 |
|
||||
|
|
In 2006, Cooperative Education celebrates its 100th year!The History of Co-op"Cooperative Education" is the formal integration of classroom theory (academic education) with work experience (practical education). This method of education was designed to expand, enhance, and enrich the student's college academic training. Cooperative education was conceived and developed by Herman Schneider, a Professor of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, at the beginning of the twentieth century. Schneider, who later became Dean of Engineering and the President of the University of Cincinnati, believed that his students would learn engineering better if their curriculum was enhanced by his plan to integrate theory and practice throughout their academic training. The heart of his plan was to have students alternate a week of classroom study with a week of on-the-job discipline/career-related work experiences. Schneider began promoting his plan in 1899, but getting acceptance was not an easy task. Cincinnati industrialists thought that college students weren't suited for working in the "rough" environment of the manufacturing shop. At the same time, the University academicians thought that Schneider's proposed cooperative education program would not be sufficiently "academic" to produce a well-educated individual. It took Herman Schneider seven years to convince both his faculty colleagues and Cincinnati industrialists to support this new educational concept. Even so, the members of the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees were cautious: in 1906, in a split vote, the Board gave a one-year, trial approval to the cooperative education plan. Cooperative education was launched with 27 students and 13 "cooperative" employers. From this modest beginning, cooperative education-the "Cincinnati Plan"as it was called-has grown to include more than 900 post-secondary institutions, 195,000 students, and 80,000 employers through the United States and abroad. Roughly one-third of the nation's post-secondary education institutions have some form of cooperative education program. While cooperative education originated with the academic discipline of engineering, today virtually every higher education major or discipline is represented in a co-op program somewhere in the United States or internationally. Over the years, cooperative education has developed numerous variations on the original alternating one-week model. There are now programs that alternate by terms, quarters, semesters, and on a variety of other college and university schedules. There are also co-op experiences that operate as parallel programs, where students work part of a day or week and are also enrolled either full-time or part-time in their academic classes. Today's cooperative education programs are flourishing in all types of educational settings: two-year, four-year, and five-year baccalaureate programs; masters programs; and vocational and traditional secondary schools.
From Introduction to Professional Practice |
||||
