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Developing the professional curriculum: looking both ways with practice knowledge and theory

Dr. Richard Pountney

Social Realism Symposium2nd July 2015

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Outline

1. Review the curricular and pedagogic development of professional courses and the importance of the professional context

2. Identify issues associated with the role, effects and implications of work-related learning in education

3. Examine the formation of specialist knowledge and expertise and a reflection on the ‘know-how’ and ‘know-what’ in professional contexts

4. Reflect on the need for knowledge building in professional /vocational fields and how to investigate it

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The sociology of professional knowledge

• ‘The construction of the inner was a guarantee of the construction of the outer. In this we find the origin of the professions’ (Bernstein, 2000: 85)

• Professional knowledge is both ‘theoretical’ (general and unvarying) and practical (purposive and contextual)

• About doing things but doing things in complex ways that cannot rely on experience alone (Young and Muller, 2014)

• Professional practice is always in a context, with a purpose and relates to specific occupations

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Regions, singulars and fields of practice

• Singulars: which represent knowledge relations (or structures) oriented to inwardness – the rules, methods and boundaries that define a discipline (e.g. Sociology or physiology)

• Regions: which combine disciplines, selecting, pacing and sequencing knowledge in relation to specific purposes (e.g. Knowledge of muscles in physiotherapy)

• Fields of Practice: the specialised practical contexts in which professionals practice – exercise knowledgeable and reasoned judgements as professionals, by drawing on, often tacitly, their acquired stock of specialised professional knowledge

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Recontextualising professional knowledge

Trish Gibbon, 2014

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Reproduction of (professional) knowledge in the curriculum

Higher education providers [should] have in place effective processes to approve and periodically review the validity and relevance of programmes (QAA, 2011)

Why is it assumed that when we are ‘given’ a course to teach that we know how to write a course outline? Where is it that we ‘learn’ how to do this important piece of pedagogy? What underpins this process? (Millen, 1997: 11)

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PRODUCT PROCESS

INDIVIDUALISED INTERACTIONAL

TRADITIONAL EMERGING

SOCIAL PRACTICE

INTENDED LIVED

HIDDEN OPEN

Curriculum as an idea in practice

Curriculum influences

Organising principles

PEDAGOGIC ACADEMIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

CULTURE SOCIALISATION

QUALITY DISCIPLINE

PLANNING / DESIGN COLLABORATION

ASSESSMENT STUDENTS

EMPLOYABILITY

The emergence of employability

Contextual Conceptual

COHERENCE

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Employability and its effects in the curriculum

• Sustained policy steer (Robbins Report, 1963; Dearing Report, 1997; Leitch Report, 2005).

• Instrumental in curriculum policy (Nixon et al., 2008; Lester and Costly, 2010; Smith, 2012)

• Work-related learning associated with the development of ‘skilful practices in context’ in which academic and work-related achievements are situated in particular contexts (Yorke, 2011: 120) and ‘vocational expertise’ (Billett, 2001).

• requiring a ‘paradigm shift’ in assessment (Gibbs, 2007) to articulate generic statements of learning outcomes to phenomena that are ‘context-dependence, situated or, uncertain and volatile’ (Sadler, 2002: 49).

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Employability knowledge in the curriculum

SHU Education for Employment Strategy • Objective 1: ensure that all students actively engage

with well structured, supported and accredited work-related or work-based learning.;

• Objective 2: embed high-level employability-related transferable ‘skills’ and attributes within the curriculum;

• Objective 3: provide all students at all levels with access to integrated and timetabled career management skills.;

• Objective 4: provide all students at all levels with access to personal development planning (PDP) to support their transition to the world of work

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Semantic Plane

Semantic gravity – the degree to which meaning is dependent on contextSemantic density – the degree to which meanings are condensed within practices(Maton, 2011; Shay, 2013)

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Course Team

Cou.rse Title Level

Objective 1: accredited work-related/work-based learning

Objective 2: development of transferable skills

Objective 3: access to career management skills

Objective 4: personal development planning

Q2: Practical knowledge; practical curricula

C9 Performing ArtsFD Skill for the

Workplace; Professional Roles and Practice; and Performing Arts in Practice modules.

addressed through subject-specific knowledge

Implicit use of institution’s Careers Service

Embedded in Practitioner Skills (I and II) and Performing Arts in Practice. Modules.

Q3: Professional/practice knowledge; professional/vocational curricula

C10 Built Environment

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36 week placement year between levels 5 and 6.

Generic skills listed in programme and module LOs; Professional skills addressed in specific modules for Real Estate, Construction, Surveying etc.)

Timetabled programme of activities focussing on career management skills around the placement taking place between levels 5 and 6

Integrated in modules. Implicit reflection on work and context for autonomous learners

Q4: Theoretical knowledge; applied theory curricula

C8 Applied Social Science

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A choice of 3 modules: Work and Professional Development module (10 credits level 5) and elective 30-credit project-management module or a 50-credit work placement module

Generic skills listed in programme and module LOs; Study skills module

Implicit use of institution’s Careers Service. Professional development modules at levels 5 and 6

Module tutor is academic tutor with specific PDP tasks in level 4 Study Skills modules, and Professional Development modules at levels 5 and 6

12[1] The professional Practice and Placement module was mandatory for Housing students and elective for the other awards in CPT2

Module Course Assessment Tasks

Learning Outcomes Assessment Criteria

Preparing for the world of Work (10 credits)Elective

Criminology Level 5

Reflection (2000 words)

Identify employability skills and practices

Ability to recognise relevant skills and practices necessary to enhance employability

Explain the transferability of skills across a range of different work environments

Ability to consider different ways that key skills and practices can be utilised across a range of settings

Reflect upon their own learning processes within a work related setting

An evaluation of their learning and reflective practice

Professional Practice and Placement(20 credits)Mandatory / elective

Geography, Environment Planning and Housing

Level 5

Performance Appraisal (25%, 1000 words);Reflective Report (75%, 3000 words)

Identify complex problems in real-life situations, and select and apply appropriate techniques and behaviours to solve these problems.

Appropriateness of approaches, practice, techniques and behaviour employed in various workplace situations

Identify objectives and personal responsibilities when working with others, and collaborate effectively in teams.

Self management skills applied in a professional teamwork context.

Reflect on and analyse the values and ethics relating to professional practice in the relevant sector.

Knowledge and understanding of 'values and ethics' and analysis of their role and impact in professional practice.

Reflect on and evaluate their own performance, and plan actions relating to their own continuing professional development needs.

Evidence of reflective practice skills, (including reflection, analysis, insight, planning)

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Cathy’s story: the ‘reversible coat’• Longstanding extra-curricular activity to help students

prepare for interviews and write CV• Curricularised into a module for all:• ‘Suddenly it was part of a module that was on their

timetable and so attendance improved and you were able to get students to actually engage with it much more seriously’

• ‘A lot of students will see that and think ‘I know how to organise myself’

• ‘they give less importance to the developing of these skills than to something with really hard content like Housing Law or Finance’

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Semantic profiles

A – high semantic flatline (theoretical and abstract)B – low semantic flatline (practical and simple)C – semantic wave (weakening and strengthening of context and density and a larger

semantic range)(Maton, 2014)

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Experiential learning

(Maton, 2014)

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A curriculum for professional learning

TELIC Stories and Accounts of Practice (TELIC Research Journal)

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Ways of deepening learning

Increasing the semantic threshold iteratively by strengthening and deepening learning through the increase in conceptual links

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‘Powerful knowledge’ as giving learners access to contexts beyond their experience in order that cumulative knowledge building can take place.

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Conclusion• If we pay attention to the semantic structure

of knowledge we can help students cope with difficult concepts

• This acknowledges that powerful knowledge enables learners to go beyond their contexts

• It enables learners to develop knowledge literacy (the specialised language of the profession and the subject) in order that they can be more effective learners.