Chan, P W (2009) The dominance of practice in constructionarium: Exploring the challenges of linking theory and practice. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
To address employer dissatisfaction with the quality of graduates, Constructionarium was developed in 2003 to develop practical skills for University students. This is a residential initiative where students are tasked to construct scaled-down structures of real buildings within a week. Drawing on the experience and lessons learnt from undertaking Constructionarium at a Northern University in the UK, data was collected over three years through student surveys and interviews with student, academic and practitioner participants. Observational data captured in the students reflective essays after the events were also used in the analysis. The analysis reinforced the espoused benefits of exposing real-life situations to students, and revealed how quickly students conform to poor practices that are well documented in the academic literature, including lapses in health and safety, inadequate industrial relations and poor time and cost management. These findings indicate the dominance of practice at times worryingly ill practice over academic theory. Consequently, there are implications on the extent in which educationalists can facilitate the development of next generation of practitioners who would adopt good practices. Furthermore, the experience challenges the mantra of organisational learning and poses the question as to whether habits of bad practice in industry can ever be unlearnt.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | constructionarium; education; problem-based learning; role of objects |
| Index terms: | problem-based learning, practitioner, university student, habit, industrial relation, interview, organizational learning, health and safety, drawing, good practice, survey, cost management |
| Subjects: | practitioner, health behaviours and lifestyles, data collection methods, curriculum design, psychology, technical documentation, teaching methods, health safety and environment, professional development, performance measurement, accounting and finance |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Organizational Design, Education, Quality Management, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here