Industry Intersections: Flexible Learning through Professional Practice

1. Industry Intersections:Flexible Learning through Professional Practice Dr Daniel Ashton FHEA Bath Spa University HEA Annual Conference University of Warwick 2-4 July 2013

2. Flexible Learning Outram (2011: 7) Flexible Learning Pathfinder projects evaluation:‘Flexible learning extends choice to learners in relation to what they learn, how they learn, where they learn and at what pace’: • Flexibility in relation to when learning takes place can include the timing of classes and assessments. • Flexibility in relation to wherelearning takes place encompasses off-campus learning at home and at work. • Flexibility in how a student learns includes flexibility in learning and teaching methods and formats, flexibility in assessment, and flexibility in what one might term ‘the learning scaffolding’ or ‘architecture’.

3. Professional Practice Donald Schön (1983) in The Reflective Practitioner explores professional practice: • ‘a professional practitioner is a specialist who encounters certain types of situation again and again [and] develops a repertoire of expectations, images, and techniques. He [sic] learns what to look for and how to respond to what he finds’(60)

4. Design and Methods • Participants 2 case study modules from two HEIs: Business (8 students) Design (7 students) Media (13 students) Heritage (10 Students) • Contextual interviews with module tutors. • Workshops with students including 1. Focus group 2. Keyword/image exercise

5. The Focus Group Questions and analysis were framed: • Firstly, in relation to dimensions of flexibility: when, where, how. • Secondly, in relation to student learning and effective engagementas adopted from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence’s (Carnegie Mellon, 2007) principles of learning: 1. Prior Knowledge 2. Motivation 3. Applying What Is Learnt 4. Future Uses 5. Learning Climate

6. The keyword/image exercise

7. Professional Practice Frameworks • Business Taking the role of consultants on briefs set by external partners to provide recommendations to them. • Design Responding to internal and external project briefsset by clients and tutors. • Heritage On-location placement/project engaging with projects that external partners identify/outline. • Media Taking the role of industry professionals on briefs set by clients.

8. Professional Practice Frameworks

9. HEA Conference theme: Employers as Partners • Focus on case studies with external briefs where students are positioned as students in collaborating with external partners/industry professionals.

10. 1. External-Student: Working with professionals Contact and Compromise • ‘Even if it takes a bit of effort to get the information out, they’ll still going to leave you with a better impression’ (Design 1: Duncan). • ‘You get more of a feel for the company when someone comes in and talks to you’ (Design 1: Georgie). • ‘People set briefs and pass work to be done but it's not the only thing they have going on. Lots of people might feel a bit disconnected to the client […] People are used to instant feedback from tutors’ (Design 1: Duncan).

11. External-Student: Working with professionals Structure and adaptability • ‘you're given a project to do and then you just work your way through it’ (Heritage 2: Karina). • ‘When you get there on the first day, it’s something completely different than you've done before[…] every week, something new’ (Heritage 2: Anthony). • ‘It's getting things done alone without somebody over your shoulder’ (Heritage 2: Andrea) • ‘Our supervisoris very busy all the time; that pushed me to be more independent and to have initiative (Heritage 2: Adrienne) • ‘We make our own plans, on top of what they’ve given us as well […] we know that we’ve got our own directions as well’ (Heritage 2: Sabina) • ‘And I don't think that the other units are dull. It’s just that, they're all the same. Yeah, I mean, the structure's all the same. And the way you learn it is all the same’ (Heritage 2: Andrea).

12. External-Student: Working with professionals Engagement and expertise • ‘The lectures at uni- I’m quite passionate about their topics, but I think the different surrounding changes your view on it’ (Heritage 1: Rose). • ‘We’ve had loads of people from different areas of [the museum]; that is what makes it interesting - it’s varied every weekand you learn something new’ (Heritage 1: Rose). • ‘I prefer it from the experts in [the museum]rather than somebody from the uni. I’d prefer it coming from somebody who has actually done the research for years and has worked here and knows it inside out’ (Heritage 1: Gale). • ‘Working in the field that you’re learning about makes the transition from uni to working a lot easier’ (Heritage 1: Gale) • ‘It’s nice that they trust university students to do something like that [public exhibition]’ (Heritage 1: Carole). • ‘It makes me that more excited to go into work because I can see that these people are obviously passionate about their jobs’ (Heritage 1: Rose).

13. Flexibility and authenticity • For Brown et al. (1989: 34)authentic activities are important for learners as the ‘only way they gain access to the standpoint that enables practitioners to act meaningfully and purposefully’ (36). (Brown, J. S., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989) ‘Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning’, Educational Researcher 18(1): 32-42). • Working with industry professionals and employers as partners provides means for students to make purposeful connections with areas under investigation and potential future employment possibilities. • Authenticity remains something to question in terms of how students embrace/question these professional contexts.

14. What’s next? • Flexible Learning through Professional Practice conference at Bath Spa University (12th July 2013). This project and presentations on range a range of projects/initiatives in response to CFP. • More at: http://industryintersections.org/ • Further research into specific frameworks and positions. • Critical dimensions need drawing out – not being supported and not engaging with the brief/position.