A new Swedish leadership theory of "leadership intelligence" (Ronthy, 2006; 2013) is characterized by a work integrated learning approach. This theory arose from analysis of the experiences of managers trained in performance appraisals, and describes the balance between being a leader and being a manager. A leader develops and uses, in an integrative good balance, leadership intelligence, which comprises emotional intelligence, rational intelligence and spiritual intelligence. The aim of this study was to further develop the Leadership Intelligence Questionnaire (LIQ) created by Ronthy (which has been developed to measure leadership intelligence), and to examine its reliability. Over 400 leaders, aged 21 to 69 years completed the 71-item LIQ. A shorter, 32-item version of the LIQ was developed by confirmatory factor analysis thorough excluding psychometrically "poor" items. The internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s alpha was high (> .80), and we conclude that leadership intelligence may be reliably measured with both versions of the questionnaire. Future studies should examine the internal and external validity of the LIQ before its introduction into education or into managerial practice.
This research describes the exploration, expansion, and enhancement of fashion merchandising internships from 1998-2010 in a small fashion merchandising program of 100 students in a mid-sized southern state university. This study examines the relationship of the college internship and the graduate's current job. Academic departments continuously review curriculum and consider the inclusion, continuation, enhancement, or deletion of a college internship in their programs. Often questions arise, such as: Should the fashion merchandising program curriculum require an internship for credit? What is the value of the internship? Is an internship experience measurable? Internship records were kept for 13 years at a United States public university. Number, internship placement sites, and current employment of college graduates [were] analyzed. The purposes of this study were to examine the components of fashion merchandising internships and assess the impact of factors such as university regulations and small town internship employers on students' careers after graduation.
In most of the advanced economies, students are losing interest in careers especially in en¬gineering and related industries. Hence, western economies are confronting a critical skilled labour shortage in areas of technology, science and engineering. Decisions about career pathways are made as early as the primary years of schooling and hence cooperation be¬tween industry and schools to attract students to the professions is crucial. The aim of this paper is to document how the organisational and institutional elements of one industry-school partnerships initiative — The Gateway Schools Program — contribute to productive knowledge sharing and networking. In particular this paper focuses on an initiative of an Australian State government in response to a perceived crisis around the skills shortage in an economy transitioning from a localised to a global knowledge production economy. The Gateway Schools initiative signals the first sustained attempt in Australia to incorporate schools into production networks through strategic partnerships linking them to partner organisations at the industry level. We provide case examples of how four schools opera¬tionalise the partnerships with the minerals and energy industries and how these partner¬ships as knowledge assets impact the delivery of curriculum and capacity building among teachers. Our ultimate goal is to define those characteristics of successful partnerships that do contribute to enhanced interest and engagement by students in those careers that are currently experiencing critical shortages.
This paper examines the relationship between a final year tertiary work placement for criminology students at Griffith University in Brisbane and the development of their work self-efficacy. Using a work self-efficacy instrument developed by Professor Joe Raelin at Northeastern University in Boston, a pilot phase in 2006 and a larger study in 2007 investigated the students’ responses across seven self-efficacy factors of learning, problem-solving, teamwork, sensitivity, politics, pressure, and role expectations. Both studies utilised a pre- and post-test and comparisons between these indicated that they believed their abilities to participate constructively in their professional work contexts significantly improved as a result of their placement experience except in the areas of learning, teamwork and sensitivity. This finding will allow us to continue to refine the processes of work placements in order to ensure the integrity of this method for student learning.
Many college students are willing to gain professional experience through unpaid internships as a way to increase their employability after graduation. However, unpaid internships present a number of legal concerns. Very little research has been done to examine the complexity of these legal issues. This literature review analyzes related research and government policy associated with unpaid internship experiences, including compensation, lack of employment protections, possible consequences for international students, and university liability. Recommendations are provided to assist university/college career services professionals and internship supervisors in preventing and managing legal issues related to unpaid internship experiences.
Professional knowledge involves both practical skills developed through and in a job, and general theoretical assumptions about activities at work. The latter arise from a theoretical study of the subject. Studying the relationship between knowledge derived in these two processes will contribute to understanding and resolving tension between practice and theory in professional education. This study has examined how child minders, who are about to start vocational training to become preschool teachers, use both their practical experience and their general assumptions in discussions of ethical dilemmas in their work. The results show that the child minders can incorporate general assumptions and perspectives into these discussions with relatively few problems, while they do not compare the different perspectives with each other. Tensions between these perspectives are, therefore, not made visible.
The practice of work-integrated learning (WIL) is rightly viewed as being important in the development of career ready students with identifiable graduate capabilities. Important also is its role in achieving the high level goals pertaining to positive social equity and economic outcomes through the development of lifelong learning outcomes. The value of WIL programs in these terms, however, remain difficult to quantify due to two major factors. The first factor is the difficulty associated with defining WIL and in identifying its learning value and form. The literature and practice highlights this as it accepts WIL as an ideal type; this has created difficulties for universities to quality assure and develop professional learning programs. The second factor, is the difficulty measuring the contribution of WIL to graduate capabilities. In response, this paper proposes the development not of a definition of WIL but rather of a meta-competency test for WIL.
This study examines the effect of cooperative education, controlling for contextual support and demographic characteristics, on three dimensions of self-efficacy change: work, career, and academic. Of the three forms of self-efficacy, work self-efficacy was found to be the one efficacy form impacted by cooperative education. Since self-efficacy is shaped by performance accomplishments, student success in their co-op jobs appears to enhance their confidence in performing a variety of behaviors that are particular to handling the requirements of the workplace. Change in work self-efficacy was also affected by change in students’ confidence in their career orientation. This study claims to open up the so-called “black box of co-op” to articulate the practices and behaviors of cooperative education that shape its contribution to the undergraduate experience.
Boundary spanning links organisations to one another in order to create mutually beneficial relationships; it is a concept developed and used in organisational theory but rarely used to understand organisational structures in higher education (Pruitt & Schwartz, 1999). Yet understanding boundary spanning activity has the capacity to help universities respond to demands for continuous quality improvement, and to increase capacity to react to environmental uncertainty. At a time of rapid change characterised by a fluctuating economic environment, globalisation, increased mobility, and ecological issues, boundary spanning could be viewed as a key element in assisting institutions in effectively understanding and responding to such change. The literature suggests that effective boundary spanning could help universities improve organisational performance, use of infrastructure and resources, intergroup relations, leadership styles, performance and levels of job satisfaction, technology transfer, knowledge creation, and feedback processes, amongst other things. Our research aims to put a face on boundary spanning (Miller, 2008) by contextualising it within organisational systems and structures in university departments responsible for work related programs i.e. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and Co-operative Education (Co-op). In this paper these approaches are referred to collectively as work related programs. The authors formed a research team in Victoria, British Columbia in 2009 at a sponsored international research forum, Two Days in June. The purpose of the invitation-only forum was to investigate commonalities and differences across programs and to formulate an international research agenda for work related programs over the next five to ten years. Researchers from Queensland University of Technology, University of Cincinnati, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, University of Ottawa,and Dublin City University agreed that further research was needed into the impact stakeholders, organisational systems, structures, policies, and practices have on departments delivering work related programs. This paper illustrates how policy and practice across the five institutions can be better understood through the lens of boundary spanning. It is argued that boundary spanning is an area of theory and practice with great applicability to a better understanding of the activity of these departments. The paper concludes by proposing topics for future research to examine how boundary spanning can be used to better understand practice and change in work related programs.
The power of information technology is pervasive in all aspects of modern society, however, according to the author what this trend reflects is a fundamental aspect of the human condition: the natural power of engagement. People want to be connected with people, ideas, and knowledge through unlimited community engagement at home, in the workplace, locally, globally and continually. Technologies are, in fact, tools of engagement inside the workplace among employees, between universities and corporations, and across the globe. Indeed, the concept of engagement may be defined across a variety of contexts and organisations. This commentary examines engagement as it relates to the changing corporate-university partnership and what factors will be essential for the future. Underlying this concept of engagement is the premise that learning is lifelong, occurs in diverse ways, locations, and media, and that work-integrated learning (WIL) is simply the predecessor for learning-integrated work that continues throughout one's professional life. The synergy and potential for learning-integrated work (LIW), however, will be dependent upon a revisioning of employer-university engagement.
This article describes a three-sector, national research project that investigated the integration aspect of work-integrated learning (WIL). The context for this study is three sectors of New Zealand higher education: business and management, sport, and science and engineering, and a cohort of higher educational institutions that offer WIL/cooperative education in variety of ways. The aims of this study were to investigate the pedagogical approaches in WIL programs that are currently used by WIL practitioners in terms of learning, and the integration of academic-workplace learning. The research constituted a series of collective case studies, and there were two main data sources � interviews with three stakeholder groups (namely employers, students, and co-op practitioners), and analyses of relevant documentation (e.g., course/paper outlines, assignments on reflective practice, portfolio of learning, etc.). The research findings suggest that there is no consistent mechanism by which placement coordinators, off-campus supervisors, or mentors seek to employ or develop pedagogies to foster learning and the integration of knowledge. Learning, it seems, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation with off-campus learning occurring as a result of students working alongside professionals in their area via an apprenticeship model of learning. There is no evidence of explicit attempts to integrate on- and off-campus learning, although all parties felt this would and should occur. However, integration is implicitly or indirectly fostered by a variety of means such as the use of reflective journals.
The study tests the impact of an undergraduate business degree with significant Work Integrated Learning (WIL) components on student satisfaction, self-efficacy, and generic skills development compared to students undertaking a traditional business degree. The article adopts a longitudinal survey methodology of two sample groups: A control group studying a traditional business degree (Control Group); and a group of students enrolled in the WIL business degree (PD Students). The survey instrument, which contained self-reported Likert scale measures of self-efficacy, generic skills, and satisfaction, was administered at the beginning of the students' first, second, and third year of study. We find that the WIL business degree has had a positive influence in terms of student satisfaction, self-efficacy, and generic skills development and these measures are more pronounced than students completing the traditional business degree. The study extends the research on generic skills in business education and supports empirical evidence of WIL as a method of achieving greater student satisfaction with their academic experience, enhancing student self-efficacy, and developing students' generic skills. Despite its resourcing issues, this study provides initial evidence to support further investment by higher education and industry in WIL activities within accounting education.
Work integrated learning (WIL) is mostly discussed as an educa¬tional approach that requires students to leave school and enter work practice. There are, however, other conceptions of WIL that also include transfer of experiences from the workplace to the classroom. It can be argued, therefore, that WIL, seen as a pedagogical philosophy and not only as a way of organizing education, must also affect and influence instructional design in the classroom. One common way of implementing WIL in higher education is through case studies and case teaching. The author believes that in order to advance the case method in general, and as a vehicle for WIL-related instruction in particular, it is necessary to look at the case method in relation to different perspectives on learning and knowledge. He also believes that it is necessary to relate it to research that focuses on the transition of knowledge from education to working life. Furthermore, he would like to initiate a theoretical discussion of the implications for case design that are raised by WIL as a pedagogical philosophy. Such a discussion involves the relation between theory and practice where the notions of context, authenticity and transferability of experiences are especially relevant. This paper is intended as an initial effort to outline what such an approach might entail and how the praxis of both the case method and of WIL could benefit from a firmer grounding in the pedagogical perspectives and research of today.
In higher education for professions, there still seems to be an inherent problem regarding how to integrate academic studies with practical training. There are reasons to highlight the problems for ...
As is the practice in many professional degree programs now, students spend time on placement as part of their learning experience, and while doing so are required to engage in reflective practice. The case study presented here details the experience of youth work students at a university in Australia who have been writing reflective online journals while on field education. The journals provide a space in which students document events which include those that have been both positive and harmful and distressing. This study provides a snapshot of their encounters of incidents which include violence, sexual harassment, malpractice and absent supervisors. I consider the implications of these revelations for field education and make recommendations about how we can secure the delivery of good work integrated learning (WIL) in universities. This article will be of interest to educators of human service practitioners, applied ethics, the law and student well-being.
This paper seeks to understand further the processes of learning arising from students' experiences in both education and workplace settings and proposes implications for cooperative education. It emphasises the significance of individuals' experiencing cooperative education across both workplaces and educational institutions. Using case studies of individuals' learning throughout working life and school students' engagement in reflecting on paid work, the interdependence between the personal and social contributions of this learning is elaborated. That is, how workplaces and educational institutions afford opportunities for participation and learning, and how individuals elect to engage with what is afforded them in and across these settings. Therefore, it is necessary to account for the imperatives of both settings (i.e. their intentions and enactments) in seeking to integrate contributions of educational institutions and workplaces, and how individuals' personal histories or ontogenies shape what they experience, engage with and learn. Yet, without accounting for how individuals engage with what is afforded them in cooperative education programs, its goals for securing rich learning may remain unfulfilled.
Sport and recreation students are in an ideal position to utilize an action learning approach to projects that are undertaken as part of their cooperative education experience. Action learning incorporates identifying a problem, integrating theory, determining action, and implementing and evaluating that action. This paper discusses the theoretical basis of action
Cooperative education gives students the opportunity to observe important interpersonal skills while applying their technical knowledge. Eighty students on their second and third coop work terms described communication incidents in face-to-face, mobile text, and mobile voice situations perceived to have shaped relationships with their managers. Richness is provided by a qualitative analysis that asks students to express their feelings about how they are talked to by their supervisors. Results identify some apparent themes with respect to the use of message content and tone, media selection and message timing. They also show that students appear to value face-to-face communication and reveal that social extra-role relationships are important to student feelings of self-efficacy and attributions of manager effectiveness. These connections may form the basis for student development of their own communication styles. The results lead to suggestions of how to make the learning of communication skills more tangible within coop programs.
