Abstract
Graduate employment statistics are receiving considerable attention in UK universities.
This paper looks at how a wide range of employability attributes can be developed with students, through the innovative use of the Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach. The case study discussed here involves a group of archaeology students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and their task of reconstructing and firing a small, early medieval clamp kiln. The employability skills and attributes that the students felt they had developed from this experience are discussed, with reference to Yorke’s USEM model of employability.
Thanks are due to Get Your Wellies Outdoor Learning Centre, Preston, Lancashire for the use of their site, and to James Claydon, Bernard and Pat Fleming, Brian Joynes, Josh Pugh, Dan Scully, Mike Woods for their involvement in the experimentReferences
Atkins, M.J. (1999). Oven‐ready and self‐basting: taking stock of employability skills. Teaching in Higher Education, 4 (2), pp. 267 – 280.
Dacre Pool, L. & Sewell, P.J. (2007). The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education and Training, 49 (4), pp227 -289.
Donnelly, R. & Fitzmaurice, M. (2005) Collaborative project-based learning and problem-based learning in Higher Education: a consideration of tutor and student role in learner-focused strategies. In G. O'Neill, S. Moore & B. McMullin (Eds) Emerging Issues in the Practice of University Learning and Teaching (pp.87-98). Dublin, AISHE/HEA.
Hillage, J. & Pollard, E. (1998). Employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. London: DfEE.
McGuire, E.L.H. (2008) Students and their digs: enquiry-based learning in level-one archaeology. Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, (3) 1.pp. 84-101.
Musty, J, 1974. Medieval pottery kilns. In Evison, V I, Hodges, H, & J. G. Hurst (Eds),
Medieval pottery from excavations: studies presented to Gerald Clough Dunning.
London: John Baker. pp 41- 65.
Savery, J. R. (2006). Overview of problem-based learning: definitions and distinctions. Essential Readings in Problem-Based Learning: Exploring and Extending the Legacy of Howard S. Barrows, pp.5-15.
Schindler, W (2015). Soul Authorship and the value of authentic learning experiences in Higher Education pedagogy. Paper presented at the 9th Experimental Archaeology Conference (EAC9), (Dublin). [Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQNhCm_k2c [Accessed 1 February 2016].
Thomas, J. W. (2000). A review of research on project-based learning. [Online]. Available from: http://www.k12reform.org/foundation/pbl/research. [Accessed 1 February 2016].
Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education. Raabe Academic Publishers.
Yorke, M. & Knight, P. T. (2006). Learning and Employability Series 1: Embedding employability into the curriculum. [Online]. Available from: http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/documents/Staff/HEABriefings/ESECT-3-Embedding_employability_into_curriculum.pdf. Accessed 1 February 2016.
Wood, J. (2010) Inquiry based learning in the arts: a meta analytical study. [Online]. Available from: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.../IBL_in_Arts-FINAL.pd. Accessed 1 February 2016.
Articles published in Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education are following the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY)
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY). Further information about Creative Commons