Janice OrrellProfessor Higher Education & AssessmentFlinders UniversityCollege of Education, Psychology and Social Work

Work Integrated Learning in Science for the 21st Century

Questions• What contributes to effective WIL?• Why include WIL in your program?• Is teaching and learning different in WIL?• What options and models are there for

Science?• How do we engage with industry in ways that

make it worthwhile for student learning?

A review of the 40 ALTC funded projects identified that there are essential institutional, educationaland partnership elements to attend to in order for Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to be successful.

• Clearly articulated, shared vision of WIL within the university, including a shared understanding of its purposes and expectations

• Realistic recognition of WIL in institutional systems and infrastructure together with the provision of adequate resources

• Recognition and legitimation within disciplinary communities of the practice-generated knowledge, and the distinctive and complementary roles the university and workplace have in shaping and supporting the learning

• Engaging and utilising existing institutionally-provided enabling services such as careers services in the WIL process.

Institutional Elements

• Specified learning outcomes• Prior preparation of students• Structured, critically reflective, self and peer learning

processes during and after WIL experiences • Element of ‘risk’ contributing to profound learning for

students (the corollary is the futility of unchallenging placements)• Investment in the development, trialing and up-scaling of

technology-based tools to provide alternative or supplementary WIL experiences

Educational Elements

• Supervisors familiar with students’ prior university learning• Including all stakeholders in development, innovation and

communication regarding WIL• Induction/professional development for university and host-

organisation supervisory staff and development of their leadership capabilities

• Robust and mature relationships with placement providers (host organisations) underpinned by a commitment to mutual benefit.

Partnership Elements

WIL defined Integration of learning in an academic program of study with practical applications in a workplace setting. At best it is working to learn, not merely learning to work.Experiencing work and workplaces (including cultural, economic, social and political drivers) student learn to• Practice with others • Understand their own capabilities and limitations.• Enhance their employability

DIMENSIONS

DOMAINS

Leadership & Management

Education

Partnerships

Context

Purposes

Institutional Vision

Inspiring Motivation staff engagement

Resource and Budget

Educational objectives

Graduate attributes

Professional registration

Career learning

Enterprise needs & potential benefits

Mutual benefits

Vision integration

Scope

Innovation

Geographical location

Socio-political-industrial

Curriculum & pedagogy

Approval

Resourcing

Alignment

Integration

Pedagogy

Reflection

Engagement

Integration

Singletons/Group

Virtual/real

Professional

Service learning

Legal & Ethical Matters

Risk analysis & management

WIL Policy provision

Accreditation compliance

Access & equity

MOU

Intellectual Property

Confidentiality

Accreditation

High/low risk

Infrastructure

Provision

Systems

Services

Sustainability

Career Development

Student support services

Recognition

University systems & services access

Supervision

ICT platforms

Specialist advisory

Quality Assurance

Evaluation

Audit

Benchmarking

Assessment

Standards

Access and equity

Mutual benefit

Duty of care

Evidence based

Research informed

Student Matters

Duty of Care

Communication

Preparation

Career learning

Coaching

Authenticity

Networking

Employability

Element of risk

Student numbers

Diversity

Staff Matters

Communication

Recognition & reward

Promotion profiles

Workload calculations

Induction,

Professional Development

Host organisation induction & support

Communication

Staff numbers

Expertise

WIL is a strategythat has clear learning intentions that may include enhancing students employability but often has other learning intentions

Employability is a goal especially in education today. Students develop an awareness of the their own capabilities, dispositions that align with what employers are seeking.

Differentiating WIL & Employability

EmployabilityEmployability is a goal for all university education programsset of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy(Yorke, 2006) Students acquire diverse capabilities at University that often remain tacit.Employability can be enhanced by means other than WILsimulations, course projects, voluntary work, peer support, student leadership and international study exchange programs.

Without explicitness …..We are at risk of creating a nation of baristas with double degrees.Universities must change their focus from the production of more and more graduates to a greater concentration on graduate quality.

(Malcolm King, InDaily, 2010).

WIL and Science Graduates?

Or

Scientists at Work

Scientists at work!

Rarely alone &…Often not in labs

Challenging the Terminology of WILWork or practice?I choose Practice

Learning or Education?I choose Education

Education for Practice(PBE)

Education for Practice

Education for practice (PBE) refers to grounding education in strategies, content and goals that direct students’ learning towards preparation for practice roles post-graduation.

(Higgs, Loftus & Trede 2010, p.3)

Education for Future Practiceis not a reproduction of today’s professions and occupations for current times and contexts.• It is envisaging the future of practice and education and ask

how we should educate practitioners for this future.• It requires critical scrutiny of current practices and emerging

trends in higher education to identify aspects of practice and education that are likely to endure as well as fads and trends that will not be sustained in future higher education.

(Higgs, Loftus & Trede 2010, p.3)

Practice-based Curriculum

Authentic Context

Professional Practice

Professional dispositions

Knowledge Capabilities & Skills

Does

Shows how

Knows how

Knows

Prof

essi

onal

aut

hent

icity

A model of practice competence

Miller G E. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance.

Academic Medicine (Supplement) 1990; 65:S63-S7

Real world practice

Simulations & demonstrations

Reports & descriptions

Tests

What does this mean for science education?

WIL in Science does not have an embedded tradition.

This is a good thing!

It provides opportunities for blue sky thinking!

Problems with Traditional WIL• Ritualised, involving fordist practices that fail to focus on what

matters most.

• Limited by the immediate needs of industries and occupations • Constrained by university regulations, limited conceptions and

poor resourcing.• Lacks systematic evaluation• Opportunistic partnerships with industries

Outside the University• Internships• Clinical Placements• POP-UPs• Service learning

Inside the University• Working in research

teams • Solving industry and

community problems in teams

• Work in the operations of universities

Current WIL Options

Employability & WIL Inside the University

A Forensic Science ExampleFirst year, first term Forensic Science.

What did they learn?

• To be observant• To be systematic in collecting evidence• To be safe and systematic in the laboratory• Basic laboratory skills• The importance of accuracy in recording processes• Collaboration• Developing and delivering a cogent argument

Some challenges for you?1. What are the tacit capabilities that students gain in your

classes? Do they know? How can it be more explicit?2. What evidence do students produce to satisfy you that they

have attained them?3. How do your assessment tasks support the production of

evidence of emerging capability?4. Is assessment a one-off event or are key threshold concepts

for pharmacology shared in your programs and revisited over time to foster development?

WIL Outside of the University

Distinguishing Features of WIL Outside the University

Involves partnerships with diverse groups– Employers– Workplace mentors and supervisors– Students– Academic teachers– Higher education managers– Professional bodiesAnd balancing risk and reputation management!

Outside WILHas opportunities for all stake holders.

Students: WIL enables – Learning that is not possible in classrooms– Building professional networks– Clarifying career ambitions– Identifying links between content knowledge and practice– Identification of personal capacities and strengths– Demonstration of their employability to potential

employers

Assessment

Curriculum Elements

Workplace Context

Professional practice

Professional dispositions

Knowledge Skills

WIL Assessment

Performance Objectives• Being an astute observer noticing what is important in a real world context.• Transfer and effective application of prior learning and knowledge bases to

interpret observations. • Utilisation of prior knowledge to make and justify decisions. • Selecting procedures that are appropriate to the context from a range of

choices and carrying them out. • Reviewing personal choices and actions, and evaluating their appropriateness. • Seeking feedback and advice, and negotiate areas for improvement• Listening actively and changing and adapting plans in order to collaborate and

cooperate with others.• Meeting contractual obligations, such as report writing, planning and running

projects, and conducting pieces of research/needs analysis

32

Involves Mature PartnershipsOne of the biggest challenges.Involves leadership at all levels of the institution.

Three types of partnerships:• Episodic • Aligned• Committed

Benefits for industry• Identification of potential suitable future employees • Links with academics that can build a learning culture • Student enthusiasm and new ideas that may lead to

projects that businesses might not normally pursue • Access to university resources (staff and facilities)• Working relationships that can develop into

opportunities for cooperation and collaboration on other projects

Effective WIL PartnershipsRecognition of needs of all partiesClear agreements between stakeholdersRecognition of mutual benefitShared credit for achievementsIf the benefit fails for any the partnerships cease to be

effective Balance of potential risks against strategic opportunity

Communication & Alignment

Institutional Leadership

Academic WIL

Coordinators &Supervisors

Host OrganisationLeadership

Host Organisation Supervisors

Formal Agreement

Informal relationships

Why would Industry engage in WIL partnerships? (PhillipKPA 2014)

• A desire to give back to their industry or profession and to meet their corporate responsibilities;

• To improve their corporate image; • To advance their businesses by being better able to

recruit graduates in the future• To gain access to new thinking and ideas based on

emerging research gained through deeper ties with universities.

Dedicated university & faculty resources Experience with industrial placements Good preparation and realistic expectations Enthusiasm from studentsGuidance for industry supervisors Clear lines of communication between employer, student and university coordinator

Resource intensiveness Students having to find suitable placements Economic downturn has limited the number of organisations willing to offer paid placements Financial cost to host organisation Can have high risks

Enablers and Impediments to University Industry partnerships

Collaborations with Industry Challenge: getting the BALANCE

right!

Theory & PracticeRewards & ResponsibilityLearning & WorkingLeading & Collaborating

Natural Partnerships

Partnerships and progress are difficult to achieve when the balance isn’t right!

WIL PartnershipsStakeholder approachAuthentic & transformative Theory & practice are parts of a

wholeFluid synergy where each partner

counter-balances the other Commitment to mutual benefitRecognition of mutual benefitChanges of each reshapes the otherBalance of potential risks against

strategic opportunity and success

Looking to the Future

Anyone can imitate!

But will it produce learning that is applicable for the longer term?

WIL Placements alone is not enough!

Education for Future Practice1. Informed engagement of university and HE leaders.2. Investment in committee partnerships with industry. 3. Integration of Practice, Education & Research4. Focus on what and who matters most.5. Greater deliberateness curriculum that foster self

regulation, communication and transferability6. Thinking outside the usual!7. Consideration of the VUCA economy facing graduates

Volitile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous!

VUCA Economy

What are the options?Conservative model

• Driver is student accreditation and certification

• One on one placement (discipline/professional)

• Institutions & departments vie for placements

• Individual zoo staff take on a ‘shadow’ or apprentice & allocate tasks (Value added)

• Relationship is episodic ( length of student placement)

Enterprise model

• A shared vision drives the development of a detailed plan addressing the zoo’s needs

• Plan is broader than student placement• Students recruited into multi-disciplinary teams.• Inducted into a problem/project based learning

group & share their diverse disciplinary backgrounds

• Negotiated plan of action• On-going transitional arrangements and

evaluation.• A Committed, sustained and aligned

relationship.

Enterprise Programs• The starting point is the establishment of a reciprocal, relationship with

an external enterprise (Trust). • Driver is a concern for, and adaptation to the external partners needs,

not merely as a resource to meet the student learning experience (Adaptation and flexibility).

• Development of a shared vision that produces a program that represents an integration of the industry needs for development and the university need to provide a curriculum that encompasses education for practice that utilizes work place environments (Reciprocity).

• Preserve the relationship with integrated review processes. (Evaluation).

Inter-professional EducationWhy consider it?To reflect the multi-dimensional practice and concerns of

industry partners.To increase the authenticity of the student experience.To increase students’ experiences of contestability of the silo-

like character of their discipline-based learning.To provide an alternative to the apprentice/mentor model that

is more likely to re-enforce practice making practice (Britzman 2003).

Example….. A City Zoo Strategic development encompasses:• Business plans & Marketing• OHS• International relations and agreements• Research in science and conservation• Education: CPD, Community Education, School-based

education and postgraduate education• Environment and conservation• Tourism• Veterinary servicesTo name just some….

Is this new?• An emerging body of research and pilot initiatives• Some IPE trials, especially in the health and social welfare sectors.• Dedicated Education units in health care• Service learning partnerships in the health sector in USA• Universities and Built Environment Faculties have established MOU-

based partnerships with city planners and developers.• BUT it is questionable regarding the extent that these successfully:

– Begin with the enterprise interest – Engage external partners in internal planning and negotiations– Power relationships are more evenly distributed– Have on-going, transition arrangements

Potential Benefits• Healthier, more comprehensive, authentic and equal relationships

between universities and their communities and partner industries• Increased trust and confidence between Universities and their

enterprise partners• Break down of unhelpful disciplinary silos in universities and

relationships with industry enterprises• Break down of unhelpful disciplinary silos in students’ personal

conceptions of the utility, relatedness and relevance of their disciplinary learning

• Increased opportunities for student engagement with enterprise based understanding and practice (economic, political, social, global)

Challenges• Defensiveness and resistance within academic

silos• Professional accreditation and certification

regulations• Explicit and shared conceptions regarding the

need to have curriculum sanctioned learning experiences in communities and workplaces

• Absence of informed university leadership

Wise WIL for Future Practice• Has sponsorship of university leadership with a vision for the future• Has a visible place in institutional infrastructure, policy and planning • Based on a core philosophical, educational, legal and ethical values that are

common to all programmes in the institution• Encompasses integration of work and learning and integration of WIL

experience within the broader curriculum• Practice is a core feature of the learning, but not at the expense of theory and

research-generated evidence• Assessment is an important factor as it defines practice• Assessment of students learning achievements is informed by multiple

stakeholders but is ultimately a university responsibility • Grounded in authentic partnerships and reciprocal engagement of the

university with related industries, professions and communities

Slide Number 1QuestionsSlide Number 3Slide Number 4Slide Number 5Slide Number 6WIL defined �Slide Number 8Differentiating WIL & EmployabilityEmployabilityWithout explicitness …..WIL and Science Graduates?Scientists at Work��Scientists at work!Rarely alone &…Often not in labsChallenging the Terminology of WILEducation for PracticeEducation for Future Practice Practice-based CurriculumSlide Number 20What does this mean for science education?�Problems with Traditional WILCurrent WIL OptionsSlide Number 24A Forensic Science ExampleWhat did they learn?Some challenges for you?Slide Number 28Distinguishing Features of WIL Outside the UniversityOutside WIL�Has opportunities for all stake holders.� AssessmentPerformance ObjectivesInvolves Mature PartnershipsBenefits for industry�Effective WIL PartnershipsCommunication & AlignmentWhy would Industry engage in WIL partnerships? (PhillipKPA 2014) � ��Enablers and Impediments to University Industry partnershipsCollaborations with Industry Natural Partnerships WIL PartnershipsLooking to the FutureWIL Placements alone is not enough!Education for Future PracticeVUCA EconomyWhat are the options?Enterprise ProgramsInter-professional EducationExample….. A City Zoo Is this new?Potential BenefitsChallengesWise WIL for Future Practice�