Bridging the gap between education and employment: a case study of problem-based learning implementation in Postgraduate Sport and Exercise Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this case study was to explore Postgraduate Sport and Exercise Psychology students’ and their lecturer’s experiences of PBL, and, its role in developing their employability skills. A focus group was conducted with four students (Mage = 22.75 years, SD = 0.96 years; n female = 2) and a conversational interview was conducted with the lecturer (age = 37 years, teaching experience = 11 years). Inductive thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts was used as a basis for developing portrait and composite vignettes to illustrate their experiences. Their underpinning themes suggested that PBL was instrumental for developing key employability skills: team working, communication and interpersonal sensitivity; thinking critically, creatively and flexibly; for helping students translate academic knowledge into application in future employment contexts, and for increasing awareness that learning is a lifelong developmental process.

Keywords:

• Employability skills
• professional development
• critical thinking

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Leeds Beckett University Centre for Learning and Teaching who provided funding for this project through their Curriculum Innovative Funding.

Notes

1. This case study focuses on qualitative data collected from four of the students and is part of a wider mixed methods study which also involved quantitative data collection with the four students who participated in the focus groups, plus four of the remaining ten students. These eight students were selected at random and all of them were approached to participate in the focus group interviews but only four volunteered to participate in this phase of the project.