Engineering students' experiential learning journey : nurturing generic competencies through internship experience

Abstract

This thesis contains a mixed methods study investigating engineering students’ perception of the internship learning environment and their learning outcomes in internship courses offered at a university in Hong Kong, with a special focus on generic competencies development. The study was informed by a conceptual framework developed based on Tynjälä (2013)’s 3P model, complemented by a number of experiential learning theories as well as student learning and workplace learning models. The study was undertaken in two phases, such that a survey study was conducted in Phase 1 and a multiple case study was conducted in Phase 2. In Phase 1 of the study, an adapted version of Martin’s (1997) Work Experience Questionnaire (WEQ) was used to investigate engineering students’ perceptions of their internship experience. Engineering students’ perceptions of the internship learning environment, characterized by clear goals and adequate workplace support, was found to be positively related to their perceived generic competencies development. In Phase 2 of the study, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with six engineering students to advance the quantitative findings from Phase 1 by further exploring their perceived learning outcomes of internship and the factors influencing their generic competencies development at the workplace. Individual case reports indicated that each student intern differs in their perceived learning outcomes. Based on cross-case analysis, a taxonomy of students’ perceived learning outcomes of engineering internship consisting of general and specific learning outcomes was developed. Findings from the interviews also suggest that the positive relationship found between students’ perception of the internship environment and their generic competencies development in Phase 1 was only partially supported by the qualitative findings, suggesting that generic competencies can be developed in the context of unclear goals and weak workplace support. Cross-case analysis suggested that students’ perceptions of the workplace environment was associated with their engagement in informal learning, which influence generic competencies development. In addition, some student characteristics and workplace characteristics were also identified to influence students’ engagement in informal learning and generic competencies development at the workplace. Based on the findings, a student engagement model of generic competencies development at the workplace was proposed. The model contends that each internship experience set students on a unique learning journey, with each student bringing with them their personal characteristics to an unfamiliar workplace environment. Generic competencies development is an individual students’ personal constructions because each student differs in their perception of the workplace environment, in their engagement in learning at the workplace, and subsequently in their perceived learning outcomes of their internship experience. The thesis concludes with implications for engineering education researchers, practitioners and policy makers at the university, offering suggestions towards promoting generic competencies development as one of the key learning outcomes in the engineering curriculum and in higher education as a whole.