Encouraging Reflection on Employment Experiences in Aston Business School Placements, Study notes of Business

Download Encouraging Reflection on Employment Experiences in Aston Business School Placements and more Study notes Business in PDF only on Docsity! Encouraging Aston Business School students to reflect on their employment experience Helen Higson and Nicola Bullivant Aston University Encouraging Aston Business School students to reflect on their employment experience Helen Higson and Nicola Bullivant Aston University Summary The purpose behind this case study is to share with a wider audience of placement officers, tutors and those who are involved in the management of placement students or employment of graduates, the approach taken to encourage reflective learning in undergraduate placement students at Aston Business School. Reflective learning forms an important foundation of the placement year at Aston Business School, where a professional placement is a mandatory element of the four year degree, for all Home/EU students (optional for International students) who are taking a Single Honours degree (i.e. a fully business programme). The placement year is not compulsory for those students taking a Combined Honours degree (i.e. a degree where two unrelated subjects are studied), although approximately 50% of those students taking an Aston Business School subject opt to take a placement year. Students spend their year out undertaking a ‘proper’ job within a company or public sector organisation. They are normally paid a reasonable salary for their work (in 2004/5 the average advertised salary was £13,700 per annum). The placement year is assessed, carrying credits which amount to a contribution of 10% towards the students’ final degree. The assessment methods used require the students to submit an academic essay relating theory to practice, a factual report about the company which can be of use to future students, and a log book, the latter being the reflective piece of work. Encouragement to reflect on the placement year has always been an important feature of Aston Business School’s approach to learning. More recently, however, feedback from employers indicated that, although our students have excellent employability skills, “they do not think about them” (Aston Business School Advisory Panel, 2001). We, therefore, began some activities which would encourage students to go beyond the mere acquisition of skills and knowledge. This work became the basis of a programme of introductions to reflective learning, mentoring and awareness of different learning styles written up in Higson and Jones (2002). The idea was to get students used to the idea of reflection on their experiences well before they entered the placement year. Objectives The Aston Business School placement year carries a set of explicit, robust learning objectives: a) To benefit from the integration of University study and work experience in ways which facilitate critical reflection on each; b) To experience the responsibilities, tasks, and relationships involved in managerial work at a level appropriate to a third year undergraduate student in a Business School; c) Where students are specialising in a particular functional or professional area, to gain greater practical understanding of their chosen specialism; The log book requires the students to keep records of their experiences and how these link to their learning, thus developing their ability to be critical and reflective. The structure of the log book is as follows: Section One: Framework Here, the students put together a framework for their placement employment upon its commencement. The students arrange a meeting with their placement supervisor, to discuss and agree a framework for the placement. During this process, they are advised to address, at least, the following basic questions: • What is your role in the organisation? What will this entail? What are your responsibilities? • What are you aiming to achieve? • What personal skills do you wish to develop/gain? • How will your progress be appraised by your supervisor? • What training/learning/development opportunities will be provided? The meeting is then documented by the student, and they and their manager sign this record – this then completes Section One of the log book and sets a framework for the placement year. Section Two: Regular Reflections This section of the log book is written over the course of the placement year, month by month. Students meet with their Placement Supervisors regularly during the placement year – this may be frequently during the early stages (i.e. daily, weekly) and then perhaps less frequently as they settle into their role (but ideally monthly). The meetings should enable the student to: • gain feedback from their Placement Supervisor on their performance • reflect on what they have achieved and how • reflect on any difficulties that they have encountered, highlighting any particular problems or areas of difficulty there might be and agreeing what could be done to resolve these • decide on a course of action for the next stage of the placement, taking into account progress so far Students are advised that such meetings will be more effective for all parties if they prepare for them thoroughly beforehand. The following checklist is provided to assist the process: • reflecting on what you have been doing • how you have done it • identify problems, constraints and opportunities • what went well? • what went badly? • who helped you? • what obstacles did you face? • how did you overcome these? • what have you achieved? • what have you learnt? • do you feel as if your skills have been developed? In what way? • would you change your approach if faced with a similar situation in the future? How? Each meeting is then recorded by the student as a monthly entry in Section Two of the log book. At the end of the placement year, each student’s log book should normally contain 12 entries for Section Two – one for each month of the placement. They may, however, include more entries, if the student or his or her supervisor or tutor thought that more regular meetings were required. Each of the monthly entries should include comments on: • the activities the student has been involved in • reflection on any problems they faced and what action they took to try to resolve the issue • their learning – they should also reflect on the skills and knowledge gained, and any personal development from the experiences • an outline of their objectives for the next month • the supervisor’s signature, comments , if appropriate and the date • their signature and date Students are encouraged to include additional entries. For example, if the placement company has an appraisal process, the reports or documents from appraisal meetings could be incorporated into the log book as these are complementary reflective processes. Reflection is often highly personal and students are advised that they may write about a particular event or learning situation for a second time, perhaps at a later date, after their supervisor has signed off the original entry for that month. Students are reassured that this is acceptable in those situations where they wish to write very openly and honestly – perhaps about a personal situation or an event involving the supervisor, for example. In these circumstances, students are encouraged to submit both the original signed entry and the second version. Section Three: Summary The final section of the log book is a summary of what the students feel they have individually gained from the placement in terms of skills, new learning, knowledge, experience, training, etc. This is the overall, holistic reflection on their placement – what have they learnt? How have they developed as a person? What skills have they gained? How have they developed as a student? They evaluate their performance against the objectives outlined in Section One and are asked to reflect on whether these objectives were met. Did they develop further than anticipated? We encourage the students not to worry if they did not meet all of the aims and objectives they set out to achieve in Section One; they are not penalised when the summary is reviewed by a tutor, but we do ask them to reflect on and comment upon why they did not meet these goals. We give students examples of this kind of development: • You may find that you can now quite happily deal with a task which would have worried you at the outset of your placement. (Answering queries over the telephone perhaps.) How do you think you acquired this new-found confidence or expertise? • Think of a mistake you made in your work or a situation that did not go to plan. Having the advantage of hindsight, how would you react to a similar situation now? What has this experience taught you? • Have you encountered an especially difficult or tricky situation or experience at work? How did you cope with it? What was the outcome? What did this experience teach you about the best way to deal with these sorts of situations? Did you learn anything about yourself and your working relationships through this experience? • Have you any problem in getting on with or being accepted by any individual in your workplace? Why do you think this might have been and how have you dealt with it? Has this difficulty helped to develop your interpersonal communication skills, understanding, tact, insight, etc? Aston Business School’s degrees are accredited by a number of professional bodies, including: • The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development • Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in England and Wales • Chartered Institute of Marketing • Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy • Chartered Institute of Management Accountants • The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales • The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland • The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators • Chartered Insurance Institute. For students who embark on professional careers and develop their membership levels within these professional bodies, the skill of reflective practice is essential. For example, CIPD members are required to practice and be able to demonstrate continuing professional development in order to upgrade their membership. Members complete an application form which states “the important aspect here is that you are able to reflect on your learning and show how you have added value in a professional capacity” (CIPD, 2005). As a developmental piece of coursework the log book echoes and supports the notion propounded by Fanthome (2004), “You are most likely to learn from your work placement if you spend some time reflecting upon each aspect of it, and particularly if you then analyse your response and reaction to the various situations you encounter and think through how your behaviour and performance could be improved” (p.4-5). Alongside the briefing given to students as they commence their placement, the workplace supervisor has an important role to play in the development of the students’ reflective ability. The supervisor is asked to assist the student in compiling his or her log book and to sign off the log at the end of each month. As well as developing reflective skills, the log also facilitates joint objective setting, the regular review of these goals and generally ensuring that developmental dialogue occurs Almost half of the students surveyed indicated a preference for an online or web- based means of completing the PDP. With technology being used to great advantage by Aston Business School’s Placement Office in other areas of student support (i.e. Blackboard™, a placement intranet, and discussion boards), the use of technology in the development of the log book will be looked at in more detail in the near future. Discussion All students who went on placement in 2003/4, were asked about their placement when they returned to university in October 2004. The survey showed that some students felt that the advice given to them on the log book was insufficient: “more information on log book should be available”; “More straight forward guidelines for the log book”; “more detail on each piece of coursework”; “examples of log books should be made available” and “the placement report and log book should count towards final year grade”. Students on placement in 2004/5 have benefited from the use of the Blackboard™ Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). A placements module has been developed which incorporates the functionality of student discussion boards. These boards facilitate student discourse, along with offering quick access to a member of the placements team, with whom students can raise queries. A range of topics have been discussed through the boards, including the issues surrounding writing up their log books. Key questions posed on the discussion boards from July 2004 to April 2005 relate to students’ unease with writing in the first person; writing descriptively and not reflectively; simply not recording experiences at source, and so on. Anecdotal feedback and evidence from Placement Tutors also suggests that students are more challenged by the log than by a 5000 word academic essay linking theory to practice. A further barrier for some is the need to involve their supervisor – supervisors are required to sign off the monthly entries. As a development piece rather than an academic one, the log book facilitates regular discussions between the student and their employer; this means that in even the busiest of commercial enterprises, the supervisor has an obligation to support the student’s development and learning and this is underpinned by the log book. However, this does not always occur, for some of the following reasons: • the student has not developed a relationship with their employer • the student wishes to write about an incident involving the supervisor • the student feels that the level of reflection is too personal and they do not wish their supervisor to read this piece • the supervisor does not make time for these developmental meetings Whilst the nature of the reflective process is personal, the involvement of the supervisor helps to support the agreed framework and provides further credence; confirmation that the learning and development activities the student has described and reflected upon have taken place. With a range of intrinsically linked issues, the log book (as a piece of coursework) has been examined. The information provided to students in their Placement Year Briefing Pack was scrutinised. It was felt that some of the information could be ambiguous. Some students were also mis-interpreting the guidance provided, which led to too many descriptive pieces being written and submitted – in other words, students were “logging” their activities and were not spending enough time identifying the learning which had actually taken place and therefore had not undertaken any or little reflection on it. For students embarking on their placement for the academic year 2005/6, we decided to revise the title of this piece of placement year coursework: “Log Book” will become “Reflective Learning Journal.” We acted on students’ feedback and feedback from tutors involved in marking the log. We believe that effecting a simple change in the title of the piece will be an important step in making the concept of reflection a much more explicit and tangible practice. This seemingly cosmetic change was backed up by structural changes and clearer guidance on what being reflective is and what it involves. Furthermore, extensive reading was carried out by the authors on refection, reflective learning, and the use and value of log books and journals in learning. Staff training was undertaken through attending a course on reflective learning – this will allow better guidance to be offered to students. In addition, the personal and professional experiences of the authors through continuing professional development in their individual fields, has allowed a deeper insight into reflective practice and ways in which this life skill can be developed. Overall, we felt that some students demonstrated either a lack of ability or willingness to engage wholeheartedly with the task. The term “log book”, for some, conjured up the notion of the piece as descriptive i.e. literally logging what they did, what happened, despite the instructions provided to students. Critical self reflection was being carried out to only a basic level by some students. The difficulties associated with reflection were also experienced by students who took part in the PDP pilot. Participants were asked “Did you find if easy or difficult to reflect?” See Figure 2. Only 14% of students surveyed stated that they had found it easy or not problematic. Figure 2 Q.23 - Did you find it easy or difficult to reflect? Other 3% Felt it was easy to as I'd done it before 2% I did not find it a problem 12% Did not know what to write 19% Found it difficult at first; soon got the hang of it 33% Found it very hard; felt out of my depth. 5% Did not have enough opportunities to reflect 12% Difficult; never done it before 5% Hard: not sure what was meant by reflection 2% Could have done with more tuition 7% The structure for the Reflective Learning Journal outlined in the Discussion section shows the revised information which has been prepared for the Placement Year Briefing Pack, and this has been presented to students (and tutors and supervisors) undertaking their placement in 2005/6. The new cohort of student placements will commence throughout the summer of 2005; therefore, at the time of writing this article, there is as yet no structured feedback on the success of the implementation of the revision. Feedback will be sought using the suggested following methods: • the discussion boards on Blackboard™ will be monitored for frequently asked questions relating to the Reflective Learning Journal during the course of the placement year; • tutor input will be actively sought as the placement year progresses, for example, through the placement visits they undertake and the reports written by placement tutors on each student – these are reviewed by the Placements Manager, with action taken as necessary; • an evaluation questionnaire will be issued to all students at the end of the placement year and feedback will be sought on the placement year coursework, including the journal, along with input from the students on their thoughts on the guidelines for this piece of work contained in their Briefing Pack; • a sample of company supervisors will be contacted during the year and their input on the Reflective Learning Journal will be sought. The broader aims of the project in the future are to further the development of reflective practice activities and to encourage reflection to be undertaken by students across the four years of the undergraduate degree programme, and not solely during the placement year. The art of reflection should become a truly integral part of the student experience when studying for an undergraduate degree at Aston Business School. As stated previously, this could be combined with the PDP project development, so that being a reflective thinker becomes part of the approach of our students from the first year and therefore indicate a shift in culture. As professionals are required to go through the process of stepping back from their daily work with some regularity for continuing professional development purposes, we too are striving for this to become simply part of what our students do – ultimately, better preparing them for seeking graduate employment, and indeed, professional life. References Bullivant, N. 2005, Briefing Pack for Students, Company Supervisors and Tutors – Placement Year 2005/2006. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2005, Chartered Membership Simplified Application Form, London. Fanthom, C. 2004, Work Placements – A Survival Guide for Students,, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire. Fry. H., Ketteridge. S., & Marshall, S. 1999, A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Kogan Page, London. Higson, H. E. & Jones, K. E. 2002, ‘Your students have excellent knowledge and skills but they don’t think about them …’, Learning and Teaching Support Network BEST Conference, Edinburgh. Johnson, A. 2004, Keynote Address, ASET Conference, Cambridge.