A conceptual framework for the teaching and learning of generic graduate attributes

Abstract

In recent years universities have attempted to articulate the generic outcomes of the educational experiences they provide, beyond the content knowledge that is taught. These outcomes have come to be known as generic skills or generic graduate attributes in Australia, although they are also referred to by a range of other terms. Akin to some aspects of a mission statement, universities have claimed that these are the core outcomes of higher education and that every graduate of every degree will possess these. A recent phenomenographic investigation into academics' conceptions of these generic attributes revealed that, far from a shared understanding of such attributes as core outcomes, academics hold a variety of disparate understandings of the nature of generic attributes and their place amongst the outcomes of a university education. This variation is described in the Conceptions of Generic Attributes model. The present article extends this model by considering the way academics understand the teaching and learning of such attributes. The various pedagogical intentions and understandings identified in the present analysis are related to the conceptions of graduate attribute outcomes reported in the earlier study. The relationships between these two aspects of academics' understandings of generic attributes (what it is that is taught/learnt and how it is taught/learnt) are seen to be internally consistent. The conceptions identified in this analysis provide a way of making sense of the range of curricula approaches reported in the literature. Moreover, these integrated conceptions of generic graduate attributes provide a tool to support current attempts to implement systematic curriculum reform in universities.