Samenvatting

A key objective of internships in vocational education programs is to nurture shared understanding among collaborators in the workplace. Through hands-on collaboration in professional contexts, students are expected to learn about the roles, functions, and practices of professionals in both their own, and other, disciplines. This study assesses under what conditions shared understanding appears in students’ collaborative relations in “learning networks”—a particular type of internship programs in health care designed to increase students’ interprofessional skills. Empirically, our study mapped student collaboration in five separate learning networks (n=188) in the Dutch healthcare sector. Using social network analysis methodology, analysis of student’s collaborations in one type of learning network indicate task interdependence and cooperation frequency significantly predict shared understanding in both intra- and interdisciplinary collaborations of healthcare interns. The remaining four networks have a more intricate network structure, necessitating a MR-QAP procedure to analyze the data. Results of those analyses will be presented at the conference.