An Eye for an I : Focus on integration in WIL

Sammanfattning: This licentiate thesis describes the development and change of forms within a course with a focus on Work-Integrated Learning (WIL). For several years I have been responsible for a course and at the same time author of the syllabus for the course and seen how weak the integration is, and how it is perceived by the students, between theoretical knowledge and the practical work during an internship period. This has resulted in two interventions and processing of the syllabus and above all the methods and pedagogy used for the implementation of the course.In the beginning, the internship period contained four presentation seminars where the result was only a joint listening to the other students' stories and presentations. This resulted in a discussion and conceptual paper that focused on the importance of integration and how this can be made visible. The first change in curricula was inspired by Flipped Classroom, where students had to submit their narratives in advance in an online shared document. Prior to the seminar, it was assumed that they would then read each other's text and reflect on similarities and differences in experiences and learning in the workplace where they had their internship period. This resulted in a more reflective conversation during the seminars which can be called Peer Reflections where the conversation was always based on previous reflections and each other's thoughts.The second intervention was carried out in implementation at the same time as it was to be compared with the student's experiences of seminars in a control group that carried out a similar course structure with presentation and examining seminars. The change was inspired by a model from Australia that they call Huddles. This is a concluding seminar as a briefing of the practice. The issues that are discussed are carefully selected in collaboration with the students and have a clear anchoring in their experiences during the practice. The change, which was then implemented, after inspiration from Huddles in one group, with as before four seminars during the internship with carefully selected themes. At the same time, I was inspired by models for evaluating differences in teaching when technology is introduced, such as the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition) and how this could be seen as a form of progression if technology was changed to AIL. The SOLO taxonomy was also the inspiration for describing the assignments and themes before each seminar.The research questions presented in this licentiate thesis focus on the students' experiences of how these changes contribute to a better understanding of the integration of what is taught at the university in the form of theory and the practical knowledge they learned in the internship.Qualitative data collection has taken place through observations and focus groups in both the group where changes have been implemented and in the group that conducted accounting and examining seminars. The results show that the integration in the students' understanding of theory and practice increases. They also experience a progression in their reflections and the seminars, while the students in the control group experience their seminars as scattered and they do not contribute to any knowledge development.The licentiate thesis also contributes to considering WIL as a complex concept with different areas of responsibility. The university teaches on the theoretical side, Work-Integrated Education (WIE) while on the other side of the dichotomy theory and practice where students are largely responsible for Workplace learning (WPL). Between these, several different activities can be carried out, including Huddles, which can be described as work-based learning (WBL). The university can contribute to these activities with, for example, simulations, the teaching of relevant software used by companies and organizations in the field. Workplaces can also contribute with concrete assignments in the form of various projects that the students are allowed to carry out or perhaps with guest lectures and concrete cases. Seeing WIL as an umbrella covering different forms of activities with different organizational responsibilities can make it easier to see the importance of the different activities and these can be integrated. WIL is not only WIE.In addition to the view that AIL is an umbrella concept with several different types of activities, ideas are also given on how Huddles can be introduced as a pedagogical method and how progression can be developed within Work-integrated Education and Learning with inspiration from different models.