Factors Explaining Workplace Learning of Turkish Research Assistants

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the structural relationships among diverse variables to provide a comprehensive understanding of Turkish research assistants’ workplace learning. The cross-sectional data of the study were collected online from 21 universities around Turkey. A total of 1218 research assistants from various disciplines took part in the study. The findings revealed that workplace affordances as well as the personal factors of workplace effort and personal agency had direct, positive, and statistically significant effects on the workplace learning of research assistants. The rest of the personal factors including vocational identity, workplace identity, and interpersonal agency had statistically significant direct effects on workplace affordances. Moreover, these three personal factors had statistically significant indirect effects on workplace learning. These findings showed that research assistants’ workplace learning was impacted by both what the workplaces offered and how the research assistants perceived these affordances. The findings also showed that some of the personal variables affected workplace learning independent of workplace affordances.