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Abstract
This study was designed to understand and examine the experiences of students within innovation learning centers (ILCs) through student feedback on their experiences, with the aim of impacting and guiding the future use of these unique spaces. Essentially, this study sought to guide the direction of curriculum instruction as it relates to career and technical education (CTE). Fully understanding student involvement and contextual factors within ILCs can provide necessary insight to address students’ needs as they prepare for the emerging world of work.A qualitative interview study was conducted to understand participants’ views of participating in an ILC. Eight participants were interviewed for this study. Purposeful sampling was used to select the participants. Participants who were enrolled in “Engineering Applications” and that also took the prior two classes, “Foundations of Engineering” and “Technology and Engineering Concepts” in the pathway were selected. The data were collected through semi structured interviews using an interview protocol. For this study, hand coding and Microsoft Excel were used to organize the data. A two-pass coding process was used, including in vivo and axial coding. Themes and subcategories were related back to the research questions. Overall, the
study findings explained the research questions concerning how knowledge is constructed and the skill development associated with students’ experiences and involvements within an ILC.
The presence of participants’ voice and feedback in this paper have contributed to these students being active participants in their learning and their personal impact with ILC involvement. Participants described their overall experience beneficial to their learning as well as their preparation to postsecondary plans. The enlightening findings of this smaller-scale study must now be further enhanced through a large-scale study with more attention to ILCs that are embedded in other pathways. Understanding the impact of ILCs embedded in other pathways would serve as a comparison to how knowledge is constructed and personal and professional skills are developed.