the resilient graduate - Outduction

Outduction Enhancing the final year experience

THE RESILIENT GRADUATE Peter Hughes, NTF University of Bradford Outduction Project Conference September 6th 2011 Kew Gardens

www.outduction.ac.uk


Overview

• Resilient graduates. • Graduate attributes. • Final year curriculum.



Resilient Graduates • We are at a time of some pessimism about graduate futures. • World of increasing complexity and uncertainty. • Future graduates will need to be resilient. • Resilient graduates will aid a world in transition. • Can we identify attributes of resilient graduates? • Can we frame a capstone final year experience to develop them? www.outduction.ac.uk


Resilient Higher Education

Richard Hall and Joss Winn question the resilience of current higher education, in terms of its capacity to adjust to major global disruptions around social, economic, political and environmental security, and argue for a more disruptive curriculum. Hall, R and Winn, J (2010)



Graduates for a Supercomplex World

• A place where: “the handling of uncertainty, ambiguity and contestability come to the fore” (Barnett and Hallam, 1999, p.145). • Higher Education (HE) needs to develop graduates that are capable of dealing with, and thriving within this supercomplexity. (Barnett, 2000)



UNESCO on the challenges for HE “Higher education has given ample proof of its viability over the centuries and of its ability to change and to induce change and progress in society.... Higher education itself is confronted therefore with formidable challenges and must proceed to the most radical change and renewal it has ever been required to undertake, so that our society, which is currently undergoing a profound crisis of values, can transcend mere economic considerations and incorporate deeper dimensions of morality and spirituality." Source: http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/graduateattributes/



Resilient Graduates The concept of resilience can be extended to students and graduates. How equipped are they for a world of uncertainty and complexity? What would the attributes of resilient graduate be? www.outduction.ac.uk


Workshop Activity 1: Attributes of Resilient Graduates

Suggest some appropriate attributes of resilient graduates – general attributes for all graduates (yellow post-its) – institution-specific attributes (green) – subject/discipline specific attributes (blue)



Graduate Attributes

• Renewed interest in graduate attributes in UK, following sector-wide developments in Australia. • Though note HEQC work on the „attributes of graduateness‟ from 1995 http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/key-skills/graduates.cfm



Graduate Attributes: University of Sydney • Overarching graduate attributes for a research-led university which can be contextualised in different disciplinary domains. University of Sydney (2004)



Graduate Attributes: University of Sydney

• Scholarship: an attitude or stance toward knowledge. • Global Citizenship: an attitude or stance towards the world. • Lifelong learning: an attitude or stance toward themselves.



Graduate Attributes: National Graduate Attributes Project Synthesis of attribute statements from Australian universities • Ethical, social and professional understanding • Research and inquiry • Communication • Personal and Intellectual Autonomy • Information Literacy



Workshop Discussion 2: A Final Year Curriculum for Resilient Graduates • Drawing on our discussion of attributes for resilient graduates, what would the final year curriculum need to look like to enable these attributes to be developed? • Can you give examples of final year educational experiences in your own institutions that might help to develop these attributes?



Bradford Three Curriculum Model

Formal

Hopkinson, P., Hughes, P. and Layer, G. (2008)

Informal

Campus



A Curriculum for Resilient Graduates

Hall and Winn (2010) call for a „curriculum for resilience‟: – integrated rather than subject-driven – engaging with uncertainty through engaged project-based learning – co-production and co-governance of learning...



A Curriculum for Super-Complexity Barnett (2000) calls for Pedagogy II a “pedagogy for supercomplexity” – in addition to learning about things, students will develop a capacity to act on that knowledge and will connect that knowledge and actions to their own lives and behaviours. – The pedagogical challenge: “to produce a set of experiences that in turn encourage the formation of human qualities able to engage effectively with multiple frameworks, contesting value systems and open-ended action situations” (ibid: 263).



A Capstone Experience Across the Final Year

• Individual capstone experiences valuable, but not necessarily transformative. • Look to create curricula with: – – – – – –

Spaces for developing learner autonomy. Project/dissertation/exhibit. Real-world/employer/community engagement. Spaces for ethical development (e.g. ESD & global citizenship). Life-wide learning. Experiences through which learners can connect knowledge, action and self.



A Capstone Experience Across the Final Year

• Needs programme-level design, and broader institutional opportunities for students. • Will be powerful where students integrate learning through reflection and presentation.



The road is long...

...but we can walk tall.



References • •

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Barnett, R. (2000) Supercomplexity and the curriculum. Studies in Higher Education, 25 (3), p. 255265. Barnett, R. and Hallam, S. (1999) Teaching for supercomplexity: a pedagogy for higher education, in Mortimere, P. (ed) Understanding pedagogy and its impact on learning, p. 137-154, London, Sage. Hall, R and Winn, J (2010) Is the current form of Higher Education in the UK viable? Developing a resilient education. Presented at Higher Education Academy Annual Conference, Hertfordshire, 2223 June. Hopkinson, P., Hughes, P. and Layer, G. (2008). Sustainable graduates: linking formal, informal and campus curricula to embed education for sustainable development in the student learning experience. Environmental Education Research, 14(4), pp. 435 - 454. University of Sydney (no date) The Sydney Graduate [online] Available at: http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/graduateattributes/ Date accessed: June 21, 2011 University of Sydney (no date) The National Graduate Attributes Project [online] http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/nationalgap/introduction.htm Date accessed: June 21, 2011 University of Sydney (2004) Sydney Graduate Attributes, [online] http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/graduateAttributes/policy_framework.pdf Date accessed: June 21, 2011
