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Placement Supervisor Resource
Workbook four: Facilitating learning within the work placement
When you have completed this section and the activities contained within it, you should be able to:
- Identify the factors that influence what the student should learn on placement
- Develop learning objectives and learning contracts for placement
- Apply the principles of good facilitation to your role as placement supervisor
- Describe different learning theories and approaches and apply these to the role of placement supervisor
Facilitating learning
An important and essential part of the placement supervisor’s role is to facilitate student access to learning opportunities. This involves encouraging independent, self-directed learning as well as providing information, support and guidance. Students are encouraged at university to be "self-directed" learners and proactive in management of their own professional development. This ethos should be continued in placement.
Although students acquire much of their knowledge base at university, it is through placement experience that they see the application of that knowledge and become aware of the realities of practice and the effects of current legislation, policies and priorities. The workplace offers many opportunities for learning and the student should be encouraged to gain as much benefit as possible from all their experiences.
Activity: What factors do you think influence what it is appropriate for a student to learn while on a work placement with
you? Jot down your thoughts.
Hover over each of the outer circles to reveal our thoughts.
The learning contract
In Workbook 3 we briefly discussed the importance of learning contracts and learning objectives. In this section we will look more closely at setting learning objectives.
Clear learning objectives can:
- Help students know what they have to learn/experience during placement
- Allow students to set an individual pathway focusing on the skills and knowledge they need
- Help supervisors to ensure that they provide appropriate learning opportunities
- Enable feedback to be are fair and effective
The backbone of the learning contract should be the university learning objectives that the student requires to meet for a successful placement. These will be pre-set by the course academic team and may form part of a formal assessment relating to placement activity. The student should have full details of these requirements and they should also be available in the course placement handbook. In addition to these learning objectives the student should be encouraged to identify their own learning needs and personal goals that they wish to achieve during placement. As placement supervisor you may also wish to add some learning objectives that are relevant to what you need the student to learn during the placement.
The student should be actively involved in setting the learning objectives and negotiating how the objectives will be met. Through involvement in setting the objectives the student is taking responsibility for their learning which should help to motivate them to engage with the placement and successfully meet their learning objectives (Gopee 2015).
Discussion between you and the student is the key to ensuring that you both have a clear understanding of what the student is aiming to achieve, and that the objectives are appropriate to those aims. The learning objectives form part of the learning contract, a sample of which is given below.
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Learning Contract |
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Learning needs |
Learning objectives |
Strategy |
Achievement |
Target date |
Review |
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What do I want to learn? |
What do I want to achieve? |
How will I achieve this? |
How will I measure this? |
When do I want to achieve this by? |
What went well/not so well? Is there anything else I need to do? |
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Signature of student |
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Signature of supervisor |
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(Adapted from Gopee 2015 :71)
Writing learning objectives
If you have never written learning objectives or a learning contract before this can be daunting but don’t worry they don’t have to be perfect.
Before creating learning objectives you need clear goals for placement. These should be discussed and agreed with the student in the first days of placement. Learning objectives are concise statements describing the skills, knowledge and attitudes which the student should have by the end of placement and together will allow the student to achieve their goals.
To write the learning objective you need to:
- Identify the thing you want the student to learn
- Identify the level of knowledge or skill you want (this will depend on the knowledge and experience of the student)
- Select a verb that relates to the behaviour at an appropriate level
- Add additional criteria to indicate how this will be measured and/or by when
(Smith 2012)
Activity: Writing learning objectives
Try writing some learning objectives using this online generator https://learning-objectives.easygenerator.com/
You may be familiar with the concept of SMART objectives. The simple SMART acronym has been around for a long time and is a good technique to help ensure your learning objectives are effective.
Activity
Watch this short video that explains how to write SMART objectives.
Check that the learning objectives that you designed above are SMART. If they aren’t, try to make them SMARTer.
Learning/Facilitation
Learning can be defined as a process that leads to modification in behavior or the acquisition of knowledge or a skill. There is widespread agreement that learning something changes the person and adds to the things that they know and are able to do. It is also recognised that learning is a life-long process (Gopee 2018). Over 2000 years ago the philosopher Socrates identified learning as “an adventure, an activity of the mind, a pursuit demanding reflection, analysis and investigation, a social activity undertaken by equals freely associated to engage in dialogue” (Jeffs 2003:28). Very little has changed.
Increasingly, the ability to facilitate learning, rather than only provide information or monitor performance, is seen as a critical component of work placement.
Good facilitation involves a range of roles that are synonymous with supervision.
Good facilitators:
- Suggest and provide access to learning opportunities
- Demonstrate tasks, skills or functions
- Providing opportunities to practice and apply learning
- Provide expert professional knowledge and advice
- Assist learning and understanding through questioning and challenging
- Encourage critical thinking
- Are alert to signs of confusion and review activities that are causing confusion
- Suggesting useful resources to guide and reinforce learning
- Listen more than talk
- Use questions effectively
- Act as a ‘sounding board’
- Encourage reflection
- Challenge existing mind sets
- Provide supportive and informative feedback
- Motivate and encourage and develop confidence and self-esteem
Learning theories
There are many educational theorists however in this guide we will briefly consider the three main groups that most learning falls into Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism.
Behaviourism is mainly concerned with observable behaviour rather than with thinking and feeling. This theory assumes that learning is the result of a stimulus and response mechanism for example a student responding to information provided by the supervisor. The learner starts off as a clean slate (tabula rasa) and behaviour is shaped through positive reinforcement and/or negative reinforcement.
The theory implies that learning is a passive accumulation of information that does not involve the student processing the information. This type of learning is said to be less effective than active learning, where the student seeks out what he/she wants to understand and interacts with the learning. Passive learning is believed to encourage surface learning rather than deep learning (Dolan and Hinchcliff 2017).
The early behaviourist theories were developed by Pavlov (1928) - classical conditioning and Skinner (1953) – operant conditioning
Social leaning theory - (Bandura 1996)
Social learning theory builds on the above early behaviourist theories and involves:
- the learner observing an activity/ behaviour performed by a skilled practitioner,
- learning the behaviour,
- replicating the activity,
- positive reinforcement,
- learned behaviour
If the performance is positively reinforced (well done, that’s great etc.) then the behaviour is likely to be adopted by the learner. This is not only true of behaviours but also of attitudes and values. It involves any aspect that can be copied by learners from supervisors and role models either formally or informally
Watch
Watch this video which further explains social learning theory (observational learning)
Activity: Observational approach
Give examples of where the student will learn using an observational approach in your placement.
Identify positive and negative features of this approach.
Your examples will depend on the type of placement, but it may involve operating machinery, filling in forms, answering phone calls, doing a routine procedure.
It involves surface learning
Learner may learn bad practice as well as good practice
It does not prepare the learner for problem solving and creative thinking
Does not encourage the student to use their initiative
Observational learning is very useful in placement and can be used in conjunction with other techniques that help to make it student-centred, encouraging greater depth of learning e.g. questioning, discussion and reflection.
Although a separate theory, constructivism primarily stems from cognitive theory. Constructivism is based on the premise that people construct learning new ideas based on their own prior knowledge and experiences. Learning, therefore, is unique to the individual learner. Students adapt their models of understanding either by reflecting on prior theories or by resolving misconceptions. From a constructivist perspective, the primary responsibility of the supervisor is to create and maintain a collaborative problem-solving environment, where students are allowed to construct their own knowledge, with the supervisor acting as a facilitator and guide (Bada and Olusegan 2015).
As students are constructing their own knowledge base, outcomes cannot always be anticipated, therefore, the supervisor should check and challenge any misconceptions that may arise. For this reason, when consistent outcomes are required, a constructivist approach may not be the ideal theory to use in isolation.
Experiential Learning
In most cases, the learning that students will engage in during placement can be described as experiential learning - learning from experience. Although there will be some situations where memorising and reproducing facts or actions are required most learning will involve developing understanding and being able to relate new experience to existing knowledge.
Much of what students encounter in the placement environment will be new to them. In order to make sense of these new experiences the student needs time to engage in the process of reflection, helping to turn experiences into learning. Discussion with their supervisor (before, during and after an event) can help the student to reflect.
Kolb (1984) argues that we learn from our experiences of life and that reflection is an integral part of such learning. He developed an experiential learning cycle which is based on the premise that learning follows a pattern or cycle consisting of four stages, one of which involves what Kolb refers to as 'reflective observation'.
Hover over each outer circle to read more about each stage.
Reflective learning
Becoming a reflective learner or a reflective practitioner is essential throughout life and is an important part of learning and continuous professional development. There are many different models of reflection that guide you through the process. Some of the most well known ones are Gibbs (1984), that gives a cyclical model of reflection; Borton (1970) that includes three simple questions – What? So what? and now what?; Schon (1983) which looks at reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action.
Each of the models provide a framework for reflection and can help students to critically evaluate their learning and identify areas that require further development. Students should be encouraged to use the model which they feel is most beneficial to their learning.
Watch
Watch this short video for a simple explanation of reflective learning.
Adult learning theory
Experiential and reflective learning is closely linked with ideas about the way in which adults learn.
Knowles (2015) proposed that adult learners learn differently from children and detailed the following characteristics of adult learning:
- Adults need to know why they need to learn something
- Adults are independent and responsible for their own actions
- Adults have a wealth of experience
- Adults value learning
- Adults are internally motivated
These characteristics suggest that adult learning is more effective if based on an ethos of self-directed learning (Brundage and MacKeracher 1980, Brookfield 1998). There are therefore some approaches that would be beneficial:
- the learning environment should be positive and support the student’s self-concept and self-esteem
- learners should have a say in the content and process of their learning e.g. in setting learning objectives
- a collaborative approach to learning is important e.g. a learning agreement, discussion, shared evaluation of learning etc.
- students need to be respected, valued and acknowledged for their past experience and have an opportunity to apply this experience to their current learning
- learning should focus on solving problems instead of memorising facts
- learning should be active
- learning should include effective and supportive feedback
Kapur (2015) explains that “Adult learning (andragogy) is 'education of equals' (facilitator and learner) as opposed to child learning (pedagogy) 'education from above' (teacher and student).”
This is just a very brief look at learning theories and approaches but hopefully this gives some insight into the many ways that people learn. In reality, people learn by using a rich mix of a range of learning styles and approaches.
Factors influencing learning
Activity
Many factors influence how we learn. Try to identify some of these factors and ways that they can affect learning.
You may have thought of a wide range of factors.
Some examples are
- willingness to learn
- culture – this may have an impact on values, beliefs and understanding
- age
- motivation
- available time
- prior knowledge and experience
- ability/disability
It is important to be aware that people learn differently, and no two students may learn in the same way or at the same rate. It is therefore important to know your student and work with them to use a learning approach that best fits their needs.
References
- Bada, Dr. and Olusegan, S. (2015) ‘Constructivism Learning Theory: A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning’ IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education Vol 5, Issue 6, 66-70
- Bandura, A. (1996) Social Learning Theory. Harlow, UK: Pearson
- Brookfield, S. (1998) Understanding and facilitating adult learning: a comprehensive analysis of principles and effective practices. Buckingham: Open University Press
- Brundage, D.H. and Mackeracher, D. (1980) Adult learning principles and their application to planning. Toronto: Ministry of Education of Ontario.
- Borton, T. (1970) Reach, Touch and Teach. London: Hutchinson
- Dolan, B. and Hinchcliff, S. (2017) The Practitioner as Teacher 4th ed. London: Elsevier
- Gibbs,G. (1988) Learning by doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University
- Gray, Morag (2014) Practical Skills for Mentoring in Healthcare: A guide for busy practitioners. London: MacMillan Palgrave
- Gopee, N. (2018) Supervsion and mentoring in healthcare 4th edition. London: Sage
- Jeffs, T. ( 2003) ‘Quest for knowledge begins with a recognition of shared ignorance’ Adult learning 14(6), 28
- Kapur, S. (2015) ‘Andragogy: The Adult Learning Theory’. Indian Journal of Adult Education 76, 50-60
- Knowles, M. S. (2015)The adult learner : The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development 8th edition. London: Routledge
- Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Pavlov, I. (1928) Lectures on conditioned reflexes. (Translated by W.H. Gantt) London: Allen and Unwin.
- Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. London: Temple Smith
- Skinner, B.F. (1953) Science and human behaviour. New York: Macmillan