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Preparation for Midskilled Work and Continuous Learning in Nine Community College Occupational Programs

Posted on: Sunday, 20 January 2008, 03:00 CST

By Torraco, Richard J

This study examines student learning experiences in nine occupational education programs at two Midwestern community colleges. Interviews with 39 program graduates and 10 of their supervisors provided information about the features of the occupational programs that were most beneficial for job preparation, those that were least beneficial for job preparation, and the extent to which the occupational programs prepared students to keep learning on their own after graduation. Keywords: continuous learning; evaluation; occupational education; workforce development

The range of skills present in the workforce varies widely from the sophisticated capabilities of professionals, who often have baccalaureate and graduate degrees, to those of unskilled, entry- level workers who may lack a high school diploma. The term midskilled workers refers to those who fall between the highly skilled and the unskilled-individuals who hold midskilled occupations and who have at least a high school diploma but less than a baccalaureate degree (Grubb, 1996). Midskilled workers represent a majority of the labor force, approximately 60% of those currently employed (Grubb, 1996). The occupations in this segment of the labor force include automotive mechanics; dental hygienists; early childhood development workers; electricians; medical laboratory technicians; radiology technicians; heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technicians; welders; and other technical and service occupations too numerous to mention.

Workers acquire the capabilities to perform midskilled jobs in several ways. Although the importance of work experience in obtaining midskilled jobs cannot be overemphasized, most workers have obtained some education and training. Training can be acquired from several sources, including technical and community colleges, proprietary schools, and publicly and privately funded job training programs. Of those who receive some type of training, community colleges prepare the largest proportion of those employed in the midskilled labor market (Grubb, 1996). The current study examines the preparation of midskilled workers in occupational programs at community colleges.

Problem Statement

Community colleges offer many types of programs and serve diverse student populations as reflected in their ever-expanding enrollments (American Association of Community Colleges, 2007). In a society that increasingly sees education as the best route for students into our economic system, many studies have been undertaken to examine the effects of education on subsequent employment and earnings. These studies, conducted mostly by economists, address the years of education completed or the level of degree received rather than the quality of the curriculum or teaching that students experience (Achtenhagen & Grubb, 2001). This research consistently shows that the economic benefits of a community college education are substantial, but only for those who complete their programs and earn a degree or credential (Carnevale & Fry, 2001; College Board, 2006; Rumberger & Daymont, 1993). Do those who complete their occupational programs have the skills they need to perform the jobs they are taking? What do employers believe about the adequacy of the job preparation of graduates from occupational programs? Of the many types of learning used in occupational programs (i.e., classroom courses, workshops, labs, work-based or clinical experiences, etc.), which ones are perceived by program graduates as the most helpful in preparing them for their jobs? These questions, which examine the effectiveness of occupational programs in meeting the needs of graduates and their employers, are of obvious importance.

However, the ability to learn continuously and stay abreast of rapid changes in the workplace is increasingly critical to occupational graduates as well. The obsolescence of technology, the half-life of knowledge, and the need to adapt frequently to new work methods and technologies require graduates entering occupational and technical career fields to continuously add to their base of knowledge and skills. Technicians and other skilled workers can advance only so far in today's knowledge economy if they rely solely on the static knowledge gained during their community college programs. Consequently, the current study assessed how well occupational programs prepared students to keep learning on their own after graduation.

The study provides an assessment of the learning experiences in occupational programs. Nine occupational education programs in two Midwestern community colleges were examined by soliciting the views of recent graduates of these programs and their supervisors. Interviews were conducted with 39 recent program graduates and with 10 supervisors. The interviews provide information about the features of the occupational programs that were most beneficial for job preparation, the features that were least beneficial for job preparation, and the extent to which the occupational programs prepared students to keep learning on their own after graduation.

Review of the Literature

Most of the evidence available in the education literature about the effectiveness of teaching and learning is from K-12 education, not from community colleges. Most quantitative studies that assess the effectiveness of teaching are limited to comparisons of learning at different points in time and usually address classroom environments only. Obtaining student gain scores from pretests and posttests may provide useful estimates of teaching effectiveness for classroom learning; however, this approach is of little value in determining how well occupational programs prepare students for the demands of the workplace after graduation. Although classroom learning is expected to contribute to the competence of occupational program graduates on the job, so are other learning experiences outside the classroom such as workshops, labs, work-based learning, and clinical experiences. Evaluation of the knowledge acquired in the classroom alone is insufficient for assessing the degree to which students have acquired and integrated the skills needed to function effectively in the business, industrial, and community settings in which they will be employed.

Recent studies have begun to provide a better understanding of the nature of teaching and learning that occurs in occupational programs. Using technical education programs in electronics, business software, computer-aided design, and two health care occupations (respiratory therapy and dental hygiene), Dirkx, Kielbaso, and Smith (2004) examined the epistemic beliefs that instructors in these programs held about what counts as knowledge, "how learners come to know, and the role of computer-assisted instruction in the learning process" (p. 26). Literature reviews have compared student outcomes across different types of community college programs. Seybert (2002) examined how the assessment of student learning outcomes differs across academic, occupational, developmental, and noncredit programs. Bragg (2002) examined the outcomes associated with traditional occupational and technical programs, tech-prep and school-to-work transition programs, work- based learning programs, transfer and applied baccalaureate programs, and credit and noncredit workforce training programs. In addition, case studies have examined efforts to develop assessment plans that determine if students have acquired the skills needed for employment (Ruhland & Brewer, 2001) and to evaluate programs by eliciting opinions from graduates and representatives of the local industries that employ these graduates (Keiser, Lawrenz, & Appleton, 2004).

Grubb and Associates (1999) conducted a detailed study of teaching in community colleges based on observations and interviews with faculty members and administrators at 32 institutions in the United States. Grubb's work is arguably the most in-depth study of teaching in community colleges to date. At a variety of institutions across the country (urban and rural, large and small, comprehensive and technical), classroom observations and field notes were taken in academic, occupational, and remedial (developmental) classes. More than 250 instructors from across these instructional areas were either observed or interviewed to provide a detailed account of teaching in its various forms, such as lecture-discussion, lecture- workshop, and so on. Outside of Grubb's work, there are few other assessments of instruction in community college occupational programs. This may be due to several factors. There is very little research about instructional effectiveness in community colleges and even less institutional research conducted by community colleges to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of their own programs. Unlike K-12 education, where attendance is compulsory, it is voluntary in community colleges, further complicating efforts to evaluate community college teaching. Grubb and Associates (1999) described the problem posed by student attrition in the following way:

In the community college setting, where students can "vote with their feet," one consequence of low-quality or demeaning instruction is that students simply drop out, so that post-tests would be an inadequate measure of effectiveness. However, students drop out for many different reasons, and these would have to be determined before including student persistence as a measure of effectiveness, (p. 59) Differences in the measurement of program completion rates also make comparative assessments of programs difficult. Some programs extend the time during which completion can occur to account for part-time students who take longer to finish their programs than full-time students. Other programs use more standardized completion rates, calculating the percentage of students who complete their programs within 2 or 3 years. How much of a program has to be completed before a student can be considered a "completer"? Students in programs whose skills are in high demand by employers often complete enough of their programs to obtain jobs; however, many do not finish all of the courses necessary to graduate. Recognizing that many students in occupational certificate programs do not complete their programs, Lohman and Dingerson (2005) investigated an alternative way of evaluating these programs to determine if they are meeting the goals of the students and of the institution. They collected interview and focusgroup data from program noncompleters in an urban community college to better understand the factors that influenced student decisions to leave programs. They also collected information about the programs and the institution itself. The study concluded that students were very pragmatic about their education and that they enrolled for specific reasons and dropped out when they achieved their goals. The study not only confirmed that students met their career goals, sometimes without finishing their programs, but also that the institution met its goals as well, because it was successful in preparing students for the workforce or advancing them in existing jobs.

Some occupational programs have external accreditation mandates that require students to complete their programs before they can enter the field or take licensure or certification examinations. The existence of these external accreditation requirements makes it easier to evaluate these programs. This is true for many programs in health careers and in selected information technologies (such as programs that prepare Microsoft-certified systems engineers or that lead to certification by Cisco and Novell). Program evaluation is more challenging for other programs that lack these external accreditation requirements.

The multiple forms of teaching and instruction present in community colleges increase the difficulty of evaluating occupational programs. Classroom lectures, hands-on workshops, discussions, laboratories, workbased experiences, and other instructional methods occur separately or in combination, depending on the program and other factors. As a result, the empirical findings of program evaluations may not be consistent. For example, those who use traditional didactic, teacher-centered approaches typically rely on "objective" multiple-choice examinations, whereas advocates of constructivist, student-centered teaching avoid such methods and employ more "authentic" experiential assessments of learning outcomes. The various conceptualizations of teaching and learning make it difficult to generalize about instructional outcomes across programs.

In addition to instruction itself, there are many other factors that contribute to the performance of occupational program graduates once they begin their jobs. The competence demonstrated by graduates on the job reflects not only the education they have received but also their prior experience in related jobs, the effectiveness of the supervision they receive, the guidance they receive from coworkers, the extent to which the work environment is well designed, and other performance-enhancing factors that go beyond formal education. The need to account for these factors makes evaluating occupational programs difficult.

In short, there are many challenges to assessing community college occupational programs. The current study sought to learn more about the perceived value of learning experiences in occupational programs by soliciting the views of recent graduates and their supervisors.

Research Questions, Method, and Procedures

The research questions guiding the study were

Research Question 1: What educational experiences are perceived by graduates as most beneficial in preparing them for their jobs?

Research Question 2: What educational experiences are perceived by graduates as least beneficial in preparing them for their jobs?

Research Question 3: In what areas do supervisors believe graduates were well prepared by their programs?

Research Question 4: In what areas do supervisors believe graduates were inadequately prepared by their programs?

Research Question 5: How well do occupational programs prepare students to keep learning on their own after graduation (i.e., develop the capability for continuous learning)?

The study used a multiple-case-study design (Russ-Eft & Preskill, 2001). Case study research "focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings" (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 534). Case study research examines a phenomenon of interest present within case settings and takes advantage of the rich context for empirical observation provided by a case study. This methodology is particularly appropriate "when little is known about a phenomenon, [when] current perspectives seem inadequate because they have little empirical substantiation, or [when] they conflict with each other or with common sense" (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 548). Each of the nine community college occupational programs involved in the current study constituted a "case" for which data were collected from recent graduates of the program and from their supervisors in the local industries that hired them.

Selection of Community College Occupational Programs

A goal of the study was to examine program strengths-features of the occupational programs that are perceived to be particularly effective in preparing graduates for their jobs. Accordingly, program graduates were asked, "What feature(s) of your program (e.g., courses, labs, workshops, co-op experiences, clinical experiences, or work-based experiences) were most beneficial in preparing you for your job?" In addition, the supervisors of program graduates were asked, "In what areas of [the graduate's] job do you believe she or he was well prepared by his or her program?" In an effort to illustrate program features that would be considered successful relative to the features of other, similar programs, three criteria were used to select occupational programs for inclusion in the study: (a) high rates of program completion by students, (b) high employment rates of graduates in jobs for which they were prepared by their programs, and (c) occupational instruction leading to the associate's degree only. The completion rate is the percentage of all students declaring an intention to study in the program who actually complete the program. The employment rate is the percentage of graduates who found jobs in fields related to their programs.

Based on their high rates of program completion and the employment of graduates, nine occupational programs were selected from the two largest community colleges in a Midwestern state. One institution, located on three campuses, serves a large metropolitan area of 1.1 million people, and the other institution, also located on three campuses, serves the state capital, a city of 240,000 people, and its surrounding communities. Table 1 lists the occupational programs and details the following for each: the program completion rate, the employment rate of graduates, and DUMMY M'TEXT the number of graduates and supervisors interviewed in the study. Accreditation bodies and licensure or certification requirements for each of the programs are also detailed in Table 1.

The study sought the perspectives of recent graduates and their supervisors about the learning experiences in the nine occupational programs. Graduates had to be employed for at least 6 months in a job for which they had been prepared by their program. This time interval ensured that the graduates interviewed in the study had enough work experience to make knowledgeable judgments about the extent to which they had been adequately prepared for their jobs. To maximize the clarity of the graduates' recall of their programs, interviews were limited to those individuals who had been working in their jobs no longer than 2 years since graduation. The rationale for this time interval between graduation and the interview was that the passage of too much time since graduation might hinder the graduates' ability to remember salient features of their programs.

Data Collection

Information about each program was obtained from instructors and from college Web sites on admission requirements, the courses required to complete the program, the ways courses were taught (i.e., classroom, laboratories, workshops, clinical experiences, work-based learning, cooperative education, etc.), and the certification or licensure examinations needed (if any) for specific occupations. Contact information for program graduates who met the selection criteria described above was obtained from the directors of each occupational program. Graduates were contacted by telephone and asked if they would be willing to participate in an interview. Those who agreed were sent consent forms that were approved by the researcher's Institutional Review Board. When informed consent forms were signed and returned, interviews were conducted with the graduates. At the end of the interviews, graduates were asked for permission to contact their immediate supervisors.

All graduates gave their permission and provided the names of their supervisors as well as current telephone numbers that could be used to contact those supervisors. At the beginning of the interviews, graduates were asked to confirm that they attended the community college occupational programs that were targeted in the study. They were asked when they graduated, what organizations they now worked for, and how long they had been working for those organizations. In addition, interviewees were asked about prior jobs or experiences, other than their community college occupational programs, that they believed helped to prepare them for their current jobs. This question was used to ensure that graduates attributed postgraduation outcomes to skills developed in their occupational programs and not to prior work experiences. Thirty seven of the 39 graduates who were interviewed had not worked in prior jobs similar to the ones they held at the time of the interviews. After this preliminary information was gathered, the following interview questions were then asked: 1. What feature(s) of your program (e.g., courses, labs, workshops, co-op experiences, clinical experiences, or work-based experiences) at [name of institution] were most beneficial in preparing you for your job? Why do you believe this feature (or features) of your program was (or were) so helpful to your job preparation?

2. What feature(s) of your program (e.g., courses, labs, workshops, co-op experiences, clinical experiences, or work-based experiences) at [name of institution] were least beneficial for preparing you for your job? Why?

3. It is important for everyone in today's workforce to be able to learn continuously so they can keep up with changes in their jobs and in other aspects of their lives. Nobody wants to be without the skills they need to get a job (or to get a better job). How has your program at [name of institution] prepared you to keep learning on your own?

The same sequence for obtaining informed consent and scheduling interviews was used for supervisors. Supervisors were contacted and asked if they would be willing to participate in the study. All supervisors who were contacted agreed to participate in interviews, which were conducted after informed consent was obtained. At the beginning of the interview, the occupational program graduate was identified by name so mat the supervisor could confirm the accuracy of the information about employment obtained from the graduate. The following interview questions were then asked:

1. In what areas of [this graduate's] job do you believe he or she was well prepared by his or her program?

2. In what areas of [this graduate's] job do you believe he or she was inadequately prepared?

3. How has the [occupational] program prepared [this graduate] to keep learning on his or her own after graduation? Has [this graduate] demonstrated that he or she has continued to learn on his or her own?

4. What advice would you offer to better prepare students for this job?

Data Analysis

The interview data were analyzed for each research question. Each interview was tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were subjected to thematic content analysis using standard qualitative procedures. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted when needed to clarify or elaborate on comments obtained in the first interview. The analysis of the interview protocols was inductive (i.e., building on the respondents' actual comments) and deductive (i.e., guided by the research questions). This bidirectional approach to analyzing the data allows the investigation of important issues while maintaining the integrity of the actual data. Interviewees were asked to confirm the occupational programs they attended, their graduation dates, the names of their current employers (e.g., the company names), and the length of time employed.

A diagram of the design of the study is shown in Figure 1. The rectangle labeled "Occupational Education Practices" represents the study's focus on occupational education programs, and, in particular, the students' learning experiences and the instruction used in these programs to prepare students for their jobs. Three sources of data were used to study the programs: data from program graduates, from supervisors of the graduates, and from informational materials produced by the colleges about the occupational programs and their curricula. All are shown in Figure 1 as the three ovals with arrows pointing to the rectangle labeled "Occupational Education Practices." The "Supervisors" oval is linked to the "Graduates" oval with a solid arrow because supervisors could directly assess the adequacy of the graduates' job preparation. However, the "Supervisors" oval is linked to the "Occupational Education Practices" rectangle with a dotted arrow because supervisors do not have direct exposure to the programs and can only make inferences about program effectiveness through the job performance of graduates. The bottom of Figure 1 shows the temporal relationship of the elements of the study, representing the graduates' progression over time from his or her job experiences prior to beginning the occupational program to his or her current employment of at least 6-months' duration after graduating from the program.

Research Findings: Graduates' Perspectives of Their Programs

Program graduates were asked, "What feature(s) of your program (e.g., courses, labs, workshops, co-op experiences, clinical experiences, or work-based experiences) were most beneficial in preparing you for your job?" and "What feature(s) of your program were least beneficial for preparing you for your job?" In addition, graduates were asked, "How has your program . . . prepared you to keep learning on your own?" Responses to these three questions are summarized below.

Program Features Most Beneficial for Job Preparation

Graduates identified applied learning experiences, such as labs and work-based learning, as the most beneficial instructional formats for developing the skills needed after graduation. Graduates of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) program stated that the labs were most helpful to them. The labs allowed students to use HVAC equipment and tools and to apply principles learned in the classroom to simulated problems. Graduates of the nondestructive testing (NDT) program stated that labs and applied courses, such as those in radiography and ultrasonics, were most helpful to them. In their labs, NDT students were given materials, such as a metal truss or chassis, that were flawed or had weaknesses. Students used these hands-on experiences to develop their inspection and problem-solving skills and to prepare inspection reports similar to those that would be expected by employers after graduation. In their industrial radiography courses, students took and developed X rays and learned how to interpret and evaluate radiographic images of welds, castings, forgings, electrical components, and composite materials. Graduates of these technical-industrial programs identified these applied experiences as the most beneficial learning experiences in their occupational programs.

Graduates of the programs in health care fields (respiratory care, radiography, and dental hygiene) stated that clinical experiences in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and dental offices were most helpful to them. A graduate of the respiratory care program stated, "At the hospital, we did tracheotomy changes on young kids with difficult airways. It was kind of scary. But this was the best way for me to see how all the classes and stuff we learned fit together." Another respiratory care graduate stated, "The mechanical ventilator class [a classroom course with laboratory] was okay, but it was in the clinical setting, working with patients when it first all came together for me." Another example of the valuable learning obtained from clinical experiences came from a radiography graduate, who described how she learned to position patients more effectively before taking radiographic films, a task that is more challenging when patient movement is limited by pain or injury.

Clinical experiences in health care programs also helped students with the transition from the slow, methodical classroom and laboratory coverage of patient care techniques to the fast pace of hospital work. One graduate described a clinical experience during which he first extubated a patient (i.e., removed a ventilation tube from a patient's airway). "It went much faster than I thought-it just happened. In school, we do everything slowly, explaining everything step-by-step." Graduates of health care programs believed that their patient-care skills were best developed through clinical experiences.

Graduates of programs outside of health care also identified the value of applied, hands-on learning. A student in a utility line technician program stated, "The actual work experiences allowed us to practice and gain experience on real jobs learning from [a public utility company's] linemen." A welding program graduate said, "I learn things best from doing things hands-on, not just from books. You don't really know it until you actually operate the equipment and put your hands on the materials." An HVAC program graduate stated,

The labs, the hands-on work helped me learn better. We had to build the whole system from scratch in our refrigeration lab. We had to wire all the components-compressor, evaporator coil, condensing coil. The hands-on [work] helped me learn the electrical and refrigeration principles in a way I could understand.

Graduates' perceptions of the value of internships and cooperative (co-op) education experiences depended on how occupational instructors and cooperating employers structured these experiences for students. Some students believed that the co-op experience was valuable because it provided a preview of what employment would be like after graduation. Students in the HVAC, dental hygiene, and legal assistant programs said that their co-op experiences allowed them and their employers to size each other up before employment decisions needed to be made. Internships and co- op experiences also allowed students to apply classroom learning to the workplace and gain realistic, on-the-job experience. However, not all graduates considered co-op and work-based experiences to be beneficial. A few graduates felt that co-op experiences were, as one individual put it, "a waste of time." He continued, "I followed a service technician around, but I didn't learn anything about servicing the [HVAC] units." Citing a similar concern about her clinical rotation, a radiography graduate stated, "The rehabilitation hospital wasn't busy enough when we were there. We helped the lady file paperwork." Referring to her internship at a law firm, the graduate of a legal assistant program also believed this was not a useful learning experience for her. She stated, "It was fast-paced with everybody working to meet deadlines. No one was willing to stop and help us learn-they were too busy doing other things. Someone should have been responsible for helping us, for teaching us." In these cases, students who had looked forward to learning on the job were disappointed. The value of these work- based and co-op experiences seemed to depend on the degree to which cooperating employers were willing and able to serve as mentors and guide students through this type of learning. In addition, occupational instructors have responsibility for adequately structuring this part of the program for students. Overall, however, a majority of graduates identified applied learning experiences as the most beneficial part of their programs in terms of developing the skills needed after graduation.

Program Features Least Beneficial for Job Preparation

The area about which graduates expressed the most concern was the required general education component of their associate's degree programs. Students were required to select two or more classes from specified areas such as mathematics, science, humanities, social science, communications, or other general education areas. A few graduates identified a particular general education course that was well taught or particularly interesting to them. However, most graduates criticized this part of the curriculum as being irrelevant and "tacked on" to their occupational programs without attention to the connections between the content of general education courses and the rest of their programs. For example, health care programs (respiratory care, radiography, and dental hygiene) often included one or more science courses in biology, chemistry, or microbiology. Even though connections could be drawn easily in these courses to human biology, health, and common illnesses, graduates lamented that course content was not tailored to health applications and instead seemed designed for science majors. Drawing on their work experiences since graduation, several graduates suggested ways in which the content of general education courses in such areas as mathematics and English could be taught through applications to specific job requirements. One graduate suggested that mathematics be taught by using patient care tasks that require health care professionals to calculate medication dosages, intravenous infusion rates, or the daily food and fluid intake and output of patients. English and written communication skills could be taught through exercises that require service technicians to prepare job estimates and service reports for customers. Graduates cited specific courses in mathematics, English composition, science (physics, biology, and chemistry), social studies, philosophy (ethics and critical thinking), and business as those that seemed disconnected from the rest of their programs.

A few graduates also identified some occupational courses that they felt contributed very little to the expertise they were required to use on the job. For example, an HVAC graduate could see no purpose for the emphasis given to drawing wiring diagrams in a required electrical principles course. He stated, "We need to know how to interpret the schematics of a system, not how to create them from scratch." In a similar observation, a NDT graduate looked back on a metallurgy (physics) course and its coverage of the properties of certain alloys and steels and wondered why no attention was given during the course to explaining why this content is important to the work of an NDT technician. She stated, "We learned about all these metals with no mention of why their properties would later be important to us during inspections." A respiratory care graduate who had been working for 2 years lamented, "We face many moral and ethical dilemmas in health care. The biomedical ethics course we took could have been so much better." A legal assistant graduate looked back on a business law course and observed that, although he learned about business management, he learned little or nothing about the legal aspects of business, the primary purpose of such a course in the legal assistant program. These students expected the connections between course content and work applications to be made explicit in occupational courses. However, in the case of these courses, instructors did not take advantage of the opportunities to make classroom or laboratory learning relevant to the skills needed by students after graduation.

Preparing Students for Continuous Learning

A research question guiding the current study asked how the occupational programs prepared students to keep learning on their own after graduation. The importance of one's ability to learn continuously and stay abreast of changes in the workplace is widely accepted (Carnevale, Gainer, & Meltzer, 1990; Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 1990; Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991). Continuous learning has been defined as "processing or acquiring the knowledge and skill to learn effectively in whatever situation one encounters" (Smith, 1987, pp. 137-138). Learning how to learn is central to the thinking of noted educational leaders and philosophers. This is reflected in Dewey's (1938) emphasis on creating in students a desire for "continual growth," in Carl Rogers's (1969) notion that learning is self- directed discovery, in Brookfield's (1987) work on the development of critical thinking skills, in Schon's (1987) strategies for educating the "reflective practitioner," and in the importance of continuous learning (Brown & Duguid, 2000) and learning communities (Wenger, 1998) to success in the knowledge-based economy.

However, when asked to explain what was actually done during the program to develop student capabilities for continuous learning, graduates were unable to identify any aspect of their programs that addressed this. They could not recall efforts to develop their capabilities for learning on their own beyond general encouragement by instructors to keep up with new equipment and work methods. Students were encouraged to "stay current" with technology, "use the Internet,""keep your books," and "keep asking questions." A graduate of the NDT program who was in his mid-30s, who had been working for 2 years for a heavy equipment manufacturer, and who had just been promoted to supervisor offered his opinion about this issue:

They encouraged us to keep learning on our own, but I think they considered this a self-directed responsibility. Some students take this seriously and some don't. But they didn't explain what we could do to continue learning on our own. They just expected us to do it.

Graduates of health care programs (respiratory care, radiography, and dental hygiene) cited the need to earn continuing education units (CEUs) when asked about how their programs prepared them to learn on their own. Health care professionals must meet CEU requirements to maintain their licenses. As one respiratory care graduate stated, "We're expected to stay current in respiratory care, but we don't really have a choice. If we don't get enough CEUs, the hospital will let us know about it, and we may lose our jobs."

However, the capability for continuous learning is not an ability that is developed or demonstrated by mandatory attendance at courses to meet continuing education requirements. That the graduates cited CEU requirements in response to this question shows how poorly they understood what continuous learning really is. Lack of attention to developing the capability for continuous learning may be a significant omission in occupational programs because this capability is among the most important abilities of those required in today's workforce. More attention is given to the implications of this finding for occupational programs in the final section of this article.

Research Findings: Supervisors' Perspectives on Program Graduates

Supervisors were asked, "In what areas of [this graduate's] job do you believe he or she was well prepared by his or her program?" and "In what areas of [this graduate's] job do you believe he or she was inadequately prepared?" In addition, the supervisors were asked, "How has the [occupational] program prepared [this graduate] to keep learning on his or her own after graduation? Has [this graduate] demonstrated that he or she has continued to learn on his or her own?" Responses to these questions are summarized below.

Supervisor Perceptions of Adequate Preparation

Supervisors believed graduates were well prepared by their programs to assume most of the responsibilities expected of newly hired employees. Supervisors felt that graduates were generally well prepared in their understanding of the language and terminology associated with their occupations. They believed that graduates were able to be productive soon after being hired because they had a good understanding of how their jobs fit in with the general flow of work and with the expectations of employers. Supervisors also felt that the programs provided graduates with adequate preparation to perform frequently used procedures and techniques. For example, new HVAC graduates were perceived as being well prepared to install new HVAC systems and components with little supervision. NDT graduates were viewed by their supervisors as capable of conducting frequently used tests and accurately interpreting their results. Office managers (i.e., supervisors) at law firms believed that recently hired graduates from legal assistant programs were well prepared to begin employment because of their understanding of basic legal terminology and procedures. Health care supervisors in radiology and respiratory care were satisfied with the graduates' abilities to perform common patient care procedures. In short, supervisors were quite satisfied with how well occupational programs prepared graduates to understand technical language and terminology, to assume the basic responsibilities expected of new employees, and to perform commonly used procedures. Supervisor Perceptions of Inadequate Preparation

Although supervisors perceived that graduates were well prepared to perform commonly used procedures, they noted that graduates had difficulty with nonroutine tasks and problems encountered on the job. When recent graduates were confronted with situations that appeared new or unusual, they were not (according to the supervisors) able to recognize the problem as an instance of a larger class of situations that likely had been covered in their training. For example, an HVAC supervisor observed that graduates were able to install HVAC systems and recite the problems these systems could have in the future. However, this supervisor also stated that the graduates were unable to deal effectively with these problems when they actually encountered them during service calls and were expected to fix malfunctioning systems. A respiratory care supervisor expressed a similar concern that, "They [graduates] are too task oriented. They seem unable to solve patient-care problems. Our patients are all different-in age, personality, health needs. Graduates should be able to listen to different patients and meet their individual needs." When asked about the difficulty new radiology technicians have taking X rays on patients with limited mobility, a radiology supervisor offered this recommendation: "There's not enough practical, on-the-job experience. The program should provide students with more experience solving problems with real patients."

Some supervisors also believed that graduates were unable to set priorities when faced with multiple demands for their attention. A respiratory care supervisor lamented that, when faced with several patients needing care, the graduate may not recognize that a patient who missed an earlier treatment should later receive priority. Another respiratory care supervisor observed that new respiratory therapists placed too much emphasis on electronic monitors and equipment and not enough attention on the patients themselves. She stated, "There is a lot of activity on the patient care unit, but graduates should know what's important. Direct assessment of the patient should be the priority, not monitors and print-outs."

Supervisors stated that graduates had difficulty adjusting to the fast pace of their work schedules. An NDT supervisor, who graduated from the same program that the student interviewees graduated from, recalled his own experience and compared it with the challenges faced by recent graduates: "They're used to the slow, careful, step- by-step coverage of inspection procedures they received in the laboratory. But once you're on the job, speed and efficiency matter. It should not take an hour to run an ultrasound test." Lack of planning also contributed to the slow pace of graduates' work. Supervisors observed that graduates did very little advance planning of their work. One supervisor stated that his new employees had to see everything at a job site before they could begin to prepare for a job.

In short, the interviews with supervisors suggest that although graduates were well prepared to perform frequently used procedures, they had difficulty with nonroutine tasks and with new or unusual problems. When confronted with multiple tasks needing their attention, they were not always able to prioritize their work and were challenged by the fast pace of their work schedules.

Preparing Students for Continuous Learning

Beyond general encouragement to "stay current" with changes in technology, little attention appears to have been given to teaching students the strategies they will need to continue learning on their own after graduation. When asked how their programs prepared them to continue learning on their own, many graduates replied with roughly the same comment: "They told us to stay on top of new equipment and technology." In the same vein, most supervisors interpreted the capability for continuous learning as something that is addressed by having employees attend vendor-sponsored training on new products and equipment. Such training, which may address new product installation, service requirements, warranties, and other equipment specifications, is generally provided free or at minimal cost to employees of companies that have contracts with manufacturers for the sale and service of their products and equipment. Like the students who identified the accumulation of required continuing education units as evidence of the ability to continue learning, supervisors did not seem to appreciate the distinction between having someone attend a training session and helping students develop strategies for continuous learning on their own.

Discussion

What do the research findings suggest about the positive and negative features of the graduates' occupational programs? This section of the article reviews the strengths of the programs as well as those aspects of the programs that might need improvement.

Strengths of the Occupational Programs

Graduates across all of the programs identified applied learning experiences (such as clinical rotations, work-based learning, co-op experiences, and applied learning in classrooms and labs) as the most beneficial learning experiences in their occupational programs. They identified the applied, hands-on nature of these experiences as the features that were most beneficial in helping them to understand the material and, ultimately, to develop the skills needed for employment. Typical of the views of health care program graduates about their clinical experiences was the observation of a respiratory therapy graduate about the benefit of participating in "patient rounds" and then presenting patients' cases to the rest of the class. For this graduate and for others, such experiences, as one graduate stated, "really helped bring everything together." In a similar observation that was typical of the graduates from industrial programs, an HVAC graduate stated that, "the labs and actual work experiences allowed us to practice and gain experience to see what our careers are really all about." Applied learning experiences also introduced graduates to the culture of their new occupations and helped them to understand technical language and terminology, to assume the basic responsibilities expected of new employees, and to perform commonly used procedures-an assessment confirmed by supervisors.

The occupational programs examined here seemed responsive to the students' natural predispositions for learning by using experience and realwork situations as the context for their learning. These programs combined the best pedagogical features of the classroom and the workplace (or other "authentic" environments for learning such as labs, workshops, and clinical experiences) to develop the knowledge and skills needed by graduates for employment. The structure of these programs is consistent with the observation made by Achtenhagen and Grubb (2001) that teaching "in context" by employing such strategies as work-based learning, cooperative education, and apprenticeships is central to effective occupational instruction. Achtenhagen and Grubb stated that, "Vocational teaching proves to be unexpectedly rich: It uses a greater variety of teaching methods than does academic instruction, including modeling, simulation, and workshops, along with conventional classroom arrangements" (p. 605). A clear strength of the occupational programs studied here is their ability to take advantage of the pedagogical benefits of teaching "in context" through effective use of applied learning experiences.

Areas Needing Improvement

On the other hand, graduates criticized general education courses as being irrelevant and "tacked on" to occupational programs without attention to the connections between the content of these courses and the rest of their programs. Graduates provided numerous examples of courses in the humanities, social sciences, English, and other areas as being totally disconnected from their degree programs. Some graduates observed that it would have been easy for general education instructors to add relevance to their courses. For example, a legal assistant graduate cited a philosophy course as "a waste of time"; however, she observed that "there are so many examples of our legal system and our law-suit-conscious society that could have been used as examples of critical thinking in that course." Another graduate wondered why her ethics course offered no occupational examples or applications relevant to her and her classmates. One graduate even identified a potential connection between his welding program and a sociology course: "Hey, I'm going out into society as a worker. Why can't the sociology teacher even mention today's workforce in his course?" The lack of connection between academic and occupational content has been a perennial concern in occupational education (Grubb & Kraskouskas, 1992). Linking academic and occupational content involves creating learning experiences that foster the development of academic knowledge, the acquisition of which can be facilitated through the use of occupational applications. Much has been written about the challenges of integrating academic and occupational content (Hoachlander, 1999) and the many ways in which academic and occupational content can be linked effectively (e.g., Bragg & Reger, 2000; Grubb & Associates, 1999; Prentice, 2001). Supervisors reported that graduates had difficulty with nonroutine tasks and problems that graduates perceived as new or unusual. When confronted with multiple tasks needing their attention, they were not always able to prioritize their work and were challenged by the fast pace of their work schedules. Supervisors observed that some graduates were unable to differentiate trivial, irrelevant information from important information when evaluating problems on the job. Yet the question arises about how proficient recently employed graduates are expected to be on the job. (Interviewees had been on the job from 6 months to 2 years.) For example, are recently employed graduates expected to be able to resolve problems, particularly complex problems involving hospitalized patients or sophisticated commercial or industrial equipment? The ability to analyze and solve work- related problems is likely a capability that develops gradually through additional work experience. It may not be realistic to expect recently employed graduates to demonstrate this capability. The progressive development of problem-solving skills is consistent with research on expertise that shows that experts perceive broad meaningful patterns in their domains of expertise (jobs, occupations) compared with novices (i.e., newly employed graduates) (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988). Debate continues over whether problem solving is a generic skill that can be developed without regard for context or whether it is domain specific. Nonetheless, research clearly demonstrates that greater experience with problem solving in one's domain contributes to the development of skilled performance (Bereiter & Scadarmalia, 1993).

Preparing Students for Continuous Learning

Despite the importance of one's ability to learn continuously, stay abreast of rapid changes in the workplace, and adapt frequently to new work methods and technologies, little attention appears to have been given to providing students with the strategies they will need to continue learning on their own after graduation. In response to the question about continuous learning, graduates most often mentioned the general encouragement they had received to "stay current" with changes in technology. Graduates of health care programs cited the need to meet CEU requirements when asked about how their programs prepared them to learn on their own. Thus, graduates responded in terms of "what" learning would be needed (i.e., changes in equipment and procedures) rather than "why" continuous learning is important for maintaining their expertise and "how" learning should be an on-going process throughout one's career and lifetime.

The capability for learning how to learn is not an ability that is developed or demonstrated by mandatory attendance at training sessions alone. The fact that graduates cited CEU requirements or vendor updates on new equipment in response to the question of how their programs prepared them to learn on their own shows how poorly they understood the notion of continuous learning. Similarly, employers interpreted the capability for continuous learning as something that is addressed by having employees attend seminars offered by equipment manufacturers. They did not appear to distinguish between periodic attendance at a training session and strategies to prepare people to keep learning on their own throughout their careers.

Lack of attention to developing the capability for continuous learning in graduates may be a significant omission in occupational programs because this capability is among the most important abilities required for continued success in today's workforce. It is clear that the development of the capabilities for continuous learning was not seen as central to the education of those entering occupations in the health care, legal, technicalindustrial, and service programs examined in the current study.

Implications for Research and Practice

In this section, the implications of the study for further research and practice are discussed in tiiree areas: (a) emphasis on applied learning experiences, (b) the lack of connection between academic and occupational content, and (c) the development of students' capabilities for continuous learning.

Emphasis on Applied Learning Experiences

Graduates across programs identified applied learning experiences such as clinical rotations, work-based learning, co-op experiences, and applied learning in classrooms and labs as most beneficial to developing the skills needed after graduation. When asked what advice they had for how programs could better prepare students for their jobs, supervisors recommended that programs provide more opportunity for students to get practical, hands-on experience. Supervisors supported this with their belief that most of these students seem to learn best by doing.

A majority of students enroll in community colleges for broadly occupational reasons: they want a fulfilling job or career and realize that education is needed to reach their goals. The graduates in the current study already saw the connections between their occupational courses and the jobs they wanted to fill after graduation. They were ready for applied learning-for learning in a way that capitalizes on their natural predispositions for developing their skills in the context of their occupations. The radiography program included in the current study provides a good example of how applied learning experiences were introduced early and integrated throughout the program. According to the graduates who were interviewed, radiography students learned human anatomy and physiology as well as basic radiographic procedures, and they started clinical rotations early in their program. Content on human health and illness, as well as content on diagnostic radiography, was applied right away in their programs with real patients and X- ray equipment (under the careful supervision of instructors and professional staff). This enabled students to get hands-on experience while acquiring additional knowledge and participating in a more complete, enriched learning experience than classroom learning alone. Applications that bring together "textbook" knowledge and hands-on experience began early and continued throughout the program.

The importance of applied and experiential learning in occupational education is clear. However, how early and how often should occupational programs take advantage of applications in "live" settings by having students provide actual service or work with real customers or patients? Presumably, prerequisite content has to be covered before students are considered "ready" for authentic experiences in the workplace. Foundational content is typically provided in didactic fashion in the classroom. However, how is what is considered "prerequisite" determined? Can prerequisite content be covered in applied ways? Is the classroom always the best setting for this learning? These questions deserve more attention and underscore the potential of occupational education to capitalize on the reciprocal reinforcement of learning and work: content from the classroom is practiced and refined on- the-job, and experiences from the workplace enrich the meaning and relevance of additional learning in the classroom. Considering these questions also reinforces the importance of using authentic activity to develop the foundational knowledge and applied skills needed by students who enroll in occupational programs as a way of starting successful careers.

The Lack of Connection Between Academic and Occupational Content

Graduates wondered why academic content such as mathematics, science, and writing were separated from the rest of their programs and even suggested ways in which the content of general education courses could be taught through applications to specific job requirements. Despite its appeal, the linkage of academic and occupational content is a perennial challenge that has been addressed by many educational scholars (e.g., Bogue, 1950; Dewey, 1938; Grubb & Kraskouskas, 1992; Koos, 1924; Prentice, 2001). This scholarship emphasizes that combining academic and occupational content in ways that enrich education with application results in curricula that are more student centered and motivational, that provide students with skills that are broader and more applicable to career advancement than job skills alone, and that, when work-based learning is included, can capitalize on the reciprocal reinforcement of learning and work. At least nine different approaches to integrating academic and occupational content exist (Grubb & Kraskouskas, 1992; Prentice, 2001). However, despite the history of advocacy and the variety of methods for integrating academic and occupational content, integrated curricula remain the exception rather than the rule in occupational programs. The implementation of theories and models for integrated curricula is rare, especially on a large scale.

One obstacle to combining academic and occupational content lies in the disciplinary focus of the faculty. Developing a course or instructional unit that integrates academic and occupational content requires faculty members with expertise in academic disciplines (i.e., English, mathematics, social sciences, etc.) to work with faculty members whose expertise lies in occupational disciplines (i.e., health care, business, industrial technology, etc.) to produce a meaningful learning experience for students-one that effectively develops academic content and occupational content in an integrated and reciprocally reinforcing way. This has proven very difficult to do in all but a few programs and institutions. Hoachlander (1999) described other factors, beyond faculty disciplinary affiliations, that impede the integration of academic and occupational curricula. More study is needed to better understand how integrated learning experiences that are meaningful to students can be developed using key content from academic and occupational areas. Although the benefits of creating integrated learning experiences that are engaging and authentic to students appear quite substantial, so do the barriers to this endeavor. Perhaps when institutional leaders and decision makers see measurable outcomes from these integration efforts (such as more effective learning, increased retention, and accelerated student advancement through their programs), they will be more likely to invest in the time, resources, and support needed for meaningful curriculum revision (Prentice, 2001). The Development of Students' Capabilities for Continuous Learning

The current study found that little attention appears to be given to preparing students to learn continuously on their own after graduation, even though occupational education is well suited to do this. Occupational education offers a rich context for instructors to model their own strategies for continuous learning and develop students' abilities to "learn how to learn" by frequently identifying the opportunities and resources for self-directed learning that are encountered on the job. All of the major learning settings for occupational education-the classroom, laboratory, and workplace-are conducive to the development of capabilities for continuous learning. Further research is needed to examine how these skills can be more effectively developed in occupational programs and to demonstrate exemplary courses and programs in which this now occurs. Further study should also describe the "teachable moments" for learning how to learn that are present in occupational education, showing how they are exploited by effective instructors to help students appreciate the importance of continuous learning on one's own and the strategies that facilitate that learning.

Giving greater emphasis to continuous learning also has implications for practice-for the hiring and promotion of occupational faculty members and for the work of administrators who are responsible for creating an environment that is conducive to the development of students as continuous learners. Many occupational faculty members come from business and industry-a clear strength for occupational programs that seek to offer state-of-the-art skills and occupational content that is seen by students and employers as relevant to the workplace. However, experienced practitioners who serve as occupational faculty members may take for granted their own ability to learn continuously. They solve problems in their work so frequently and unconsciously that they may not recognize the need to encourage and develop this skill in students. Continuous learning should be emphasized by the occupational faculty so that students do not miss this opportunity to develop lifelong learning skills. Occupational faculty members and administrators should be hired and promoted, in part, on their willingness and ability to develop capabilities for continuous learning in their students.

Conclusion

Relative to other community college programs, the nine occupational programs examined in the current study had high graduation rates and high employment rates. These programs were generally quite effective in preparing students to enter their occupations. Recent graduates and their supervisors believed that the occupational curricula, and especially the applied learning experiences those curricula provided, prepared students effectively for the basic responsibilities of their jobs. The disconnection between academic and occupational content, and particularly students' perceptions that many general education courses were irrelevant and "tacked on" to their programs, continue to be formidable barriers to meaningful curriculum integration. In addition, the development of students' capabilities for continuous learning is recommended as an area that warrants the attention of occupational educators.

References

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Source: Community College Review

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