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1 – 10 of over 8000The chapter evaluates the value of practice-based teaching and learning on a UK postgraduate unit and describes the development of conceptual models for the student practice-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter evaluates the value of practice-based teaching and learning on a UK postgraduate unit and describes the development of conceptual models for the student practice-based experience.
Methodology/approach
Student experience is explored through the use of an in-depth case study. Student understanding is explored through an exit survey of students.
Findings
Student experience of the unit was positive and negative. Positive experiences stem from good client communications, a motivated student team, and the buzz of a real project. Positive experiences appear to lead to a perception of pride in outcomes and personal transferrable skills. Negative experiences stem from the lack of life experience, language difficulties, client unavailability, lack of subject knowledge, and literature gaps which left students feeling ill-equipped to deal with the international group context. Negative experiences lead to stress and poor group development.
Research limitations
The study is based on a single simple case. The methodology has sought to reduce problems with internal validity and bias. The data collection and analysis methods are repeatable and we encourage other academics to test our conceptual models and conclusions.
Originality/value
Conceptual models for positive and negative experience are proposed.
The study suggests there is a balance to be sought between providing a positive student experience and practical learning. Practice-based learning adds significant value to the student in terms of improved understanding of hard and soft tools, but may need to be based upon positive and negative experience.
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The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based learning and how such occasions contribute to professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces the cooperation project between Tibro Training Centre and Furniture Technology Centre Trust and its workshop context organized as practice-based learning. Participants’ learning context consisted of a mixture of professional practices allowing different logics and different cultures make up an innovative working site. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data suggests that three phenomenographic hierarchical categories constitute the learning process: getting a recognized professional identity; perceiving new elements and expanding knowledge and seeing new aspects of design work and new steps of development in profession.
Findings
Cooperative practice-based learning is understood as social practice in a community of practice, and as continuous changes of the learning object due to that new aspects are discerned by the learners. These categories illustrate how participants’ meaning making and understanding of the learning object were expressed in cooperation as doings and sayings, as translation and as situated activities in a community of practice. Accordingly, it contributed to participants’ professional development in spite of their different professional educations and professional experiences.
Practical implications
More studies of practice-based learning environments in work places are needed that could help societies and companies to advance integrative efforts of new employees and new immigrants into an increasingly diverse globalized labour market.
Originality/value
The results suggest that understanding as well as content structure and meaning making of the learning object are intertwined constituent aspects of practice-based learning.
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Margaret Harris, Colin Chisholm and George Burns
The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual viewpoint which proposes the use of the post graduate Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) approach to learning in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual viewpoint which proposes the use of the post graduate Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) approach to learning in undergraduate education and practice‐based training.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an examination of the KTP approach and how this could be used effectively in undergraduate education and training to encourage and increase practice‐based learning and employer engagement. The methodology consists of a literature review, and a case study of the KTP approach. The literature reviewed examines the KTP approach, employer engagement in education and strategic government approaches to stimulate investment in knowledge and skills for workforce development, and the development of practice‐based learning in the UK. The KTP provides a case study to illustrate a successful model of employer engagement, which benefits all parties to it, and assists with the strategic development required by successive governments.
Findings
The suggestions are based on the authors’ investigation and their understanding and experience of: the KTP approach; practice‐based learning; undergraduate education; and learning and teaching approaches. The paper suggests that the KTP approach (normally a post‐graduate model) could be extended to undergraduate education to provide sustainable practice‐based learning that fits well with the strategies and ideologies of government, employers and academia.
Practical implications
Barriers to employer and academic engagement, such as that linked to the confused terminology used to describe practice‐based learning, and competing political ideologies, should be researched further to gain a better understanding of how to mitigate these in order to make the KTP approach in undergraduate education successful. The implications are that synergistic development of the KTP approach in an increased range of academic and workplace partnerships needs to be done before a fully tested model could be agreed.
Originality/value
The originality is the idea of utilising a well acknowledged post‐graduate model of learning within an undergraduate environment. The value is to increase the awareness of the benefits of the KTP and how the approach could be adapted for use in undergraduate environments for the eventual benefit of students, academics, employers and policy makers.
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Per Nilsen, Gunilla Nordström and Per‐Erik Ellström
This paper seeks to present a theoretical framework with the aim of contributing to improved understanding of how reflection can provide a mechanism to integrate research‐based…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to present a theoretical framework with the aim of contributing to improved understanding of how reflection can provide a mechanism to integrate research‐based knowledge with the pre‐existing practice‐based knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins with an explanation of important concepts: research‐based and practice‐based knowledge, four levels of action and two modes of learning. Two mini cases concerning managers in the public sector in Sweden then provide an illustration of how research‐based knowledge can be utilized to challenge practice‐based knowledge. The concluding discussion addresses some of the challenges involved in achieving reflection in the workplace that utilizes research‐based knowledge.
Findings
The reflection programmes had several characteristics that facilitated their implementation: they achieved a balance between the workplace demands on the participating managers and time required for the reflection; the participants were specifically recruited, had full management support and were highly motivated to be part of the reflection groups; the facilitators played key roles in structuring the managers' discussions and linking their experiences to relevant research‐based knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
Methodological limitations of the cases constrain the conclusions to be drawn from these studies. However, it should be emphasized that the case studies were intended primarily as illustrations of how workplace reflection can be used to integrate research‐based and practice‐based knowledge. Obviously, there is a risk of social desirability bias because the interviewer was also involved in developing and implementing the reflection programmes. She also participated as a supervisor in mini case 2.
Originality/value
The literature on reflection has largely focused on reflection in the context of education, training and preparing for work or a profession. The role of workplace reflection and learning for practitioners and managers in work has received far less attention. The emergence of the evidence‐based practice (EBP) agenda has further highlighted the importance of workplace learning and reflection, as practitioners are increasingly expected to critically appraise research studies and integrate new findings into their practice. A more EBP requires reflecting practitioners who are able to synthesize research‐based knowledge with their own practice‐based knowledge acquired through experience. However, the process of integrating research‐based and practice‐based knowledge has not been the focus of much study.
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Beverley Slater and Jacquie White
This paper describes the first year of a national programme supporting implementation of one of the key policy initiatives forming part of the programme of health reform in…
Abstract
This paper describes the first year of a national programme supporting implementation of one of the key policy initiatives forming part of the programme of health reform in England, practice‐based commissioning (PBC). The paper presents an audit of service redesign initiatives based on the first six months' work of 27 sites in the first wave of the programme, and discusses the early practical learning about the implementation of PBC by both participants and stakeholders. The role of the programme in facilitating two‐way links between policy development and practical implementation is highlighted, and the development of the programme, and other parallel learning routes, to meet the emerging needs of particular groups in relation to practice‐based commissioning is described.
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Ivana Rihova, Miguel Moital, Dimitrios Buhalis and Mary-Beth Gouthro
This paper aims to explore and evaluate practice-based segmentation as an alternative conceptual segmentation perspective that acknowledges the active role of consumers as value…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore and evaluate practice-based segmentation as an alternative conceptual segmentation perspective that acknowledges the active role of consumers as value co-creators.
Design/methodology/approach
Data comprising various aspects of customer-to-customer (C2C) co-creation practices of festival visitors were collected across five UK-based festivals, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with naturally occurring social units (individuals, couples and groups). Data were analysed using a qualitative thematic analysis procedure within QSR NVivo 10.
Findings
Private, sociable, tribal and communing practice segments are identified and profiled, using the interplay of specific subject- and situation-specific practice elements to highlight the “minimum” conditions for each C2C co-creation practice. Unlike traditional segments, practice segment membership is shown to be fluid and overlapping, with fragmented consumers moving across different practice segments throughout their festival experience according to what makes most sense at a given time.
Research limitations/implications
Although practice-based segmentation is studied in the relatively limited context of C2C co-creation practices at festivals, the paper illustrates how this approach could be operationalised in the initial qualitative stages of segmentation research. By identifying how the interplay of subject- and situation-specific practice elements affects performance of practices, managers can facilitate relevant practice-based segments, leading to more sustainable business.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to segmentation literature by empirically demonstrating the feasibility of practice-based segments and by evaluating the use of practice-based segmentation on a strategic, procedural and operational level. Possible methodological solutions for future research are offered.
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Dorotea Ottaviani, Cecilia De Marinis and Alice Buoli
The paper investigates the pivotal role of storytelling as a pedagogical tool in tertiary education, specifically in the context of the practice-based doctoral framework in design…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper investigates the pivotal role of storytelling as a pedagogical tool in tertiary education, specifically in the context of the practice-based doctoral framework in design disciplines. In such a doctoral model, storytelling assumes different meanings and nuances that open to a study in relation to the self-reflective process at the core of the learning paradigm.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology integrates a qualitative and participatory approach with visual and design-based methods through which the authors interact with primary sources (the body of work of PhD candidates) and relevant research literature.
Findings
Drawing on the expanding field of creative practice research, the research work evidences the emergence of storytelling as a research method and learning tool applied at different levels of the candidates' Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) journey and provides methodological insights into the practice-based doctoral training paradigm.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates the role of storytelling as a learning tool and evidences the multiple levels that storytelling assumes over the course of a practice-based doctoral journey, integrating processual, operational and contextual dimensions.
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Briga Hynes, Yvonne Costin and Naomi Birdthistle
The purpose of this paper is to propose a practice‐based entrepreneurship education programme which enhances collaboration between educational institutions and the small business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a practice‐based entrepreneurship education programme which enhances collaboration between educational institutions and the small business community as a means of producing a more employable, well rounded and skilled graduates.
Design/methodology/approach
A case description of the business consulting programme operated at the University of Limerick.
Findings
The findings highlight how a practice‐based learning module brings real business learning into the classroom and simultaneously attends to the needs of different internal and external stakeholders by producing a more flexible and employable professional graduate. Furthermore, it creates a more meaningful relationship between education institutions (knowledge producers) and industry (knowledge users).
Research limitations/implications
Educators need to evaluate the benefits of practice‐based learning programmes from the external stakeholder perspective as a basis of identifying more innovative practice‐based learning options.
Originality/value
The paper draws attention to the need for, and suggestions on how educational institutions can be more outward focussed and responsive to the needs of industry when designing educational programmes.
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Kallaya Jairak, Prasong Praneetpolgrang and Pilastpongs Subsermsri
The purpose of this paper is to develop a formal set of information technology (IT) governance practices based on sufficiency economy philosophy (SEP) to support the generic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a formal set of information technology (IT) governance practices based on sufficiency economy philosophy (SEP) to support the generic context for Thai universities.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology in this study is divided into two main phases that are conceptualization and operationalization. In the phase of conceptualization, the authors reviewed literature related to the implementation of IT governance in universities and the principles of SEP in order to conceptualize an initial idea of IT governance on the basis of SEP. In the phase of operationalization, the authors performed in-depth interviews with the CIOs of 20 universities, five IT experts, and five SEP experts in order to verify the proposed concept.
Findings
This study provides two key findings: the IT governance practices based on SEP for Thai universities and the mapping of IT governance practices based on SEP with ISO/IEC 38500.
Practical implications
The total of 65 practices presented in this study can be used as a guideline for handling of IT governance issues in Thai universities.
Originality/value
This study provides university IT governance practices based on the principles of SEP that is widely accepted and highly appreciated in Thailand.
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The paper aims to provide an overview of the vocabulary for materiality which is used by practice‐based approaches to organizational knowing.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to provide an overview of the vocabulary for materiality which is used by practice‐based approaches to organizational knowing.
Design/methodology/approach
The overview is theoretically generated and is based on the anthology Knowing in Organizations: A Practice‐based Approach edited by Nicolini, Gherardi and Yanow. The overview is built by cross‐reading the analyses in this book. The intellectual traditions which are scrutinized all agree that action is materially embedded – objects and artifacts are central to both knowing and learning. But what is their understanding of materiality? The paper explores which concepts are used, how the interaction between social and material realities is presented, and the role materiality is perceived to have in relation to action.
Findings
Findings are that, within the practice‐based approach, common terms for materiality are “artifact” and “object”. The interaction between social and material realities is grasped as several processes: object‐oriented activity, symbolization, embodiment, performance, alignment and mediation. Material artifacts both stabilize and destabilize organizational action. They may ensure coordination, communication, and control, but they may also create disturbance and conflict.
Originality/value
The paper lists a range of options for conceptualizing how organizational action may be materially mediated. It points out that material entities may both stabilize and destabilize organizational action. It contributes to the further understanding of the tangible, artifactual and object‐related side of organizational knowing.
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