Workplace Learning Practices Research Articles

The duality of global online labour platforms as restrictive‐expansive sites of workplace learning and skill development

AbstractThe paper analyses global online labour platforms (OLPs) through the lens of the Expansive‐Restrictive Learning Environments framework. The framework articulates a set of structural factors that enable or constrain workplace learning and development. The paper draws on multistakeholder, mixed‐method empirical data to illustrate how OLPs are emerging as learning environments, where new and reconfigured skills, learning practices, and new forms of learning support emerge in response to the radically distributed and fragmented nature of this work. Against portrayals of OLPs as places of deskilling work devoid of learning opportunities, the paper contributes a more nuanced understanding of the duality of OLPs as simultaneously restrictive and expansive. Three dualities of OLPs emerge from the study: (i) their espoused vision restricts organisational support for workforce development, yet stimulates self‐directed learning; (ii) their enacted workplace curriculum is patchy and opaque, yet offers novel structural features supporting learning and development; (iii) workplace learning practices in OLPs are autonomous, yet not atomised. The paper illustrates how structure and individual agency interact in OLPs to create and configure learning opportunities for workers and informs practitioners about the current learning and development features and practices in OLPs.

How workplace learning is put into practice: contrasting the medical and nursing contexts from the perspective of teaching and learning regimes

Health professions education places significant emphasis on learning in the clinical environment. While experiences of workplace learning have been extensively investigated, practices of workplace learning explored through field work have been less utilized. The theoretical framework of teaching and learning regimes acknowledges aspects of power and conflict in its consideration of what guides teachers and learners in their practice of workplace learning. This study aimed to explore practices of workplace learning in the two adjacent healthcare professions; medicine and nursing. We adopted an ethnographic qualitative design. Field observations and follow-up interviews were performed in three clinical departments and the data set comprised 12 full days of observations and 16 formal follow-up interviews. Thematic analysis was performed deductively according to the theoretical framework. Four teaching and learning regimes were found in the data. In the medical context, workplace learning was either practiced as reproduction of current practice or through stimulation of professional development. In the nursing context, workplace learning was either based on development of partnership between student and supervisor or on conditional membership in a professional community. The medical and nursing contexts demonstrated varying underpinnings and assumptions relating to teaching and learning. The respective practices of workplace learning in the medical and nursing context appear to hold substantial differences which might have implications for how we understand practices of workplace learning. We further conclude that the theoretical framework of teaching and learning regimes in this study proved useful in exploring workplace learning.

Workplace learning in Crowdwork Questionnaire (WLCQ): Measuring self‐regulated learning and skill development in online platform work

AbstractThis paper addresses learning and development processes in online platform work. Specifically, it proposes a new instrument to survey and analyze self‐regulated workplace learning in crowdwork, a type of online platform labor in which a global pool of workers are matched with clients through digital platforms to carry out remunerated tasks. Although workplace learning practices of workers in traditional, organisationally embedded jobs have been studied extensively, the findings cannot be transferred to describe and explain learning behaviors within crowdwork, which is fundamentally different from traditional work in that it is autonomous, radically distributed, and no organisationally provided training opportunities exist in crowdwork. To advance the understanding of workplace learning in crowdwork we reviewed the literature on workplace learning, platform work, and self‐regulated learning to develop the Workplace Learning in Crowdwork Questionnaire, which we subsequently validated with 992 crowdworkers from six European countries on three crowdwork platforms. The instrument can be used by researchers to study the nature of (self‐directed) workplace learning in online labor platforms. It can also be used by crowdworkers to self‐reflect on their learning and development.

Postscript: How We Learn Is How We SEE

The Problem Workplace learning is even more important today as organizations face complex, rapid, and unprecedented change. Reflection is critical to learning; yet, it is too often rote, haphazard, or assumed to happen, limiting an organization’s ability to adapt. The Solution HRD scholar-practitioners need to (re)examine how they and their organizations reflect. By engaging in an ongoing practice of reflexivity, they can become more aware of how their perspectives affect not only what they see, but also what they learn and vice versa. The Stakeholders HRD scholar-practitioners, including researchers, faculty, consultants, managers, students, and all who care about workplace learning and reflective practice, will benefit by reflecting on how they can develop individual and collective capacity.

The game plan: Using gamification strategies to engage learners as active players

The modern learner is a different and unique individual. Impatient, fast-acting and competitive, learners today are hungry and passionate, but also demand a more interactive approach to education. A Talent LMS survey showed that over 80% of learners wished their learning journeys were more interactive (Apostolopoulos, 2019). This article on gamification focuses on the strategic use of game mechanics and features to enhance learning capabilities and retention rates of learners, with references to modern game and real-world examples. Techniques and tips on evolving workplace learning practices and growing an ecosystem of self-directed learning are described. Additionally, this paper explores the rise of the gig economy and new generation professionals, harnessing gamification as an effective tool to allow individuals to develop and build their skill sets and strengths. Pick up useful strategies on crafting a personal learning profile, and how we can evolve as learners though gamification! Game on!

The concept of “recontextualization”: implications for professional, vocational and workplace learning

Abstract The paper argues that writers from a variety of socio-cultural and -cognitive perspectives have sought in a number of ways to close the assumed longstanding gap between theory and practice in Professional, Vocational and Workplace Learning (PVWL). In contrast, the paper adopts a different stance: it seeks to dissolve that gap, in other words, show it is only a feature of extant theorisation rather than an a priori given. To do so, the paper extends and elaborates the concept of “recontextualisation”, which was originally formulated by van Oers (1998) to clarify why Vygotsky operated with a contextual conception of knowing and learning. It accomplishes this extension and elaboration by identifying three principles to reveal why the concept of recontextualization allows us to appreciate why there is a relationship rather than a gap between theory and practice. Secondly, introduces a holistic framework to encapsulate the mediated relationship between theory and practice in the development of professional and vocational expertise. The paper concludes by arguing that recontextualization is an open concept which writers who draw on socio-cultural and -cognitive traditions could chose to incorporate into their conceptual repertoire to address issues that currently are excluded from, or are marginal concerns within, their research.

Enriching medical trainees’ learning through practice: a video reflexive ethnography study protocol

IntroductionSupporting medical students’ and junior doctors’ development in busy clinical settings is challenging. As opportunities for developing trainees, for example, traditional bedside teaching, are decreasing, teaching outside of clinical practice...

Self-Directed Learning as a Practice of Workplace Learning: Interpretative Repertoires of Self-Directed Learning in ICT Work

Changing technologies and competition in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) are challenging the learning of individual workers and teams alongside and through work. Organisations call for employees’ autonomy and self-directedness executed by agile operations and low hierarchies, where learning is also increasingly the responsibility of the individuals and teams themselves and occurs in practice without strong control of the organisation. Therefore, the multidimensional concept of self-directed learning becomes essential in the context of learning at work. In this study, we examine how employees in the ICT sector describe self-directed learning practices in the context of workplace learning. Our data consist of interviews with ICT employees in two organisations, which undergo an applied discourse analysis. The workers talked about self-directed learning as an obliged, creativity-enhanced as well as flexible and fast-paced practice. Self-directed learning was also described as a practice tied to work itself. The paper concludes with a discussion on how these partly conflicting discourses about self-directed learning practice in work could be considered in practices related to enhancing such learning in the ICT field. Suggestions for future investigations are also presented.

Workplace learning in crowdwork

PurposeThis paper aims to explore workplace learning practices within two types of crowdwork – microwork and online freelancing. Specifically, the paper scopes and compares the use of workplace learning activities (WLAs) and self-regulatory learning (SRL) strategies undertaken by microworkers (MWs) and online freelancers (OFs). We hypothesised that there may be quantitative differences in the use of WLAs and SRL strategies within these two types of crowdwork, because of the underpinning differences in the complexity of tasks and skill requirements.Design/methodology/approachTo test this hypothesis, a questionnaire survey was carried out among crowdworkers from two crowdwork platforms – Figure Eight (microwork) and Upwork (online freelancing). Chi-square test was used to compare WLAs and SRL strategies among OFs and MWs.FindingsBoth groups use many WLAs and SRL strategies. Several significant differences were identified between the groups. In particular, moderate and moderately strong associations were uncovered, whereby OFs were more likely to report (i) undertaking free online courses/tutorials and (ii) learning by receiving feedback. In addition, significant but weak or very weak associations were identified, namely, OFs were more likely to learn by (i) collaborating with others, (ii) self-study of literature and (iii) making notes when learning. In contrast, MWs were more likely to write reflective notes on learning after the completion of work tasks, although this association was very weak.Originality/valueThe paper contributes empirical evidence in an under-researched area – workplace learning practices in crowdwork. Crowdwork is increasingly taken up across developed and developing countries. Therefore, it is important to understand the learning potential of this form of work and where the gaps and issues might be. Better understanding of crowdworkers’ learning practices could help platform providers and policymakers to shape the design of crowdwork in ways that could be beneficial to all stakeholders.

Workplace Learning in the Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers

Workplace learning is defined variously and plays a pivotal role in the enhancement of vocational education teachers' practices. Based on a comprehensive desk-based review of the related literature, this article defines and discusses the concept of workplace learning and its contribution to vocational education teachers' continuous professional development. The article demonstrates explicitly that the existing theoretical frameworks guiding workplace learning are mainly drawn from different learning theories. Among these, Illeris's (2011) learning model is found to be theoretically sound and to provide a foundation to be extended to hypothesise about the relationships of various key concepts discussed in association with the workplace learning of vocational education teachers. Three lines of arguments have been identified for providing support to Illeris' model: (1) the significance of workplace learning practices, (2) individual and social aspects of learning situations, and (3) individual and social levels of workplace learning. In addition, based on Illeris's model and related literature on teacher professional development, the article proposes a workplace learning model for vocational education teachers and evaluates its implications for vocational education teachers' professional development, work identities, and transfer of knowledge into practice in the working situation in vocational education and training.

Disembodied police practice: “Keep a lid on it so you can function”

This paper explores disembodiment and policing in an Australian police jurisdiction – we call ‘Conundrum ’. This narrative research on police education uncovers the tensions and disembodied practices of police and the daily dilemmas that police experience working in the new era of professional policing. Police officers’ educational experiences are at odds with contemporary notions and practices of lifelong learning, workplace learning and reflexive practice. This research draws attention to the inherent difficulty that police face today as they learn to ‘manage their emotions’ in response to different forms of risk, uncertainty and instability, underscored by the longstanding ‘habitus’ in the ‘field’ of policing. This emotional work impacts on police identity and is a cost to the ‘self’ as police increasingly disconnect from their work, their colleagues and themselves. We argue that an urgent review of police education and training in Australia is needed to move from the practice-based reproduction of cultural and applied learning traditions to a more holistic education program that focuses on metacognition, reflexive practice and critical cognition.

7 Rethinking the Practice of Workplace Learning and Development: Utilizing ‘Knowledge, Connections and Conversation’ in Organizations

7 Rethinking the Practice of Workplace Learning and Development: Utilizing ‘Knowledge, Connections and Conversation’ in Organizations

The practice of employee learning in SME workplaces

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore how employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) practise and view workplace learning at three different life-cycle stages.Design/methodology/approach– It is a qualitative study using a sample of 30 Hong Kong SMEs classified into inception, high-growth or maturity stage, from which firms in each stage were randomly selected and interviewed until data saturation was reached. Snowball sampling was adopted during interviews and data were examined through thematic analysis.Findings– Consistent themes (patterns) from 134 semi-structured interviews are identified, addressing both similarities and differences in the nature of the practice of workplace learning in SMEs between life-cycle stages.Research limitations/implications– More similar comparative studies in other parts of the world, including quantitative surveys on larger samples, with either SMEs or multinational corporations, are encouraged to enrich the current findings.Practical implications– If organisational growth is a priority, SME owner/managers should support employees’ work and learning in a timely fashion. As the study finds, individual learning and inter-organisational learning are considered “a must to have” for employees, regardless of which stage the firm is at. When an SME enters high-growth, however, more opportunities for group learning are particularly beneficial. For mature SMEs, it is essential for learning to move towards systemisation and include a professional development component to meet employees’ career expectations, not just their work demands.Originality/value– The results advance the body of knowledge in SME learning from the life-cycle perspective. As one of the first studies in bridging these areas, it brings new implications to academic researchers and SME practitioners.

Is the learning value of workplace-based assessment being realised? A qualitative study of trainer and trainee perceptions and experiences

PurposeWorkplace-based assessments (WBAs) were originally intended to inform learning and development by structuring effective observation-based feedback. The success of this innovation has not yet been established due in part to...

Non-commissioned Officers' learning through Work in the Finnish Army

Lifelong learning and competence development is crucial to organizations' success in today's world. As part of public governance in Finland the Finnish Defence Forces view themselves as a learning organization and workplace learning is considered to be a central tool for competence development in the military. A case study about learning through work was conducted in one army unit's three companies. The case study was a part of a larger study analysing networked learning in the conscript-training companies of the Finnish Defence Forces. The study aims to bridge the located research-gap by providing theoretical insights on the collective and individual workplace learning practices of instructors. Theoretical tools offered by knowledge-creation theory and cultural-historical activity theory were used. The knowledge-creation metaphor of learning views learning as collective artefact-mediated activity to produce something new. Cultural-historical activity theory highlights the meaning of culturally-mediated tools and artefacts in moulding the object of activity. A second important point of entry for the study was the realisation that studying individuals learning activities required to situate the learning individuals in their activity system. Drawing from these theoretical foundations workplace learning was understood as object-oriented activity in which tools and personal networks of the subjects play a major role in the individual and collective learning processes. Combining the theoretical foundations with analysing documents and norms concerning competence development in the FDF provided the starting point for an abductive process the researcher used to state the research questions. The analysis focused on the agency of the non-commissioned officers and the expansive and restrictive features of the studied companies as well as the tools, artefacts and personal networks important to learning. Empirical data was collected with semi-structured interviews and egocentric network interviews. The data was analysed with phenomenography and the visualised egocentric networks were analysed qualitatively. The preliminary results suggested that the organization viewed itself as expansive and supportive towards learning. However social affordances and active guidance towards learning were lacking. Active agency was required to succeed in the studied military organization and certain tools were well-known and commonly used in competence development, but new tools were not actively developed. It seems that there is a need to actively create and consolidate new learning practices. Personal networks play a major role in the instructors learning and they can be surprisingly broad and different, which suggests that they are carefully and personally constructed through one's work history.

Social Competence in Small Firms—Fostering Workplace Learning and Performance

While it is widely accepted that social networks are key to small‐firm success, detailed studies on the specific contribution of owner‐managers’ social competence to learning and performance are scarce. In this article, the importance of owner‐managers’ social competence was explored in a specific, innovative small‐firm sector in the Netherlands: the agri‐food sector. This was done by means of a qualitative (n = 13) and quantitative (n = 556) study. In the qualitative study, the two social competence domains most frequently cited and employed in entrepreneurial workplace learning practices were a social learning orientation and the ability to interact with strategic social partners. The quantitative study illustrated that social competence, overall, influences small‐firm performance significantly. However, the relationships between social competence and small‐firm performance seem to depend on the specific strategies that owner‐managers pursue. In particular, this research supports the idea of social competence being an important driver of success for specific small‐firm strategies and for the ongoing development of existing and new capabilities. As such, it underlines the importance of the capability‐driven approach to HRD in the small‐firm context. This, in turn, has implications for small‐firm support programs.

What Can We Learn from the Organizational Life Cycle Theory? A Conceptualization for the Practice of Workplace Learning

<p>In the world of business and management, the practice of workplace learning is deemed important for firms to survive or stay competitive. However, firm characteristics such as business priorities, management styles, and limited internal resources and capabilities are always organizational factors that affect how firms may practice workplace learning. According to organizational life cycle (OLC) theory, during the firm’s growth from inception, to high-growth, to maturity, firm characteristics differ and the internal resources and capabilities of the firm develop. The literature has discussed the dynamics of organizational life cycle, but little is knownabout how it possibly relates to workplace learning. The paper synthesises the OLC literature and draws the characteristics of three common stages for firms (large or small) to conceptualize different patterns of workplace learning practices, promoting a new page of empirical research potential.</p>

Human Resource Development Practices and Orthodoxies

Iintroduction: Framing contemporary HRD practice and theory J. Walton and C. Valentin PART ONE: FORMATIVE CONCEPTS 1. Workplace Learning Theories and Practices R. Poell 2. Experiential Learning and Learning Cycles: Towards an Integrative Perspective J. Gold and R. Yeo 3. Positive and Critical: Enhancing Constructive Critical Reflection in Groups M. van Woerkom and Saskia Tjepkema PART TWO: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS: INDIVIDUAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT 4. Learning Styles and Cogitive Styles in Human Resource Development Eugene Sadler-Smith 5. Neuro-Linguistic Programming: A Case of Unorthodox Knowledge in HRD? P. Tosey 6. Behavioural Modelling D. Russ-Eft PART THREE: CAREER DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES 7. Career Interest Inventories in Times of Change L. Hite and K. McDonald 8. The Myth of Aging and Decline: Career Development and Employability of Older Workers T. Rocco, J.G.L. Thijssen and R. Githens 9. Boundaryless and Protean Careers in a Knowledge Economy P. Kuchinke PART FOUR: TEAM DEVELOPMENT 10. Action Learning for Team and Organisation Development C. Rigg 11. Facilitating Group Learning Through Scenario Planning D. Thursfield 12. A Critique of Outdoor Team Development J. Walton 13. Employee Engagement Interventions: HRD, Groups and Teams C. Valentin

Mentoring student teachers; a vulnerable workplace learning practice

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of mentoring as a workplace process. The mentees are post-graduate student teachers hosted in placement schools. The research aims to explore the experiences of key participants in a policy context where the role and scale of school-based teacher training is expanding rapidly.Design/methodology/approach– This is an interpretative case study of mentoring practices assigned to a secondary level initial teacher training partnership, with the mentors being subject teachers working in school departments which host post-graduate student teachers. The case study was investigated over two years and included focus groups, interviews, questionnaires and content analysis. Participants were student teachers, their mentors and both school-based and university-based tutors.Findings– Positive experiences of mentoring are not universal. Mentoring interacts with the required processes of monitoring and reporting and in some cases the power structures associated with these processes conflict with the less performative aspects. However, when mentors are offered evidence of student teachers’ perceptions and theoretical constructs of mentoring as practice they can start to recognise that it can be enhanced.Practical implications– The quality of mentoring in initial teacher education will take on even greater significance in jurisdictions, such as England, where the role of workplace learning is strengthened as a result of changes of government policy.Originality/value– The outcomes of this study will be relevant to policy makers, school-based mentors and system leaders for teacher education – whether school or university based.

Skills for the Future: An Introduction to the Community Archaeology Bursaries Project

The Community Archaeology Bursaries Project is a three-year project managed by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through the Skills for the Future programme with additional support from English Heritage, the Welsh Government (Cadw) and Historic Scotland. The project was designed to meet an identified skills shortage in the heritage sector and is providing work-based training opportunities to equip would-be Community Archaeologists with the skills, experience and confidence to work with voluntary groups and communities. This brief paper provides an overview of the project, with particular focus on the structure of workplace learning and good practice in Professional Development Planning.