Involvement of External Stakeholders in Designing Pedagogy for Experiential Learning at University Level: A Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/ejoss.vol7.2.5.2021Keywords:
Pedagogy, Experiential learning, External stakeholders’ involvement, Higher education, Soft skillsAbstract
The participation of external stakeholders in pedagogical activities in higher education has increased in recent years, and this is because such involvement can potentially improve student learning outcomes. However, the strategies and processes have yet to be adequately explored and documented, especially in the context of the Malaysian university. This paper presents a case regarding how the external stakeholders were involved in the design and implementation of an experiential learning project for an elective module in Diploma programmes of Raffles University, Malaysia based on a pedagogical model. This model consists of three major phases: (1.) initiation and design; (2.) execution; and (3.) evaluation and review. The roles of external stakeholders and the responsibilities of lecturers in each phase were discussed. In addition, students’ learning experiences and their reflections on the experiences were also described along with the discussion. This paper concludes that the developed pedagogical model may serve as an effective means to engage with external stakeholders in planning and delivering meaningful lessons for authentic learning at university level.
Downloads
References
Amaral, A., & Magalhaes, A. (2002). The emergent role of external stakeholders in European higher education governance. Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance, 1–21.
Azmi, I. A. G., Hashim, R. C., & Yusoff, Y. M. (2018). The employability skills of Malaysian university students. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 1(3), 1-14.
Carter, L., Ruskin, J., & Cassilles, A. (2017). Three modes of work-integrated learning: Stories of success. In Success in higher education (pp. 203–215). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2791-8
Chiang, W.S., & Chuen, T.W. (2018). Pedagogy for the integration of work-based learning in undergraduate design programme. Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 2(1), 46-51.
Chiu, S. K. (2019). Innovative experiential learning experience: Pedagogical adopting Kolb’s learning cycle at higher education in Hong Kong. Cogent Education, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1644720
Choudaha, R, Chang, L., & Kono, Y. (2013). International Student Mobility Trends 2013: Towards Responsive Recruitment Strategies. World Education Services.
Chowdhury, T. A., & Miah, M. K. (2016). Employability skills for entry-level human resources management positions: Perceptions of students and employers. Australian Journal of Career Development, 25(2), 55–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038416216658774
David, M. K., & Saeipoor, N. (2018). Integrating Soft Skills into Courses Malaysian Public Universities (Undergraduates’ Perception). IARS’International Research Journal, 8(1).
Fahimirad, M., Nair, P. K., Kotamjani, S. S., Mahdinezhad, M., & Feng, J. B. (2019). Integration and Development of Employability Skills into Malaysian Higher Education Context: Review of the Literature. International Journal of Higher Education, 8(6), 26-35. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v8n6p26
Fagrell, P., Fahlgren, A., & Gunnarsson, S. (2020). Curriculum development and quality work in higher education in Sweden: The external stakeholder perspective. Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, 2(1), 28–45.
Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman
Gruzdev, M. V., Kuznetsova, I. V., Tarkhanova, I. Y., & Kazakova, E. I. (2018). University graduates’ soft skills: The employers’ opinion. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 7(4), 690–698. https://doi.org/10.13187/ejced.2018.4.690
Guerra-Báez, S. P. (2019). A panoramic review of soft skills training in university students. In Psicologia Escolar e Educacional (Vol. 23). https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-35392019016464
Hanapi, Z., & Nordin, M.S. (2014). Unemployment Among Malaysia graduates: Graduates’ attributes, Lecturers’ Competency and Quality of Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 1056 – 1063. http://doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1269
Healey, M., & Jenkins, A. (2000). Kolb’s experiential learning theory and its application in geography in higher education. Journal of Geography, 99(5), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221340008978967
Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-7506-7223-8.50017-4
Kosir, M. A., Fuller, L., Tyburski, J., Berant, L., & Yu, M. (2008). The Kolb learning cycle in American Board of Surgery in-training exam remediation: The accelerated clinical education in surgery course. American Journal of Surgery, 196(5), 657–662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2008.07.004
Lebeau, Y., Stumpf, R., Brown, R., Abrahão, M., Lucchesi, S., & Kwiek, M. (2012). Who shall pay for the public good? Comparative trends in the funding crisis of public higher education. A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42(1), 137–157.
Li, M., & Armstrong, S. J. (2015). The relationship between Kolb’s experiential learning styles and Big Five personality traits in international managers. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 422–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.001
Lim, Y. M., Lee, T. H., Yap, C. S., & Ling, C. C. (2016). Employability skills, personal qualities, and early employment problems of entry-level auditors: Perspectives from employers, lecturers, auditors, and students. Journal of Education for Business, 91(4), 185-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2016.1153998
Lindsten, H., Auvinen, P., & Juuti, T. (2019). Internal and external stakeholders’ impact on product development curriculum design. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Towards a New Innovation Landscape, E and PDE 2019, September, 12–17. https://doi.org/10.35199/epde2019.64
Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. Edge Foundation.
Marshall, S. J. (2018). Internal and External Stakeholders in Higher Education. In Shaping the University of the Future (pp. 77–102). Springer.
Md-Ali, R, Shaffie, F, & Yusof, F. M. (2016). Understandings and Conceptions of Soft Skills for Educators in Public Universities. 694–701. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.08.98
Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2006). Development of soft skills for Institutions of Higher Learning. Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Nghia, T. L. H. (2018). External stakeholders’ roles and factors influencing their participation in developing generic skills for students in Vietnamese universities. Journal of Education and Work, 31(1), 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2017.1386774
Noah, J. B., & Abdul Aziz, A. (2020). A systematic review on soft skills development among university graduates. EDUCATUM – Journal of Social Science, 6(1), 43–58.
Nunley, J. M., Pugh, A., Romero, N., & Seals, R. A. (2016). College major, internship experience, and employment opportunities: Estimates from a résumé audit. Labour Economics, 38, 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2015.11.002
Osman, K. (2011). The inculcation of generic skills through service learning experience among science student teachers. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 18, 148–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.05.022
Okolie, U.C., Nwosu, H.E., & Mlanga, S. (2019). Graduate employability: How the higher education institutions can meet the demand of the labour market. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 9(4), 620-636. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-09-2018-0089
Shakir, R. (2009). Soft skills at the Malaysian institutes of higher learning. Asia Pacific Education Review, 3(10), 309–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9038-8
Sharlanova, V. (2004). Experiential learning. Trakia Journal of Sciences, 2(4), 36–39.
Singh, P., Thambusamy, R. X., & Ramly, M. A. (2014). Fit or Unfit? Perspectives of employers and university instructors of graduates’ generic skills. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 123, 315–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1429
Steghöfer, J. P., Burden, H., Hebig, R., Calikli, G., Feldt, R., Hammouda, I., Horkoff, J., Knauss, E., & Liebel, G. (2018). Involving external stakeholders in project courses. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.1145/3152098
Tang, K. N. (2019). Beyond Employability: Embedding Soft Skills in Higher Education. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET, 18(2), 1–9.
Thune, T. (2011). Success factors in higher education-industry collaboration: A case study of collaboration in the engineering field. Tertiary Education and Management, 17(1), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2011.552627
Tran, T. T. (2015). Is graduate employability the ‘whole-of-higher-education-issue’? Journal of Education and Work, 28(3), 207–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2014.900167
Trow, M. A., & Burrage, M. (2010). Twentieth-century Higher Education: Elite to Mass to Universal. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tularam, G., & Machisella, P. (2018). Traditional vs Non-Traditional teaching and learning strategies -- The case of e-learning. International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, 19(1), 129–158.
