From Expert Student to Novice Professional

by Reid, Anna; Dahlgren, Madeleine Abrandt; Petocz, Peter; Dahlgren, Lars Owe

• ISBN13: 9789400702493
• ISBN10: 9400702493
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-10
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Students entering higher education expect their studies to lead them towards some specific form of professional career. But in this age, complex internationalized professions are the main source of work for graduates, so students need to prepare themselves for a future that can be volatile, changeable and challenging. This book shows how students navigate their way through learning and become effective students; it details how to shift the focus of their learning away from the formalism associated with the university situation towards the exigencies of working life. It is in this sense that the book explores how people move from being expert students to novice professionals. This book presents a model of professional learning fashioned out of a decade of research undertaken in countries half a world away from each other'”Sweden and Australia. It uses empirical research gathered from students and teachers to show how students negotiate the forms of professional knowledge they encounter as part of their studies and how they integrate their understandings of a future professional world with professional knowledge and learning. It reveals that as students move from seeing themselves as learners, they take on more of a novice professional identity which in turn provides a stronger motivation for their formal studies.

Table of Contents

What's Happening in Higher Education?	p. 1
What This Book Is About	p. 1
Learning for the Professions	p. 2
The Contribution of Formal Learning Situations to Pre-professional Learning	p. 4
The Contribution of Learners to Pre-professional Learning	p. 5
Discourses of Higher Education and Working Life	p. 5
Identity, Learning and Engagement	p. 7
The Contribution of the Early Twenty-First Century World to Pre-professional Learning	p. 9
The Contribution of Earlier Eras to Pre-professional Learning	p. 10
Higher Education, Professions and Internationalisation	p. 12
Communities of Professional Practice	p. 13
Who Are Our Students?	p. 14
How Is Professional Preparation Experienced?	p. 17
Professional Learning: How Can We Understand Learning for the Professions?	p. 19
Introduction	p. 19
Methodological Approach	p. 20
Introducing the Professional Entity Project	p. 22
Introducing the Journeymen Project	p. 24
Combining the Projects-Issues of Method	p. 27
A Model for Understanding Professional Learning	p. 29
Discussion	p. 31
Professional Discourse: How Do Novice Professionals See Themselves?	p. 35
Introduction	p. 35
What Is Professional Discourse?	p. 35
How Do Students Understand Professional Discourses?	p. 37
The Professional Entity	p. 38
Examining the Professional Entity from the Context of One Profession - Music	p. 39
The Effect of Disciplinary Variation	p. 41
Professional Discourses and Learning	p. 47
Professional Discourse and Knowledge	p. 49
Professional Knowledge: What Does Knowledge Mean to Novice Professionals?	p. 51
Introduction	p. 51
Ideas Regarding Disciplines and Transitions	p. 53
Students and Novice Professionals' Conceptions of Knowledge: An Early Study	p. 55
The Journeymen Project	p. 57
The Influence of Curricular Design and Processes	p. 58
Students' Trajectories of Knowledge Formation	p. 60
Ritual or Rational Preparation for Work Life?	p. 62
The Complexity of Knowledge Formation	p. 63
Further Discussion	p. 65
Professional Dispositions: How Are Professional Dispositions Developed in Higher Education?	p. 69
Introduction	p. 69
Investigating Professional Dispositions	p. 72
Students' Views of Professional Dispositions	p. 73
Students' Views of the Intersections Between Dispositions	p. 77
Broadening the Base for Dispositions	p. 78
Discussion	p. 81
Professional Identity: How Is Professional Identity Developed?	p. 85
Introduction	p. 85
The Concept of Identity Formation in the Realm of Studies and Work	p. 86
The Notion of Engagement	p. 88
Influence of Discipline on Identity Formation	p. 90
Developing Engagement in Learning and a Sense of Identity with a Profession - Case Studies	p. 92
Political Science	p. 92
Design	p. 94
Mathematical Sciences - George	p. 96
Psychology - Erika	p. 98
Engagement and Identity Formation as a Function of Students' Learning Experience	p. 100
Professional Pedagogies: What Pedagogic Approaches Can Enhance Professional Learning?	p. 103
Introduction	p. 103
Meta-knowledge	p. 104
Authenticity	p. 104
The Structure of Professional Curricula	p. 106
The Effect of a Diffuse Field on Learning for Professional Formation	p. 107
The Effect of a Clear Field on Learning for Professional Formation	p. 110
Balancing Autonomy and Interaction - Acknowledging the Diversity of Students	p. 111
Students' Ideas About Their Own Learning	p. 114
Envisioning a Broad Curriculum	p. 115
What's the Use of Higher Education?	p. 119
Introduction	p. 119
The Nature of Professions	p. 120
The Expert Student	p. 122
The Novice Professional	p. 123
A Scenario for the Future of Higher Education	p. 125
Designing Curricula - Professional Contextualisation or Disciplinary Organisation	p. 125
Empowering Students in Matters of Influence	p. 127
Upgrading the Significance of Reflection	p. 128
Interprofessional Learning - A Necessity in a Super-Complex World?	p. 129
Learning as a Social Phenomenon	p. 131
Towards Professional Formation	p. 134
References	p. 139
Author Index	p. 149
Subject Index	p. 153
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