Driving Change: Students Shaping and Reshaping Work-Integrated Learning Spaces

Abstract

Abstract Many forms of modern life are united by their fragility, temporary nature, vulnerability, and inclination to constant change (Bauman, 2012). The complex and fluid nature of 21st century society requires expansion of competence and skills focused university curricula. Academic institutions are challenged to rejuvenate curricula to encompass – besides the development of students’ technical and cognitive skills – the development of students’ ability to engage with and drive their own learning, thereby developing graduates who can thrive in a fluid world. Work-integrated learning (WIL) is increasingly being embraced as a possible remedy to answer this call for career-ready graduates (Goulter & Patrick, 2010). Consideration of specific work-integrated learning pedagogies underpinned by situated and workplace-learning theories that privilege student participation in workplace activities is required (Patton, Higgs, & Smith, 2013). The critical contribution of student disposition to the shaping and reshaping of workplace learning spaces and the central position of students in driving – not just receiving – workplace learning must be part of the pedagogical change. Building on my doctoral research that used photo-elicitation techniques to explore physiotherapy students’ learning in clinical workplaces (Patton, 2014), as well as contemporary literature, this chapter introduces visual spaces as a pedagogical strategy to assist students to drive their own unique learning in workplaces.