Conceptions of Workplace University Education

This article examines how academic staff involved in the workplace supervision of students in vocational courses conceive of the workplace experience. Five conceptions have been identified which range from a view that the placement is about students picking up relevant skills in the workplace, to a view that the workplace experience is about giving students the opportunity to learn, to do and to question, by working collaboratively with the university and the workplace on relevant problems. The article suggests there is a relationship between these conceptions and the quality of student learning resulting from the experience. Where the workplace is seen as a simple picking up of skills there is least evidence of development and satisfaction. Where the experience is seen as an opportunity to help students engage with salient issues by working collaboratively with employers, there is most evidence of development and satisfaction. There is a clear parallel between this study of workplace supervision and the work of Prosser, Trigwell and Taylor [Learning and Instruction, 4, 217–231, 1994] on conceptions and approaches to teaching in the more conventional tertiary teaching setting of the lecture theatre.     

Situated Learning in Acquisition of a Workplace Genre

For learners in vocational education, acquiring the specialized language of their field is important in facilitating the ability to communicate appropriately with colleagues and customers. Spoken and written discourse in a range of workplace settings has received some attention, but less attention has been given to discourse in vocational education contexts. This article concerns Builders’ Diaries; this is a key written text produced by trainee carpenters, both in an educational setting and once they move into the workplace as apprentices. Writing the Builders’ Diary gives trainees experience in producing a text important also to carpenters in the workplace. An analysis that focuses on language and meaning is used to investigate the purposes served by the Builders’ Diary in educational settings and the meanings expressed in it. Drawing on insights from Applied Linguistics, the analysis uses a small corpus of trainee diaries as well as interviews with qualified carpenters/tutors. It includes a comparison of writing done early on while the trainees are still in an educational setting, and towards the end of carpentry training, once the trainees have moved into the workplace. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of apprenticeship and situated learning in trainees’ acquisition of written workplace discourse.     

Characteristics of Workplace Learning Among Finnish Vocational Students

In Finnish VET, students’ work experience is explicitly defined as workplace learning, instead of the practice of already learnt skills. Therefore, vocational students’ learning periods in the workplace are goal-oriented, guided and assessed. This paper examines the characteristics of students’ workplace learning and compares them with the characteristics of employees’ workplace learning. The data were collected with an Internet questionnaire from final-year vocational students (N = 3106). In total, 1603 students (52 %) answered the questionnaire. The data were analysed using quantitative methods. The results indicate that features typical of employees’ workplace learning can also be found in student learning as well. However, VET-related workplace learning has a number of characteristics that have not been brought to light in research on employees’ workplace learning thus far. We suggest that in developing educational practices it would be useful to draw on some of the features of workplace learning such as the use of collaboration and shared practices; conversely for workplace practices it would be useful to draw on some of the features of educational practices. For example, by utilising the structures of students’ workplace learning system presented in this study, learning at work could be transformed towards more goal-directed, guided and assessed activity.     

How Instructional Designers Solve Workplace Problems

This naturalistic inquiry investigated how instructional designers engage in complex and ambiguous problem solving across organizational boundaries in two corporations. Participants represented a range of instructional design experience, from novices to experts. Research methods included a participant background survey, observations of problem‐solving activities, in‐depth interviews, and analysis and evaluation of project documents and other tools. The findings revealed differences between experts and novices with regards to tolerance of ambiguity, expectations about their own roles in finding solutions for their clients, adaptability, attention to appropriate details, and management of workplace stress. The contrast between instructional design processes taught in universities and actual workplace practice was noted by both expert and novice participants. Experienced participants demonstrated adaptability in processes and communications to efficiently arrive at viable solutions for their clients. Expectation setting and relationship building emerged as techniques for creating environments supportive of instructional designers' problem‐solving activities.     

Developing Research Skills for the Future Workplace through Interdisciplinary Near-Peer Mentoring

Abstract

Experiential learning is touted as an effective way of imparting research skills. This suggests that master’s students undergoing training in research psychology should be exposed to managing projects and supervising interdisciplinary research teams and projects before entering the workplace. The Department of Psychology and Department of Town and Regional Planning at a South African university developed a near-peer mentoring programme in which the psychology master’s students mentored undergraduate urban planning students who were writing their final-year research reports. Focus group discussions with the psychology students about their experiences of the programme were analysed using phenomenography. The psychology students experienced their role as mentor in five hierarchical variations. The first four were seen as challenging, while the benefits were only experienced at the highest level of the hierarchy. Lessons learnt from the mentoring relationship that mirror certain workplace research skills are discussed followed by recommendations for improving the mentoring programme.     

Supporting productive collaboration in a computer-supported instructional activity: peer-feedback on critical incidents in health care education

One important feature of vocational education is to provide students with solid conceptual knowledge along with substantial practical experience, acquired in school and workplace contexts, respectively. However, the research provided evidence that students do not spontaneously articulate the knowledge acquired in different contexts, and that specific instructional activities have to be designed and introduced. The present study deals with this type of activity conducted in a vocational school for health and social care assistants, which involved the use of collaborative writing about workplace critical incidents. The goal was to identify the patterns of interactions, and specifically the type of peer-feedback that engage students in productive collaboration. Qualitative analyses show that the writing productions could be categorized in four collaboration patterns differing in the level in which students would elaborate on their peers’ experience and profit from the peers’ suggestions in order to improve their understanding. On this basis, we propose a series of recommendations for implementing effective and instructionally relevant collaborative writing activities in vocational education.     

Inequalities and Agencies in Workplace Learning Experiences: International Student Perspectives

National systems of vocational education and training around the globe are facing reform driven by quality, international mobility, and equity. Evidence suggests that there are qualitatively distinctive challenges in providing and sustaining workplace learning experiences to international students. However, despite growing conceptual and empirical work, there is little evidence of the experiences of these students undertaking workplace learning opportunities as part of vocational education courses. This paper draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involved 105 in depth interviews with international students undertaking work integrated learning placements as part of vocational education courses in Australia. The results indicate that international students can experience different forms of discrimination and deskilling, and that these were legitimised by students in relation to their understanding of themselves as being an ‘international student’ (with fewer rights). However, the results also demonstrated the ways in which international students exercised their agency towards navigating or even disrupting these circumstances, which often included developing their social and cultural capital. This study, therefore, calls for more proactively inclusive induction and support practices that promote reciprocal understandings and navigational capacities for all involved in the provision of work integrated learning. This, it is argued, would not only expand and enrich the learning opportunities for international students, their tutors, employers, and employees involved in the provision of workplace learning opportunities, but it could also be a catalyst to promote greater mutual appreciation of diversity in the workplace.     

Exploring students' responses to conceptual questions when engaged with planned writing experiences: A study with year 10 science students

Whereas there has been strong advocacy of the value of writing for learning in science, the role of student planning in this approach and the relationships between planning, writing, and learning have been underresearched. Our mixed method study aimed to address this issue by seeking to identify quantitative differences in learning outcomes between two groups of students exposed to varying degrees of planning activities in writing‐to‐learn experiences. We also identified differences in learning outcomes between a group of students with two writing experiences and a group with one writing experience. Results indicate that students with planned writing activities did not score significantly better on conceptual questions as a group than students who had delayed planning experiences. Students with two writing experiences as opposed to one also scored significantly better as a group on answering conceptual questions both immediately after the writing experience and on a test 8 weeks after the unit. The difference in writing treatment initially significantly affected males compared with females but this effect disappeared with further opportunities to write. Students' comments provide support for using nontraditional writing tasks as a means to assist learning, particularly when the focus is on an audience different from the teacher. In reporting on different learning outcomes for the two groups, we consider various implications including identification of some key conditions for student writing to serve learning. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 186–210, 2004     

Vocational Students Experiences with Assessment in Workplace Learning

Vocational education, as part of the Norwegian upper secondary education, includes both school-based learning and workplace learning. While school-based learning is characterized by formal structures and guided by aims in the curricula, workplace learning is often informal, incidental and directed by the daily work-tasks. Assessment in workplace learning is mainly formative and different stakeholders are involved in the assessment; namely students, teachers and workplace instructors. However, the guidelines for assessment are vague and call for a close cooperation between the stakeholders. This is demanding and has resulted in a variety of assessment practices. The study presented in this article is a qualitative study of students’ experiences with assessment in workplace learning periods in their first year in vocational education. The aim of the study is to give voice to students` experiences with assessment and illuminate how assessment supports their learning processes. Data was collected through focus group interviews with two groups of students in the Programme for Health and Social Care. The main findings indicate different assessment cultures in school and workplaces. This is expressed through the students’ perceptions of assessment, assessment criteria, tools for assessment and vocational knowledge. It is recommended that an open dialogue about the discontinuity in assessment between schools and workplaces is one of several measures necessary to bridge the gap between the stakeholders.     

Investigating the thinking processes of eighth grade writers during the composition of a scientific laboratory report

This study examined the thinking processes used by 16 eighth grade science writers during laboratory report writing and explored the possibility that writing can contribute directly to science learning. Using Bereiter and Scardamalia's ( 1987 ) knowledge‐transformation model of writing as a theoretical lens, the study characterized specific content and rhetorical thinking engaged in by the students using think‐aloud protocols and qualitative data analysis methodologies. Thinking aloud was also related to the quality of the students' written products. Five of the 16 students exhibited no mental reflection during writing, recording information straight from memory into the composition. Two students engaged primarily in rhetorical planning, specifying the sequencing and organization of their writing in advance. Nine students demonstrated scientific problem solving including hypothesis and evidence generation, examining patterns in the data, and making general knowledge claims in response to the need to generate content for writing, indicating that the act of report writing can stimulate science learning directly. However, thinking during writing was not necessary to compose a report that contained hypotheses and supporting evidence. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 676–690, 2000     

工作场所学习与绩效:整合教学、研究与咨询的实践领域——访罗纳德·雅各布斯教授

在终身学习理念的影响下,工作场所自然成为学习的重要空间。一般而言,工作场所学习的时间比学校学习的时间还要漫长,因此,对工作场所学习这一研究领域的重要性怎么强调也不为过。个体可以通过工作场所学习实现自我价值、促进其生涯的发展;组织可以通过工作场所学习提升整体的竞争力和实现其持续性发展;当社会的经济和结构处于转型阶段,工作场所学习更成为促进个体和组织适应环境变化和主动创新的重要措施。借在美国学习的机会,笔者访谈了人力资源开发领域的著名学者雅各布斯(Ronald L.Jacobs)博士,他在访谈中论述了多个与人力资源开发专业相关的问题,并认为工作场所学习与绩效咨询是人力资源开发重要的实践领域,他整合了在该领域的教学经验、研究主题和咨询项目,实现了三者的互动和连通,多维度地促进该领域的发展。雅各布斯博士,美国伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,简称UIUC)人力资源开发专业教授,另外还担任该校教育学院国际事务处主任一职,他在各类期刊发表了百余篇论文,出版了六本人力资源开发方面的书籍。1994年,雅各布斯博士获得了由美国培训与开发协会(ASTD)颁发的教学科技研究奖;1995年,人力资源开发学会(AHRD)表彰了他在学术上对人力资源开发领域的卓越贡献。从1998年到2001年,他担任《人力资源开发季刊》(Human Resource Development Quarterly)(SSCI来源期刊,且为人力资源开发领域的主要学术期刊)的主编,现在仍担任该杂志的客座编辑。雅各布斯博士还担任ASTD工作场所学习与绩效(Workplace Learning and Performance)认证机构的顾问委员,并于2012年当选为新一届人力资源开发学会主席。雅各布斯博士早在1987年就提出"结构化在职培训"这一概念,并著有《员工岗位培训手册》(StructuredOn-the-Job Training),该书成为很多人力资源开发实践者和培训师的参考书,且被翻译为简体中文、繁体中文、韩文与阿拉伯文等多种语言,他早期的研究着重于研究结构化在职培训的经济效益,协助组织做出与培训相关的决定。目前,韩国就业及劳动部已在全国范围内实施大规模"结构化在职培训"试行计划,以帮助本国中小型企业提高竞争力。雅各布斯博士在人力资源开发领域整合了系统理论、工作场所学习、绩效咨询等理念,并在ISO10015培训质量标准中完善了绩效分析与投资报酬率等概念。雅各布斯博士曾受邀至荷兰乌特列支大学、台湾师范大学、新加坡南洋理工大学、华东师范大学等高校担任客座教授或特聘教授。他有三十多位博士学生现供职于全球各大学人力资源开发及相关领域的教授。雅各布斯博士多年来积极参与对实践的指导工作,他为许多企业组织与政府机构提供过咨询,包括通用汽车、荷兰航空公司、雅培、现代汽车、希捷、莫顿盐业、科威特国家石油公司、沙特阿拉伯国家石油公司等。雅各布斯博士参与的咨询项目通过开发工作场所绩效系统来满足对员工的能力需求,擅长采用合作研究整合其咨询活动、学术研究和教学为一体。雅各布斯博士喜欢航海、高尔夫,以及他在伊利湖畔别墅的夏日时光。     

A Comparison of the Nontraditional Students' Experience on Traditional Versus Nontraditional College Campuses

The majority of research on nontraditional students has been conducted in environments where they constitute a significant portion of the college population. For the most part, this research found few problems and indicated that nontraditional students' college experiences are positive. This article compares the experience of nontraditional students at two types of campuses—a traditional campus where older students constitute a small percentage of the student population and two branch campuses where there is a substantial number of older students. The findings indicate areas in which a lack of age diversity may have an impact on the nontraditional students' experience.     

The Impact of Individual,Educational, and Workplace Factors on the Transfer of School-Based Learning into the Workplace

The aim of this study was to investigate the transfer of learning of professional competences from vocational colleges to the workplace context in vocational education. Concretely, the study examined the relations between the professional competences learned at school and the use and further development of those competences at the workplace during the practice module in vocational education programmes in Spain. The study analysed individual, educational design and work environment factors that facilitate or hinder transfer of learning. The study took a multidimensional approach to professional competences by observing four dimensions: hard-specific, hard-generic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The data collection drew from a questionnaire administered to students of vocational education programmes (N = 379) after they had completed the practice module scheme. A moderation analysis was applied to observe the effect of individual, educational design and workplace factors on the relation between the competences learned at school and those used at the workplace. The findings showed that compulsory placement, school-work alignment, work-based supervisor, access to resources and task complexity are significant moderators between the competences learned at school and those used at the workplace. The study highlights the coherence between the school and workplaces and work environment characteristics as factors conducive to transfer of learning.     

Workplace learning within teacher education: the role of job characteristics and goal orientation

Within teacher education, it is widely recognised that internships play a major role in preparing prospective teachers. The current research examines if the learning activities students’ undertake in the workplace can be explained by students’ goal orientation and their perceptions of the workplace. In addition, it will be investigated whether this model is predictive for students’ academic achievement. Participants in this study were 464 bachelor students enrolled in teacher education. The results from the structural equation modelling show that students’ learning goal orientation is an important predictor for students’ learning activities and academic achievement. Students with a higher learning goal orientation demonstrate a more active approach towards their learning. Regarding the context, some positive relations between work-related variables such as job demands and job control on the one hand and students’ learning activities on the other hand were identified, but their relationship was more limited than expected.     

Black Boxes in Workplace Mathematics

We ground Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) in studies of workplace practices from a mathematical point of view. We draw on multiple case study visits by college students and teacher-researchers to workplaces. By asking questions that ‘open boxes’, we ‘outsiders and boundary-crossers’ sought to expose contradictions between College and work, induce breakdowns and identify salient mathematics. Typically, we find that mathematical processes have been historically crystallised in ‘black boxes’ shaped by workplace cultures: its instruments, rules and divisions of labour tending to disguise or hide mathematics. These black boxes are of two kinds, signalling two key processes by which mathematics is put to work. The first involves automation, when the work of mathematics is crystallised in instruments, tools and routines: this process tends to distribute and hide mathematical work, but also evolves a distinct workplace ‘genre’ of mathematical practice. The second process involves sub-units of the community being protected from mathematics by a division of labour supported by communal rules, norms and expectations. These are often regulated by boundary objects that are the object of activity on one side of the boundary but serve as instruments of activity on the other side. We explain contradictions between workplace and College practices in analyses of the contrasting functions of the activity systems that structure them and that consequently provide for different genres and distributions of mathematics, and finally draw inferences for better alignment of College programmes with the needs of students.     

Workplace Learning in Dual Higher Professional Education

Workplace learning is considered an effective strategy for the development of vocation, career and professional identity. Dual training programs, in which learning at a vocational school and learning at work in a company are combined, are seen as strong carriers for skill formation processes. In this study we explore workplace learning in dual training programs in Dutch higher professional education. To gain an understanding of these learning environments and processes, a qualitative multiple case study was conducted in seven sectors. The findings show substantial differences in learning environments between and within sectors. However, cooperation between school and practice is minimal in all of the cases. Although students develop personal and job-related competencies that are useful for daily work routines, they acquire hardly any profound theoretical knowledge at the workplace. School fails to direct workplace learning. Given the considerable share of workplace learning in dual training programs, and the demands to higher professional education graduates in terms of being able to solve complex problems and develop new knowledge during their career as reflective practitioners, it is important that these shortcomings are resolved. More promising alternatives for workplace learning environments and questions for further research to improve workplace learning in higher professional education are discussed.     

Know-How and Workplace Practical Judgement

In workplace situations of all kinds novices are transformed by experience of practice into highly proficient practitioners. How are we to understand this change which appears to be as much a qualitative one as it is a quantitative one? This paper argues that the available resources for understanding the informal learning that occurs during the course of successful workplace practice are somewhat limited. Theories about know‐how are criticised for shedding little light on this topic. The notion of tacit knowledge is also rejected as unhelpful. The development of judgement is proposed as a more promising way to understand the phenomenon. A consideration of four main dimensions of contextuality is used as a lead into an account of eleven key features of workplace practical judgement.     

Where's the Math? Prospective Teachers Visit the Workplace

The integration of academic and vocational subject matter is offered in response to efforts to make the study of mathematics meaningful and engaging for all students,as well as aid in the preparation of a mathematically literate workforce. Yet,teachers often come to mathematics education with more ‘pure’ than ‘applied’ backgrounds making it difficult for them to draw upon their own experiences to make subject matter meaningful. This paper analyses prospective teachers' opportunities to connect subject matter with workplace contexts. It examines the degree of importance prospective teachers place on workplace connections and the ways in which they incorporate these connections in classroom lesson plans. Results suggest that given opportunities to visit workplace sites, it is not a trivial task for prospective teachers to: 1) make the mathematics in work explicit, and 2) keep the mathematics contextualized when designing activities and problems for students. These results have implications for teacher education and the support prospective teachers require in building networks connecting mathematics, pedagogy,and work. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

试论大学生工作场所学习效果评价内容选择

对大学生工作场所学习效果评价内容做出科学选择,不仅要从相关的理论研究成果中汲取营养,而且要从目前高校的实践中找到务实的方向。通过调查两所广东地方高校的校企协同育人实验班,发现尽管不同高校、不同专业选择的学习效果评价内容各具特色,但也不可避免地存在一定的局限性。为克服这种局限性,在对学习的本质与工作场所学习理论研究成果进行梳理分析的基础上,根据社会发展对大学生的要求,构建了以工作过程知识、基本工作能力、工作学习态度为主要结构的大学生工作场所学习效果评价内容框架,每个架构都包括了两级内容,确定了较强可操作性的具体标准。     

大学生职场语言表述技巧研究

无论工作还是生活,我们都需要使用语言来进行沟通。语言是人们传递思维、表达感情、交流思想的工具,语言是艺术,也是力量。语言表达能够体现人的综合能力,需要技巧。对于涉世未深、无丰富职场经验的大学生来说,培养良好的职场语言表述能力尤为必要。同一场景下,不同的语言表述会关系到求职的成败,甚至会改变一个人的职场人生。在分析语言功...