Showing papers in "Vocations and Learning in 2013"

Toward a 3-P Model of Workplace Learning: a Literature Review

Abstract: The interest in research focusing on learning taking place at work, through work and for work has considerably increased over the past two decades. The purpose of the paper is to review and structure this wide and diverse research field. A tentative holistic model—the 3-P model of workplace learning—is presented, in relation to which the following six lines of research are identified: (1) studies describing the nature of workplace learning, (2) research on work identities and agency in workplace learning, (3) studies on the development of professional expertise, (4) analyses of competence development in education–work contexts in vocational education and training as well as in higher education, (5) research on communities of practice, and (6) research on organisational learning. The research lines and the holistic 3-P model should be seen as analytic tools for understanding the diversity in workplace learning research. They may also serve as a kind of map for individual researchers, helping them to locate their main areas of interest in this broad field of research and to outline research designs for future studies.

Expansive Learning in a Library: Actions, Cycles and Deviations from Instructional Intentions

Abstract: The theory of expansive learning has been applied in a large number of studies on workplace learning and organizational change. However, detailed comprehensive analyses of entire developmental interventions based on the theory of expansive learning do not exist. Such a study is needed to examine the empirical usability and methodological rigor afforded by the theory of expansive learning. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of learning in a entire Change Laboratory intervention in which the workers of an academic library, together with their clients, redefined the services the library offers to research groups and the ways of organizing work in the library. We identified expansive learning and non-expansive actions in the transcripts of the intervention sessions. We examined cyclicity of expansive learning at three levels, namely the level of the entire Change Laboratory process, the level of each Change Laboratory session, and the level of cross-session object-bound cycles. Finally we analyzed deviations between the instructional intentions of the interventionists and the actually accomplished learning process. The analysis shows that in a real-life formative intervention expansive learning actions emerged in the midst of a fairly large number and diversity of non-expansive learning actions. Our analysis of cyclicity revealed an iterative loop within the overall cycle of the Change Laboratory. Our analysis of deviations from instructional intentions and plans demonstrates that expansive learning is indeed more than mere replication or imposition of the interventionists’ plans. The very process is punctuated by deviations which open up space for learner agency and creation of truly new solutions and concepts.

Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Intention: The Mediation Effect of Self-Regulation

Abstract: Specifying the mechanism through which perceived self-efficacy affects one’s behavior has been one of the main concerns of researchers and educators particularly in entrepreneurship domain due to the critical role that entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays in motivating and enabling individuals to establish a new venture. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy, self-regulation and entrepreneurial intention using Bandura’s structural path model for the constructs. The sample was composed of 722 public and private Malaysian university students. The results revealed that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy has the most significant and positive impact on their intention to become an entrepreneur. More specifically, entrepreneurial self-efficacy highly affects students’ entrepreneurial intention both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, self-regulation partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and students’ entrepreneurial intention. Implications of these findings for entrepreneurship research and education are discussed.

Dimensions of Motivation to Transfer: A Longitudinal Analysis of Their Influence on Retention, Transfer, and Attitude Change

Abstract: This longitudinal study examined the multidimensionality of motivation to transfer training. Based on self-determination theory, expectancy theory, and the theory of planned behaviour, motivation to transfer was conceptualized in three dimensions: autonomous motivation to transfer, controlled motivation to transfer, and intention to transfer. Relationships of these dimensions with attitudes toward training content, knowledge test performance, and self- and supervisory-assessed transfer were investigated to understand further the mediating role of intentions in the transfer process. Participants were 128 trainees in occupational health and safety programs. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fit of the proposed three-factor structure. Partial least squares (PLS) based path modelling indicated partial support of the hypothesized relationships. Knowledge gain following training was large (Cohen’s d = 1.00), while attitude change was small (Cohen’s d = 0.27). The findings are discussed in terms of their significance for the development of theories of training effectiveness and their implications for evaluating professional development.

Learning Through Apprenticeship: Belonging to a Workplace, Becoming and Being

Abstract: The transition from school to work, in the form of a trade-based apprenticeship, is one with a long history. Recent socio-historical changes include increased use of technology, the changing nature of work and shifting patters in the employment market are influencing both the apprenticeship journey and its destination. In this article, the contemporary apprenticeship experience is described and explored using the metaphoric phases consisting of belonging to a workplace, becoming a baker and eventually being a baker. These phases are derived from a longitudinal case study of 13 baking apprentices as they entered bakery work mainly by happenstance and began to belong to the workplace; became bakers through various processes of skill acquisition, knowledge consolidation, dispositional transformation and occupational identity formation; and continued to be bakers, with many attaining a strong sense of vocation and identification with bakers’ occupation. An updated understanding of apprenticeship may inform the development of entry pathways into apprenticeship; improve workplace learning opportunities; and widen the means for recognition and certification of skill/knowledge attainment and dispositional transformation.

Asking for Help: A Relational Perspective on Help Seeking in the Workplace.

Abstract: In the context of the complexity of today’s organizations, help seeking behavior is considered as an important step to problem solving and learning in organizations. Yet, help seeking has received less attention in organizational literature. To increase the potential impact of help seeking on learning, it is essential to understand which mechanisms affect help seeking. The present study questioned whether the characteristics of the relationships that employees have in the workplace are related to help seeking behavior. This study draws on a social network perspective to investigate the employees’ relationships within their professional network. In particular, the role of accessibility, awareness of expertise, trust, and hierarchy in help seeking was explored. Results indicated that the perceptions of the help provider’s expertise, accessibility and trust were positively associated with the likelihood to seek help, frequency by which help is sought, and perceived quality of the help. Moreover, employees seem more likely to seek help upward from higher status individuals and less likely downward from lower status individuals. Employees perceived the help of higher status individuals as more useful and constructive. These results highlight the importance of investing in the strength of relationships, ensuring the accessibility of expertise and fostering a work environment, in which employees trust and respect each other. Furthermore, the results suggest valuable and promising avenues for future research and practice.

Teachers’ Enactments of Workplace Conditions and Their Beliefs and Attitudes toward Reform

Abstract: This study builds on two assumptions regarding agency in teachers' workplace learning. (1) While teachers enact school reform in daily school and classroom practice, they actively redefine the reform. (2) In this learning process, in which working and learning are integrated, teachers reinterpret and reinvent the workplace conditions in their school. These workplace conditions function as enabling and/or constraining environments for learning. Teachers' perception of workplace conditions in their schools and their definitions of and attitudes toward reform are regarded as more or less integrated results of and conditions for workplace learning. As such, they are expected to be related. The question in this article is if this relationship can be demonstrated. Data are collected in a comparative case study of 18 secondary school teachers in the context of the reform of students' active and self-directed learning. Results show that schools as learning environments are interpreted by teachers as complex and multidimensional, rather than dual ideal types. Teachers' definitions of and attitudes toward reform are related to their perceptions of workplace conditions in the predicted direction.

Task Characteristics and Learning Potentials—Empirical Results of Three Diary Studies on Workplace Learning

Abstract: Most learning in the workplace occurs while pursuing working rather than learning goals. The studies at hand aimed to identify task characteristics that foster learning in the workplace. Task characteristics are supposed to exert a major effect on the learning potential. However, the fact that learning is more often than not a rather unconscious by-product of working poses methodological challenges because respondents might not be capable of accurately recalling daily work experiences. Diaries were applied in order to bring measurement closer to the processes. Three diary studies were conducted in the field of office work within vocational education and training, with trainees requested to record particular work tasks several times a day. Each diary record, i.e., each work task, required a rating of ten standardized items relating to task characteristics including the perceived learning potential of the present task. Eighteen trainees aiming to become retail salespersons recorded 488 work tasks, 10 trainees aiming to become bank clerks recorded 1,113 work tasks, and 20 trainees aiming to become industrial clerks recorded 573 work tasks. The aim of these studies was to explain the variance in the perceived learning potentials from further task characteristics using regression analyses. The extent of the explained variance ranged from 46.6 % in study 1 to 77.8 % in study 3. Interestingness, novelty, assistance from others, and feedback turned out to be the best predictors, whereas scope of action even showed negative influences. Practical implications for workplace learning as well as methodological recommendations for using diary methods in the workplace are discussed.

Assessing the Quality of Expertise Differences in the Comprehension of Medical Visualizations

Abstract: Understanding how best to assess expertise, the situational variations of expertise, and distinctive qualities of expertise that arises from particular workplace experiences, presents an important challenge. Certainly, at this time, there is much interest in identifying standard occupational measures and competences, which are not well aligned with such variations and distinctiveness in performance. Therefore, this paper addresses the methodological issues posed by such a challenge through reviewing the expertise literature to identify ways forward. Based on the example of one target domain, medicine, and one criterion task, the comprehension of visualizations, the study identifies, elaborates, and evaluates assessments used to study qualitative changes in professional vision that occur as a result of extended periods of workplace learning experiences. It identifies the kinds of sample, materials, measures, and analysis methods used to assess the quality of expertise differences, as well as what elements of and differences in visual expertise are revealed in particular assessment processes. In doing this, the study seeks to illuminate how assessing the quality of expertise differences matured over the past 20 years, noting that strategies of scanning brain activity and tracking eye movements are now being used in ways that augment traditional approaches such as using verbal reports and observing representational practices. The findings demonstrate how the assessment of visual expertise has become more multidisciplinary over the past two decades. Implications for educational practice and future research directions on the development of professional vision are discussed.

The Curriculum and Pedagogic Properties of Practice-based Experiences: The Case of Midwifery Students

Abstract: This paper outlines curriculum considerations for the ordering, enactment and experiencing of practice-based experiences (e.g. practicums) in tertiary education programs developing occupational specific capacities. Increasingly, these programs are engaging students in practicum experiences (i.e. those in the circumstances of practice). These practice-based experiences require considerable investment on the part of all involved and so need to be used in ways that do justice to those investments. However, such experiences are often provided and engaged in by students without consideration being given to their educational purposes; their likely contributions and how they can be sequenced and utilised to achieve those purposes. Here, the specific concern is to identify bases for considering these purposes and how these might be realised through the selection and sequencing of student experiences. A case study of two practicum experiences comprising midwifery students’ ‘follow-through’ experiences with birthing women and clinical placements is used to identify the kinds of learning that can arise through different kinds of practice-based experiences and how they might be most effectively organised. The concern, therefore, is to identify how the midwifery curriculum (i.e. pathways of experiences) can be ordered and augmented by particular pedagogic practices that assist realise the program’s intended learning outcomes. The two different practice-based experiences are found to generate distinct learning outcomes for the students. The follow-throughs generate understandings about the birthing process from the birthing mothers’ perspectives and provide goal states for midwifery work and understandings about midwifery practice, whereas the development of clinical capacities that arise through clinical placements. Consequently, the formers kinds of experiences might be best provides before, or in conjunction with second. Importantly, rather than viewing these experiences as being supplementary to what is provided within tertiary education institutions, they need to be consider as particular kinds of experiences on their own terms and engage with and utilise their contributions accordingly.

Deliberate Practice in Medicine: The Motivation to Engage in Work-Related Learning and Its Contribution to Expertise.

Abstract: This study examined physicians’ motivation to engage in work-related learning and its contribution to expertise development beyond work experience. Based on deliberate practice theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 residents and 28 experienced physicians in internal medicine, focusing on the activities they engaged in during work that might contribute to professional development and the goals underlying this behavior. Learning motivation was also measured using a goal orientation questionnaire. Expertise was measured by a case test derived from the Medical Knowledge Self Assessment Program (MKSAP). The interviews showed that participants’ learning was largely embedded in everyday work; most of their learning activities were inherent to the job rather than motivated by competence improvement goals. The problems encountered in patient care played a key role in prompting learning. Role, work experience and work situation affected the type of activities engaged in, as well as the intensity of practice. Deliberate engagement in work-related learning activities was related neither to goal orientations nor to case test performance, except activities by the experienced physicians to keep up-to-date. Work experience, in contrast, showed a clear positive relationship with the performance of residents. Two main conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1) patient care induced relevant learning activities aimed at performance improvement for the patient’s sake; (2) deliberate investments in learning can be enhanced to promote expertise development. Self-regulated learning by physicians needs to be strengthened and the organization for which they work should facilitate and encourage learning in daily practice.

Learning from Errors at Work: A Replication Study in Elder Care Nursing

Abstract: Learning from errors is an important way of learning at work. In this article, we analyse conditions under which elder care nurses use errors as a starting point for the engagement in social learning activities (ESLA) in the form of joint reflection with colleagues on potential causes of errors and ways to prevent them in future. The goal of our study was to investigate whether exploratory findings from an earlier study on hospital nurses’ ESLA (Bauer and Mulder Learning in Health and Social Care 6:121–133, 2011) replicate and generalise to the domain of elder care nursing. For this purpose, we surveyed a sample of N = 180 elder care nurses using vignette-based questionnaires. With these data, we tested a mediation model of nurses’ ESLA suggested by the earlier study. We firstly found a statistically significant indirect effect of error strain on ESLA that is completely mediated by the estimation of an error as relevant for learning (β = .16). Secondly, the perception of a safe social team climate at work has a statistically significant indirect effect on ESLA that is completely mediated by nurses’ tendency to cover up errors (β = .31). These results entirely cross-validate the exploratory findings of Bauer and Mulder (Learning in Health and Social Care 6:121–133, 2011) on hospital nurses’ ESLA and show that they generalise to the domain of elder care nursing.

The Development of Teachers’ Intercultural Competence Using a Change Laboratory Method

Abstract: Immigration is an integral phenomenon of our globalising world. The increasing flow of people creates new challenges for educational institutions and workplaces. The purpose of this article is to address challenges that vocational teachers face with diversity at colleges and workplaces. Two research questions are addressed: how do teachers prepare immigrant students for working life? What challenges related to intercultural competence do teachers preparing immigrant students for working life face? The theoretical background lies in cultural–historical activity theory, developmental work research and in the concept of intercultural competence. The change laboratory method used in study is a formative intervention method evolved within developmental work research. The data comprised two change laboratories organised at the same vocational college in 2001 and 2011. The results showed that teachers’ work with multicultural students and groups can be developed by following five perspectives: preparation, reflection, contribution, guidance and responding. Intercultural competence is constructed contextually and is intertwined with activities such as teaching, facilitating students’ learning and cooperating with workplaces. The participants of the change laboratories experienced it as a good instrument for their intercultural work. Based on the results, some implications are suggested.

Developing Competence at Work

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the relationship between differing conceptualisations of competence, and the implications of these differences for the enacted workplace curriculum and its pedagogical epistemologies. We argue that when competence is understood as a set of stand-alone attributes that reside within an individual, it limits and over simplifies understandings of work, the context of the work, and the vocation of which that work is a part. We propose that instead of a static end product, competence should be viewed as a continuous process of development, of becoming, and of understanding the work individually and collectively. Drawing on an analysis of two workplace learning case studies, we illustrate the ways in which the work itself structures the enacted workplace curriculum and facilitates or constrains learning. The Singaporean case studies, one of trainee chefs in a high-end hotel and the other of trainee healthcare assistants in a nursing home, for the elderly provide sharp contrasts of differing conceptualisations of competence. Data was collected through analysing organisational policies on training and development semi-structured interviews with trainees and their workplace supervisors, unstructured, nonparticipant workplace observations of the trainees and supervisors as they carried out their daily work tasks.

Sense of Workplace Learning

Abstract: Workplace Learning, an integral element of vocational, occupational and professional education and training, is oriented towards gainful employment and professionalism (Blankertz 1977; Billett 2008), but can also be related to non-remunerated work (e.g. charity or community work and similar post-employment activities) (Sonntag and Stegmaier 2007; Tynjala 2008). The corresponding learning and developmental processes take place in workplace settings—especially for purposes of gainful employment for unskilled workers as well as those aspiring to advance their careers. Workplace learning occurs at various loci and in multiple modi: For structuring and specifying these different types of workplace learning, literature differentiates between “labor-integrated learning” which is part of the labor processes themselves and which occur while conducting the work tasks and solving problems (like the development of expertise in skills on “comprehending medical visualizations” such as X-rays and ultrasounds. See the contribution of Gegenfurtner, Lehtinen and Saljo, this issue); and “labor-related learning” which explicitly results from educational or training interventions aside to the value creation processes such as during meetings at the shop floor—like in a Change Laboratory used within the studies of Rantavuori, Engestrom and Kerosuo and Taras and Lasonen in this issue; and training courses, counseling sessions, vocational schools, continuing education programs, virtual learning communities etc.—as informal or formal learning (Sonntag and Stegmaier 2007; Stenstrom and Tynjala 2010; Malloch et al. 2011). Depending on historical traditions workplace learning—especially for gainful employment—is shaped in a more structured way and has to deal with different tensions of diverse stakeholders (employees’ and employers’ unions, governments etc.) like within the dual system of vocational education in Germany (Achtenhagen and Grubb 2001; Achtenhagen and Thang 2002) each with a different set of goals. Vocations and Learning (2013) 6:1–9 DOI 10.1007/s12186-012-9092-y

Perspectives on age and continuing professional development for nurses : A literature review

Abstract: The need for nurses to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) is growing to keep abreast of rapid changes in nursing care. Concurrently, the nursing workforce is growing older. Ageing leads to changes in biological, psychological, and social functioning. Little is known about the effects of age-related changes on nurses’ CPD. A literature review was conducted to examine whether and how CPD differs across age groups. A framework with five perspectives on age was used in an attempt to distinguish factors contributing to these age differences. Given the limited research on this topic with respect to nurses, we also included studies of workers in general. The literature search revealed 27 relevant studies. In general, older workers appeared less likely to participate in CPD, when considering formal learning activities and late-career workers (older than 50/55 years). We found no clear age patterns for motivation to participate in CPD, for learning outcomes, and for participation in informal and non-formal learning activities. The study showed that more nuanced results are found when studies distinguish at least three age groups. By using different perspectives of age, a comprehensive overview of age-related factors in CPD was generated and gaps in current research were identified. Recommendations for further research are discussed, such as the need for research on whether the types of learning activities that nurses undertake change with ageing.

Becoming an Architect: The Role of Work-Based Learning in Architect Training

Abstract: This article examines the work-based placements of trainee architects in the United Kingdom to examine how trainees become architects. The trainee architects in this study experienced varying levels of participation and responsibility during their yearlong placements. Despite this diversity, developing the trainees on placement was found to be integral to the professional role of the architect. The university-based element of architecture training focused almost exclusively on abstract design while their placements involved practical problem-solving. However, the apparent tension between these elements encouraged the trainees to integrate architectural theory and practice while on placement so they developed both aesthetically and technically. Moreover, the trainees’ presence in the studios helped to nurture fresh design and so helped to feed the central design core of architectural practice. Nevertheless, the trainees’ experience of working in an architectural studio on placement often confounded their expectations of architects’ practice. Yet, becoming an architect retained its personal significance. Issues remain, though, around the unequal access to opportunities on placement and how this inequality might affect trainee architects’ learning.

The Perception of Error in Production Plants of a Chemical Organisation

Abstract: There is considerable current interest in error-friendly corporate culture, one particular research question being how and under what conditions errors are learnt from in the workplace. This paper starts from the assumption that errors are inevitable and considers key factors which affect learning from errors in high responsibility organisations, focusing specifically on production plants in a chemical company. An attempt is made to conceptualize potential links between individual, collective and organisational levels of analysis on the one hand, and factors relevant to an error management culture on the other hand. This is followed by an empirical validation of the factors proposed by means of interviews with ten safety representatives and executives from production plants in a chemical company. A problem-centred interview technique was chosen focussing questions on a realistic near-miss event. The content analysis identified two relevant factors for constructive error handling in chemical production plants: a) the perception of an error as a learning opportunity, and b) psychological safety within work groups. On the basis of these findings, strategies are discussed for fostering an error management culture which allows learning from errors and provides suggestions for the handling of errors.

Caring and daring discourses at work : doing gender through occupational choices in elderly care and police work

Abstract: This paper aims to problematise how gender is being done—1. through occupational choices in two occupations that are traditionally gender divided, elderly care and police work, and 2. through the division of work assignments in police work. Interviews with care workers and police officers are analysed using a “doing gender” perspective, a post-structural notion of subjectivity inspired by Michel Foucault and positioning theory. We argue that a caring discourse operates in elderly care workers’ and police officers’ statements concerning occupational choices, while a daring discourse operates in statements concerning occupational choices within police work. Through these discourses, gender is being done in different ways; caring dispositions are constructed as totally female within the context of elderly care but as more gender-neutral in police work. At the same time, a macho or daring attitude is constructed as a male attribute in police work. Such constructions may have social consequences in terms of dividing work tasks for police, where male officers work in more prestigious and “dangerous” areas, while female officers are left with less prestigious, more caring-associated working areas.

Personal Social Networks and the Cultivation of Expertise in Magic: An Interview Study

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine expertise in magic by interviewing 16 prominent Finnish magicians who were identified earlier through a social network analysis of 120 Finnish magicians. A semi-structured interview was administered that addressed the participants’ histories; their relationship to magic, the nature of their expertise, the networked development of expertise, their engagement with magical expertise and their motivation for cultivating such expertise. The results indicated that expertise in magic is cultivated, to a great extent, by informal networks of expertise without formal training. The participants had become excited about magic as children and started to pursue an expertise in the field from a relatively early age (4 to 14 years). In accordance with other domains of expertise, it had taken about 10 years of cultivating skills and competencies before becoming professional in the field, with a few exceptions. Ego-centric network analyses revealed that there were three or four magicians who had significantly shaped the Finnish field of magic and affected most of the participants’ development and career. Most of the participants were clustered, forming a core of Finnish magicians, and those magicians working abroad and collaborating with international magicians were located at the periphery of the Finnish network or formed an isolated network of clusters within it.