quantitative and qualitative survey instrument was developed to investigate graduates’ perceptions of their different learning experiences and assessment types in their senior year. Four hundred and twelve alumni from five universities completed the survey. Our results indicate that graduates value case studies, group work and oral presentations, and that graduates rate lectures and guest lectures from practitioners as the least important in their transition to work. The results validate the use of graduate capability frameworks and mapping the development of the skills over the curriculum. These results are useful for curriculum designers to assist with designing programmes on the transition to professional work.

Designing informal learning experiences for early career academics using a knowledge ecosystem model

This article presents a ‘knowledge ecosystem’ model of how early career academics experience using information to learn while building their social networks for developmental purposes. Developed using grounded theory methodology, the model offers a way of conceptualising how to empower early career academics through 1) agency (individual and relational) and 2) facilitation of personalised informal learning (design of physical and virtual systems and environments) in spaces where developmental relationships are formed including programs, courses, events, community, home and social media. It is suggested that the knowledge ecosystem model is suitable for use in designing informal learning experiences for early career academics.

Learning experiences in a giant interactive environment: Insights from The Cube

In November 2012, Queensland University of Technology in Australia launched a giant interactive learning environment known as The Cube. This article reports a phenomenographic investigation into visitors’ different experiences of learning in The Cube. At present very little is known about people’s learning experience in spaces featuring large interactive screens. We observed many visitors to The Cube and interviewed 26 people. Our analysis identified critical variation across the visitors’ experience of learning in The Cube. The findings are discussed as the learning strategy (in terms of Absorption, Exploration, Isolation and Collaboration); and the content learned (in terms of Technology, Skills and Topics). Other findings presented here are dimensions of the learning strategy and the content learned, with differing perspectives on each dimension. These outcomes provide early insights into the potential of giant interactive environments to enhance learning approaches and guide the design of innovative learning spaces in higher education.

Enhancing the learning experiences through Industry-Based Learning from Indonesian university perspective

This paper investigates how students’ learning experience can be enhanced by participating in the Industry-Based Learning (IBL) program. In this program, the university students coming into the industry to experience how the business is run. The students’ learning media is now not coming from the textbooks or the lecturers but from learning by doing. This new learning experience could be very interesting for students but at the same time could also be challenging. The research involves interviewing a number of students from the IBL programs, the academic staff from the participated university who has experience in supervising students and the employees of the industry who supported and supervised the students in their work placements. The research findings offer useful insights and create new knowledge in the field of education and learning. The research contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a new understanding of the topic as it applied to the Indonesian context.

Enhancing Student Learning Experiences in Sport Psychology Modules Using Practical Activities

The University of Worcester states in its most recent strategic plan (2013 – 2018) a set of enduring values that guide and direct the activities of the institution. The first listed, and perhaps the most important value is the striving to be “an outstanding university at which to be a student”. This is further supplemented by values such as “to inspire our students to reach their full potential through excellent, innovative teaching, scholarship and research” (University of Worcester 2013: p.4). One of the many ways in which the institution strives to provide this outstanding educational experience is through regular engagement, both formal and informal, with students at a number of points in each semester. Regular experiences of collating formal and informal feedback has led to the identification of a common theme amongst Higher National Diploma (HND) students in the Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences (ISES), where they consistently request ‘more practicals’. The ISES modules however are designed to incorporate a high degree of interaction, practical activities and tasks. This is especially important for those studying at HND level as research suggests differences in learning preferences exist when compared to undergraduate students, the former preferring a more tactile style of learning (Peters et al. 2008). Using an introductory Sport Psychology HND module as an example, practical activities and tasks are fully embedded in the taught sessions to enable contextual links to be made between the learning outcomes and their subsequent use. Examples of these include: a. interviewing athletes to produce a performance profile (Butler & Hardy 1992); b. completing psychometric instruments such as the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) to measure competitive anxiety in sport (Martens et al. 1990) and demonstrate data collection and construct measurement; c. performing relaxation interventions on the students to demonstrate how specific techniques (in this instance, decreasing somatic anxiety) might work in practice; d. demonstrating how observational learning facilitates skill acquisition by creating experimental conditions that the students participate in, in teaching a new skill. Nevertheless owing to the students' previously stated on-going requests for more practical activities, it became evident that assumptions about what students consider an effective means of experiential or active learning in the context of sport-related disciplines of study needed to be investigated. This is where the opportunity to undertake an action research project arose, this being a practical method commonly employed in pedagogical enquiry to aid reflection on teaching and assessment practice for the purposes of working towards continuous improvement.

TRAILER project overview: tagging, recognition and acknowledgment of informal learning experiences

The evolution of new technology and its increasing use, have for some years been making the existence of informal learning more and more transparent, especially among young and older adults in both Higher Education and workplace contexts. However, the nature of formal and non-formal, course-based, approaches to learning has made it hard to accommodate these informal processes satisfactorily, and although technology bring us near to the solution, it has not yet achieved. TRAILER project aims to address this problem by developing a tool for the management of competences and skills acquired through informal learning experiences, both from the perspective of the user and the institution or company. This paper describes the research and development main lines of this project.

Family relationships and learning experiences in anxious vs. non-anxious families: Are there differences ?

L'objectif principal de ce travail était d'explorer les relations parent-enfant et les processus d'apprentissage familiaux associés aux troubles anxieux. A cet effet, des familles ayant un membre anxieux (la mère ou l'enfant) ont été comparées avec des familles n'ayant aucun membre anxieux. Dans une première étude, l'observation de l'interaction mère-enfant, pendant une situation standardisée de jeu, a révélé que les mères présentant un trouble panique étaient plus susceptibles de se montrer verbalement contrôlantes, critiques et moins sensibles aux besoins de l'enfant, que les mères qui ne présentaient pas de trouble panique. Une deuxième étude a examiné les perceptions des différents membres de la famille quant aux relations au sein de la famille et a indiqué que, par comparaison aux adolescents non-anxieux, les adolescents anxieux étaient plus enclins à éprouver un sentiment d'autonomie individuelle diminué par rapport à leurs parents. Finalement, une troisième étude s'est intéressée à déterminer l'impact d'expériences d'apprentissage moins directes dans l'étiologie de l'anxiété. Les résultats ont indiqué que les mères présentant un trouble panique étaient plus enclines à s'engager dans des comportements qui maintiennent la panique et à impliquer leurs enfants dans ces comportements, que les mères ne présentant pas de trouble panique. En se basant sur des recherches antérieures qui ont établi une relation entre le contrôle parental, la perception de contrôle chez l'enfant et les troubles anxieux, le présent travail non seulement confirme ce lien mais propose également un modèle pour résumer l'état actuel des connaissances concernant les processus familiaux et le développement des troubles anxieux. Deux routes ont été suggérées par lesquelles l'anxiété pourrait être transmise de manière intergénérationnelle. Chacune de ces routes attribue un rôle important à la perception de contrôle chez l'enfant. L'idée est que lorsque les enfants présentent une prédisposition à interpréter le comportement de leurs parents comme hors de leur contrôle, ils seraient plus enclins à développer de l'anxiété. A ce titre, la perception du contrôle représenterait un tampon entre le comportement de contrôle/surprotection des parents et le trouble anxieux chez l'enfant. - The principal objective of the present work was to explore parent-child relationships and family learning processes associated with anxiety disorders. To this purpose, families with and without an anxious family member (mother or child) were compared. In a first study, observation of mother-child interaction, during a standard play situation, revealed that mothers with panic disorder were more likely to display verbal control and criticism, and less likely to display sensitivity toward their children than mothers without panic disorder. A second study examined family members' perceptions of family relationships and indicated that compared to non-anxious adolescents, anxious adolescents were more prone to experience a diminished sense of individual autonomy in relation to their parents. Finally a third study was interested in determining the effect of less direct learning experiences in the aetiology of anxiety. Results indicated that mothers with panic disorder were more likely to engage in panic-maintaining behaviour and to involve their children in this behaviour than mothers without panic disorder. Based on previous research showing a relationship between parental control, children's perception of control, and anxiety disorders, the present work not only further adds evidence to support this link but also proposes a model summarizing the current knowledge concerning family processes and the development of anxiety disorders. Two pathways have been suggested through which anxiety may be intergenerationally transmitted. Both pathways assign an important role to children's perception of control. The idea is that whenever children have a predisposition towards interpreting their parents' behaviour as beyond of their control, they may be more prone to develop anxiety. As such, perceived control may represent a buffer between parental overcontrolling/overprotective behaviours and childhood anxiety disorder.

TA tales : [re]storying the teaching and learning experiences of university teaching assistants

This inquiry examines reported critical incidents that shaped the lived experience of 5 university TAs as they negotiated multiple roles and relationships within the teaching and learning context. Questions and ensuing conversations explore the ways in which these critical incidents in teaching contributed to the TAs' understanding of themselves as teachers, of teaching and learning tensions in higher education, and of the institutional contexts in which they work. The inquiry also explores the ways in which narrative, particularly creative fiction, can represent the stories TAs tell of their experiences.

Providing pervasive learning eXperiences by combining Internet of Things and e-Learning standard

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Translation, Communication and 'Learning' : Experiences from teaching a master program in Viet Nam

In Vietnam, as in other Asian countries, co-operation with foreign universities plays an important role for the development of higher education. This paper is based on personal experiences from teaching a Swedish Master Programme in Education Science at Vietnam National University in Hanoi. Using theories developed by Lev Vygotsky and Donald Schon, the programme is explored as an inter-cultural learning process. Three aspects are focused upon. Firstly, the fact that communication between students and teachers is conducted with the help of translators who support both teachers and students in their attempt to understand and make themselves understood. Secondly, the expressed need to connect the ideas and techniques which are studied in the programme to the students´ professional worlds. Thirdly, the need to construct a framework wherein the students can inquire into their own situations and to encourage them to try new and more productive ways to deal with problems they are confronted with.