Self-authorship and creative industries workers’ career decision-making

Career decision-making is arguably at its most complex within professions where work is precarious and career calling is strong. This article reports from a study that examined the career decision-making of creative industries workers, for whom career decisions can impact psychological well-being and identity just as much as they impact individuals’ work and career. The respondents were 693 creative industries workers who used a largely open-ended survey to create in-depth reflections on formative moments and career decision-making. Analysis involved the theoretical model of self-authorship, which provides a way of understanding how people employ their sense of self to make meaning of their experiences. The self-authorship process emerged as a complex, non-linear and consistent feature of career decision-making. Theoretical contributions include a non-linear view of self-authorship that exposes the authorship of visible and covert multiple selves prompted by both proactive and reactive identity work

Academic and social integration and study progress in problem based learning

The present study explores the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on social and academic integration and study progress. Three hundred and five first-year students from three different psychology curricula completed a questionnaire on social and academic integration. Effects of a full-fledged PBL environment were compared to (1) effects of a conventional lecture-based learning environment, and (2) effects of a learning environment that combined lectures and other methods aimed at activating students. Lisrel analyses show direct positive effects of the learning environment on study progress: students in PBL obtained more credits compared to students in more conventional curricula. Moreover, the levels of social and academic integration were also higher among students in the PBL curriculum. The links between integration and study progress were less straightforward. Formal social integration positively affected study progress, but informal academic integration was negatively related to study progress

The first year university experience: Using personal epistemology to understand effective learning and teaching in higher education

Personal epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about knowing, provide a way in which to understand learning in a range of educational contexts because they are considered to act as filters for all other knowledge and beliefs. In particular, they provide a useful framework for investigating learning and teaching for first year students in tertiary education, who are typically considered to hold less sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the nature of beliefs about knowing and learning of 35 first year teacher education and creative writing students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. The interview analysis indicated that a relationship existed between individuals’ core beliefs about knowing and their beliefs about learning. This relationship has implications for the way in which we support first year students’ learning as they transition into university and progress through their courses

The role of reflection after placement experiences to develop self-authorship among higher education students

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. Innovation calls for graduates to be critical practitioners who can challenge the status quo, engage in complex problem-solving, and create new ideas to enhance economic and social well-being. These capabilities require self-authorship, confidence, maturity and authority to enact their vision in an increasingly complex world of work. According to Baxter Magolda (1998), a self-authored individual is no longer dominated by the ideology of others and can make meaning critically and independently using their own knowledge, an ambitious expectation of new graduates. In this chapter, theoretical ideas about self-authorship are discussed that highlight its complex relationship with social structures and established professional practices. We explore students’ progress towards self-authorship in two Australian universities from those students who recently completed an authentic workplace learning experience. Gathering qualitative data from collaborative reflective activities during workshops, we examined how students interpreted and drew meaning from their workplace experiences. Progression towards self-authorship was evident yet students largely remained bounded by others in their host placement in their thinking and behaviour. Work placements proved useful for gauging and developing self-authorship, exposing students to situations which demanded an internal voice and invoking, in partnership with deliberate reflective activities, complex meaning-making of their learning experiences. We present collaborative strategies for educators and industry to enhance self-authorship among higher education students