STLHE 2016 SAPES

This research study explores the co-operative experience of undergraduate pharmacy students with a focus on its influence on the students’ professional and personal development. Kolb’s (1984) four-stage experiential learning cycle – (1) experience, (2) reflection on experience, (3) theory and abstract concepts, and (4) practice and testing of concepts – is the theoretical framework for my study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 19 pharmacy students from the first graduating class in this program, 12 co-op employers, and 12 faculty members. The impact of experiential learning on the professional and personal development of undergraduate pharmacy students during their co-op experiences was multi-dimensional. While students believed that they gained self-confidence and achieved self-discovery and career-related discovery after their co-op placements, their professional and personal development could be driven by their own motivation and personality. Co-op employers and co-op sites played a role in influencing students’ individual development. Despite the unstructured and inconsistent nature of co-op, it was evident that co-op offered students the opportunity to explore the diversity of the pharmacy profession. The findings suggested that students should take ownership of their learning; and faculty should supplement students’ learning by using teaching moments at school to reinforce and re-align the knowledge and skills acquired in class and those gained during real-world practice. Based on my research, I was able to propose a model of co-op experience integrated in the four stages of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. A hybrid of both structured and unstructured experiential learning for pharmacy students might be an ideal curricular model.