Learning from Learners – Reflection and Assessment within Work-Based Placement Reports

Brief description of session and activities

This workshop draws upon research conducted during a UAL Teaching & Learning Fellowship - Improving Employability for Widening Participation Students: A cross-college and cross-discipline initiative.

The facilitators will share findings drawn from the examination of a range of reflective reports created by LCC and LCF students evaluating and assessing their own experiences in work-based environments.

These reports are a rich resource that reveal how people entering an industry apply and situate their learning, develop new skills and assess experiences.

These reflective reports are how the students’ experiences are assessed, by tutors, against the relevant units and learning outcomes to contribute to their degrees. However, unlike regular art and design projects, tutors are not present with the students during these placements. Tutors are wholly reliant upon the students’ ability to asses their experiences.

Through the analysis of previous placement reports we can discover new ways to better prepare and support students in their own assessment and reflection upon placement experiences.

How will students be involved in the session?

LCC and LCF students’ work will take centre stage and forms the basis of the workshop’s content. The facilitators current research causes them to ‘learn from the learners’ with regards to how students reflect during and upon work-based learning experiences.

What will participants take away from the session?

Participants will gain an understanding how certain students conceptualise placement experiences and situate and place value on college based learning. This could help participants consider ways to embed employability within the curriculum or facilitate students in transferring their academic skills and knowledge into the world of work.