Learning Design Showcase (2)

Clive Chappell afternoon session: Integrating Learning and Work: issues for pedagogy

Message about changing pedagogy came through the High Level Review of Training Packages - learning needed to become more learner centred, work centered, attribute focused

Learning about work should have more than a simple task focus. Attributes about problem solving, thinking, team work etc. VET practitioners need to understand the world of work. Historically we used to operate in quite different ways when a learner and worker. Being designated as a learner in a workplace is not a badge of honour, so how we integrate work and learning so that learner can feel good about it, and workplaces create learning opportunities is the challenge for VET practitioners.

Pedagogy
From transmission to emphasis on transaction and transformation of learning. Person that is learning is changing the skill and taking it into their own world. It is a transformative experience for the learner and the skill.

From disciplinary knowledge to working knowledge.
From codified knowledge, the underpinning to that knowledge that is created in the process of working - often never codified - through negotiation, observation, tips, changes made through work practices. No matter how good you are at codifying, being passed on verbally is practically the only way of passing on the working knowledge.

From developing skills to developing people - needs to be an equal emphasis - that is where it has been out of balance previously.

Pedagogical decision making
Pragmatism tied to a broad understanding of possibilities is great

Simulations
Duplicating experience of work in educational institutions
· Reproduces workplace characteristics
· Students recognise the differences between educational and real workplace settings - mixed messages between the workplace and the simulated environment. Identity shifts for the learner - frequently changing roles ruins continuity e.g. skipping from learner, assessee, team player, and worker. Assessment in the simulated workplace has gaps.

Work based projects

· Conducted by students in workplaces.
· Negotiated between the student, employer and institution - proper and true negotiation.
· Dual outcomes for employer and educational program. Differences between what is needed for assessment and employer. Clarity for students.
· Extended involvement - from small projects potential for ongoing involvement.

Work Experience
Griffiths (2004) UK
· Traditional - sides with learning
· Experiential - develop employability skills, perhaps some objectives, de-briefing
· Generic - log books, portfolios, and evidence of meeting outcomes. Assumption of generic workplaces rather than leveraging differences
· Work process - learning the context of the particular workplace
· Connective - learn vertically and horizontally, collaborative work, community of practice known to learner. Best model but required huge effort on part of employer depends on sophistication of workplace

Learning conducive work
Learning is a natural and automatic outcome of experiencing work without direct educational intervention.

Challenge then is: “to understand the ways in which workplaces can provide an environment in which earning is a natural and automatic outcome of experiencing work without direct educational interventions.”

How workplaces can encourage learning?