1.1 What is Work-Informed Learning?
Gemma Smyth
Work-informed learning is a type of experiential education in which students’ learning involves both a workplace and academic experience. Often, a student will be placed in an external organization and work under the supervision of a professional. The student will also usually engage in stylized reflective learning facilitated through their academic institution. The term “work integrated learning” is used much more commonly than “work-informed learning”. The text uses the term “work informed” which may more accurately reflect how learning is situated. Ideally, a supervisor and academic program will be in sync with student learning; more typically, there are some gaps, misunderstandings, and differing opinions. While work-informed learning may not be quite as “integrated” as one might hope, it still provides a rich, diverse learning environment for student learning.
Types of work-informed or work-integrated settings are set out in this diagram, below:
Image from CEWIL Canada, online: https://cewilcanada.ca/CEWIL/CEWIL/About-Us/Work-Integrated-Learning.aspx
As the reader will note, work-informed learning differs from other academic experiences depending on several factors, including:
1) Is the experience credited or not? Meaning, is the experience curricular or co-curricular? Co-curricular experiences occur outside the confines of a credited course, but are often excellent learning experience.
2) Is there an external third party required as part of the experience? This will be the case for most readers of this particular text; namely, students enrolled in clinics, externships, internships, co-ops, or similar placements during their law school experience. The external party separates work-informed learning from other experiential learning such as labs, simulations, or project-based work.
There are many other elements that students might experience in work-informed learning such as reflective exercises, discussion-based teaching based on workplace experiences, self-directed approaches to learning, unique grading methods, and so on. All of these are canvassed elsewhere in this text.
Reflection Questions
