Description:

It became increasingly evident in the 1970's and early 1980's that management education was not meeting the needs of mainstream business, manufacturing and the growing service industries in the UK. Particularly since the Handy Report in 1987, questions were being raised by many concerned stakeholders as to the relevance of the qualifications achieved by employees in meeting the education and training needs of the aspiring manager.Since attempts to set criteria for standards in management between 1992 and 1996 through the Management Charter Initiative (MCI), business schools became critical of so-called competence based approaches to formal management education. In particular, courses such as Master's Degree in management related subjects were questioned as to their worthiness in terms of improving the work-related professional practice of the newly qualified managers.The focus of this research was to explore the extent to which part-time Master's Degree courses improve the professional practice of the students that undertake them.

Methodology or methods/research instruments or sources used:

The collaborative action research took in to account three perspectives, namely the employers that sponsor students on Master's courses, the staff who teach on these courses, and the students that undertake them. My position as an academic was central to this inquiry, and the research enabled me to become a more effective facilitator through critical self-reflection on my own approach to learning and teaching.

Conclusions or expected outcomes or findings:

A conceptual model, 'Becoming Professional', provides a new philosophical basis for the learning and teaching process of part-time Master's courses. The model uses cognitive, psychomotor and affective instruments as the bases for evaluating student learning. At the heart of this model lies its main illumination, that of 'Context-centred Learning.' The student's work context is the main focus of the evaluation and assessment methods applied to the learning process. What foregrounds this concept especially are the methods of formative evaluation that can be applied to learning in a dynamic and living experience way. The term 'Dynamics of Experience' has been derived to denote the significance of the role of the tutor in the process of building the student's individual experiences within the classroom setting. What provides the currency of learning is the way in which the tutor uses the classroom situation to facilitate the process of building experience. Such a facilitation role places the student at the heart of learning, and thus able to reflect on the job-embedded transfer of learning. Six building blocks have been derived that provide the basis for curriculum planning for part-time Master's courses. The philosophical principle that underpins this curriculum design is one of job-embedded learning, where the student takes responsibility for the integration of subject within the context of professional practice.

References:

Selected literature in the areas of professions and professional knowledge, problem-solving and reflection-in-action, professional practice and evaluation and assessment, have been used as the basis for this research. A selection of some of the main indicative references are offered here for the Conference.

• Argyris, C. & Schön, D (1974) Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass.
• Argyris, C., & Schön, D. (1978) Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective, Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
• Atherton, J. S. (2002) Learning and Teaching: Learning from experience. Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/experience.htm
• Biggs, J B (1993). From theory to practice: a cognitive systems approach. Higher Education Research and Development vol. 12: 73-85.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R, & Walker, D. (1985). What is reflection in learning? In Boud, D, Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (Eds.). Reflection: Turning experience into learning (pp.7-17). London: Kogan Page.
• Brookfield, S. (2005) Lifelong Learning: Education Across the Lifespan. Eds. Field, J. and Leicester, M. Philadelphia: Falmer Press.
• Bruffee, K. (1994) "The Art of Collaborative Learning: Making the most of Knowledgeable Peers." Change 26,3: 39-44.
• Carr, W. & Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: A Teachers Guide to Action Research. Lewes: Falmer.
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• Grundy,S. and Kemmis,S. (1981). Educational Action Research in Australia: The state of the Art. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Adelaide as cited in Grundy,S. (1988).
• Guskey, T. R. (2000) Evaluating Professional Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Kemmis, S. and McTaggart, R. (1988) The Action Research Planner, 3rd ed. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
• Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall.
• Livingston, J. (1997). Metacognition: An overview. Available from: http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/Metacog.htm.
• McNiff J, Lomax P and Whitehead J (1996) You and Your Action-Research Project. London, RoutledgeMcNiff, J. (2002) Action Research for Professional Development. London, Routledge
• Mezirow, J. and Associates (1990) Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators: Improving Schooling Through Professional Development. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.