Approaches to supervising work-based learning students’ workplace research
Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning
ISSN: 2042-3896
Article publication date: 11 February 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline a small research project designed to explore the practices of the UK work-based learning (WBL) tutors in facilitating formal research projects in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a short questionnaire to practitioners administered electronically and a daylong workshop where issues were discussed in greater depth by participating tutors.
Findings
The main findings are that there is a degree of agreement by WBL tutors about the distinctiveness of WBL research projects; that although there is increasing use of technology to support delivery only one institution is using e-learning as the principal means of delivery; emphasis is upon a relatively small number of techniques and there is a strong preference for qualitative over quantitative methods.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the study is the relatively small number of active participants. However, this is the only study of its kind and the results offer insights into an important element of pedagogic practice in WBL.
Practical implications
The project enabled the identification of common approaches and facilitated discussion of problems shared by WBL tutors across the field. There appears to be a consensus that situated investigation exists within a different contextual framework to traditional academic dissertation projects and that the focus is therefore necessarily on generating data as the basis for active problem solving.
Originality/value
This is the only empirical study of practice in respect of facilitating research projects on WBL programmes in higher education.
Keywords
Citation
Talbot, J. and Lilley, A. (2014), "Approaches to supervising work-based learning students’ workplace research", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 44-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-08-2012-0032
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited