APPLIED LEARNING IN A PROFESSIONAL SETTING - 2025/6

Module Overview

Successfully facilitating work-based learning is a complex and nuanced activity that is dependent on both the student, and the environment of work, in which they participate.  Not only do these real life opportunities provide an essential stepping stone to students' professional development but the impact of them can be personally transformative for the student for their ongoing lifelong learning and employability skills.  The module gives participants the opportunity to explore the alternative learning environment of the workplace where higher education students' knowledge, skills and expertise are developed against the highly influential context of work.  The preparation and support strategies to enhance work-based learning are analyzed against the uniqueness of participants' disciplinary and professional experiences.

Module provider

Surrey Institute of Education

Module Leader

TRACE Christopher (Sy Inst Educ)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

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

Module Availability

Semester 2

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Definitions, purpose and challenges and work-based learning


• The epistemology and pedagogy of practice learning with an emphasis on the building of professional expertise 


• Preparation for practice learning through innovative pedagogies, for example, the use of simulation


• Support networks and structure that enhance work-based learning, such as apprenticeship and mentorship models and use of digital learning


• Formative feedback for summative assessment - including formative peer and tutor feedback on ideas for assignment, and self-assessment of final submission.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their achievement of the learning outcomes.  The module design is underpinned by the concept of constructive alignment to ensure that the learning and teaching strategies and assessment task align with the module learning outcomes. 

 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

 

A 2500 word written assignment requiring a critical evaluation of work based learning practices appropriate to the participants’ disicplinary / professional context that draws upon relevant literature and identifies means of enhancing practice (LO1-3). The choice of focus for the assignment will be negotiated according to an aspect of participants’ disciplinary and professional areas of interest.  Examples of the type of assignment topic that might emerge from the seminars could be:

 

•a critical evaluation of students’ preparation or support in practice

•a literature review of an aspect of practice pedagogy and its significance to participants’ own profession or discipline

•the design and rationale for a pedagogic tool to support students’ work based learning

 

The deadlines for the assessment associated with this module are as follows:

 

Formative assignment submission – week 8

Summative assessment deadline - week 13

 

Formative assessment and feedback

 

Each online interaction will be informed by guided study tasks, which will be posted online and on which peers will be encouraged to reflect and comment through an eportfolio.  Participants will also receive peer and tutor feedback on the formative assignment.

Module aims

• Critically evaluate the role of work based learning in the development of practice pedagogy appropriate
  to the professional setting.
  

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

Enable participants to critically evaluate the role of work based learning for students in higher education with regard to the development of learning in practice appropriate to participants’ disciplinary and professional context.  This will be achieved by introducing participants to self-evaluative inquiry-led approaches to investigating and reflecting critically on their practice.

 

The learning and teaching methods include:

 

It is expected that this module will entail a total of at least 150 hours of study. This will include:

• Synchronous group seminars (face to face or online appropriate to participants’ needs) (8 hours)


• Asynchronous online guided study (16 hours)


• Independent study and tutorial support (126 hours)

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: GCAM014

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 2025/6 academic year.