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Introduction
In this paper we examine the curriculum planning for the BA Honours Professional Practice (BAPP) (Arts) programme (work-based learning) at Middlesex University, with a focus on the introduction of a "professional artefact" as part of the course requirements. The BAPP (Arts) curriculum uses a foundation of transdisciplinary practice ([15] Gibbons et al. , 1994; [8] Costley and Armsby, 2007) that seeks to connect academic study to situated knowledge in settings beyond the university. As work-based students co-produce and integrate various forms of knowledge in the workplace, the notion of the professional artefact offers an apposite way to communicate learning within the work environment. As a part of the case study we have used ethnographic reflection from participant observation, indicative theories and consideration of student work in order to evaluate the introduction of the professional artefact into the curriculum. This paper has been written at the beginning of the process to capture the development stage of planning the curriculum and presented as an evaluative self-reflection aimed at sharing our process with others.
The work-based principle of "experience as knowledge" underpins the BAPP (Arts) curriculum, drawing on pragmatist and phenomenological descriptions of the lived experience as embodied ([11] Dewey et al. , 1989; [22] Merleau-Ponty, 2002). We do not see the professional artefact as simply a practical element that illustrates knowledge, but rather a way to exhibit an understanding of the relationship between knowledge and work-based activities. Therefore knowledge in the workplace is not limited to the dichotomy of the theory and practice model but rather the workplace is where "the new relationships of theory/practice, mind/body, work/learning are [...] being actively explored and contested" ([4] Boud and Garrick, 1999, p. 6). This premise promotes active engagement as a way of acknowledging that as embodied beings students' "knowing" is a multi-layered and diverse experience ([1] Akinleye, 2012).
One of the incentives for planning change within the curriculum from previous academic models of BAPP (Arts) was the limitation of text-based explanations alone for reporting on work-based research. This older model often led students away from the very process of exploration or meaning making that their professional cultures valued. The professional artefact was developed to address this problem. It is a practical manifestation of the students' learning experience...