Cooperative education combines classroom learning with workplace experience, allowing students to apply what they learn in real-world settings. It was first proposed by Herman Schneider and is often used in technical education programs. Some programs divide a student’s day between the classroom and the workplace. Critics argue that it takes a long time to complete and may not properly connect classroom learning with workplace experience. However, it is seen as an ideal way to teach newcomers to a field and facilitate ongoing education for those already working in a sector.
Cooperative education is a type of learning in which students divide their educational time between classroom learning and workplace learning. This can be done from one semester to the next, with one semester spent in classes, the next at work, and then back to classes, until the student completes their program. Instead, some programs divide a student’s day between the classroom and the workplace. Cooperative education is usually primarily concerned with the relationship between what is learned and how that knowledge can be used in the “real world” and is typically used in technical education programs.
First proposed and created by Herman Schneider in the early twentieth century, cooperative education seeks to encourage student learning by directly relating what they learn to how it can be used in the workplace. Often associated with experiential learning and similar educational pedagogies, a cooperative education typically pairs a student at the secondary level, such as college or university, with a real work environment. For example, someone interested in computer science might take classes for a semester on microchips and circuit board design. The following semester, he or she would work at a business creating microchips and circuit boards.
In other forms of cooperative education, the student in the example above would learn part of the day and work part of the day. So he or she can learn something in the morning and actually use that knowledge in the afternoon or evening while working. This allows the student to immediately connect material learned in the classroom with how it applies to the actual industry in which he or she wants to work. This connection is often aided by instructors who work primarily as facilitators, helping students to reflect on the work and how it relates to classroom lessons.
Some critics of cooperative education see flaws in these programs as they often take a long time to complete and that the connection between the classroom and the workplace may not be properly made by the student. As technology has become increasingly important in various industries, however, this type of education is often seen as an ideal way to teach newcomers to a field and also to facilitate ongoing education for those already working in a field. sector. Other pedagogical movements, such as service learning and experiential education, often draw on ideas from cooperative education, and the future of American technology education may well involve one of these models.
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