The development of work-integrated learning ecosystems: An Australian example of cooperative education

Cooperative education and principles associated with learning ecosystems appear throughout the literature. However, the application of cooperative education and learning ecosystems to work-integrated learning has not been fully examined. Furthermore, the applicability of learning ecosystems within work-integrated learning to specific professional practice domains has similarly not previously been examined. The development of domain-specific work-integrated learning ecosystems and an explanation of how they might apply to cooperative education in higher education, the purpose of this paper, are explored from three sequentially related conceptual levels: Level 1), a proto-theoretical model of cooperative education > Level 2), a functional model of a work-integrated learning ecosystem > Level 3), an example of an applied model of a work-integrated learning ecosystem. Specifically, the paper explores how policing, presented here as a working example of a socially important practice domain, has been developed into a work-integrated learning ecosystem within the Australian higher education context.