Why are we using action learning and in what contexts?

The purpose of this study was to examine the contexts in which action learning has been used and provide implications for the design of action learning programmes. We performed a content analysis of 127 articles (case studies and case reports included) published in Action Learning: Research and Practice between 2004 and 2012. In this study, we address the following research questions: (a) In what contexts has action learning been used? (b) What are the distinctive features of cases identified? (c) What are the implications for the design of action learning programmes? The results showed that the UK and European countries have most frequently used action learning, and the most dominant purposes for action learning were leadership development, organization development, and professional development. We also elaborated on design considerations and implications for action learning research and practice.     

Providing a flexible, learner-centred programme: Challenges for educators

This paper presents a case study of the implementation of a flexible learner-centred programme of study which blends face-to-face and online learning. The programme was developed to be flexible in terms of content and study strategies, whilst remaining within more rigid organisational structures and processes. This paper outlines the programme and presents the model developed for flexible content delivery. The programme has been delivered simultaneously by five tutors to six groups of learners. Tutors drew on varying personal experiences of flexible and online learning and this paper also presents the results of an investigation to explore their experiences of facilitation. The findings provide a unique insight into the implications of such a programme for educators. Data were gathered using methods to promote and structure reflections on practice. Issues of relevance for others considering the development of flexible learner-centred programmes of study are presented.     

Supporting the education of pupils with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: the views of teaching assistants regarding their own learning and development needs

Learning support assistants or teaching assistants play a vital role in the education of pupils with complex learning disabilities, routinely supporting students on a 1:1 basis without the direct supervision of teachers. Despite the responsibility afforded these classroom support staff, there appear to be few training programmes designed for this specialised role. This qualitative study, by Trudi Martin of the Manchester Institute of Education, was undertaken at a special school in England. The study explored the views of 17 teaching assistants and five teachers regarding the extent to which teaching assistant training equipped them to support pupils with complex learning needs. The findings illustrated that much of the training, including that on the Qualifications and Credit Framework, provided inadequate information and guidance. Without sufficient knowledge to underpin their practice, teaching assistants are impeded in the educational support they can give to pupils, who face significant learning challenges, with a resultant impact on their students' ability to learn and develop new skills.     

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.     

Safe or unsafe? The paradox of action learning

Business Driven Action Learning (BDAL), as a learning philosophy that attempts to create real value for business is often used by executive education providers in their management development programmes. As the action learning facilitator, I found that the learning that took place during such a management development programme resulted in participants experiencing stress, anxiety and high levels of frustration, which threatened the learning process. The resulting paradox in the learning environment is that the same anxiety that is necessary to ensure that learning took place has the propensity, if too high to hamper learning. Utilising the findings from this research, this account of practice makes recommendations for the action learning facilitator to consider while guiding action learning sets (groups). The facilitator can alleviate many of the fears by emphasising that anxiety is necessary in the learning process. The facilitator can mediate the learning relationship between the individual participant and the learning environment as depicted in the model at the end of the article.     

The mall,the library and the church: inquiring into the resourcing of early learning through new spaces and networks

Early learning has increasingly been the focus of social policy and programmes with a proliferation of public, community and commercial entities entering the field of production. Understanding this phenomenon requires educational researchers to conceptualise early learning both within a globalised network of circulating commodities and within specific situated spaces of local sociocultural practice. This paper describes how a research project has drawn on geosemiotic and actor-network theories, and employed spatially sensitive methods, to investigate the resourcing of early learning in spaces new to most educational researchers. Focusing on the suburban field site ‘Midburb’, we analyse the ways in which discourses operate through/in place producing different entry points, pathways and access for parents, impacting on their opportunities for encountering early learning resources.     

The role of foreign language programmes in internationalising learning and teaching in higher education

This article proposes that foreign language programmes have a central role to play in the internationalisation of learning and teaching in the university. Looking at institution-wide programmes in the UK, it cites two main reasons for this claim: University language programmes teach multilingual and multicultural groups in which students from a range of disciplines may trial the skills required of international graduates. Furthermore, language programmes employ student-centred forms of learning in response to the heterogeneity of their student body. Their composition and innovative pedagogies, it is argued, suggest the university-wide foreign language programme as a central discipline of internationalisation which develops good practice to be rolled out across the university. The article describes the learning opportunities international language classrooms offer and presents an overview of the pedagogies employed in institution-wide language programmes.     

From learning to labour to learning for precarity

A demand on national economies in the 1970s was that they should begin to increase their labour market flexibility, which came to mean transferring risks and insecurity onto workers. Education was one way to prepare future workers for this new situation. The present article examines this preparation of learning for precarity some 40 years on. It is based on long-term ethnographic research in the Swedish upper-secondary school sector in particular kinds of educational programmes that have been devised and promoted as a means of integrating ‘lost pupils’ into either academic or vocational studies. The findings show this is not what is developing in practice in these programmes.     

Designing a telematic learning environment in a social constructivist paradigm

The authors of this paper are engaged in designing and developing telematic learning environments to assist in programmes of initial teacher training. Two aspects have been supported by European Union (EU) funded programmes: the Telematics for Teacher Training (T3) and Reflect projects. Telematics is a term describing the combined use of information technology and telecommunications. The authors are not searching for a pedagogy of telematics but are seeking ways in which telematics can assist pedagogy. Their work specifically addresses the question of whether it is possible to design such environments in a social constructivist paradigm and the evaluation of their work regularly returns to the theoretical model of learning central to their training programmes. The authors will show that whereas the aspect of video-conferencing keeps faith with their view of the nature of learning, the design of the website is raising some issues that have, as yet, to be resolved     

Medical models for teachers’ learning: asking for a second opinion

Recently there has been renewed interest in basing teachers’ professional learning on medically derived models. This interest has included clinical practice models and evidence-based teaching as well as the use of various forms of ‘Rounds’ which claim to derive from medical rounds. However, many arguing for these approaches may well not have a detailed knowledge of the actuality of professional learning in medicine but may be basing their ideas on idealised models drawn from popular conceptions. In addition, the model used by some calling for medically derived teacher learning is biomedicine, an area in which parallels with Education are difficult. This paper argues that mental health and public health provide a better analogue for Education than biomedicine. It considers some of the lessons that can be drawn from research on evidence-based practice in these areas. The paper concludes that a way forward is neither uncritically to assume the superiority of medical models of professional learning nor to rely only on empirical evidence from Education, but rather to enter into dialogue with colleagues in mental and public health about shared concerns and experiences in professional learning.     

英国AP(E)L的实施与实践困境分析

英国继续教育、普通高等教育领域普遍把先前学习认定融于具体的项目之中,主要用来拓宽高等教育的入口,往往掺杂了市场盈利的成分,一般随着项目的终结而终止。政府在具体规程方面没有统一的、严格的标准,由各个实施机构自行决定。这些做法给中国实施先前学习认定带来了观念、操作、政策等层面的启示,最关键的一点是在借鉴经验时要努力避免复制其实践困境。     

Action learning in postgraduate executive management education: an account of practice

The merits of action learning as a change tool and enabler of deep learning are well recognised. However, there is a gap in the literature of participants’ stories regarding their experiences on accredited postgraduate executive programmes underpinned by an action learning philosophy. The following account of practice addresses this gap and recounts participant experiences, in their own words, combined with my insights into these learning experiences of a Master of Business Studies. While the programme is underpinned by an action learning philosophy, it does not discount programmed learning. However, programmed learning is not privileged over the executives’ own experiences and knowledge of their own problems; they are seen as the experts. Throughout the programme, the participants are members of an action learning set in which they address real problems in their own organisations, problems on which they can take action. This account examines the experiences, as told by the executive participants, and so provides rich and in-depth insights into their learning experiences. It provides an opportunity for educators to appreciate the depth and richness of learning and change which can occur as a consequence of adopting an action learning approach on such programmes. Furthermore, this account provides evidence of how action learning can contribute and be an enabler to the development of executives as reflective and critical practitioners able to better face an ever more complex and challenging world.     

Placement-based learning and learner engagement: findings from a new university in the UK

This paper addresses the potential for engaged learning among final-year undergraduate Education Studies students at a new, post-1992. It discusses a case study analysis of a ‘Directed Experiential Learning’ (DEL) intervention in the final year of an education studies degree designed to engage and motivate students and emphasise the links between theory and practice for them. Implementation took place in 2012–2013 with a cohort of 37 students and quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed afterwards to investigate the perspectives of students (online questionnaire and interview with 2 students) and tutors (4 individual interviews) on the DEL approach applied. The study described should be of particular interest to those teaching on and designing third level education studies programmes as well as related disciplines that might participate in integrated working arrangements in practice (e.g. nursing, social care).     

基于资源的混合式学习的教学设计研究

混合式学习是将传统面对面教学优势和在线学习优势相结合的一种学习模式,它不仅扩大了学习者参与学习的机会,延伸了课堂教学时间,而且支持了学习者的自主学习和个性化学习。但混合式学习的优势并非自然而然产生的,它离不开精心地设计与实施。源于此,文章提出了一种基于资源的混合式学习教学设计过程模式,然后运用此模式对华中师范大学《现代教育技术》实验课的一个专题"多媒体教学设备使用和维护"进行了教学设计,并对其应用效果开展了行动研究,实证表明该模型具有一定的合理性和可行性,能够较好地指导混合式学习实践的开展。     

Parents’ perceptions and children's experiences of early intervention – inclusive practice?

This paper explores the experiences of early intervention for three families in England. The case study research considers parental perspectives and children's experiences of early intervention: what do parents want and what are children's experiences? In particular the ways in which parents and children participate in early intervention programmes in order to support learning will be explained. Case study data includes interviews with four parents. The early intervention experiences of three children with Down Syndrome aged 3–4 years old will be described and placed within the context of early years and inclusive education policy and practice in England ( DfES, 2001, 2003a,b; 2004a; TSO, 2003; QCA, 2000 ). Recent recognition within Government policy towards increased parental involvement in the learning of young children will be considered within the context of inclusive education and early years policy and practice. The ways in which parents are encouraged to be involved in developing the learning of their children and their support from professional services will be considered. The parents’ views and experiences enable a conceptualisation of the implementation of policy and practice, in relation to the opportunities provided and the difficulties encountered. The tensions identified raise questions about whether parents are receiving the kinds of support they need and expect, and in particular whether suitable consideration has been given to the pedagogic models being applied through early intervention programmes.     

Ageing and learning: What do they mean to elders themselves?

This paper is about a quantitative study which has examined and elucidated the conceptualizations of ageing and learning by a group of elders in Hong Kong. In more specific terms, the study has investigated how this group of older people understood the meaning of successful ageing and elder learning in the context of their later lives. Based on the ‘Learning and Ageing Survey 2013’ with a sample of 519 older adults in Hong Kong, the study aimed, first, to describe and conceptualize the meaning of ageing and learning as elders experienced it in later life; second, to investigate why and how elders engaged or did not engage, in organized learning, by comparing the differences between the ‘learning’ and ‘non-learning’ groups in terms of their personal characteristics, conceptualizations of learning, and the barriers to participation; third, to identify important learning issues for older learners, including their interests, needs, motivations, and learning preferences; and finally, to investigate the relationship between learning and successful ageing, and between learning and the overall well-being and satisfaction of elders in their later lives. The research findings and outcomes of the study provide insights into the experience and views of elders concerning ageing and learning, which contribute to the global understanding and knowledge base for elder learning and successful ageing; and which serve to inform the development of policy and practice geared to the planning and provision of programmes for learning in older age.     

Transformative and emancipatory literacy to empower

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on sociological and critical educational frames, particularly Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, in order to contest the dominant model of literacy education that is driven by the premise of a ‘knowledge economy’. Instead it foregrounds the political, social, and economic factors that marginalise learners. Data from two projects: an ethnographic study in a Further Education (FE) College in England and a study of community-based literacy programmes in Scotland, are probed to show how literacy classes can offer spaces to challenge symbolic violence and facilitate learners to reclaim identities of success. These changes are illustrated from the learners’ views of the contrasts between their experiences of school education and literacy programmes that use transformative and emancipatory approaches. Our research demonstrates how critical education can open up spaces for a more equitable approach based on the co-production of knowledge. It is argued that making changes to policy and practice could inform and shape the literacy curriculum and its pedagogy if adult literacy can disentangle itself from instrumental approaches driven by neoliberal fusion and instead create critical space for contextualised and emancipatory learning.     

面向学习社会教育理论的嬗变

教育理论受学习社会的理念和实践的影响已经发生了嬗变，具体表现在理论取向、研究重点和任务等方面。教育理论以关注人的生命价值，把人在学习过程中自主、自觉和自为的价值贯穿在教育原理之中；研究人的终身学习过程，围绕人与社会和谐的可持续发展来建立教育理论；强调教育理论要直接面向教育实践，加强与动态发展的教育实践的联系，进行事实研究为教育理论提供有力支撑。解读学习社会的内涵发展，审视学习社会对教育理论的各种新挑战，把握嬗变的动态，教育理论才能指导学习社会建设和教育实践。