Work‐integrated curricula in university programs

Abstract

Higher education is under increasing pressure to re‐evaluate the place of practice in its programs and there are increasing demands for workplace‐based experiences to be built into undergraduate degrees. The paper reports on an extended responsive case study conducted in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University between 1994 and 2004. The findings point towards a model that can be used to develop courses based around a set of key challenges that learners need to face, criteria for the university’s construction of worthwhile activities, and principles of procedure that are required in order to implement them. It is suggested that university curriculum planners should concentrate on a process model of teaching, learning and research rather than on the more traditional models that tend to treat knowledge as a commodity and emphasise its production, transmission and delivery.

Keywords:

• action learning
• action teaching
• experimental education
• placements
• work‐integrated learning