Pupils to Professionals - A Service Learning Approach

In a recent blog “Students are they fit for purpose” I commented on the need for students to have a broad and varied range of opportunities including the need to access industry specific experiences and technical qualifications to ensure that they can develop appropriate early career opportunities. As I explore and define my teaching philosophies, service learning repeatedly features in my reading. Kenworthy-U’Ren & Peterson, (2005) suggest that at its core service learning is about creating opportunities for students to apply theory they learn in the classroom to real-world problems and real-world needs. Light and Dixon (2007) suggest that during this learning experience the student benefits from the opportunity to participate in authentic practice that might involve the application of learning concepts introduced in lectures.

This concept of authentic practice is an area that complements the ideas and philosophies that I have imported from my experiences of managing sports services within industry. At present it is influencing current thinking and future plans for the development of the courses I deliver. However for students to access some of the environments in which they can participate, we may be remise to throw them in the deep end without first preparing them with basic skills and tools which they can generate early success, potentially a key element in keeping them motivated and engaged in the experience.

Coaching Summit

To ensure this success I have recently organised a small coaching summit for 50 sports management students. During this event my intention was to access technical courses that would complement the theoretical learning my students have engaged with over the first 15 weeks of the academic year and better prepare them for industry and volunteer placements which they have to complete during their degree programmes. The week was intensive in nature resulting in six hours delivery per day and up to six technical qualifications and three seminar sessions with industry professionals available to each student. The event was conducted at a large scale sport and leisure venue and tutorial areas within a University environment and involved internal and external tutors.

Overall the event was very successful with over two hundred qualifications being achieved in the five day event and a large number of the students fully engaging in and valuing the process. This reinforced the idea that engaging in meaningful interaction with persons in the sport management community can provide positive learning outcomes (Cyphert, 2006; Kenworthy-U’Ren & Peterson, 2005; Littlefield, 2006). During the week there were some key themes that will influence my practice in the future.

Reflections

Mixing year groups and students served to highlight the sometimes large differences in maturity with second and third year students generally ready to undertake these courses and interact with external providers. The event could take place sooner in the academic year for the older year groups. Generally first year undergraduates probably benefited from a delay before being exposed to external providers.

These differences in maturity have also reinforced the need to establish a core set of values and a professional culture and conduct within the normal University learning environments. This will potentially better prepare students to engage with potential employers and minimise the shock that some students experienced.

The summit corresponded with a prescribed industry week which may be out of sync with placement opportunities. Instead an immediate exposure to placements is needed to reinforce the learning and implement the practical skills gained.

I agree with the sentiments of Light & Dixon (2007) that service learning strategies within sport management education serves as a useful means through which we can make programs more meaningful and effective by closing the gap between abstracted knowledge typically developed in stagnant and artificial learning environments and the practices of the profession. However if we are to develop graduates who can meaningfully contribute to practice (Papamarcos, 2005) then we have to have a clear strategy with lecturers acting as guides and mentors in developing pupils into professionals.

References

Cyphert, D. (2006). Real clients, real management, real failure: The risks and rewards ofservice learning. Business Communication Quarterly, 69, 185-189.

Kenworthy-U’Ren, A., & Peterson, T. (2005). Service-learning and management education: Introducing the “WE CARE” approach. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4, 272-277.

Light, R . and Dixon, M.A. (2007) Contemporary Developments in Sport Pedagogy and their Implications for Sport Management Education Sport Management Review, 2007, 10, 159–175

Littlefield, H. (2006). Service-learning in business communication: Real-world challenges develop real-world skills. Business Communication Quarterly, 69, 319-322.

Papamarcos, S. (2005). Giving traction to management theory: Today’s service-learning. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4, 325-335.

Reflection - Are we missing the point?

Prompted by the need to complete 15 reflective accounts I recently sat and considered (or was it reflected?) on whether I fully understand the purpose of self reflection. I have been wrestling with the concept of producing clear and effective reflective accounts and quickly realised that in reality I had limited understanding of the process and potentially was missing the point. Defining and understanding self reflection has become an urgent mission fuelled by the need to identify a process which I can apply to my work.

A quick exploration of reflective practice

As one of the pioneers of reflective practice Dewey (1933) suggested that reflective thinking is closely related to critical thinking; in that it is “the turning over of a subject in the mind and giving it serious and consecutive consideration”. Dewey believed that reflection was not only a rational, intellectual act but also an act that involves the whole person, including their emotions. To be effective Dewy suggested that people need to be open minded, responsible, and wholehearted. In the context of learning, Bould et al (1985) believed reflection is a “generic term for those intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations”

I found myself contemplating the prospect that reflective practice is not just another way of monitoring work but instead a state of mind, a philosophy and a process of helping us as professionals to realise ourselves (Schon, 1983, 1987), and to stimulate a review of and change in our values (Mezirow, 2000).  Indeed several writers; (van Manen, 1977; Schön, 1983,1990; Boud et al. 1985; and Brookfield, 1995) have all proposed that reflection is indeed a learning tool with implications for the teaching-learning process.

How do we self- reflect?

Having started to understand the purpose of the process I still needed a guide or framework to follow that was meaningful and could be implemented on a consistent basis. Some ideas I considered included;

van Manen (1977)  Three distinct stages of the reflective process.

Stage 1 Effective application of skills and technical knowledge in the classroom environment concerned with analyzing the effects of the teaching strategies used.

Stage 2 Reflection about underlying assumptions of a specific classroom practice and its effect on student learning.

Stage 3 Critical reflection, involving questioning the moral and ethical dimensions of decisions related, directly or indirectly, to the classroom situation.

Schön (1983, 1990) three methods of reflection

Schön (1983, 1990) argued that professionals in their everyday practice face unique and complex situations, which are unsolvable by technical, rational approaches alone. He differentiated by suggesting three different methods of reflection:

Reflection-in-action, is a spontaneous reflection in the midst of the action itself, also known as “thinking on your feet”. Reflection-on-action, involves thinking through a situation after it has happened. In this method, one consciously returns to the experience to re-evaluate and decide what needs to be done differently. Reflection-for-action is the desired outcome of the first two methods of reflection and engages one in reflection to guide future action.

Brookfield (1995) 4 complementary lenses

Brookfield (1995) encouraged reflective practice by examining one’s own practice through four complementary lenses as a way to become more attuned to the ambiguities and complexities of one’s practice. These lenses are:

• One’s autobiography as a learner.

• One’s colleagues’ perceptions, as they are “reflective mirrors” .

• The students’ eyes.

• The literature grounded in research, theory, and philosophy.

My solution

On analysing these strategies I accidentally stumbled across a simple framework of questions in the form of a reflective diary/ journal process (www.businessball.com). The set of questions I feel allows the ideas, concepts and theories of reflective thinking to be applied in a simple and practical way. These questions include;

1.       What happened/ what did I do?

2.       How did I feel about it?

3.       What is my honest objective assessment of what happened and the causes?

4.       What can I take from this?

5.       What improvement do I want to make or assist?

6.       What do I need to do or learn to achieve this?

7.       How will I measure and know that I’ve succeeded in this?

In writing this blog post I may have unwittingly engaged in a reflective process resulting in the realisation that the art of reflection is not just simply writing a diary of what I have achieved each week, but instead it needs to be a process of self discovery in which I constantly think about my personal as well as students learning experiences. To achieve this I feel I need to embrace the reflective process by exploring not only what improvements I can make to my teaching  but to continue to identify new ideas, questions, and knowledge that challenges and changes my values and perspectives.

References

Brookfield, S.D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. London, UK: Kogan Page

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process (2nd ed.). New York: Heath & Company.

Mezirow, J. (1990).

Fostering critical reflection in adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London, UK: Basic Books.

Schön, D. (1990). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schön, D. (1991). The reflective turn: Case in and on educational practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

van Manen, J. (1977). Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical. Curriculum Inquiry, 6, 205-208.