1. Understanding and Facilitating Reflection Work Term Report Alternatives
Presented by Claudia Sperling, Program Manager,
UVic’s Co-operative Education Program and Career Services

2. Background: How did we get here? Students’ “feedback” Staff feedback
Faculty feedback
Students complaining
Staff and faculty bored with reading similar reports
Time for a change!

3. What did we do next?
CAFCE Requirements: “Students are expected to submit a project/assignment at the end of each co-op work term that explains what they have done, what they have learned and how it links to their academic studies and career goals. It is up to the institution to determine the appropriate format of the assignment based upon the professional, personal and program goals. (There is a minimum requirement of one formal written report)”
Researched guidelines – internally and across Canada
(Guelph, Waterloo, SFU, UOttawa)
Consultations with all stakeholders
CAFCE Guidelines!!
In addition to WTR Guidelines, also looked at what other institutions had posted about alternatives to the traditional written report – and there were some for sure, so we certainly recognize that we are not the first to think of this!
Consultations – students, staff, faculty AND Norah McRae (provided overarching guidance and feedback based on her own PhD research on transformative learning).
What all of this told us is the importance of REFLECTION

4. Reflection: What is it anyway? Why do we care?
What we learned and guides our work:
Reflection has 3 roles
Academic Learning
Skill Development and/or
Self-Knowledge (Harvey et al, 2010)
In Action, On Action, For Action (Schon)
Reflection is key for transformative learning (Mezirow)
Students need to know all of this to improve outcomes
Research, lots of research…

5. Reflection:
“Your Co-operative Education work term is an experiential opportunity in which you, as the student, are able use your classroom knowledge to engage in a direct “hands-on” experience. One of the key components to understanding how your Co-op work term has transformed your learning is through reflection.”
Got excited and started to come up with all sorts of alternatives – videos, blogs, posters, photo essays, online discussion groups BUT we first needed to figure out “why”

6. Work Term Report Alternatives
Article & Photo
Online Discussion
Blog Post
Online Portfolio
Career Action Plan
Orientation Package
Forum Theatre
Photo Essay
Journal
Presentation
Letter to Future Student
Video
Workshop/Seminar
Literature Review
Now we could get excited! We started by asking various Co-op programs to pilot one or two alternatives, or more, and provided them with some basic guidelines with the idea that each program would take the basic guidelines and develop something that met the requirements of their program.
Law: Letter to Future Student
Business: Online Discussion, Video
Biology: Workshop/Seminar, Photo Essay
Social Sciences: Online Discussion, Oral Presentation
Computer Science: Orientation Package for Next Student
Engineering: Career Action Plan
Humanities, Fine Arts: Photo Essay, Video, Portfolio, Blog Posts
Exercise Science: Article & Photo, Video

7. Reflective Process:
Description
What happened?
Perception
What were you thinking and feeling?
Evaluation
What was good and bad about the experience?
Analysis
What sense can you make of the situation?
Conclusion
What else could you have done?
Action plan
If it arose again what would you do?
And it worked, for the most part, but we also discovered that “to reflect” is not as easy as it sounds, so we developed a Tool for Reflection, based on Gibb’s model of the Reflective Cycle in his book Learning by Doing (1998) that could be provided to students to guide them through the reflective process. We changed “Feelings” to “Perception”, for those students who might “feel” uncomfortable reflecting on their feelings!

8. Metrics
Key component to understanding how Co-op work term has transformed learning is through reflection
So, how do we “assess” reflection? And…
Across many different “vehicles” or formats, and….
Across many different programs and disciplines
Two key sources of information to help us:
“Beyond Reflection Through an Academic Lens: Refraction and International Experiential Education” by: Monica Pagano, Layola Marymount University and Laura Roselle, Elon University
“Describing, Supporting, and Assessing Various Models of International Experiential Education: a focus on curriculum design and delivery” by: Nancy Johnston, PhD, Simon Fraser University
From our research we knew we needed to:
Focus on looking for evidence of reflection
Verify that the learner has engaged in the process of learning
At the same time take into consideration traditional ways of assessing written work term reports
CLAUDIA

9. Work Term (Report) Submission - Assessment
Introduction (15%)
Sets the stage
Critical thinking & analysis (40%)
Evidence of reflective process
Conclusions & recommendations (35%)
Evidence that learning has taken place
Format (10%)

10. Example: VIDEO Coaching Studies student, Justin Thiessen
Sino-Canada High School, southern China
PE teacher and Coach of the Senior Boys Basketball team, the Warriors
Many Masters of Education, Coaching Studies students, transition from being high performance athletes themselves into understanding how to coach at the level of their current athletes. That is, Justin was able to see how important it was to develop confidence in the students and to see his role as one of developing their skills from where the students are at, not where he, the coach, thinks they “should” be at.

12. What students are saying…
“more fun to write because of different approach; required different reflection and I was better able to see where I had grown; able to improve communication skills in more practical way for a lawyer” (Letter to future student) “allowed me to reflect on weekly basis, while getting a perspective of the similarities and differences of experiences and challenges faced by others; provided a dialog opportunity.”(online forum)
HELEN

13. What students are saying…
“I would argue that the forum project is a kind of professional collaborative journaling exercise. I found it to be academically useful as well as pleasantly therapeutic.” (online forum)
“I had not realized how much I had learned and progressed throughout my work term; I had not realized how much more I was doing compared to the beginning.” (photo essay)

14. What faculty/staff are saying
Alternatives can help with strategic initiatives
Student recruitment & retention
Can provide better learning opportunities for faculty (or markers)
“I had fun yesterday, and learned a lot, which is something I don't say about a lot of meetings.”
Provides different perspectives on placements

15. Thank you. Questions?? Claudia Sperling: csperlin@uvic.ca