Rethinking reflective practice in professional lifelong learning using learning metaphors

Studies relating to reflection and reflective practice in learning, specifically workplace learning, have gradually emerged from within the professional education literature. Evidence has seen a shift from an individualistic to a more collective approach to reflection, in an attempt to move away from viewing learning as an individual action. Simultaneously attention has been given to socio-cultural theories which view learning as social practice inherent in our everyday lives, including work. This paper aims to engage in the current debate regarding the polarised conceptualisations of reflective practice within the context of professional learning. Drawing on this debate, as well as on learning metaphors, this paper proposes that professionals should engage in collective reflective practice for both individual and organisational development within workplaces; locations which could be seen as increasingly ambiguous and unpredictable throughout individuals’ working lives. Hence, we need to rehabilitate and extend some of the key aspects of the traditional concept of reflective practice to accommodate the changing terrain of professional practice within an individual professional's lifelong learning.     

Perspectives of lifelong education in Portuguese higher education: a critical analysis of learning outcomes

ABSTRACT

Nurturing students’ continuous learning is a current trend in the higher education agenda. Curricula and academic contents should enable students to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as promoting both developing and training opportunities in the course of their lives and careers. Despite the relevance given to lifelong learning in the educational system, there are still some open questions: how this concept is understood and put into practice by higher education institutions? The paper aims to analyse the conceptions of lifelong learning as reflected on the learning outcomes proposed in a sample of study programs. A qualitative methodology and a data-driven approach are adopted to explore the content of the learning outcomes proposed in 10% of total study programs submitted to quality accreditation, since 2009. Generally, results reveal that higher education institutions are committed to the lifelong learning paradigm, particularly in master and PhD degrees. Students are expected to ‘invest in personal and professional development through life’, to ‘develop learning competences through life’, as well as to ‘foster lifelong learning’. This study provides a better understanding of the range of perspectives and the relevance given to lifelong learning as a valuable learning outcome.     

Enhancing postgraduate learning and development: a participatory action learning and action research approach through conferences

As supervisors who advocate the transformational potential of research both to generate theory and practical and emancipatory outcomes, we practice participatory action learning and action research (PALAR). This paper offers an illustrative case of how supervision practices based on action learning can foster emancipatory and lifelong learning within a university context that is becoming ever more focused on throughput of students, rather than on the quality of their learning. Conference attendance offers an excellent opportunity for postgraduate students to develop as researchers and lifelong learners, yet anxiety often prevents them from making the most of the learning experience. We explain how we encouraged the development of capabilities in students through a PALAR support programme that assisted postgraduate students prepare for a conference to make overall participation, presenting a paper and subsequent publication a true learning experience. We generated and analysed data from the written reflections of 11 postgraduate students who participated in the programme. The findings suggest that action learning, specifically PALAR, can be used to enable a rich learning experience for postgraduate students attending conferences through fostering relationships, building trust, a supportive environment, collaboration, communication and competence among them. Postgraduate students who experienced our PALAR support programme developed not only skills, knowledge, confidence and deeper appreciation of learning opportunities through conferences, but also understanding of the principles of PALAR that apply not just to the conference context but across all aspects of learning and research and life at large.     

Transformative learning in managerial role transitions

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of learning in work role transitions from specialist roles to managerial roles in a context of a large international technology organisation. Prior theorisation of learning in role transitions has been based on quantitative, psychologically-oriented studies prescribing different role and personal attributes related to work adjustment. Personal experiences have received only a superficial or instrumental part in most of the preceding studies. Therefore, this study draws upon a transformative learning theory to outline an interpretative framework and focuses on in-depth, narrative analysis of a small number of role transition experiences. As a result, the study reveals how first-time project managers and team leaders wonder about their abilities and actions; compare ‘self’ with role models; and become aware of the power aspect of managerial roles. Such reflection eventually leads to a perspective transformation regarding ‘self’ and new roles. However, it also involves adaptation to the prevailing organisational norms, values, and leadership ideals. The study will add to our understanding of learning in transitions and inform those working in the human resource development or otherwise involved in the organisational transfer processes. Moreover, it reminds that perspective transformations should not be taken innocently as examples of ‘empowerment’, but critically concern why transformative learning is encouraged at work nowadays and what purposes it serves.     

Cognitive learning styles and digital equity: searching for the middle way

This research is driven by a desire to understand the lifelong learner in the context of styles of learning and the emerging implications of technology enhanced learning for digital equity. Recognising cognitive learning styles is the first step educators need to take in order to be most effective in working with students of diversity and bridging across formal and informal settings. Learning environments as a characterising feature of learning styles have undergone unprecedented change over the past decade with learning environments now blending physical and virtual space. To support the increasing diversity of learners pedagogy has to be fair, culturally responsive, equitable and relevant to the ‘virtual generation’. This, in turn, will inform our understanding of the ‘middle way’ in recognising cognitive learning styles, associated cultural context, and the implications to digital pedagogy equity.     

The quality of procedures to assess and credit prior learning: Implications for design

The ever-changing requirements of working life require individuals to develop their competencies throughout their life cycle. This lifelong learning paradigm requires a renewed vision concerning assessment in which, besides formal learning, informal and non-formal learning experiences are also recognized. To support this lifelong learning paradigm, procedures have been developed worldwide to assess and credit prior learning experiences (APL). While research on APL stresses the importance of a high-quality standard, so far the literature has applied only a psychometric quality framework. However, from the perspective of APL, where, besides prior knowledge and skills, competencies need to be measured, it is more appropriate to use a combination of the psychometric and edumetric quality criteria. This article will analyze and describe the relationship between quality criteria and the characteristics of APL. The results have revealed that quality criteria based on both are fundamental for APL, but that some criteria are more recognized than are others. Based on this analysis, design guidelines for APL have been formulated.     

Easing access for lifelong learners: a comparison of European models for university lifelong learning

Easing access to higher education (HE) for those engaging in lifelong learning has been a common policy objective across the European Union since the late 1990s. To reach this goal, the transition between vocational and academic routes must be simplified, but European countries are at different developmental stages. This article maps the development in Denmark, Finland, Germany and England using a case study approach deploying data triangulation from a national and institutional perspective. It explores the extent/commonality of structural factors for easing access for students engaging in lifelong learning. The cases are at widely different stages, but the following factors were considered essential in all countries for opening universities: the establishment of transition paths from secondary education and working life into HE and links between HE, businesses and adult education from a national perspective and the recognition of all forms of learning, the flexibilization of study formats and the design of a curriculum that suits all from an institutional perspective.     

Student vocational teachers: the significance of individual positions in workplace learning

In most initial teacher preparation (ITP) programmes, learning in teaching placements is considered to be an important component for providing workplace learning experiences to develop the skills of being a teacher. This paper is based on a bigger qualitative study which explored the learning experiences of a group of in-service student vocational teachers prior to and during their one-year ITP programme in Brunei. The study examined these student teachers’ dispositions to learning as revealed through their experiences on different placements during their training. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of the student vocational teachers’ roles and positions relative to their teaching placements. Theoretically, the findings also extend Bourdieu’s thinking, where existing cultural capital in the form of subject knowledge which is valued in one context does not necessarily help the learning of individuals in becoming a vocational teacher in another context. In addition, the paper argues for a need to reconceptualise in-service teacher education, more specifically, the workplace learning aspect. Lastly, it concludes with recommendations to support these student teachers in their placements through creating more expansive learning environments.     

Learning through working life: self and individuals’ agentic action

An individual’s capacity to be effective throughout their working life is now claimed to be necessary to sustain individual, local and national well‐being. Yet without knowing more about an individual’s motivations to continually learn throughout their working life, it remains uncertain how realistic these expectations are. This paper examines the transitions and continuities in a year in the working lives of five individuals. It illuminates how their identities, subjectivities and sense of selves are exercised through the churning and transformations that comprise their working lives. Although accepting the intertwining between the individual and social, the primary focus here is on individuals and their sense of self. Against some predictions, the five individuals were able to enact their working lives in ways that broadly served their personal interests and goals, even to their detriment. This included achieving continuities associated with their sense of self in negotiating transformational workplace requirements. These findings from just five workers prompt consideration of a more relational basis for conceptualizing learning throughout the working life and the role of the self in that process. It suggests that learning throughout life is aligned with the personal as much as the social suggestion of the workplace, employers or government and that external mandates and regulatory practices may be insufficient and ineffective in securing lifelong learning goals.     

Busting the myth of low-skilled workers – destabilizing EU LLL policies through the life stories of Danes in low-skilled jobs

In the EU, ambitious objectives have been set for education and training since the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The policies aim among other things to empower the individual through participation in lifelong learning which is seen as both a right and a duty: ‘People need to want and to be able to take their lives into their own hands – to become in short, active citizens’ (CEC, 2000, p. 7). However, not all citizens are taking part in lifelong learning and consequently the EU and its member states have set up policies with a ‘particular focus on active and preventative measures for the unemployed and inactive persons’ (CEC, 2006, p.1). ‘Inactive’ persons comprise different groups which are marginalised in terms of participation in lifelong learning, among others ‘low-skilled’ who have a lower participation rate in education and training activities (Cedefop, 2013). In this article, the aim is to destabilize the political discourse on ‘low-skilled’ through individual narratives of being in low-skilled jobs. Whereas the problem of being low-skilled from a political perspective is represented as psycho-social problems of the individual, the narratives point to the complexity of people in low-skilled jobs and the role of structure to ‘low-skilledness’. The narratives open up issues of power and the historical arbitrary distinctions between skilled and unskilled in the Danish labour market. It opens up for how the educational structures produce ‘low-skilled’ people, especially in the transition from basic vocational education and training into an apprenticeship. The article points to the narrow focus of policies on the ‘supply’ side of lifelong learning and less on the ‘demand’ side of a ‘needy’ global labour market in which precarious jobs are no longer limited to low-skilled. The article draws on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (1999, 2009) and narrative inquiry.     

Social foundations of lifelong learning: a Habermasian perspective

ABSTRACT

The idea of learning rooted in behavioural psychology has become dominant in the field of teaching and learning for several decades. Even though it has been widely used in formal education it is inadequate for informing lifelong learning policies and plans. In this paper, first I critique the psychological foundation of learning and in the second part, drawing on Habermasian conceptualisation of three structural components of the lifeworld (culture, society, and personality), I conceptualise the three components as the social foundations of learning: learning as cultural reproduction, learning as social integration and learning as socialisation. In the context of the UN’s declaration of ‘lifelong learning’ as one of the Sustainable Development Goals, this paper will be useful for developing policies to address challenges faced by individual countries at cultural, societal and individual levels.     

The application of Buddhist principles to lifelong learning

The teachings and practices of Buddhism are becoming popular today in Western countries. Its non-theistic nature and scientific method, focusing on the individual's independence in learning practice, appeal to many. Buddhism contains some effective and unique learning techniques that could be applied to lifelong learning. Within a notion of lifelong learning defined in terms of the conscious learning taking place throughout the life span, Buddhist meditation, contemplation and mindfulness practice are ideally suited to conscious life experience awareness. The philosophical framework for lifelong learning discourse, particularly that which is outlined by Richard Bagnall as drawing on the three progressive sentiments, matches the Buddhist ideals for the individual and society. Just as Bagnall calls for a re-evaluation of the direction for lifelong learning discourse away from economic determinism, back towards the framework of the three sentiments, the emphasis of this paper argues that lifelong learning discourse and strategies might also usefully be informed by ancient Buddhist ideas and methods. To do so might require a broader perspective on what constitutes lifelong learning and what its motivations and goals should be.     

Lifelong learning from natural disasters: transformative group-based learning at Philippine universities

This study explores reflective experience during transformative, group-based learning among university leaders following a natural disaster such as a typhoon in two Philippine universities. Natural disasters are recurrent phenomena in many parts of the world, but the literature largely ignores their impact on lifelong human learning, for instance regarding preparing the university setting for future natural disasters. The study used interviews and document analysis, drawing on a body of interrelated works in transformative learning theory, critical educational theory and conceptions about group processes and reflective practice to understand university leaders’ lifelong learning from natural disasters as experiential, transformative, reflective and group oriented. The findings document that university leaders’ reflective, transformative learning depends on individuals’ experience of natural disasters as disorienting dilemmas, and that reflection is facilitated by decisive group dynamics rather than only personal reflection. Facilitating a learning space for transformative, reflective learning in university settings might assist university leaders to enhance disaster risk preparedness, for instance through local policy change.     

Citizenship education ‘goes global’: extra-curricular learning in an overseas campus of a British civic university

Active citizenship is increasingly being framed in the context of lifelong and life-wide learning. However, research on young people’s participation in and experience of different forms of civic practice, particularly in informal settings in different sociocultural contexts, is scarce. Consequently, little is known about how these experiences shape their learning about active citizenship, their understanding of the self and their relationship to society. This paper reports findings from a small-scale qualitative research on students’ experiences of participation in extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in a UK Transnational Higher Education institution in China, in relation to the development of active citizenship and lifelong learning capacity. The findings suggest ECAs can provide opportunities for students to accumulate knowledge and develop skills, attitudes and values that underpin the promotion of active citizenship, while developing habits and skills essential for lifelong learning.     

Later life learning experiences: listening to the voices of Chinese elders in Hong Kong

Abstract

Governments’ anxieties about ageing populations are mostly concerned with the costs of welfare, care and health provision which all have to be paid for by an ever dwindling working population. However, research in later life learning indicates the significant role that lifelong learning can play in promoting mental well-being and resilience, and in assisting with maintaining personal self-confidence and self-coping strategies that prevent cognitive decline in an ageing population. This paper draws on the research with a group of Chinese elders in Hong Kong, who provide information about their experiences and views on learning in later life, including the meaning of learning, barriers to participation, learning interests, needs, motivations, and instructional preferences. Both quantitative and qualitative findings are reported to shed light on later life learning experiences, which contribute to the global understanding of later life learning and serve to inform the development of policy and practice geared to the planning and provision of opportunities to keep learning at the later stages of life.     

Participation in job-related lifelong learning among well-educated employees in the Nordic countries

The purpose of this study was to explore participation in job-related lifelong learning (LLL) among well-educated mature workers and compare it across four Nordic countries. Although this group generally is very active in LLL, the centrality of knowledge work in society, rapid pace of skills-renewal and rising learning demands for all qualifications levels, necessitates a better understanding of the patterns and factors affecting their skill development. The paper builds on theories of learning motivation, human capital and workplace learning. Data from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) by the OECD were used. In addition to high participation rates, systematic level differences in participation were found across the countries. Results of logit regression analyses revealed clear differences between countries in the models that explained participation, which gave limited support to a single ‘Nordic model’ of LLL. Furthermore, the predictors of participation commonly found among adult populations, low-educated individuals and/or younger adults, appeared less valid for well-educated individuals.     

The outcomes and impacts of everyday learning

This article examines the effects of synthesising existing theoretical approaches to understanding the effects of adult learning. The paper focuses on aspects of the findings of a small Australian research project that explored the significance of everyday learning in people’s lives. One key part of the research involved examining and synthesising two key approaches for understanding the effects of adult learning with another, different approach and then applying this to the collected snapshots of six people’s everyday lives. In the paper it is argued that this application of a synthesised framework to the participant’s stories was able to reveal more of the complex and interconnected nature of the effects of the participant’s everyday learning than either of the two original approaches on their own. This research is significant for two key reasons. Firstly, the findings of the research suggest that the effects of adult everyday learning are more complex and further reaching beyond the individual than previously established. Secondly, the work can be seen as a demonstration of the benefits of a synthesised approach to adult learning that seeks inclusivity, breadth and depth in understanding, thus contributing to the growing body of work, and understandings of adult learning.     

Raising the standard: contradictions in the theory of student-teacher learning

This article offers a critical examination of the use of teachers’ standards for student-teachers in teacher education in England. Using an illustrative data example of student-teachers working in a school department setting, benefits of a cultural historical activity theory analysis are forwarded. The example highlights shortcomings in the current education of student-teachers which is in transition owing to changes in English teacher education policy. Focusing heavily on meeting required teachers’ standards, the school teaching practice in the research example does not encourage student-teachers or teachers to develop their understanding of teaching. Neither is the context of the teacher education work taken into account nor personal views of participants. Ways of analysing experiences recognising the influence of schools in affecting the kinds of learning available to student-teachers are needed in England in order to increase understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of different approaches to school-based teacher education.     

Collaborative learning,face-to-face or virtual: the advantages of a blended learning approach in an intercultural research group

Within Higher Education, current changes in levels of funding available and the increasingly diverse profiles of students participating have placed a greater emphasis on the need for institutions to provide more ‘flexible methods’ of delivery. In addition to traditional face-to-face, collaborative environments, the widespread use of information and communication technologies allows individuals around the globe to participate in collaborative learning. Dillenbourg emphasizes the need to differentiate the ‘notion of culture’ in the context of intercultural group learning, with that of developing a common ground or ‘micro-culture’ through which to successfully interact. The importance of building a micro-culture is echoed by Ashcraft and Treadwell, as the basis for successful collaborative learning. This article highlights the experiences of a university based, intercultural, mixed methods research project at Master's degree level, where student researchers with diverse backgrounds, worked collaboratively to create a tentative conceptual framework, in order to map research trends at the 2010 American Educational Research Association conference. This article suggests that collaborative learning in intercultural groups, rather than benefiting from one approach over another, can actually be enhanced by the combining of methods, resulting in a deeper learning experience for those participating. Furthermore, in the initial stages of negotiating and re-negotiating collective understandings and meaning, face-to-face collaboration can provide a basis for deeper learning and understanding in subsequent online collaboration, as experienced by the intercultural collective research group, which is the case study of this article.     

Exploring ‘learning lives’: community,identity, literacy and meaning

This article explores the term ‘learning lives’ by reporting on three research projects conducted by members of the Oslo‐based research group TransActions. By stressing the term ‘learning lives’ within a range of social ‘educational’ contexts, the article aims to look at learning within and across different learning sites exploring the positioning and repositioning of learner identity across these different ‘locations’. We emphasise how the individual learner relates to other people and objects, drawing on deeper trajectories or narratives of the self as it exists within and outside the immediate learning contexts. We pay attention to processes occurring between people which we find significant for the individual's identity, literacy and learning. By doing so we hope to make explicit the mobilisation of resources within and across specific contexts, in the ‘learning lives’ of Norwegian youngsters.