Promoting Professional Learning: Integrating Experiences in University and Practice Settings

Abstract

Higher education institutions are now increasingly expected to organise curriculum and utilise pedagogies that can realise educational outcomes for three interrelated outcomes. These outcomes are (i) the development of specific capacities within students comprising the canonical knowledge of the occupation, (ii) an understanding of different manifestations of those capacities required to meet the situational requirements of diverse circumstances in which they will practise, and (iii) the capacities associated with being self-directed in their learning, working both independently and interdependently, and adopting a reflexively critical capacity that will permit them to monitor, evaluate, and improve practice across working life. These expectations come from government, industry, professional bodies, and, increasingly, students themselves who invest time and money in their degree programmes. This chapter focuses on and overviews key considerations for securing these outcomes, and the need to provide experiences in higher education that can assist the development of the conceptual, procedural, and dispositional attributes required to effectively enact occupational practice. In doing so, it seeks to address growing interest in providing students with learning experiences within the settings where these occupations are practised, as well as within university settings, and then how these experiences might best be integrated. Indeed, providing and integrating experiences in practice settings are increasingly seen as being indispensable components of the higher educational curriculum for many sectors. The chapter overviews key premises for realising these educational goals and the processes that seek to secure them and then summarises the range of approaches and practices discussed by the contributors.