Browsing by Author "Kloot, Bruce"
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- ItemOpen AccessAn exploration of mechanical engineering students' perceptions of the influence of their work placement experiences on their employability(2020) Ngonda, Tiyamike Nyozani; Shaw, Corrinne; Kloot, BruceMost researchers agree that work placement has a positive influence on students' employability. Despite this consensus, there has been conflicting research on the factors that contribute to this influence. Moreover, the social mechanisms through which this outcome is realised have not been well understood. To address these shortcomings, this study explores how mechanical engineering students' work placement experiences facilitate or hinder the growth of their occupational competency and self-efficacy, two commonly used indicators of student employability. It provides a clear explanation of the factors and social mechanisms that produce employability outcomes and it is hoped that this would enable the implementation of work placement programs in a manner that would promote rather than hinder students' employability. The study is informed by social cognitive theory's triadic reciprocal causation model, which suggests that student learning arises from interactions of environmental, personal, and behavioral factors. It is further informed by situated cognition, a sociocultural theory that focuses on learning through participation. The study collected qualitative data from a sample of 34 mechanical engineering students from a South African university of technology who were undergoing a year-long work placement. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews as well as document analysis of the students' logbooks and evidence portfolios. Thereafter, a two-phase qualitative analysis comprising thematic analysis and thematic synthesis was conducted. The thematic analysis produced seven themes: the learning environment, the industry mentor, student performance and participation as learning, quality of work affordances, student characteristics, student's agentic role and student learning trajectory. These themes represented elements of students' work placement experiences that they considered influential in the growth of their occupational competency and self-efficacy. The thematic synthesis uncovered work placement as a system with emergent outcomes arising from interactions of its variables. These interactions were represented by a qualitative systems dynamics model with negative and positive reinforcing loops. An enabling reinforcing feedback loop explained the growth of the students' occupational competency and self-efficacy, and a constraining reinforcing feedback loop explained how such growth was hindered. This qualitative systems dynamics model may resolve previous studies' explanatory shortcomings by illuminating the processes through which work placements' occupational outcomes are realised.
- ItemOpen AccessA bourdieuian analysis of foundation programmes within the field of engineering education : two South African case studies(2011) Kloot, Bruce; Case, Jenni; Marshall, DeliaWhile analyses of foundation programmes have traditionally focused on pedagogical innovations, curriculum design or student experience, this thesis investigates social structures in order to examine the potential that foundation programmes, in general, hold for the transformation of higher education in South Africa.
- ItemOpen AccessLearning as acquiring a discursive identity through participation in a community: improving student learning in engineering education(Taylor & Francis, 2009) Allie, Saalih; Armien, Mogamat Noor; Burgoyne, Nicolette; Case, Jennifer M; Collier-Reed, Brandon I; Craig, Tracy S; Deacon, Andrew; Fraser, Duncan M; Geyer, Zulpha; Jacobs, Cecilia; Jawitz, Jeff; Kloot, Bruce; Kotta, Linda; Langdon, GenevIn this paper, we propose that learning in engineering involves taking on the discourse of an engineering community, which is intimately bound up with the identity of being a member of that community. This leads to the notion of discursive identity, which emphasises that students' identities are constituted through engaging in discourse. This view of learning implies that success in engineering studies needs to be defined with particular reference to the sorts of identities that students develop and how these relate to identities in the world of work. In order to achieve successful learning in engineering, we need to recognise the multiple identities held by our students, provide an authentic range of engineering-related activities through which students can develop engineering identities and make more explicit key aspects of the discourse of engineering of which lecturers are tacitly aware. We include three vignettes to illustrate how some of the authors of this paper (from across three different institutions) have applied this perspective of learning in their teaching practice.