Pienaar, Josua (2015) Understanding progression in the built environment through an interactive student-centred model of progression. PhD thesis, Central Queensland University, Australia.
Abstract
Student progression is historically dominated by indicators of academic success, denoted by passing subjects and successfully completing qualifications. More recently this university management view of progression has been linked to institutional audit measures with these providing secondary data archives for research into progression. This thesis provides a student perspective on progression. To do so it necessarily encompasses wider student goals and aspirations that extend beyond the university to include career and professional growth. The research uses a sequential mixed methods approach with three main studies (archive, survey and interview) each aligned with a research objective. The first study in the series is an archive study of 1547 university Built Environment student records that were originally collected as part of the requirement for the university to report its work for government audit. The second study was a self-report structured online survey that collected data from a total of 295 students. The student sample was made up of 154 Built Environment students and 141 Engineering students. 97, all Built Environment students, were distance education students and the other 198 students were campus-based students. The final study, the in-depth interview study, used one-on-one interactive conversational interviews with students, graduates, academics, employers and executives from professional organisations. In total 40 interviews were undertaken. A number of influences were found on progression as seen from a student perspective. These include the importance of work-readiness, cadetships and the alignment of qualifications with industry needs and career growth opportunities. The student user perspective also brought into focus a number of the pedagogical assumptions held about and held by students in the Built Environment.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | built environment; education; audit; government; professional; employer; graduate; interview |
| Index terms: | career, interview, student-centred, survey, user perspective, executive, built environment, qualification, mixed method, student perspective, secondary data, audit |
| Subjects: | curriculum design, user focus, practitioner, educational resources, data collection methods, student experience, infrastructure and transport systems, performance measurement, professional development |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Information Management, Design Practice, Urban Studies, Education, Quality Management |
| 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