Book chapter 2011

Integrating Experiences in Workplace and University Settings: A Conceptual Perspective

Professional and Practice-based Learning
Journal · Vol. 7 · pp. 21-40
Abstract

Given the ambitious goals for and interest in integrating students’ experiences in both educational and practice settings, it is helpful to have some clear bases from which to proceed in planning, enacting and evaluating these educational provisions. It is necessary, therefore, to understand the kinds of educational purposes to be achieved, and means by which those purposes can likely be realised. Accordingly, this chapter first identifies the forms and kinds of knowledge required to be developed for effective professional practice, which then become the key educational purposes for integrating these experiences. They comprise the canonical conceptual, procedural and dispositional knowledge of the occupation and the particular situational requirements of that occupational knowledge for the circumstances where it is enacted. Following this, the likely contributions of experiences in academic and practice settings are discussed in terms of how they separately and, when integrated, together can best secure the kinds and forms of knowledge required to be learnt. That is, the chapter identifies how best the fit between the experiences provided and their integration can realise both the canonical and situational knowledge required for effective professional practice. Hence, the consideration of these integrations goes beyond what is provided or afforded by the two settings and needs to include how novice and experienced practitioners come to draw upon and reconcile both sets of contributions. In doing so, the consideration of integrations extends beyond what is enacted as experiences for students and includes their epistemological development as agentic learners. Consequently, it will not be sufficient to consider only the development of appropriate curriculum and pedagogies to integrate experiences. Rather, it will be also necessary to account for the development of agentic personal epistemologies. © 2011, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Keywords

Author Keywords

professional practice Procedural knowledge Conceptual knowledge Practice Setting Educational Purpose

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
1 Anderson, John Robert, Acquisition of cognitive skill, Psychological Review, 89, 4, pp. 369-406, (1982)
2 Anderson, John Robert, Problem solving and learning, American Psychologist, 48, 1, pp. 35-44, (1993)
3 Baldwin, J. Mark, Personality-suggestion, Psychological Review, 1, 3, pp. 274-279, (1894)
4 Thinking an Experimental and Social Study, (1958)
5 Billett, Stephen Richard, Knowing in practice: Re-conceptualising vocational expertise, Learning and Instruction, 11, 6, pp. 431-452, (2001)
6 Learning in the Workplace Strategies for Effective Practice, (2001)
7 Billett, Stephen Richard, Work, change and workers, Work, Change and Workers, pp. 1-298, (2006)
8 Billett, Stephen Richard, Learning throughout working life: A relational interdependence between personal and social agency, British Journal of Educational Studies, 56, 1, pp. 39-58, (2008)
9 Vocations and Learning, (2008)
10 Billett, Stephen Richard, Realising the educational worth of integrating work experiences in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 34, 7, pp. 827-843, (2009)
Quick Actions
Full Text via DOI
Citation Metrics
15
Times Cited (Scopus)

References 10
Document Identifiers