Bridging theorypractice gap in professional education Lisbeth Haastrup

Bridging theory-practice gap in professional education Lisbeth Haastrup. Institute of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Problem • Changing and different completing/retention rates in danish professional educations programs • Longer education than estimated especially for teacher students • Drop out rate highest at the first internship period

Completing rate for the four programs in focus 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 2001 Pædagoger 2002 2003 Sygeplejersker 2004 Lærerer 2005 2006 2007 Bygningskonstruktører 2008 Ingeniører 2009

Research project and partners • 4 -year (2009 -12) project financed by Danish Council for Strategic Research. • Institute of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark • KORA. The National Institute for Municipalities and Regions Analysis and Research • University College Copenhagen, UCC • Engineering College, University of Aarhus,

New demands actualize theorypractice as a problem • Theorethical academic demands are increased. • “Professionsbachelor reform” 2001, admission to further academic education. • Centralized University Colleges including most programs. • Internship tend from periods of waged internship, toward a subject like others in the program. • Demands on study-activities, analytical distance and theoretical reflection during the internship.

Bridging the gap between theory and practice - an old and a new qustion 6

Bridging what? • Bridging as metaphor is designating a difference but also a necessary relation in professional education between: • Theory and practice • University colleges and internship workplace • Positions in education - student, teacher, supervisor • Education and professional work

Research questions 1. How is theory-practice relations and the students drop out connected in professional education programs? 2. How is bridging understood and done in different professional educational programs? 3. What kind of bridges could be built to improve coherence, learning and minimize retention?

Project design 2009 -2012: • Identify connections between retentions and student experienced coherence between theory and practice • Benchmark analysis: constructing indicators for the colleges performance of coherence Quantitative between theory and practice in relation to drop out Qualitative Intervention • Fieldwork; observations, interviews at 8 colleges, 1 heigh/1 low score • Following students before, under and after their forst internship • Investigations of theory-practice interventions • Surprising practices an intervention for teachers.

Four programmes in focus Program Faculty Employment Size Pre-school teacher Peadagogic Public sector Nr. 1 Teacher Peadagogic Public sector Nr. 2 Nurse Health Public sector Nr. 3 Ingeneer Technique Privat sector Nr. 5

Organisation of four programmes Program Length of education Internships part of education Internship in the program Pre-school teacher 3 ½ years 1, 25 year 1 x 10 weeks + 2 x ½ year waged Teacher 4 years 0, 6 1 x each year Nurse 3 ½ years 1, 5 Integrated in the half of 14 moduls Ingeneer 3 ½ years 0, 5 1 x ½ year, waged, at third year

Qualitative subproject Methode Informants Numbers Datacollection Observation Students Lectures Intern-supervisors 2 school classes 2 -6 2 -8 on 2 X 4 university colleges 2010 -2011 Before, under and after the students first internship Interviews Students Lecturers Internshipsupervisors 6 -10 2 -6 2 -8 2010 -2011 Before, under and after the students first internship Document analysis The Ministry of National and local education University-colleges 2 X 4 programmes Internship institutions 2009 -2013

Theoretical perspectives • • Cultural analysis Programme coherence Processes in time and space Relations between students, teachers and supervisors

Model Logos Theory Topos Place of education Professional education Practice Place of internship

Model of students processes in education programs Logos Theory Topos Place of education Student Practice Place of internship

The students processes in and out the professional education: • 1. Bridging between high school and professional education, between pupil and student. • 2. Bridging between place of education and place of internship and the two places expectations and standards. • 3. Bridging between being a student and an employed at the place of internship • 4. Bridging between professional education and future professional practice, from student to professional employed.

Drop out or hang on situations in the proces • Every bridging process involves drop out/hang on decisions. • Every bridging process involves experiences about both TOPOS and LOGOS • Every bridging process are a possibility for learning

Model of students processes in programs Logos Theory Topos Lecturers, leaders, managers, politicians Education program Practice Internship supervisor, professional employeed, leaders, managers, politicians Pupils, users, patients

Inclusion and exclusion • Alternating periods of theoretical study at school or university with periods of practical training provoke and promote both drop out and hang on. • Asigned or applyed internship does a difference for the students motivation and conditions at the workplace. • High demands for admission to and completing the program are a way to strenghten a programme and a professional identity and status. • Low demands for admission and low selection are a way to weeken a programme and a professional identity and status.

Contradictions? Contradiction between goals for: • High number of students in professional education programs • High completing rate • Completing at the expected time • High quality of programmes • High quality of student competences • High status of professions

Theory-practice conceptions • Different theory-pratices concepts and relations intertwinned • Connected in a complex way to: • Place • Situation • Position • Subject matter

Four models of theory an practice according to Estelle R. Jorgensen (2005) Relations Boudaries Ontology Metodology Models Dichotomy Hard boundaries Dualism Descriptiv T | P Polarity Soft boundaries Polarity Descriptiv T<--->P Normativ (T+P) Descriptiv and normativ T->-<-P Fusion No boundaries Holism Dialectical Exchanging boundaries Epistemology

An example • Skill- lap situation at college in a nurse programme • Before first internship

”Underviserne markerer overgangen til færdighedslaboratoriet meget klart og introducerer de regler, der gælder for påklædning, hygiejne og opførsel i klinikken. De studerende skal bære kittel og have håret samlet med elastik, ellers kan de ikke komme ind i færdighedslab. Ved observation af undervisning i færdighedslaboratoriet blev holdet delt i tre med 5 studerende med hver sin underviser. De studerende skal på skift agere sygeplejerske og en patient, der skal sengebades. Dette rollespil, de studerende imellem, giver anledning til megen morskab, og ind imellem har de mulighed for at gå ud af rollerne og tale til hinanden som studerende. ”

Tre undervisere – tre forhold mellem teori og praksis 1. ”Den første underviser, som også er klinisk vejleder for nogle af de studerende i praktik, giver konkrete praktiske instrukser, om hvordan vaskekluden skal foldes og holdes, ”nu skal du gøre sådan”. 2. Den anden viser og forklarer ”hvordan man skal gøre” og at det kan gøres forskelligt, bare man overholder de grundlæggende hygiejneprincipper. Hun observerer, kommenterer og giver gode råd.

Tre undervisere – tre forhold mellem teori og praksis 3. Den tredje vejleder spørger ”hvorfor gør du sådan” og ”hvad kan der ske hvis du gør sådan” og prøver at inddrage elementer fra klasseundervisningen. Da de kommer til vask af benene, siger hun ”nu skal I bruge alt hvad I har lært i fysiologi” Hun opfordrer dem til at undersøge benet. ”Hvad ser du ved benet? ” Den studerende ser først ikke noget, men vejlederen spørger til udseende, huden og temperaturen, og guider dem videre til at huske teori om puls og temperatur. De taler om tegn på huden, blodforsyning og en studerende måler puls, mens vejlederen fortæller om pulsen og dens betydning. ”(Observation) 26

Færdighedslab som bridging ”(…jeg synes færdighedslab er helt vildt godt(…)jeg synes i starten når man fik alt der anatomi og fysiologi, jeg tænkte bare. Det er der jo ingen der kan huske, alt der, hvad skal vi bruge det til, men hvor man, da man så kommer i færdighedslab, får man bare koblet det hele sammen. (…) (Interview med studerende).

Point • Alternating and reflected theory-practice conceptions and practice in the program as such, provoke and promote learning and coherence. • Each program has their own specific TOPOS and LOGOS to bridge.

Pre-school teacher program • The Pre-school teacher program are caracterized by general peadagogical and psychological theory combined with activity subjects, towards different target groups. • The preschool-teacher students have long internship periods to “try to be a pre-schoolteacher” in a personal development process with the users. Theory and practice becomes a whole.

Teacher program • The teacher program are characterized by wide limits of the individual professional to choose methods and practicing in her own way in her own class. • Theory may not require or justify a specific practice, but can provide general concepts to reflect with. • The teacher students have a challenge to integrate pedagogical theory with theory of the school subjects and “find their own way of beeing a teacher”.

Nursing program • The nursing program are characterized by theory from both natural science and ethical care. • The students have to perform and practice correct nursing skills by integrating and reflecting theoretically based reasons from both kinds of theory. • Moduls of theoretical education and clinical internship are intertwinned, and supportet by ”skill labs”.

Engineering program • The engineering program are characterized by projectbased problemsolving, using engineering metods. • Theories, methods and models are used in a flexible way dependent on the project, both on campus and at engineering work in companies. • Teamwork and accept of goals and hierarchical relations are expected, and not talked about.

Sammensatte kulturelle praksisser • Forskelle • Sammenfald • Modsætninger • • • 33 Systematiske bud på udfordringer I brobygning: mellem teori og praksis For alle I professionsuddannelserne På institutions- og individniveau Mellem livsformer

Challenges and opportunities for a theory-practice ”didaktik” • Development of didaktikker focused on specific theorypractice conceptions and conditions • Development of program organisations, bridging university colleges and internship workplaces – Defining a ’third learning place and space” • Development of a common language about theory-practice relations for both lecturers and supervisors • Development of a ’meta-didaktik’ concerning theory-practice conceptions and conditions of why and how. 34

“Surprising practices”. • The idea is to inspire lecturers to become more conscious of the implicit assumptions concerning theory and practice in their teaching. • Focus on and discussion of different theory and practice relations, between lecturers inside the same program, and between programs.

New forms of cooperation between university colleges and professional workplaces? ü Possibilites for experiments > no assesment ü Focus on development > not on students adjustment to university or internship culture/TOPOS ü Common project for lecturers, students and professionals. ü Reqruitment to the cooporation with mutual obligations and contributions. 36

En ‘idealtypisk’ model - Undervisere og folkeskolelærere samarbejder om formulering af en problemstilling / et fælles eksperiment som undersøges/udføres i praksis/skolen - Underviseren og de studerende forbereder og bearbejder en fælles undersøgelsen/eksperiment. - Supervisor kan deltage i forberedelse/bearbejdning på uddannelsen - Underviseren og de studerende udfører ‘eksperimentet’/undersøgelsen i praksis i fællesskab i et fælles rum - Samarbejdet udspiller forskellige relationer mellem teori og praksis 37

Perspectives in new forms of bridging ü Mulighed for faglig fokusering / fordybelse i et fagligt område ü Mulighed for at følge og facilitere de studerendes lære- og ‘oversættelsesprocesser’ tæt ü Mulighed for at følge processer på praktikstedet ü Mulighed for styrket forståelse af teori / teoriers brugbarhed ü Mulighed for styrket oplevelse af praksisrelevans ü Mulighed for at skærpe formål og fokus i praktikken? 38

To talk and reflect on theory and practis • Conceptualization, thematization and discussion of different theory- practice conceptions. • Awareness of different conceptions and expectations between teachers, students and internship supervisors. • Awareness of different social- cultural related conceptions and expectations between the four educations and among the students in each of them.

Third learning spaces and common learning places • Establishment of different types of "third learning spaces" between theory and practice, (Skill-labs, teaching-labs, laboratories) • Organization of ”third common learning places” for as well students, teachers and supervisors. • Establishment of reflection-spaces for theorypractice conceptions

Bridging TOPOS and LOGOS as a solution? • • • At an individual level: For students completing education For better learning processes For better professional competences For better academic competences • At an institutional level: • For efficient and transparent organizational structures and cooperation between institutions • For development of programs and professions and new relations between students, college lecturers and supervisors.

Coherences • Biographical coherence: • Surveydata • Lifehistory interviews • Programme coherence in-school and between school and internship: • Surveydata • Observations • Interviews • Transitional coherence. Future focused interviews, interventions.