This was a presentation given on 11 July 2013 at the University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece by Vivienne Bozalek from the University of the Western Cape
Authentic learning and Graduate Attributes - The Learner Conference 2013 University of the Aegean
1. Using
authen,c
learning
to
develop
graduate
a4ributes
Vivienne
Bozalek
University
of
the
Western
Cape
vbozalek@uwc.ac.za
2. Structure
of
presenta,on
• Curriculum
alignment
vs
authen,c
learning
for
achieving
graduate
a4ributes
• Graduate
a4ributes
• Authen,c
learning
–
elements
• Research
done
at
the
University
of
the
Western
Cape
(UWC)
on
authen,c
learning
• A
case
study
illustra,ng
authen,c
learnng
and
graduate
a4ributes
• Conclusion
3. Developing
graduate
a4ributes
• Increasing
emphasis
of
graduate
a4ributes
in
higher
educa,on
• How
best
to
develop
these
a4ributes
in
higher
educa,on
and
embed
them
in
curriculum
• One
possible
way
is
through
construc,ve
alignment
(Biggs,
2012)
• Another
possibility
is
through
authen,c
learning
(Herrington
et
al.,
2010)
4. What are Graduate Attributes?
Graduate
a4ributes
are
the
quali,es,
skills
and
understandings
a
university
community
agrees
its
students
should
develop
during
their
,me
with
the
ins,tu,on
and
consequently
shape
the
contribu,on
they
are
able
to
make
to
their
profession
and
society
...
They
are
quali,es
that
also
prepare
graduates
as
agents
of
social
good
in
unknown
futures.’
(Bowden
et
al.,
2000)
5. What would UWC Graduate Attributes for the 21st
Century look like?
6. Two tiers of graduate attributes
(Barrie, 2004)
Tier 1
‘complex interwoven aspects of human ability’ (Barrie, 2006:3)
• attributes that allow graduates to prosper in an uncertain world of change
(Barnett, 2004) UWC Charter generic attributes:
• scholarship, citizenship and the social good, lifelong learning
Tier 2
* Clusters of personal skills and abilities (UWC charter)
• Inquiry-focused and knowledgeable
• Critically and relevantly literate
• Autonomous and collaborative
• Ethically, Environmentally and Socially Aware and Active
• Skilled Communicators
• Interpersonal flexibility and confidence to engage across difference
7. UWC Charter of Graduate Attributes
First Tier
SCHOLARSHIP: A critical attitude towards knowledge:
UWC graduates should be able to demonstrate a scholarly attitude to knowledge and
understanding within the context of a rapidly changing environment. UWC graduates
should have the ability to actively engage in the generation of innovative and relevant
knowledge and understanding through inquiry, critique and synthesis. They should be
able to apply their knowledge to solve diverse problems and communicate their
knowledge confidently and effectively.
CRITICAL CITIZENSHIP AND THE SOCIAL GOOD: A relationship and interaction with
local and global communities and the environment:
UWC graduates should be engaged, committed and accountable agents of social good.
They must aspire to contribute to social justice and care, appreciative of the complexity of
historical contexts and societal conditions through their roles as professionals and
members of local and global communities. They should demonstrate leadership and
responsibility with regard to environmental sustainability.
LIFELONG LEARNING: An attitude or stance towards themselves:
UWC graduates should be confident Lifelong Learners, committed to and capable of
continuous collaborative and individual learning and critical reflection for the purpose of
furthering their understanding of the world and their place in it.
Graduate Attributes and
curriculum alignment
2013/07/11
8. UWC Charter of Graduate Attributes
SecondTier
1. Inquiry-focused and knowledgeable: UWC graduates will be able to create new
knowledge and understanding through the process of research and inquiry
2. Critically and relevantly literate: UWC graduates will be able to seek, discern, use
and apply information effectively in a range of contexts.
3. Autonomous and collaborative: UWC graduates will be able to work independently and
in collaboration with others, in a way that is informed by openness, curiosity and a desire
to meet new challenges.
4. Ethically, Environmentally and Socially Aware and Active: UWC graduates should be
critical and responsible members of local, national, international and professional
communities. They should also demonstrate a thorough knowledge of ethical, social,
cultural and environmental issues relating to their disciplines and make professional and
leadership decisions in accordance with these principles.
5. Skilled Communicators: UWC graduates should recognise and value communication as
a tool for negotiating and creating new understanding, interacting with diverse others, and
furthering their own learning. They should use effective communication as a tool to
engage with new forms of complexity in social and working life.
6. Interpersonal flexibility and confidence to engage across difference: UWC graduates
should be able to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and have the
emotional insight and imagination to understand the viewpoints of others. They should be
able to work in a productive team, to lead where necessary and to contribute their skills
as required to solving complex problems.
Graduate Attributes and
curriculum alignment
2013/07/11
9. Herrington’s
nine
elements
of
authen,c
learning
• Authen'c
context
• Authen'c
task
• Expert
performance
• Mul'ple
perspec'ves
• Collabora'on
• Reflec'on
• Ar'cula'on
• Coaching
and
scaffolding
• Assessment
22. Community,
Self
and
Iden9ty:
A
Virtual
Learning
Community
across
two
South
African
Universi9es
Poul
Rohleder
Wendy
Lee
Fish
Amanda
Ismael
Lisa
Padfield
Deborah
Platen
23.
ZPD
This
is
the
teaching
space;
this
is
the
knowledge
gap!
Teacher
provides
skills,
strategies
and
links
to
be
able
to
complete
the
task
Coaching
and
scaffolding
Outcome
of
deep
learning,
Rela,onal
conceptual
understanding.
The
student:
world
of
experience,
Unstructured
Knowhow
&/or
Surface
learning
Mediated
learning
for
understanding
24. Assessment
• Use
Powerpoint
to
prepare
a
presenta,on
on
the
rela,onship
between
iden,ty,
community
and
professional
prac,ce.
The
presenta,on
should
cover:
No,ons
of
community,
self
and
iden,ty.
Remaining
ques,ons,
tensions
and
contradic,ons
for
the
group.
Implica,ons
of
the
above
for
professional
prac,ce
in
social
work,
occupa,onal
therapy
and
psychology.
You
will
be
assessed
on
the
basis
of
your
presenta,on,
and
the
notes
used
for
the
presenta,on.
Cri,cal
and
crea,ve
presenta,ons
are
encouraged.
Your
presenta,ons
should
contain
references
to
the
workshops,
pos,ngs
and
readings.
They
should
show
an
understanding
of
the
complexity
of
the
no,ons
of
iden,ty,
community
and
the
human
professions,
and
should
reflect
a
cri,cal
apprecia,on
of
different
viewpoints.
In
your
presenta,on,
ensure
that
you
have
considered
how
raced,
gendered
and
classed
histories
and
differing
experiences
and
values
inform
professional
iden,,es
and
prac,ces.
Your
powerpoint
presenta,on
should
be
no
longer
than
ten
slides,
containing
a
maximum
of
80
words
per
slide
(to
be
presented
in
15
minutes;
5
minutes
for
ques9ons).
25. • Part
of
Na,onal
Research
Founda,on
(NRF)
project
• Target
group:
lecturers
that
are
known
to
be
open
to/engaged
with
technology
• Sent
by
email
to
contacts
in
all
public
HEIs
ins,tu,on
(22)
in
August/
September
2011,
snowball
sampling
• Content:
3
parts,
demographic,
tools
and
open
ended
ques,ons
around
prac,ce
with
Emerging
Technologies
(ET)
• Respondents:
262
(by
30
September
2011)
• Selec,on
of
20
respondents,
for
further
indepth
interviews
on
how
emerging
technology
is
being
used
to
provide
and
authen,c
learning
experience
for
students
• Sub-‐set
of
10
UWC
staff
members
were
interviewed
as
part
of
this
research.
• The
collected
data
was
analysed
independently
by
two
researchers
of
the
NRF
project
using
the
following
coding
system:
0
–
no
evidence,
1
–
weak
evidence,
2
–
strong
evidence
of
authen,c
learning
elements.
Discrepancies
were
averaged
aWer
discussion.
Indepth
interviews
at
UWC
29. Elements
Graduate
APribute
Tier
1
Graduate
APribute
Tier
2
Case
study
of
physiotherapy
lecturer
Authen,c
Context
Barne4's
idea
of
complexity
and
uncertainty
scholarship
lifelong
learning
Cri,cally
and
relevantly
literate
(2)
Ethically,
environmenta
lly
and
socially
aware
and
ac,ve
(4)*
In
order
to
teach
physiotherapy,
the
educator
has
developed
wri4en
cases
to
improve
the
clinical
reasoning
process;
….
…
We
introduce
and
encourage
the
idea
of
uncertainty
and
we
try
and
give
the
students
opportuni5es
to
learn
how
to
be
comfortable
with
the
complexity
and
uncertainty
of
the
clinical
context
and
then
to
give
them
skills
to
navigate
that
uncertainty-‐
rather
than
just
being
flawed
and
overwhelmed
by
all
the
different
variables….
We
need
to
give
them
skills
now
for
then
to
able
to
go
into
the
real
world
and
say
I
don’t
have
this
answer,
now
what
do
I
know,
what
do
I
need
to
find
out,
how
will
I
find
out.
30. Elements
Graduate
APribute
Tier
1
Graduate
APribute
Tier
2
Case
study
of
physiotherapy
lecturer
Authen,c
task
scholarship
Inquiry-‐
focused
In
the
past
we
would
have
lectured
on
a
series
of
condi'ons
and
say
these
are
the
condi'ons
that
you
need
to
be
aware
of
now
what
we
do
we
give
them
a
case
and
each
case
runs
every
3
weeks
every
week
we
introduce
complexity
to
the
case
so
we
add
more
informa'on
-‐
some'mes
we
give
readings,
some'mes
there
is
a
video
that
they
have
to
go
and
watch
but
all
the
'me
we
are
building
on
what
they
know
and
then
what
they
need
to
know
and
we
are
trying
to
make
the
cases
typical
presenta'ons
of
what
you
might
expect
in
a
South
African
context
31. Elements
Graduate
APribute
Tier
2
Case
study
of
physiotherapy
lecturer
Expert
performance
Inquiry
focused
(1)
cri,cally
and
relevantly
literate
(2)
One
of
the
1st
assignments
we
did
in
this
module
was
we
gave
them
a
task
where
they
had
some
readings
and
they
had
to
develop
a
list
of
criteria
that
they
would
use
to
establish
credibility
in
online
sources
Mul,ple
perspec,ves
Interpersonal
flexibility
(6)
You
can
have
clinicians
who
would
disagree
on
appropriate
management
strategies
for
pa5ents
and
how
do
you
nego5ate
kind
of
a
compromise
between
what
you
think
is
right
and
what
someone
else
thinks
is
right
so
we
do
try
and
model
that.
What
we
will
oOen
do
is
students
will
ask
me
a
ques'on
and
I
will
say
well
this
is
what
I
think
but
let
me
just
grab
this
other
person
who
I
know
has
a
different
view
and
then
we
pull
facilitators
into
the
conversa'on
and
then
we
discuss
the
difference
in
the
view
point
and
model
to
the
students
that
oOen
'mes
there
is
no
right
answer.
32. Elements
Graduate
APribute
Tier
2
Case
study
of
physiotherapy
lecturer
Coaching
and
scaffolding
Cri,cally
and
relevantly
literate
(2)
Interpersonal
flexibility
(6)
So
in
terms
of
scaffolding
students
have
to
have
a
base
and
from
that
base
they
can
build,
if
the
base
is
shaky
we
try
and
design
the
case
so
that
its
difficult
for
them
to
proceed
without
having
an
understanding
of
what
they
did
in
the
beginning.
Feedback
-‐
we
try
and
encourage
all
the
facilitators
to
give
feedback
in
the
form
of
a
ques5on
rather
than
saying
this
is
wrong,
this
is
right,
this
is
excellent.
So
even
this
is
excellent
is
not
useful
feedback
because
students
has
no
way
to
go
from
that.
…
we
guide
facilitators
on
how
to
give
feedback
so
in
terms
of
the
scaffolding
I
think
we
try
and
always
say
why
do
you
say
that?
What
are
you
basing
that
on?
Reflec,on
Skilled
communicators
(5)
Interpersonal
flexibility
(6)
We
model
reflec'on
we
go
on
and
on
about
how
reflec5on
is
really
important
for
professional
development,
there
is
just
this
block
with
the
students
where
its
just
thinking
we
talk
about
if
you
don’t
have
any
emo5onal
investment
in
what
you
are
doing
then
but
the
students
are
very
resistant
to
reflec5on.
33. Tier
2
Assessment
Cri,cally
and
relevantly
literate
(2)
At
the
end
of
every
term
the
students
have
to
submit
a
clinical
file
which
is
a
collec'on
of
documenta'on
that
they
have
gathered
that
relates
to
their
pa'ents’
contact
so
there
is
a
clinical
evalua'on
tool
where
there
are
pa5ents
documenta5on
notes,
reflec5ons,
they
have
set
learning
objec5ves
Collabora,on
Autonom
ous
and
collabora
,ve
(3)
They
are
in
different
groups.
When
they
go
out
in
a
clinical
prac5ce
they
are
in
one
group
and
in
the
classroom
they
are
in
a
different
group
and
the
idea
is
that
students
learn
things
on
a
clinical
experience
and
they
bring
it
back
to
the
classroom
experience
so
on
the
Monday
morning
they
set
aside
'me
where
they
discuss
the
pa'ent
they
saw
the
previous
Thursday
and
we
try
to
get
them
to
bring
their
own
clinical
stories
back
into
the
classroom
and
then
the
facilitators
can
discuss
those
experiences.
We
try
to
build
in
collabora'on
we
don’t
give
them
notes
they
have
to
collabora'vely
build
the
notes
in
their
groups
with
inputs
from
facilitators.
Ar,cula,on
Skilled
communi
cators
(5)
Inquiry
focused
(1)
At
the
end
of
every
case
each
group
has
to
have
a
set
of
case
notes
where
they
have
drawn
up
about
their
understanding
of
this
par'cular
pa'ent.
Every
group
must
do
a
full
case
presenta5on
that
they
are
graded
on
at
the
end
of
each
case.
We
challenge
every
single
statement
that
the
student
makes
that
is
not
explicitly
guided
by
a
reason…
34. Discussion
• Resonance
with
what
would
be
required
for
a
beginner
physiotherapist
–
desired
a4ributes
• Coherence
between
graduate
a4ributes
and
authen,c
learning
• To
acquire
graduate
a4ributes
students
need
to
be
ac,ve
learners
–
inquiry-‐focused
approach
to
teaching
• Learner’s
needs
must
be
responded
to
sensi,vely
• Lecturers
shouldn’t
set
themselves
up
as
sole
repositories
of
knowledge
• Can
use
emerging
technologies
to
promote
authen,c
learning
and
graduate
a4ributes
(Google
Drive)
• Cri,cal
ci,zenship
and
the
social
good
not
really
achieved
in
the
case
study
–
the
other
two
,er
one
a4ributes
scholarship
and
lifelong
learning
were
achieved
35. Conclusion
• The
case
study
provided
an
example
of
how
effec,ve
the
elements
of
authen,c
learning
can
be
in
developing
the
values,
skills
and
a4ributes
that
a
university
student
should
have
acquired
at
the
end
of
their
degree
• It
would
seem
that
only
by
engaging
students
in
authen,c
tasks
which
have
their
focus
on
real
world
consequences
and
learning,
is
it
possible
to
develop
the
requisite
a4ributes
for
employability
• Authen,c
learning
is
thus
a
useful
framework
through
which
to
develop
graduate
a4ributes
as
it
is
forward-‐
looking,
providing
a
way
of
situa,ng
learning
in
its
context
for
future
use
in
the
workplace
and
as
cri,cal
ci,zens,
which
graduate
a4ributes
are
aiming
towards.
36. References
• Barrie,
S.
C.
2006.Understanding
what
we
mean
by
the
generic
a4ributes
of
graduates.
Higher
Educa'on
51(2):
215–41.
• Barne4,
R.
2004.
Learning
for
an
unknown
future.
Higher
Educa'on
Research
and
Development
14
(3):
247-‐260.
• Biggs,
J.
2012.
What
the
student
does:
teaching
for
enhanced
learning.
Higher
Educa'on
Research
and
Development,
31(1):
39-‐55.
• Bowden,
J.,
Hart,
G.,
King,
B.,
Trigwell,
K.
and
Wa4s,
O.2000.
In
Generic
Capabili'es
of
ATN
University
Graduates.
Available
at
hXp://www.clt.uts.edu.au/ATN.grad.cap.project.index
• Herrington,
J.,
Reeves,
T.
C.
&
Oliver,
R.
2010.
A
guide
to
authen'c
e-‐learning.
New
York
&
London:
Routledge.
• Schön,
D.
A.
1983.The
reflec've
prac''oner:
How
professionals
think
in
ac'on.
New
York,
USA:
Basic
Books.
• Vygotsky,
L.S.
1978.
Mind
in
Society:
The
Development
of
Higher
Psychological
Processes
(trans.
V.
John-‐Steiner,
M.
Cole,
S.
Scribner
and
E.
Souberman).
Cambridge,
Mass.: