Abstract:
Many professions seek to develop expertise through co-operative education, that is, a
combination of classroom and internship learning experiences. As part of an investigation
into how and where abilities are developed, we sought to learn more about our internship
students' abilities. In 2004, 158 internship students of University of Technology, Sydney
(UTS) Engineering returned surveys designed to measure their perceptions about learning
from classroom, internship and other experiences. Depending on which ability is the subject
of consideration, the proportion of respondents indicating that they believed they were
competent or highly proficient ranged from 54% to 82%. Respondents indicated most of their
ability to apply mathematics, science, and engineering came from the classroom, and most of
their ability to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems came from internships.
Overall, respondents attributed about 45% of their abilities to the classroom, 45% to
internships, and 10% to other learning experiences. The results build upon those of previous
related studies, and have implications not just for educators, but for all who are interested in
theories of learning, and, in particular, professional internship programs designed to
interleave experience with reflection.
