Psst'' Pass it On

1
Psst.. Pass it On

• Maggie Ferguson - Senior Lecturer UCLAN
• Mike Lowe Senior Lecture MMU

2
Background

• Flying Start School of Sport, Tourism and the
  Outdoors (UCLAN)
• S.T.A.R.S. - Depart of Exercise and Sport
  Science (MMU)
• Employers want graduate recruits who are
  educated and can demonstrate a wide range of
  attributes, not least the traditional high-level
  academic abilities of analysis, reflection,
  critique and synthesis
• (Harvey 2003 p6)

3
Employability can be defined as.

• 'A set 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, 2004, P7)

4
Employability and PDP

• In implementing and supporting students in PDP
  activities, HEIs should highlight and include
  activities to emphasise the longer term benefits
  in relation to life-skills for self-career
  management and maintenance of employability in
  the modern commercial world. (Edwards, 2001 p7)

5
Employability as a Process
Harvey et. al. 2002 in Harvey 2003 p4
6
What do we (lecturers) provide students with?
Apart from subject content what do
students receive from lecturers?
Advice and Guidance
Information
Time
Personal Traits
Experience
7
Project Objectives

• The objectives are to
• embed employability from level 4 ? Level 6
• incorporate Level 6 students as a shared
  learning resource to enhance employability
• provide context and currency to subject content
  for Level 4 students
• develop and enhance higher order meta-cognitive
  skills within Level 6 students
• inform curriculum development and delivery
• embrace the cyclical processes associated with
  PDP/CPD
• enhance the theory ? practice ? theory learning
  spiral

8
Learning places
On-the-Job
learning opportunities at work
Accidental learning at work
Conscious Learning
Unconscious Learning
Structured learning experiences
Off-the-Job
9
Learning Spiral
Stage 1 Have an experience
Stage 2 Review the experience
Stage 4 Plan the next steps
Stage 3 Conclude from the experience
Adapted from Kolb (1984)
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Reflecting on Practice

• The ability of students to express and apply what
  they have learnt from their reflections can be
  enhanced by PDP and subsequently, through CPD
  activities
• (Moon 2004)
• experiential learning and reflective practice..
  centres on the construction of domain specific
  knowledge, through the context of professional
  practice - personal professional experiences
• (Irwin et al., 2004)
• We all reflect on our practice to some extent,
  but how often do we employ those reflections to
  learn from our actions.
• (Rolfe et al. 2001 p.x1 in Ghaye, 2005)
• experience is not quite the same thing as
  learning from experience
• (Moon 2004 p105)
• Metacognition self-awareness, and the capacity
  to reflect on, in and for action, self-regulation
  (reflection on the process of learning)
• (Yorke and knight 2004)

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Academic Continuum

• Level 4 - Introductory
• PDP
• Reflection
• Theory in Practice
• Academic Skills
• Employability Skills

• Level 6 - Enhanced
• PDP - CPD
• Reflection
• Practice informing Theory
• Metacognitive Skills
• Employability Skills

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Timescale
October 2008
Recruitment of Level 6 students
December 2008
Finalise Learning Teaching topics
March 2009
Completed Learning and Teaching Seminars
May 2009
Student Evaluation
June 2009
Project Evaluation
13
References

• Edwards, G. (2001) Connecting PDP to Employers
  needs and the world of work ltsn generic centre
• Ghaye, T. (2005) Developing the reflective
  healthcare team, Blackwell
• Harvey, L. (2003) Transitions from higher
  education to work, esect, ltsn generic centre
• Irwin, G. Hanton, S., Kirwin D. (2004) reflective
  practice and the origins of elite coaching
  knowledge, Reflective Practice, 53
• Kolb D (1984) Experiential Learning on the
  Science of Learning and Development. Englewood
  Cliffs, NJ, USA Prentice Hall
• Moon, J (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and
  Experiential Learning, Routledge Falmer, Abingdon
• Yorke, M. and Knight, P. T. (2004) Employability
  judging and communicating achievements, York ltsn
• Yorke, M. and Knight, P. T. (2004) Embedding
  Employability into the Curriculum, York ltsn
• Yorke, M (2004) Employability in higher
  education what it is what it is not, Learning
  and Employability Guides (York, LTSN-ESECT), 1.