The heading of this entry is that of a paper I am preparing and was the title of a presentation at the HEA Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) annual conference in late June '07. The conference was on 'Recruitment and Retention' in the GEES subjects (my talk PowerPoint). I shall shortly put a draft of my paper that I am preparing for 'Planet' on my website with a link from here.
The gist of my argument is based on two premises: First, that the government 'requires' that Higher Education should be related to 'employability'. Secondly, that students themselves want skills and materials that will help them gain employment. Indeed one of the reasons that they came to university was the expectation of a (better) job at the end. (I have data for this from QUB classes for all levels.)
Are we delivering a university education which fulfills these ends? Some subjects, medical sciences, business studies for example, have employment directly or indirectly in view. However, for many subjects (such as Geography) there is no employment objective and for others, such as Geology, there may not be a specific objective in employability, but rather the hope that, with a degree in such a subject, a graduate is potentially employable. A recent paper by Peter Washer has four tables which list 'employability skills' that might be achieved at university entry and the end of each of three succeeding years. One of these is shown in this link. Note that in my paper I have modified these slightly by including 'graphicacy', the ability to handle maps, diagrams and images into this.
But employability is not just about skills, and assessment is not just a matter of setting essays and conventional exams. But here we are at the heart of what 'assessment' means.
There is however, quite a gap between the the factual/practical knowledge of graduate and the means by which they might increase their chances of employment. Not only does this relate to subject specific skills but also to generic skills and means of assessment. In fact, means, types and purpopses of assessment are at the heart of what and how we teach and thus how students have the best learning experiences. Further, how should these experiences be set in an ever-changing and complex world?
This is more than pedagogy and yet this needs to be at the heart of what we do. The key phrase I feel is 'learning experiences'. This, I think, lies at the heart of my enquiry and about which I'd like to hear the views of others.
So, for a start, what do my colleagues think about what a degree should be like?
(In appropriate academic fashion I'll post references etc on my website.)
2 comments:
Brian, I see it's been a while since your post. I have to agree with you about providing learning experiences. One key way I've found is to create meaningful class projects that can provide a portfolio piece that students can add to thier resume and job applications. Of course it is time consuming to do it well and not every student is going to appreciate it. I think Geography as a discipline provides a good opportunity in this avenue because of the potential for applied projects. PS. I think your blog is a good idea.
Yes, I also think we need to consider ways to allow students to build a set of demonstrable and flexible skills, that they can take into work and more generally life.
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