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Flipped And Open Seminars As A Method For Work Integrated Learning
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Division of Media and Design. (LINA)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9129-2923
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Division of Media and Design. (LINA)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6636-055X
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Division of Media and Design. (LINA)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2494-2257
2019 (English)In: INTED2019 Proceedings / [ed] L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, I. Candel Torres (eds), Valencia: The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development, 2019, p. 4458-4466Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Since 2002 University West, Sweden has had a mission from the Swedish government to develop methods for work integrated learning (WIL). WIL is thus a “trademark” of the university and the university is continuously developing teaching models to enhance a synergy between theory and practice with the goal to improve education and students’ lifelong learning. A challenge in such work is a decreasing engagement among students to participate in seminars at campus, especially during periods of internship. In the study underlying this paper we therefore explore a new teaching and learning method that aims to stimulate students to come to campus and to discuss their experiences with peer students and teachers during their internship.The internship and the seminars are organized as a ‘WIL course’ in the fifth semester of the candidate program ‘Digital Media’. As part of the course the students spend four days a week in a workplace where they contribute substantially to the work at the workplace. One day a week they spend at campus to reflect, write and discuss topics related to the work and organization at the workplace e.g. organizational culture, how a work day is organized, how design work is organized, and how the workplace treats its customers. The students and teachers meet once every second week for a seminar where they discuss the above-mentioned themes. The reflections made at the seminars and the conversations are important for the learning goals at the course. However, the teachers experience a moderate interest from the students’ side to participate and the students tend to be ill prepared.To increase the value and learning for the students, a new approach for better structure and engagement has been introduced, where students in beforehand writtenly reflect on questions about their workplace in relation to the theme of the week. They write in open and shared documents so that all students before the seminare can take part of each others reflections and as such come to the seminar with a wider perspective on the particular theme. The seminar is then held at the campus where the themes are discussed and workplaces compared with help of a shared matrix where the students can place their workplace regarding level of structure, formality, creativity etc . As such the seminar has a ‘flipped’ character and the ICT tools for learning used are open and editable over time for all participants.The empirical material is based on 24 hours participant observations, 10 students’ written reflections and the course curricula. The findings show that the flipped and open approach to the seminars has made the students more engaged in reflections about their workplace, not only during the seminar at campus but also during their work at the workplace. The shared document stimulates reflections of differences between workplaces that has not been so clear before, and the matrix has helped the students to take the reflections to a higher level by reflecting over organizational culture and workplace conditions. By comparing each other’s experiences from a spectrum of different aspects/themes they get a more nuanced picture of the skills and competences needed in the workplace, and they get more strengthened in their professional role. The recurrent discussions over time during the course therefore contribute to make the students more experienced than they would had been by only having got the experience from their own workplace.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Valencia: The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development, 2019. p. 4458-4466
Keywords [en]
flipped seminar, open seminar, higher education, work integrated learning, shared experience, students.
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Work Integrated Learning; SOCIAL SCIENCE, Informatics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-13769ISBN: 978-84-09-08619-1 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-13769DiVA, id: diva2:1302936
Conference
INTED2019, 13th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, 11th, 12th and 13th of March, 2019.
Available from: 2019-04-08 Created: 2019-04-08 Last updated: 2022-02-04Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. An Eye for an I: Focus on integration in WIL
Open this publication in new window or tab >>An Eye for an I: Focus on integration in WIL
2022 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This licentiate thesis describes the development and change of forms within a course with a focus on Work-Integrated Learning (WIL). For several years I have been responsible for a course and at the same time author of the syllabus for the course and seen how weak the integration is, and how it is perceived by the students, between theoretical knowledge and the practical work during an internship period. This has resulted in two interventions and processing of the syllabus and above all the methods and pedagogy used for the implementation of the course.

In the beginning, the internship period contained four presentation seminars where the result was only a joint listening to the other students' stories and presentations. This resulted in a discussion and conceptual paper that focused on the importance of integration and how this can be made visible. The first change in curricula was inspired by Flipped Classroom, where students had to submit their narratives in advance in an online shared document. Prior to the seminar, it was assumed that they would then read each other's text and reflect on similarities and differences in experiences and learning in the workplace where they had their internship period. This resulted in a more reflective conversation during the seminars which can be called Peer Reflections where the conversation was always based on previous reflections and each other's thoughts.

The second intervention was carried out in implementation at the same time as it was to be compared with the student's experiences of seminars in a control group that carried out a similar course structure with presentation and examining seminars. The change was inspired by a model from Australia that they call Huddles. This is a concluding seminar as a briefing of the practice. The issues that are discussed are carefully selected in collaboration with the students and have a clear anchoring in their experiences during the practice. The change, which was then implemented, after inspiration from Huddles in one group, with as before four seminars during the internship with carefully selected themes. At the same time, I was inspired by models for evaluating differences in teaching when technology is introduced, such as the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition) and how this could be seen as a form of progression if technology was changed to AIL. The SOLO taxonomy was also the inspiration for describing the assignments and themes before each seminar.

The research questions presented in this licentiate thesis focus on the students' experiences of how these changes contribute to a better understanding of the integration of what is taught at the university in the form of theory and the practical knowledge they learned in the internship.

Qualitative data collection has taken place through observations and focus groups in both the group where changes have been implemented and in the group that conducted accounting and examining seminars. The results show that the integration in the students' understanding of theory and practice increases. They also experience a progression in their reflections and the seminars, while the students in the control group experience their seminars as scattered and they do not contribute to any knowledge development.

The licentiate thesis also contributes to considering WIL as a complex concept with different areas of responsibility. The university teaches on the theoretical side, Work-Integrated Education (WIE) while on the other side of the dichotomy theory and practice where students are largely responsible for Workplace learning (WPL). Between these, several different activities can be carried out, including Huddles, which can be described as work-based learning (WBL). The university can contribute to these activities with, for example, simulations, the teaching of relevant software used by companies and organizations in the field. Workplaces can also contribute with concrete assignments in the form of various projects that the students are allowed to carry out or perhaps with guest lectures and concrete cases. Seeing WIL as an umbrella covering different forms of activities with different organizational responsibilities can make it easier to see the importance of the different activities and these can be integrated. WIL is not only WIE.

In addition to the view that AIL is an umbrella concept with several different types of activities, ideas are also given on how Huddles can be introduced as a pedagogical method and how progression can be developed within Work-integrated Education and Learning with inspiration from different models.

Abstract [sv]

Populärvetenskaplig Sammanfattning

I denna licentiatuppsats beskrivs utveckling och förändring av former inom en kurs med fokus på Arbetsintegrerat Lärande (AIL). Jag har under flera år varit ansvarig för en kurs och samtidigt författare av kursplanen för kursen och sett hur svag integrationen är mellan teoretiska kunskaper och det praktiska arbetet under en praktikperiod och hur integrationen uppfattas av studenterna. Detta har resulterat i två interventioner och bearbetningar av kursplan och framför allt av de metoder och den pedagogik som använts för genomförandet av kursen.

Initialt innehöll praktikperioden fyra redovisande seminarier där resultatet endast blev ett gemensamt lyssnande till de andra studenternas berättelser och presentationer. Detta gav som resultat ett diskuterande och konceptuellt paper som fokuserade på integrationens betydelse och hur detta kan synliggöras. Den första förändringen inspirerades av Flipped Classroom där studenterna i förväg fick lämna sina narrativ i ett online delat dokument. Inför seminariet förutsattes att de sedan skulle läsa varandras texter och reflektera över likheter och skillnader i upplevelser och lärande på den arbetsplats där de hade sin praktikperiod. Detta resulterade i ett mer reflekterande samtal under seminarierna som kan kallas Peer Reflections där samtalet hela tiden byggde på tidigare reflektioner och varandras tankar.

Den andra interventionen genomfördes samtidigt som studenternas upplevelser av seminarier skulle jämföras i en kontrollgrupp som genomförde ett liknande kursupplägg med redovisande och examinerande seminarier. Förändringen inspirerades av en modell från Australien som där kallas Huddles. Detta görs vid ett avslutande seminarium som briefing av praktiken. Frågeställningarna som diskuteras är noga utvalda i samverkan med studenterna och har en tydlig förankring i deras upplevelser under praktiken. Förändringen genomfördes sedan, efter inspiration av Huddles i den ena gruppen, med liksom tidigare fyra seminarier under praktiktiden med noga valda teman.

Samtidigt inspirerades jag av modeller för värdering av skillnader i undervisning när teknik införs, såsom SAMR-modellen (substitution, augmentation, modification och redefinition) och hur detta kunde ses som en form av progression om teknik byttes mot AIL. SOLO-taxonomin blev också inspiration för beskrivning av uppdragen och teman inför varje seminarium.

Forskningsfrågorna som redovisas i denna licentiatuppsats fokuseras på studenternas upplevelser av hur dessa förändringar bidrar till att bättre förstå integrationen av den teori som de lärt sig på högskolan och den praktiska kunskap de fått på praktikplatsen.

Insamling av kvalitativa data har skett genom observationer och fokusgrupper i både i den grupp där förändringar har genomförts och i den grupp, kontrollgruppen, som genomfört redovisande och examinerande seminarier. Resultatet visar att studenternas förståelse av integrationen mellan teori och praktik ökar. De upplever också en progression i sina reflektioner och i seminarierna medan studenterna i kontrollgruppen upplever sina seminarier som spretiga och att de inte bidrar till någon kunskapsutveckling.

Licentiatuppsatsen bidrar med att betrakta AIL som ett komplext paraplybegrepp med olika ansvarsområden. Å den ena sidan är högskolan ansvarig för att förmedla teoretisk kunskap, Arbetsintegrerad Undervisning (AIU) medan studenten å den andra sidan, till stor del är ansvarig för att integrera teori och praktik genom sitt arbetsplatsbaserade lärande (APL). Mellan AIU och APL finns arbetsbaserat lärande (ABL) där det kan genomföras en rad olika aktiviteter, där bland annat modellen Huddles ingår. Aktiviteter som lärosätet kan bidra med är till exempel simuleringar och undervisning i relevanta programvaror som används av företag och organisationer inom fältet. Aktiviteter som arbetsplatserna kan bidra med är konkreta uppdrag i form av olika projekt som studenterna får utföra eller med gästföreläsningar eller konkreta Case. Att se AIL som ett paraply som omfattar de olika begreppen och innehåller olika former av verksamhet med olika organisatoriska ansvar kan göra det enklare att inse vikten av de olika aktiviteterna och hur dessa kan integreras. AIL är därmed inte enbart AIU.

Utöver synsättet att AIL är ett paraplybegrepp med flera olika typer av aktiviteter lämnas också idéer på hur Huddles kan införas som en pedagogisk metod för att stärka ”I.et” i AIL och hur progression kan utvecklas inom arbetsintegrerat lärande med inspiration av olika modeller.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Trollhättan: University West, 2022. p. 112
Series
Licentiate Thesis: University West ; 36
Keywords
Work-Integrated Learning, Work-Integrated Education, Workplace learning, Work-based learning, Lärande, Progression
National Category
Pedagogy Learning
Research subject
Work Integrated Learning
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-18059 (URN)978-91-89325-09-8 (ISBN)978-91-89325-10-4 (ISBN)
Presentation
2022-02-25, Sal J106, Gustava Melins Gata 2, Trollhättan, 13:00 (Swedish)
Supervisors
Available from: 2022-02-25 Created: 2022-02-04 Last updated: 2022-04-12Bibliographically approved

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Bernhardsson, LennarthNorström, LiviaAndersson, Mikael

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