Mechanical engineering students’ contribution to their work placement learning trajectories

Abstract

This article reports on a qualitative multi-case study conducted to investigate how work placement contributes to the learning of mechanical engineering students. The study collected data from 34 mechanical engineering students undergoing year-long placement. It found that work placement students’ proactive behavior influenced their learning trajectories. Proactive students experienced increasing participation as they moved from the periphery to engaging in active participation in their work community and were exposed to meaningful and complex work. On the contrary, those students who were passive seemed to stagnate in both participation and work performance. As a result, they remained peripheral participants for the entire placement. The findings are interpreted to suggest that universities need to help students manage their participation to improve their work placement learning. Additionally, they need to monitor changes to students’ participation in work activities and their work complexity.