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Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching. (2015).Clarkson University Campus Reflection Field Guide –
Professional Experience
Requirement
Educator: Clarkson University, Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering 1 Context: Out of class Keywords: leadership experience, research experience, co-ops/internships, experiential learning Student Activity Time: significant experience outside of class
Students individually participate in a self-selected professional experience and then reflect on their experience.
Introducing the Reflection Activity t Clarkson University, as part of the Clarkson Common Experience curriculum, the “Professional Experience Requirement” is a graduation requirement for the BS degree. The objectives of the professional experience are:
- Students should develop an appreciation of the need for self-motivated life-long learning: a. Students should understand the need for continuously updating their professional skills after graduation. b. Students should demonstrate learning effectively on their own.
- Students should develop an increased social awareness and interpersonal competence:
a. Students should demonstrate leadership skills such as goal setting, change management, ethical behavior, and providing actionable feedback.
b. Students should demonstrate teamwork skills such as building effective relationships with peers, being a collaborative team member, and identifying and managing team conflict. c. Students should demonstrate an understanding of the value of service to the University, to the community, or to the profession.
For the Professional Experience Requirement, Clarkson’s School of Engineering allows students flexibility in satisfying the requirement (e.g., internship or co-op, a significant research experience under a suitable mentor (an REU), an honors thesis, formal summer leadership experience training for ROTC cadets, a significant service learning experience, a significant leadership role with a design competition team, or a suitable senior capstone design experience). In the end, because this requirement is
(^1) Educators interviewed: Dr. John Moosbrugger, Dr. Daniel Valentine; Dr. Richard McCluskey; Dr. James Svoboda; and Dr. Kerop Janoyan
Activity
A
Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching. (2015).Clarkson University Campus Reflection Field Guide –
administered by each of the academic departments within the school, each department determines what is or is not acceptable.
The requirement is associated with a 0 credit course, which is graded on a pass/no credit grading basis. To begin, registration in this course requires the student to complete a “pre-approval worksheet,” which asks the student to provide information about the experience they are proposing. The purpose of the “pre-approval worksheet” is for the student to provide a description of the learning objectives she/he anticipates attaining through this experience. Then the academic advisor and program administrator approve it.
After the experience is completed, to receive credit, students complete and gain approval of a “post-experience worksheet.” This worksheet, in essence, prompts students to reflect on their experience and describe how they met the objectives for the “Professional Experience Requirement.” In the “post-experience worksheet” students:
- Summarize their project experience.
- Reflect on their self-learning in the project experience by giving examples of concepts they learned on their own.
- Reflect on their leadership in the project experience by giving examples of skills they used such as goal setting, change management, and ethical behavior.
- Reflect on their teamwork in the project experience by giving examples of working with others in a collaborative environment, contributions to team efforts, and identifying and managing team conflict.
- Reflect on their service in the project experience by explaining how it provided service to the university, community, or profession.
In terms of outcomes, this requirement incentivizes students to gain professional experience and then to articulate what they learned during that experience through the reflection component. The reflection component requires students to think about significant aspects of the professional experience that are associated with intended learning outcomes. Students may not be explicitly aware that they have achieved these outcomes through the experiential learning component. The reflection component encourages students to connect their experience to the intended outcomes of the requirement, so it is helpful for personal and professional growth. It also presents young engineers with a useful communications assignment and the questions can often serve as a basis for worthy, informal discussions with a student’s mentor or young, professional colleagues.
Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching. (2015).Clarkson University Campus Reflection Field Guide –
Students often get confused. They forget to fill the worksheet out for the department, because they think they already did it. It might be helpful to streamline the process to one worksheet.
Figure out faculty involvement. At Clarkson, some faculty want to be involved, others don’t, and sometimes faculty forget what the requirements are. These dynamics make it challenging to manage the process. It would be beneficial to figure out faculty involvement from the beginning.
What was the inspiration for the activity? The Professional Experience Requirement is part of the Clarkson Common Experience (CCE). Institutionally, this serves the role of a general education curriculum. There is flexibility in meeting the requirements of this component of the CCE, and the School of Engineering chose a flexible experiential learning approach along with the post-experience reflection activity.
