| dc.description.abstract | The nature of today's workplace is one of rapid and dramatic changes.
Traditional workplace environments require those entering a field to possess
skills and competencies that are not currently being taught in many institutions.
As a result, higher educational institutions have come under increasing pressure
to adjust their curriculum in an effort to meet these changes. Cooperative
education has thus emerged as a legitimate alternative to the more traditional
educational strategies in a number of programs. With its inextricable link to the
workplace, cooperative education provides a unique blend of practical, career
related experiences with formal, academic learning.
This exploratory study investigated the cooperative education experiences
of university students involved in a four year physical education/ recreation
degree program. The study sought to examine through self-completed
questionnaires, individual interviews, and a focus group session, the perceptions
of students with regard to their academic and work term activities. In particular,
the research project focused on: (a) academic skills and competencies developed
during the cooperative program, (b) career and professional perceptions of
students in the program, (c)work term experiences, (d) personal and
interpersonal relationships, and (e) learning strategies and obstacles. Survey
data, gathered from 96 students representing 80%of all 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year
students enrolled in the program, were summarized using measures of central
tendency. Interview and focus group data from students were transcribed,
content analysed and organized around several emerging themes.
As a group the students described a broad range of experiences and the
effect these experiences had on learning in the cooperative program. Results of
the questionnaire and the interviews indicated that students perceive the
cooperative program as offering a variety of opportunities for learning many
generic academic skills along with career and related employability skills
required for the workplace. Other findings suggest that students in a cooperative
program rely on learning strategies which are both self-initiated and
collaborative in nature. | en_US |
