Merrelyn Joy Bates

Developing generic skills at university, during work placement and in employment: graduates' perceptions

This paper presents findings from Stage 4 of the Griffith Graduate Project. Graduates from three Schools within Griffith University were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the contributions that the learning contexts of university, work placement and post‐graduation employment made to the development of their generic skills. All graduates involved in the project had experienced work placement as a formal part of their undergraduate studies. Supplementary data from focus group discussions held with employers and graduates are also included. Findings showed that while graduates recognized the contribution university had made to their generic skills development, they greatly valued the experience of learning in the workplace during placement and subsequently in employment. The importance of teamwork, being given responsibility, and collaborative learning emerged as the most important factors for effective learning in the three contexts under consideration.

Work-Integrated Curricula in University Programs.

Higher education is under increasing pressure to re‐evaluate the place of practice in its programs and there are increasing demands for workplace‐based experiences to be built into undergraduate degrees. The paper reports on an extended responsive case study conducted in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University between 1994 and 2004. The findings point towards a model that can be used to develop courses based around a set of key challenges that learners need to face, criteria for the university’s construction of worthwhile activities, and principles of procedure that are required in order to implement them. It is suggested that university curriculum planners should concentrate on a process model of teaching, learning and research rather than on the more traditional models that tend to treat knowledge as a commodity and emphasise its production, transmission and delivery.

The assessment of work integrated learning: Symptoms of personal change

Work placements are an accepted part of academic curricula. In order to assess their value it is important to clearly identify what such programs offer that is different from existing courses. It is also necessary to develop assessment instruments that take their unique features into account. This analysis, which must be seen as a work-in-progress, advances a number of propositions about experiential learning and then uses them as a framework to establish criteria for evaluating student work. These criteria emphasise experiential learnings and the way academic concepts are applied in the field as individuals move from students to novice professionals.

The impact of institutional factors on student academic results: implications for ‘quality’ in universities

This paper situates the topic of student assessment and the moderation of assessment within a broader context of policy debates about the quality of teaching and learning in universities. The focus and discussion grew out of a research project that aimed to investigate factors related to academic success and failure in a Faculty of Arts. The study, initially, identified a range of student demographic and biographical factors significantly related to academic success and failure. However, there was also evidence of pronounced differences in grading practices between different components (courses, programs, schools) within the institution. The paper explores the implications of such inconsistencies for the institutional mechanisms and processes that have typically been advocated as sufficient safeguards of quality. It concludes that the tendency of governments and other stakeholders to now champion performance indicators, along with the shifting focus towards quality ‘outcomes’, are likely to increasingly throw the strengths and weaknesses of institutional assessment practices into stark relief.

Educating Australian leisure graduates: Contexts for developing generic skills

Abstract Leisure studies graduates seek employment in a highly competitive marketplace. In addition to their degree qualification, graduates need a core of generic skills and attributes that are sought by employers in particular industry sectors. As part of a larger study, graduates from Griffith University’s leisure management degree were surveyed to explore their perceptions of how their generic skills had been developed in three different learning contexts: at university, through work placements, and in immediate post-graduation employment. It is concluded that all three contexts play an important and often complementary role in providing leisure management graduates with a package of skills that enable them to contribute effectively to the workplace and develop their careers. The study findings suggest that particular skills may be best developed in particular contexts and give strong support for work placements in preparing graduates for employment.

The Responsive Case Study: Action Research and Action Learning in Short Courses.

This article describes an adaptation of action research that can be used specifically for the purposes of reviewing educational courses where the participants move out of the research process after one cycle. The author found a limit to the intentional use of action research in her study of a tertiary course that was being offered within the action learning framework of work placements. The term responsive case study was coined to describe the process of planning, acting, observing, reflecting and formulating new plans but in a context where the researcher is completing this process for implementation with the next group of participating students. In addition to being integral to the current implementation of the course, feedback from reflective journals as well as comments and reflections from participating stakeholders become essential for planning the next iteration.