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3.3 Didactic and learning
in making final decision about sending the student abroad, and, at the same time, to find the host that will match student’s expectations, which was already described before.
The role of the host is very crucial to maximize the success of the student’s internship abroad. Success is not achieved only when the student stayed abroad for certain period, but also when he/she achieved learning goals that were agreed before the start of the internship in learning unit. During the internship, host is the one who spends a lot of time with students, and is responsible for their learning process by implementing different didactic approaches, which can be a challenge. Very often, they do not have any pedagogical experience; the teaching methods differ from country to country. Furthermore, the host should remember that the student found himself in the new working environment, new culture. He speaks other language, which makes his stay even more challenging. For this reason, in order to have impact on student success, a positive relation is important. The positive relation will increase the student’s skills and competences during the internship and make students satisfied with their progress (Sánchez et al., 2013). Host should be a guide and supporter for the student during his daily work, at the same time should keep record of progress. In addition, be in constant contact with the teacher/mentor from sending organization. At the end of the internship, the host, together with the student, makes assessment of the learning unit that will be validated back home.
The last (but not least) stakeholder is the student. The success depends largely upon the student himself. During the internship, the student is expected to learn as much as possible and experience the culture in other country. In case of problems, immediate contact with sending organization must be taken. However, in order to ensure that the students learn during the internship, they should have clear functions, show interest in subject, for example by asking and answering questions (Lacotte 1994). Additionally, all stakeholders are important in an internship process, and they have benefits in participating in the process what can be motivating. According to Larkin & Beatson (2010), students gain experience, host has the possibility to recruit for fulltime employment after the internship, sending organization gains reputations. Furthermore, students with positive experience can be used as ambassadors, in promoting internship abroad at sending institution.
3.3 Didactic and learning
In this section the Didactic Relationship Model by Hiim &Hippe, (2012) will be used, to provide a very useful framework to analyze internship process practiced at JU. Moreover, the model will help to analyze and critically evaluate the practice with collaboration with all stakeholders involved in the process. The model was chosen because of constructivist approaches for teaching and learning, which will be described in more detail below. The didactic relational model consist of six related elements (see figure 3) that have impact on each other. This means that one effect will have an impact on several key points. In this project, internship itself and the learning will be described and analyzed by using selected points as I found it more relevant.
According to constructivist learning approach, the focus is on students learning. Students have an active role in learning by actively participating in discussion with others. They have responsibility on their own learning, and they build knowledge by transformation of the existing knowledge and experience through reflection on what they have learned (Splitter 2009). The teacher is not helping to accumulate knowledge that is passed from teacher to students, which takes place in behavioristic teaching (Abramson 2013). Rather teacher is helping to understand and to make sense of information. Furthermore, to make it useful and relevant. This way of teaching is practiced at JU. The first point from the Didactic Relationship Model is the Learning conditions. In this point, the focus will be on students. The students learn during the internship abroad that can be held either in company or in school equipped with practical facilities. At JU, before the internship, the students are prepared and screened during the preparatory lessons by teachers and mentors. During the last internship process at JU, 30 students started the preparatory lessons. Ultimately, only 19 went abroad. The main reasons were that some of the students found it too complicated, some did not get permission from the teachers that were involved in the screening process, as a result of diagnoses, lack of motivation, absences from lessons, and problems in following theoretical lessons. I must admit that students are very different, they have different backgrounds, beliefs, knowledge, experiences, interest and expectations. They are coming from different professions: landscaping, agriculture, gardening, farm machinery and animal keepers. They were in age from 18 to 39 years. Few have families, some are single. Moreover, they have different English skills. Some of them traveled to another country before, some will experience this for the first time. They also have different reasons in taking the internship abroad. For example to increase skills, get new experience in different country, to know other culture (Larkin & Beatson 2010). This knowledge about students is needed in order to find for them a suitable host. In order to find out about motivation of JU’s students questionnaire was use. The answers will be analyzed in chapter 3. In this case, for the complete screening process and planning of students’ internship the limited time is an obstacle. After preparation, the students are taking internship abroad in different companies or schools all over the World. They are placed mainly individually, only few, two and two. I must admit, that during the preparatory meetings where students do different tasks, and learn about the country and host they are going to, there is positive teacher/mentor-student relation what
can motivate students during the preparatory lessons and make them feel comfortable (Nordahl, 2012). During the meetings, mentors must be aware of the students’ emotional and academic needs, what was suggested by Nugent (2009). Furthermore, by knowing them it is possible to find out what expectation they have (Illeris 2009a). This process is very important in order to decide about sending (or not) the student abroad and in finding the proper host.
The next point from “The Didactic Relationship Model” by Hiim & Hippe (2012) is settings. In this point, the external conditions for learning and teaching are taken into account. The students will have their internship in different countries, where different working routines and teaching methods are practiced compared to Denmark. In some countries, they have different working hours, climate and production systems, which can cause problems in adaptation to the new working environment. Furthermore, settings are determined by external factors that can both be easy or difficult to control. They may be imposed by society, for example, the internship abroad is described in the student goals and competences (Børne- og Socialministeriet 2017). Additionally, is supported by Erasmus+ grants or PIU system. The factor that can be difficult to control is a contact with the host abroad. This can limit planning, learning and quality of the internship. The other factor is the time. Preparatory time of students at JU before the internship differs from class to class. For example Basic Course 2 (GF2) students have around 20 lessons where older students only have 5 lessons. Furthermore, the students must stay abroad from 3 weeks up to 12 months, which for many of them is a barrier what will be described in more detail in chapter 3. Learning process is the next point that is important to be described in the internship process. In this point, the consideration of structure of the course is important and the focus will be on learning process during the internship. During the internship, students are mainly learning by doing. They combine their theoretical knowledge with practice. The host is the student mentor, and is responsible for the student learning progress. However, the learning can be disrupted by different factors. Wilson (2008) is in opinion that different barriers are factors that may cause ineffectiveness in teaching and learning. The main goal of the internship is that the students learn as much as possible and they can build up their skills and competences. Nevertheless, they are various causes for resistance to learning, such as personal, social, emotional and workplace-related that were discussed by Illeris (2009b). Some students have diagnoses, family problems, they are afraid of their English skills and traveling alone. Henry et al., (2001), believe that in order to deal with challenges it is important to identify them and prepare students for them. Nonetheless, it is important to choose robust students for internship - students that can deal with being outside of their comfort zone. According to psychologist Raaberg (2019), a robust student can handle a number of situations that neither the student himself nor others have been able to anticipate. According to her, the robustness - vulnerability factors, are emotional reaction (concern, temper, pessimism, social anxiety, impulsiveness stress sensitivity), contact abilities (sociability dominance, activity, voltage quest), positive emotions and conscientiousness (competence, orderliness, sense of responsibility, achievement orientation, self-discipline). According to Jørgensen (2017), robustness is a strength to keep focus on different tasks under pressure; they can find a solution to solve the problems. Furthermore, robust students know how much strength they have to work on a given task. They always try to see positive things to make their work successful. Moreover, Jørgensen (2017) is in opinion that it is possible to train robustness - this will help to deal with difficult situations and successfully carry out of the internship. Summing up, this chapter shows the complexity of the internship process that was presented in figure 1. It is necessary that the 3 sections are connected with each other, and they are supported by stakeholders that have different role in this process. Furthermore, the learning process of the students can be affected by different factors, which can negatively affect the learning.
