scholarly journals Work-integrated learning and teaching schools: The University of Johannesburg teaching school experience

Author(s):  
Sarita Ramsaroop ◽  
◽  
Nadine Petersen ◽  
Sarah Gravett ◽  
◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Agnew ◽  
Elizabeth Abery ◽  
Sam Schulz ◽  
Shane Pill

PurposeInternational work integrated learning (iWIL) placements for university students are widely promoted within universities. However, they cannot be offered and sustained without a great deal of time and effort; most commonly the responsibility of an assigned university facilitator. Preparation and support are essential for a positive student experience and iWIL outcome. However, not all experiences and outcomes are positive, or predictable.Design/methodology/approachPersonal vignettes of university iWIL facilitators are used to create a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) of experiences and outcomes where placements have been affected by unexpected or unprecedented “critical incidents” and the impact incurred on these academics. The vignettes are analyzed according to the Pitard (2016) six-step structural analysis model.FindingsAnalysis of the vignettes identifies a resulting workload cost, emotional labor and effect on staff wellbeing. Due to the responsibility and expectations of the position, these incidents placed the university iWIL facilitator in a position of vulnerability, stress, added workload and emotional labor that cannot be compared to other academic teaching roles.Practical implicationsIt is intended through the use of “real life” stories presented in the vignettes, to elicit consideration and recognition of the role of the iWIL facilitator when dealing with “the negatives” and “bring to light” management and support strategies needed.Originality/valueResearch is scant on iWIL supervisor experience and management of “critical incidents”, therefore this paper adds to the literature in an area previously overlooked.


Author(s):  
Perry Forsythe

The term “work ready graduates” is commonly used by Universities to describe students who have been well prepared and who can seamlessly enter professional practice. It is an ideal that is simpler said than achieved in reality. Students in construction management often work and study concurrently but this is often undertaken in an ad hoc way that does not derive the benefits of the potential synergy between the two. The paper explores the need to create such synergy by operationalising Work Integrated Learning concepts and the issues and conditions involved in implementing at the study-work interface for construction management students. The extant literature is used to build the case and identify relevant issues that need to be addressed in the context of contemporary higher education thinking. Research findings are presented from the perspective of the university sector, the student and the industry. Based on findings and insights from these stakeholders, the paper proposes a means of enabling Work Integrated Learning via a structured student-industry network. The brief for such a network is introduced with a view to real world application.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sinokholo Victor Mtiki

Internationally, work Integrated Learning (WIL) is a required component of the National Diploma in Office Management and Technology. WIL is undertaken by undergraduate students with the participation of the academic coordinator from the university and a workplace mentor. Issues around mentorship appear to be one of the main challenges. Mentorship, in this study, is understood to involve an interaction or agreement between student, workplace mentor and university WIL coordinator. The problem identified was that this system is known to lack coordination and focus. The study was conducted at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). This research employed mixed methods. The quantitative method involved a questionnaire designed to gather the experiences of a sample size of 90 students in all. Semi-structured interviews were also held with the WIL academic assessors from the two Universities, in order to allow them to open up about some sensitive issues. Online open-ended questions were designed and sent to workplace mentors. Similar questions were asked of all the stakeholders. The study concludes that WIL generally lacks sufficient interaction between stakeholders and that therefore the desired outcomes of mentorship are not fully met. While students were satisfied on the whole with the organizations they worked for, they were less happy with the support the universities were providing. The statistics from the students’ questionnaire indicate that not all students were visited while on WIL, while workplace mentors indicated that they are not provided with appropriate guidance from the universities. Electronic communicative support by the universities also proved to be insufficient, with many students indicated that they are not happy with this personal contact they experienced. Manpower and workload were found to be the main challenges faced by the universities in providing sufficient support. There is only one WIL academic assessor responsible for all the students on WIL in each of the universities. The research suggests that the university’s WIL coordinators should undertake a round of visits to companies before the WIL period and, if they have facilities appropriate for offering experiential learning tasks, then they could be formally accredited for this purpose. It is also suggested that the universities offer workplace mentors more formal guidance and an induction programme. There could also be a policy statement as to how many contacts should be made with the students while on WIL. A suggestion is also made that WIL should take place in the second year as well as the third and, if possible, that the WIL period should be extended. All stakeholders confirmed that mentorship plays a huge role in the effectiveness of WIL and that closer interaction between stakeholders would be beneficial.


Author(s):  
Kin Wai Michael Siu

Instead of only staying in the university to carry out research, postgraduate research students nowadays are expected to gain knowledge and experience through work-integrated learning. The advantages of this kind of learning include better support and facilities for research and more comprehensive and in-depth experience in the research area. The learning also provides an opportunity for students to gain other research experience and explore other research interests. However, sometimes such kind of learning opportunity is not available or not the best available locally, therefore work-integrated learning is necessary or better to be carried out in remote regions. Taking regional collaboration of work-integrated learning for postgraduate design research students between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong as a case study, this chapter discusses the advantages, merits, issues, and problems of regional collaboration. The chapter then identifies possibilities for improvement and directions for further investigation.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 2164
Author(s):  
Luis-Alberto Casado-Aranda ◽  
Juan Sánchez-Fernández ◽  
Francisco Javier Montoro-Ríos ◽  
María Isabel Arias Horcajadas

The teaching methodology in university marketing subjects has traditionally been based on “lecture classes”, which have proved to be insufficient for providing students with professional skills that can be directly applied in the workplace. This research aims to reduce this gap between the university and business by applying the active teaching methodology of work-integrated learning (WIL), which consists of providing students with knowledge and experiences directly from professionals that are invited to the classroom. We evaluated the effects of the WIL methodology on university students in a marketing degree course through self-administered questionnaires. During a semester, perceived personal, academic, and professional outcomes were assessed in two groups of students of the same module, one of which participated in the WIL program (i.e., they received lectures by professional marketing experts who were invited to the classroom and explained, through real examples, the content of the subject being taught), and the other served as a control (i.e., they learned the content only through traditional lectures from the college instructor). The results revealed that the students who took part in the WIL program experienced increased motivation, enjoyment, and interest in the subject. Furthermore, they had an increased understanding and acquisition of the concepts, as well as a greater perceived ability to manage companies and a comprehension of the economic environment. These findings constitute an advance because they identify the benefits of applying WIL in knowledge fields where the acquisition of professional skills is crucial for graduates’ entry into the labor market.


Author(s):  
Elisabeth Näverå ◽  
Maria Spante

Team Research Support and Publishing at University West’s Library consists of four librarians who guide researchers and doctoral students in issues regarding publishing strategies, bibliometrics, Information Literacy and how to make research publications available e.g. in the local repository DiVA. The service is frequently used in several ways by various researchers in accordance with their special needs. The  case is originally based on three meetings between a librarian and a researcher entailing individual texts of reflections. This presentation accentuates the benefits of the discussions through the perspectives of collaborative learning and work-integrated learning. These benefits will thus be highlighted through the experiences from continuous face-to-face appointments with focus on information seeking activities and the effective use of databases.  The meetings between the librarian and the researcher are affected by the fact that both work categories bring their specific professional competences into the discussions. In the dialogues they thus  become each other’s teachers as well as students. The mixed situation of being the bearer of both roles  simultaneously is dealt with by the interacting participants and the co-created meetings are carried through,  and filled with contents, by the professionals themselves. Furthermore, this case emphasizes as well as  problematizes this situation starting off from the individual professionals points of view. Finally, this study  recommends the university management to encourage as well as create conditions for further  interprofessional encounters at work in order to support Work-integrated learning in and for the  organization.


Author(s):  
T. Judene Pretti ◽  
Norah McRae

There are many predicted changes for the future of work. These changes will have significant implications for the type of work that people will do and the careers they will have. The question for many higher education institutions is what can be done to support students in preparing for what is predicted to be a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) future. In this chapter, work-integrated learning (WIL) will be explored as a model of education particularly useful in preparing students for a VUCA world. The chapter will examine one WIL program in particular, the University of Waterloo's co-op program, and consider how its design aligns and supports students in preparing for their future work.


2013 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin

This chapter explores the use of information communications technology (ICT) to support international work integrated learning to provide more understanding of Web-mediated communities. The findings of a study of ICT use by students enrolled in a student mobility course on campuses in Australia and Vietnam reveal that students used a range of university provided commercial software as well as freely available ICT services and tools, particularly social networking sites, during their studies. A major challenge for universities is to provide access to the latest technologies at a cost that is affordable to the institution and its students, which provides the necessary level of reliability, availability, accessibility, functionality, and security. An online central management system or base camp can assist students to navigate the complex technical, social, cultural, and knowledge building opportunities that work integrated learning abroad offers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Fleming ◽  
Neil J. Haigh

Purpose When learning in the workplace is conceptualised as a social process, different social or cultural features of workplaces may enable or constrain students’ learning. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of students, workplace supervisors and university academics concerning sociocultural features that influenced work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive case-study methodology, incorporating questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to determine the views of stakeholders involved in WIL experiences in a sport undergraduate degree. Findings Students’ learning was enhanced when they participated in authentic activities, worked alongside colleagues and could assume increasing responsibility for roles they were given. Social experiences, interactions and activities provided them with opportunities to access individual, shared and tacit knowledge, to learn about language, processes and protocols for interacting and communicating with others, and to become aware of the culture of the workplace. When students successfully acquired this knowledge they were able to “take-on” the accepted characteristics and practices of the workplace community – an outcome that further enhanced their learning. Practical implications Students need to understand the social and cultural dimensions of how the work community practices before they begin WIL experiences. Practical ways of addressing this are suggested. Originality/value This paper conceptualises WIL as learning through the “practice of work communities” whereby through the activities of the community students can access knowledge in a way that may differ from what they are familiar with from their experiences within the university environment.


Author(s):  
Kin Wai Michael Siu

In recent years, postgraduate research students have been more expected to gain knowledge and experience through work-integrated learning. The key advantages of work-integrated learning include non-conventional university support and facility for research. Students can also gain alternative and other in-depth and comprehensive experience in the research area. This off-campus learning also provides opportunities for students to explore other research interests. On the other hand, work-integrated learning has its deficiencies and limitations. Since the learning is conducted outside the university, it is difficult to make arrangement and be available, in particular most of the time not the best available locally. Therefore, work-integrated learning is sometimes necessary to be carried out in remote regions. This situation creates more barriers and un-predictable matters for planning, implementation and management of the learning. To review the needs of work-integrated learning, this paper takes a collaboration of work-integrated learning for postgraduate design research students between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong as a case study. The paper then identifies some key issues and problems. After that, the paper identifies and discusses possibilities for improvement and directions for further investigation.


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