Learning Work: Making the Transition from School to Work. 1. Linking School-Basedand Work-Based Learning: The Implications of LaGuardia's Co-Op Seminars for School-to-Work Programs

摘要

In the paper the authors examine the co-op seminars developed as part of theCooperative Education Program at LaGuardia Community College in New York City. The seminars, taken by students while they are in co-op placements, are intended to raise broad issues about work, about occupations in general, and about the competencies required on the job. They serve as mechanisms of connecting a particular kind of school-based learning--the learning that takes place in the seminars themselves--with experiences on the job; but they also serve as a form of career exploration and a way of linking occupational students with some of the larger issues associated with the moral, political, and intellectual purposes of schooling. The authors first describe the co-op program at LaGuardia Community College. In the second section the authors describe the structure and purpose of the seminars. Section III describes a number of seminars the authors observed, in order to illustrate the variety of pedagogical strategies that different instructors use. Finally, Section IV examines the implications of the co-op seminar, assessing how it might be used in other school-to-work (STW) programs and outlining a series of problems that all STW programs must confront as they attempt to integrate school-based with work-based learning.