SITUATED PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - 2021/2

Module Overview

This module allows for skills development, enhancement and critical reflectivity on practice. The Situated Professional Practice modules can be understood either as a form of internship at Surrey (for instance working with either Veer or Contraband books, our two in-house poetry presses) or with a relevant organisation/individual (such as a publishing company or literary agency), or as an intense and focused type of a specific practice (poetry writing, for example).

 

For students undergoing a form of internship, it is expected that they will spend one working day per week over the course of the semester at their place of internship. They should keep a log of their responsibilities in preparation for their final report.

 

Students concentrating on an intense and focused type of specific practice should dedicate one day a week over the course of the semester specifically to this form of practice. They should likewise keep a log or journal recording their progress, in preparation for their final self-reflexive critical commentary.

 

It is the responsibility of students, with the assistance and advice of their personal tutors, to find or choose a suitable form of Situated Professional Practice.

Module provider

School of Literature and Languages

Module Leader

THOMPSON Carl (Lit & Langs)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Advice on planning an appropriate Situated Professional Practice


• Advice on preparation for Situated Professional Practice


• Period of appropriate internship or focused creative activity


• Advice on researching and writing final report


• linking theories learned in the first year of study with the professional practice in the second;

• orientation in terms of choice of internship/intensive practice;


• issues of academic and pastoral care;


• critical reflections so that these are cogent, helpful and relevant and fully related to the intended learning outcomes;


• assessment and feedback/feed-forward issues, through acting as their supervisors;


• an understanding of the regulations;


• putting them in touch with other stakeholders (like Careers) to identify possible professional outlets at the end of the programme.

Tutors will also help with ensuring and monitoring the quality of internships so that students have a genuine chance for development.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate

 

• What they have learned from the Situated Professional Practice experience and how this is relevant to a specific branch of creative practice or in a specific workplace, profession or industry


• The knowledge they have gained of the structure and working of a specific profession or industry and/or the cultural, historical and economic contexts of a specific creative practice


• How they might draw on this experience creatively and professionally in the future


• What technical, practical and /or professional insights they have gained into the specific profession or practice on which they have been focusing


• Their ability to use creative and personal self-reflection as a means of developing skills and creative and professional techniques

• Their ability to articulate aspects of their own creative and professional development


• Their ability to loacte their own experience of Situated Professional Practice in a historical, cultural, theoretical and/or social context

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of a 3,000 word reflective report on either an internship or a specific professional practice (for example, the composition and production of a chapbook of poetry). Transfer of what students have learnt in terms of experience to future career or creative development will be part of the report. This report should:

• Offer a detailed description of the host organisation, how it is organised and what it does.


• Identify notable features of the placement, including the challenges and opportunities of working in the relevant sector(s).


• Provide an account of the range of tasks performed.


• Offer analysis contextualising the company in the sector to which it belongs.


• Provide an evaluation of the placement in terms of relevant skills development and knowledge.


• Provide am evaluation of the specific challenges and opportunities that arose in the course of the placement and how these were overcome or grasped.


• Offer a reflection on how the placement has shaped your future career plans.


• Offer an evaluation of any personal change and development that came about as a result of the placement experience.

 

Students whose situated professional practice has taken the form of concentration an intense and focused type of specific practice should also complete a report which:

 

• Offers a detailed description of the project undertaken, its processes and outcomes.


• Identify notable features of this project, including the specific challenges and opportunities of working in this form, mode or genre


• Provide an account of the range of tasks performed


• Offer analysis contextualising the project in the mode, genre, creative industry and/or form to which it belongs


• Provide an evaluation of the placement in terms of relevant skills development and knowledge.


• Provide an evaluation of the specific challenges and opportunities that arose over the course of this project and how these were overcome or grasped.


• Offer a reflection on how undertaking this project has shaped your future career plans.


• Offer an evaluation of any personal change and development that came about as a result of undertaking this project

 

 

Formative assessment and feedback:

Students will be able to discuss plans for the placement and for the report with their tutor. Verbal and written feedback will also be available on written plans and excerpts from a draft of the written report.

Module aims

• Gain understanding and experience of how their skills might be used in a specific workplace or in a specific branch of creative practice
• Gain experience in reflecting upon and learning from their own experience of creative and/or professional practice
• Gain experience using and develop a specific set of creative and or workplace skills
• Gain knowledge in the workings of a particular creative industry and/or the cultural, historical and economic contexts of a specific creative practice
• Gain practice in reflecting upon and articulating their own creative and professional development

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

 

• Encourage students to identify and research a specific area of creative and/or professional practice


• Help student gain structured experience in that field and to gain insight into the historical, cultural and economic contexts of the practice and/or the history and structure of a creative industry, practice, profession or workplace


• Encourage and support creative and personal self-reflection as a means of developing skills and creative and professional techniques

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

 

• One-on-one tutorials (up to six hours) to discuss the preparation for and progress of the placement, and to offer advice on planning and writing the final assessment


• For students undergoing an internship, it is expected that they will spend one working day per week over the course of the semester at their place of internship. They should keep a log of their responsibilities in preparation for their final report.


• Students concentrating on an intense and focused type of specific practice should dedicate one day a week over the course of the semester specifically to this form of practice. They should likewise keep a log or journal recording their progress, in preparation for their final self-reflexive critical commentary.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ELIM033

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.