Cooperative education in outdoor education

Abstract

********** Cooperative education is a structured experiential educational strategy integrating classroom studies with learning, through productive work experiences in a field related to a student's academic or career goals (National Commission for Cooperative Education, 2008). In tertiary education other terminology used for similar educational strategies is, for example, practicum, internship, field experience and work integrated learning (WIL). The focus of this paper will consider cooperative education in the context of full-time undergraduate outdoor education students undertaking a work placement as part of their programme of study. Cooperative education involves collaboration between the student, tertiary education institution (TEI), and workplace to enhance the employability of graduates through the development of generic and specific skills (Coll, 1996; Coll & Eames, 2004). The theoretical underpinning of the structure of cooperative education originates from John Dewey's (1889-1952) views on the significance of experience for learning. Dewey (1938) suggested that learning occurs as a result of problem solving in authentic environments faced by the learner, where education is the changing of behaviours through experience. However, he was realistic in that he did not believe that all experiences are generally or equally educative. He argued that education requires thinking and reflection guided by educators. Similar characteristics define the pedagogical approach of cooperative education, and include the requirement for sustained periods where students are engaged in the workplace where theory can be integrated with practice. Clear learning goals, linked to the curriculum, are also defined and student learning is supported through appropriate industry and academic supervision. Cates and Jones (1999) support the notion that the most relevant learning theory for cooperative education is Kolb's (1984) experiential learning model; although recent discussion in the outdoor education literature (Brown, 2009; Seaman, 2008) has argued that this is more an ideology rather than theory. Experiential learning theory needs to emphasise the links between cognition and the view that learning is an active process that is built around multiple experiences with serious consideration of the social and cultural context (Brookes, 2003; Brown, 2009). The experiential component is enhanced in cooperative education by the development of reflective practice (Schon, 1983, 1987, 1991). Reflection can be described as a response in which "people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it" (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985, p. 19). Reflective practice can become educative through transforming experience and theory into knowledge (Roberts, 2002), resulting in transfer of learning (Macaulay, 2000). Recently there has been a focus on learning theories related to the social and cultural environment of the workplace in an attempt to explain the nature of learning within the outdoor (Brown, 2009; Seaman, 2008) and cooperative education (Eames & Bell, 2005) contexts. Bandura's (1977) social learning theory suggests that cooperative education students may learn not only from their own actions but also through the actions of others. Situated learning theories focus on the relationship between learning and the social contexts where learning occurs. Learning is seen as a situated participatory activity (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1995). Rogoff's (1995) views are that individuals change "through their involvement in an activity and in the process become prepared for subsequent involvement in related activities" (p. 142). Lave and Wenger (1991) suggest that learning occurs through experiencing the activities and cultural norms of the discipline. When cooperative education students arrive at a workplace they enter a community of practice, which requires them to undergo a process of enculturation into the professional environment. …