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.     

Understanding MOOC continuance: An empirical examination of social support theory

ABSTRACT

Learning outcomes is mediated by multi-channel learning environment and social engagement. Both factors may play a significant role in understanding motivation to learn in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The goal of this study was twofold: a. to compare behavior intention patterns of traditional e-learning platform and MOOCs participants; b. to examine relationships between behavior intention and perceived social support. Therefore, this study applies the concepts of technology acceptance model and social support theory to examine the underlying the determinants of learners’ continuance intention factors for MOOCs in Taiwan. In addition, this study adopts perceived convenience, computer self-efficacy, sense of community, and perceived gains as the constructs of social support perspective. Our examination reveals that sense of community, and perceived gains influence learners’ behavior intention of both general e-learning platform and MOOCs. However, perceived convenience and computer self-efficacy did not influence learners’ behavior intention for traditional e-learning platform, but still have efforts for MOOCs. In summary, our results show that the social support theory and technology acceptance model could be the suitable examination model to investigate the behavioral intentions for MOOCs. These findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications.     

Overarching professional identity themes in student teacher workplace learning

ABSTRACT

This study reports on how student teachers learn in the workplace. Data from 10 student teachers were collected by means of digital logs and in-depth interviews. By reconstructing data into stories and unravelling these stories, it became clear that the learning process of each student teacher was dominated by one specific theme, such as student-centred teaching or creating a positive learning climate. These themes could be typified as professional identity themes, because all appeared to be both personal and professional. Five student teachers experienced their workplace learning process as continuous: they integrated their teaching experiences relatively easily into their personal conceptual framework. The other five experienced their workplace learning process as discontinuous: they experienced tensions caused by frictions between personal and professional aspects of becoming a teacher. Both types of learning can stimulate and hinder student teachers’ professional development. The findings indicate that reconstructing data into stories and unravelling these stories is a useful technique for understanding student teacher workplace learning as a result of the interaction between personal and professional aspects of becoming a teacher.     

Learner Satisfaction with Massive Open Online Courses

This study investigates factors that influence learners’ satisfaction with massive open online courses (MOOCs). Framed by the theory of independent learning and teaching, the three types of interaction model, and the technology acceptance model, this study analyzed data collected from 1,786 learners enrolled in four MOOCs. Results show that the learner perceived usefulness, teaching and learning aspects of the MOOC, and learner-content interaction as important satisfaction factors. Learner-learner interaction and learner-instructor interaction had no effect on the sample’s learner satisfaction with the MOOC. These findings improve our understanding of MOOC learners’ preferences and contribute to the process of designing and developing new MOOCs. Future directions in MOOCs’ development are also discussed.     

Competences,Learning Theories and MOOCs: Recent Developments in Lifelong Learning

Our societies have come to be known as knowledge societies in which lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important. In this context, competences have become a much discussed topic. Many documents were published by international organisations (UNESCO, World Bank, European Commission) which enumerated 21^st century key competences. The field of learning theories has also experienced advances. Findings from neuroscience have promoted a new understanding of what really happens in the brain when we learn. At the same time, the fact that learning increasingly takes place in virtual communities led George Siemens (2004) to propose connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. Similarly, Roberto Carneiro (2010) suggested a theory he called generativism which aims at describing collaborative learning with digital technologies and open educational resources. These theories might be better able to describe and explain lifelong learning than classical learning theories. In the field of digital technologies, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently received a great deal of attention. While Siemens suggested connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) as the ideal platform for connectivist learning, other forms of MOOCs were also developed. These MOOCs have spread at a breath-taking pace in the last few years, although it is far from clear to what extent they are based on principles from learning theories and really support learning. These developments will be presented and discussed with respect to their relevance for lifelong learning as an integral part of man's quest for meaning.     

Making judgments as the basis for workplace learning: towards an epistemology of practice

Workplace learning has emerged as a significant site of adults' informal experiential learning, with implications for the provision and shape of formal education. There are, however, a prohibitive number of variables encumbering research into such learning. We can bypass the variables by focusing on phenomenal accounts of how professionals (in this instance) make judgements at work, underpinned by an organic logic derivable from Dewey. This article shows how to characterize a new epistemology of practice through both empirical and conceptual innovation, and thus advances the detail of this new informal workplace learning. This epistemology deals in five characteristics central to lifelong learning anyway, namely: the contingent (rather than exclusively formal, sustained, and systematic studies); the practical (rather than exclusively the theoretical); the process (rather than exclusively the assimilation of content); the particular (rather than the exclusively universal and a priori as the ‘context’); and the affective and the social domains (rather than exclusively the cognitive domain). Our fieldwork so far shows, through interview findings, how these are prominent in professional workplace judgments, and what prospects there are for further research on judgment as a site of ‘organic’ learning for adults.     

Who is taking MOOCs for teachers’ professional development on the use of ICT? A cross-sectional study from Spain

ABSTRACT

Research on the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for teacher professional development (TPD) and the characteristics of their participants is scarce. This article presents a case of a MOOC initiative supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education aiming at teachers’ professional development on the use of ICT for teaching and learning. The analysis is focused on (a) the sociodemographic and school characteristics of the teachers participating in MOOCs; (b) their experience and beliefs about lifelong learning; and (c) the relevance of MOOCs for their work. By contrasting the characteristics of the participants in this initiative with the characteristics of the whole population of teachers in Spain, and a sample of Spanish participants in MOOCs not aimed at TPD, the article sheds light on the specificities of the teachers who use this way of TPD. The results have implications for the design of programmes aimed to develop MOOCs for TPD.     

Workplace as Community: Perspectives on Science Teachers’ Professional Learning

This study explores teacher professional learning within the workplace context of a science department community. Workplace learning is considered in terms of the construction and flow of information about science, pedagogy and the relationships of science to the wider community. Implications for establishing sound conditions for teacher workplace learning are also considered, particularly the importance of trust.     

Unpacking MOOC scholarly discourse: a review of nascent MOOC scholarship

The rapid rise of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) signals a shift in the ways in which digital teaching and learning are engaged in and understood. Drawing upon a comprehensive search of nine leading academic databases, this paper examines the initial phase of MOOC scholarship (2009–2013), and offers an analysis of these empirical studies that conceptualizes themes in MOOC scholarship and locates them within a chronological framework. Two key phases of scholarship about MOOCs are identified, each with associated research imperatives and themes. Phase One: Connectivist MOOCs, Engagement and Creativity 2009–2011/2012. Themes of Phase One include: development of Connectivism as a learning theory, and technological experimentation and innovation in early cMOOCs. Phase Two: xMOOCs, Learning Analytics, Assessment, and Critical Discourses about MOOCs 2012–2013. Themes of Phase Two include: the rise of xMOOCs, further development of MOOC pedagogy and platforms, growth of learning analytics and assessment, and the emergence of a critical discourse about MOOCs.     

How MOOCs can empower learners: a comparison of provider goals and user experiences

The collective aims of the three biggest providers of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are to promote anywhere, anytime learning; to increase access to world-class higher education; and to connect and empower learners. Through analysis of focus group discussions between MOOC participants at the Australian National University, this study shows that MOOCs do appear to empower some users, but perhaps not in the ways – or for the people – that providers had expected. Rather than simply producing a new means for disadvantaged groups to access higher education – which can, in turn, empower them to have more opportunities in social, political and economic avenues of life – even people who are already enrolled at university can be empowered, psychologically, by MOOCs to feel confident in their abilities and to try learning new things without fear of failure. The types of people most likely to be psychologically empowered by MOOCs are those who are intrinsically motivated to learn for learning’s sake and who are anxious about the prospect of failure with regards to academic credit and course fees. Conversely, those who are more driven by extrinsic rewards may be more suited to a formally-graded learning environment, where fear of failure and financial investment in learning are regarded as motivating rather than de-motivating forces. These findings suggest that, while they may not have the same impact on all participants, MOOCs can still be a beneficial education resource with an ability to empower even already well-educated members of society.     

Analysis of MOOCs practices from the perspective of learner experiences and quality culture

This explanatory analysis of the relevant literature seeks to identify factors affecting quality in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The paper highlights sub-dimensions of quality in MOOCs using the ladder of analytical abstraction. Communication, trust, collaboration, inclusiveness, innovation, and commitment are identified as key elements in developing a quality culture in online education. In seeking to merge the organizational and pedagogical aspects of online education, MOOCs raise new questions concerning personalization, widening recruitment, internationalization or globalization, and lifelong learning. However, the pedagogical aspects of MOOCs remain insufficiently described and explored. As MOOCs are now a significant presence in digital education, it is essential to understand learners’ experiences and participation in such courses.     

Rethinking Initial Teacher Education for Further Education Teachers: From a standards‐led to a knowledge‐based approach

This paper is a critique of the initial teacher education (ITE) of further and adult education teachers in the UK. It argues that the employer‐led, national standards model in the UK is not the basis for ITE and professional development because it takes no account of learning in the workplace, disregards the multi‐specialist and professional dimensions of professional practice and marginalizes the importance of knowledge. In the critique of the “standards‐led model” the paper draws upon research and ideas on work‐based learning, seeing the learning of teachers in the workplace as a complex relationship with many “experts” in multiple, often conflicting learning contexts. The paper stresses the importance of seeing work‐based learning as more than just “learning by doing” to one that sees it as an intentional structuring of participatory activity. In other words, a “pedagogy of the workplace”. Finally the paper suggests that learning is not just a process of “participation”, but a learning zone where different types of knowledge and pedagogy are learnt and transformed. In highlighting the importance of knowledge the paper draws upon theories of professional knowledge that suggests that certain types of knowledge cannot be gained in the workplace alone, therefore focusing on the issues of the different types of knowledge, their acquisition and their transformation or recontextualisation.     

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.     

荷兰高职教育中的工作场所学习研究

在高等职业学校和企业将工作与学习相结合的双元培训项目被视为技能形成过程的有力载体,工作场所学习则被认为是发展职业能力和职业认同感的有效策略.为探讨荷兰高等职业教育的双元训练计划中的工作场所学习,实施定性的案例研究.研究结果显示,工作场所各部门之间的学习环境存在差异,学校和工作场所之间的合作缺失,学生在工作场所难以获得深...     

‘Oh you must be very clever!’ High‐achieving women,professional power and the ongoing negotiation of workplace identity

This paper uses a gender perspective to problematise the connection between high educational achievement and a fulfilling professional career. Drawing data from an Australian study of women working as professional engineers in a range of locations, the paper investigates the ways in which the identities produced in the women’s educational experiences require further negotiation in dealing with the realities of their divergent workplaces. Through a deconstruction of the power relationships that form a key feature of the women’s reported workplace experience, the women are shown to engage in a range of tactics in the effort to achieve a degree of workplace acceptance and some professional recognition. The paper concludes by urging renewed attention to changing engineering education and workplace culture if the profession is to attract and retain able women.     

学习支持服务对MOOC课程持续学习意愿的影响研究——基于ACSI-ECM模型的视角

在线学习支持服务是影响MOOC课程学习效果的重要因素。研究结合ACSI模型和ECM模型,构建学习支持服务对MOOC课程持续学习意愿的影响模型,以273位MOOC课程学习者为研究对象,通过结构方程模型分析和中介效应分析确定变量间结构与数量关系。研究结果表明:感知质量、感知价值和学习支持服务满意度显著影响MOOC课程持续学习意愿;期望确认、感知质量和感知价值显著影响MOOC课程学习支持服务满意度,并以学习支持服务满意度为中介变量间接影响持续学习意愿;期望确认对感知质量具有显著影响。在此基础上,结合当前MOOC课程发展提出若干建议,为促进MOOC课程学习者持续学习意愿的提升提供参考。     

Mobile and Online Learning Journal: Effects on Apprentices’ Reflection in Vocational Education and Training

While learning journals (LJs) have been shown to support self-regulated learning strategies, reflection and learning outcomes in academic contexts, few studies have investigated their relevance in vocational education. A mobile and online learning journal (MOLJ) was developed to support reflection on workplace experiences. However, acceptance of the mobile and online learning journal by apprentices and supervisors is not trivial. This study investigated how apprentices use the mobile and online learning journal and why they use it that way. The mobile and online learning journal was developed for apprentices in the field of bakery and contains a recipe book, a smartphone app to take pictures of workplace experiences, and a learning journal for reflection. Apprentices’ workplace supervisors have access to the mobile and online learning journal to provide support and feedback. A mixed method study was conducted with 16 apprentices. Indicators of their use of the mobile and online learning journal were recorded, while reasons for use were studied by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Four kinds of users of the mobile and online learning journal were identified: Multifunction users, picture takers, learning journal users, and overall low users. The most determining factors for the acceptance and use of the mobile and online learning journal by apprentices were their interest in the use of a smartphone at the workplace, their acceptance of reflection on workplace experiences through the mobile and online learning journal, and supervisors’ participation and provision of feedback. Promoting the use of learning journals by apprentices requires strong guidance in the design of the learning journal as well as support and feedback from supervisors. Taking pictures from the workplace proves useful for learning and sharing experience in vocational training.     

Peeking under the covers: on‐line academic staff development in Australia and the United Kingdom

This paper describes a study of how academic development units use on‐line technologies for academic staff development. Changes in technology and in the academic workplace are making it increasingly possible to use on‐line learning opportunities for professional development, and on‐line learning environments might thus be expected to provide opportunities for university teachers to reflect on their teaching practice and share these insights and experience with colleagues within and across disciplines. The study reported here reviewed 31 web sites in Australia and the UK to determine what range of aims of academic staff development where being met in their implementation of on‐line learning. The paper concludes that in most contexts the World Wide Web was considered useful for the administrative rather than the educational needs of academic staff.     

Teachers’ Enactments of Workplace Conditions and Their Beliefs and Attitudes toward Reform

This study builds on two assumptions regarding agency in teachers' workplace learning. (1) While teachers enact school reform in daily school and classroom practice, they actively redefine the reform. (2) In this learning process, in which working and learning are integrated, teachers reinterpret and reinvent the workplace conditions in their school. These workplace conditions function as enabling and/or constraining environments for learning. Teachers' perception of workplace conditions in their schools and their definitions of and attitudes toward reform are regarded as more or less integrated results of and conditions for workplace learning. As such, they are expected to be related. The question in this article is if this relationship can be demonstrated. Data are collected in a comparative case study of 18 secondary school teachers in the context of the reform of students' active and self-directed learning. Results show that schools as learning environments are interpreted by teachers as complex and multidimensional, rather than dual ideal types. Teachers' definitions of and attitudes toward reform are related to their perceptions of workplace conditions in the predicted direction.     

Understanding the quality factors that influence the continuance intention of students toward participation in MOOCs

The massive open online course (MOOC) is emerging as the new paradigm for modern education. The success of MOOCs depends on learners’ continued usage. Drawing upon the information systems success model (IS success model) and technology acceptance model, a theoretical model for studying learners’ continuance intentions toward participation in MOOCs was developed. Based on survey data from 294 respondents, structural equation modeling was employed to assess the model. The results of this analysis indicate that system quality, course quality, and service quality were significant antecedents of the continuance intention of individuals, and the effect of course quality and service quality were mediated by perceived usefulness. The results contribute to the extant literatures in the context of MOOCs learning by identifying the critical quality factors, and provide managerial guidelines for MOOCs utilization and generalization. The implications of the present findings for research and managerial practice are discussed.