Graduates’ orientations to Higher Education and their retrospective experiences of teaching and learning

In this article, we sought a relation between orientation to higher education and curricular experiences, and elucidated the nature of transformative curricular experiences. Twenty-four graduates from humanities and science degrees in the year 2000 were interviewed approximately five years later to obtain their retrospective views on the purpose of higher education, as well as their undergraduate experiences of teaching and learning. Drawing on phenomenographic principles, four orientations to higher education were generated. Four participant cases are analyzed, representing each orientation to higher education. In the ‘gaining a qualification’ orientation, graduates valued being told what to learn, as well as learning practical skills. For the ‘preparation for a job’ orientation, graduates wanted lecturers who were good at conveying information, but they also valued project work, having some autonomy over learning and practical applications. In the ‘developing skills and learning how to think’ orientation, graduates valued being challenged and learning in groups, but also wanted to learn professional skills. In the ‘growing as an individual’ orientation, graduates valued being challenged, gaining different perspectives, developing critical thinking, learning about theory, interacting with lecturers, research, and study for its own sake. Some curricular experiences transformed thinking about the purpose of higher education, including learning through discussion in small groups, authentic learning tasks including inquiry-based assignments, exercises in developing critical thinking, opportunities to interact with teachers, opportunities to develop practical skills, experiencing different cultures and personal growth through lifestyle and social experiences. Our research has implications for advising students, as well as for teachers aiming to encourage a deep approach to learning

Student experiences of tourism education and nurturing the 'spirit of service'

The importance of service quality management has been well documented in the tourism and hospitality literature. To achieve this service quality goal, the role of the employee cannot be over emphasised. Successful tourism firms have found that the biggest single factor in visitor satisfaction and loyalty is the perceived responsiveness of employees, the training of whom is a major element in creating and maintaining a positive tourism image. Yet tourism research has largely neglected the experience of tourism students in the education and training process of tourism employment. The appropriate skills and qualities required of tourism employees in the tourism service encounter are conceptualised in this thesis as the 'Spirit of Service'. This thesis argues that the 'Spirit of Service' contains five key qualities or skills that must be nurtured in tourism students such that personnel graduate into the tourism industry with the necessary skills to deliver a positive tourism encounter. This thesis considers the role that the student experience is playing in nurturing the 'Spirit of Service' among tourism students. A focus on the student experience of tourism education is important in tourism service quality research as there is some evidence in the literature that the student experience (in effect, the 'hidden' curriculum) of vocational education is not always in total congruence with the official curriculum. Official curricula largely aim to produce graduates prepared for the "new" economy, which emphasises a win-win 'Spirited' customer focus. There is much concern as to whether traditional educational approaches actually nurture in tourism students the necessary skills required to deliver a quality tourism service encounter. In order to complement existing traditional quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methodologies this study employed the interpretive methodological approach known as Interpretive Description, originally developed in the field of nursing. Within this methodological framework, the study collected data by way of a participant-observation study of tourism students at three educational establishments. The case studies were chosen by way of theoretical sampling to ensure maximum variation on data collection and analysis. Notably, the participant-observation revealed that the student experience of the 'hidden' curriculum was playing a prominent and powerful role in the development of the skills and qualities that conceptualise the 'Spirit of Service'. In the majority of instances, student experiences were supportive of industry needs and the goals of the official curricula, and the gap between business and education or training was not as wide as feared in some literature. An empowering educational model was found to best allow for educational experiences that supported the 'Spirit of Service' and was perceived to lead to a more positive and empowered student conceptualisation of service and service quality. Conversely, when negative student experiences were either observed, or reported, the model of education employed was largely a traditional 'banking' model. Thus, there was also evident a strong element of student oppression in the service conceptualisation. The findings of this thesis provide a positive step in understanding the student experience of being educated or trained to provide quality service in tourism. The findings suggest that tourism educators and trainers should consider embracing an open, dialogical, 'Spirited' and empowering educational paradigm, at the expense of the more traditional, 'Unspirited', banking pedagogical method. The outcomes of this empowering model include student empowerment in their conceptualisation of service, mindfulness, and spontaneous 'Spirited' service delivery, thus constituting quality service management

Proceedings

To prepare students for an `agile' or `new' workplace (which is customised, customer focused, team oriented, with flexible, innovative and empowered employees) therefore, it is argued that education must move toward at least a rough congruence with the `new' agile organisational paradigms. This paper discusses an application of the empowering educational paradigm as developed by Robinson (1994). The paradigm, the empowering process has been applied to the teaching of four tertiary IT courses. The results from these courses are presented. The courses are shown to be following an empowering process. Students also found that the courses met their learning outcomes