Women studying childcare: integrating lives through adult education

Achieving organisational development through the enhancement of workplace learning is a popular recent strategy advocated in the management and business literatures. Yet what is learned is highly dependent on the workplace context. A lean production/just-in-time manufacturing environment is characterised by extreme time pressures. This paper outlines findings on how action learning was experienced in a manufacturing company employing lean production practices. An action learning program was implemented to foster learning in this company. Using a sociocultural framework, we describe how the production discourse surrounding lean production interacted with attempts to introduce reflective action and learning into that environment. The findings are that action learning practices were accommodated to a certain extent into the work routine during times of production stability, but were largely abandoned during times of crisis. Our analysis demonstrates that the cultural meaning of "work" in this lean production environment excluded all forms of "meaning" that were not visible, physical and targeted at immediate production needs. While there was evidence of individual personal and professional development achieved in this setting, there was little evidence to date of organisational development. The cultural hostility to non-urgent work hindered the reflective activity that could address the systemic issues that in turn could generate organisational development.     

Developing an action learning design model

As the number of organizations implementing action learning increases, both successful and failed cases also increase in action learning practice in South Korea. Existing studies on action learning have listed key success factors of action learning at the program level or at the team level but have not paid sufficient attention to the program design process itself. The purpose of this study was to show how to develop a design model of action learning that incorporates a step-by-step decision-making process and that provides design principles necessary along the way. This design model will present the importance of contextualizing the action learning process by asking ‘highly required’ questions and help raise the level of successful implementation of action learning programs.     

大学英语弱势群体的学习策略调查与研究

以150名专科英语学习困难学生为研究对象，调查分析英语弱势群体在学习策略方面存在的困难和问题，提出一些可能解决问题的对策，并进行了为期一个学期的策略训练。研究发现：英语弱势群体在学习策略方面存在的困难和问题，策略训练对大学英语弱势群体的英语学习有较显著的帮助；学习策略的掌握和运用需要一个较长过程。     

Peered and tiered learning: action research as creative cultural pedagogy

This article presents and problematizes a peered and tiered model of creative and educational knowledge transfer piloted in Culture Shack, a community-based arts education program in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on Eisner and Sefton-Green and Soep, I argue the value of this approach as a potential new pedagogical strategy in both secondary learning and teacher education courses, refocused on collaborative and process learning rather than outcome-focused pedagogy and assessment. Because education is a key factor for successful integration of those from refugee-background and emerging communities, self-reliance and creative problem-solving can be enhanced through arts programs such as Culture Shack that increase participation in continuing, collaborative educational pathways. In this paper I argue that this peered and tiered collaborative learning model offers possibilities for working cross-sectorally, interdisciplinarily, and interculturally for effective pedagogical outcomes and for the value of arts-based action research-as-pedagogy.     

Participating in a Collaborative Action Learning Set (CAL): beginning the journey

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few systematic and/or evaluative accounts of the experience of participating in action learning for potential action learning participants to draw upon. This paper attempts to address this agenda. The paper presents an interpretive evaluation of the experience of nurses participating in action learning as the learning strategy underpinning a 3-year emancipatory practice development/practitioner research programme. In particular, the paper focuses on the experience of ‘joining a learning set’. This focus has been adopted as the theory of action learning emphasises the principle of ‘voluntariness’, but yet action learning is increasingly being pre-prescribed as a component of development and research programmes. Such was the case with the programme reported on in this paper. The paper describes an approach used to evaluate learning that was adopted in this programme and in particular the initial evaluation stage that focuses on participants' feelings about joining an action learning set. The data collection and analysis processes are described and the key themes arising from the analysis (‘self-preservation’ versus ‘development of self’) discussed. It is concluded that working with principles of enlightenment is essential to successful action learning and the transformation of workplace cultures.     

A Prose Learning Strategy Training Program Based on Network and Depth-of-Processing Models

Relatively simple changes in cognitive activities during prose learning can have a substantial effect on how much and what kind of information is acquired, yet many students use relatively ineffective learning strategies. This paper describes a learning strategy training program which is based on network models of long-term memory structure and depth-of-processing theory. Evidence is presented which supports the effectiveness of the learning strategy training program in enhancing prose learning among college students.     

Reconciling market requirements and operations resources: an opportunity for action learning

This article brings together the fields of action learning and operations strategy. It presents a case of action learning focused on strategic operations improvement in the extended manufacturing enterprise. As the third article in the set of explorations in this journal within the fields of action learning, operations strategy and collaborative improvement, it steps inside an inter-organisational action learning programme and exploits an operations strategy perspective on the improvement process and outcome. Through distinguishing between puzzles and problems, the article extends the scope of the operations improvement cycle and illustrates how the action learning approach can accommodate and enable engagement with the issues in potentially insightful practical and theoretical ways.     

网络教学中小组学习管理问题探讨

学习策略是学习者制定并且予以实施的学习活动方案,它是学习规则和学习技能的组合,而掌握学习策略是网络教育学生提高学习效率和效果的重要因素。在开放性的现代网络教育教学过程中,导学教师必须把小组学习作为培养和改善学生学习策略的一项重要工作来抓,进而加强小组学习的管理。完整性的小组学习活动,不仅有利于提高学员的学习成绩,而且对于他们形成新的学习思维,增强交流沟通能力等方面,都有积极的作用。     

Critical educational gerontology at a senior center in Malta: possibilities and limitations for critical consciousness

ABSTRACT

One area that remained off the research radar is that interface between senior centers and learning programs, and hence, their potential to act as community-based learning hubs. Countering such a state of affairs, this article reports on an action research study to investigate the extent that a transformative learning program in a senior center can lead learners to improved levels of personal and social empowerment. The research project sought to meet its goal and objectives through the ‘action research’ design, by planning and executing a critical educational gerontological programme for persons attending a Maltese senior center. The learning program following a critical geragogical approach which encourages learners to discuss and problematize each theme in the curriculum. Pretest-posttest focus groups found the learning program to be successful in improving learners’ levels of personal empowerment as they acquired a strong awareness of how social differences are structurally produced due to inequities and discriminations based on social class, gender, and age differences. However, the quest achieving critical consciousness remained an elusive one due to immanence and internal agism, as well as the fact that political action arises as a lifetime narrative. Critical educational gerontology remains steadfastly hinged upon the ‘successful aging’ paradigm that overlooks how later life is also underpinned by ill-health, abjection, care relations, and loss of agency. It is hoped that this action research project acts as a catalyst for future studies in critical educational gerontology to be framed by a fourth age social imaginary.     

Developing a service management strategy facilitated by action learning: an empirical study from the UK health & fitness industry

One of the principle tenets of action learning is that it provides the potential to explore and solve complex organisational problems. The question of how best to develop a future business strategy is such a problem. Existing literature on strategy making presents a multi-faceted debate, suggesting that the complexity of competitive environments means that the strategic route forward for many organisations can often be unclear. As a lecturer who teaches strategy at university, I have been intrigued by the ‘Learning Group’ of strategy making (Argyris & Schon, 1974; Quinn, 1980; Mintzberg, 1987; Argyris, 1993, 2004) for some time, as it argues that competitive environments are complex and unpredictable, and therefore, organisational strategies must be reactive and flexible. As a consequence, strategies simply emerge over time, and are characterised by a process of trial and error where individuals and groups within the organisation learn more about the environment they are competing in and how best to take advantage of it.

This paper aims to explore two key questions: firstly, to examine the role that action learning could play in helping strategy makers become more reflective practitioners, and secondly, to explore the use of peer consultancy as a vehicle to enable action learning. This paper presents the findings of empirical research from an action learning project with the Chief Executive of a leading UK service provider of health and fitness. It provides a detailed examination of how a service management strategy was developed in practice and enabled by a process of iterative action, change, reflection and learning.     

Enhancing action learning with student feedback

Action learning is based on three educational principles—reflection, community, and action—that interrelate and reinforce each other to support ongoing learning about experiences in the workplace. This study explains how an action learning program established for a small group of science teachers in a secondary high school lasted for two years. In this study feedback in the form of student interviews about teaching and learning were introduced to the teacher discussions to enhance the process of action learning. The student feedback gave the teachers an alternative perspective on their experiences and were a catalyst for reflection that helped the teachers to sustain their learning over a period of two years.     

Networking vs. rote learning strategies in concept acquisition

Following presentation of a slide-tape instructional program, the performance of subjects in two learning strategy groups-networking and rote-was compared to a control group on a concept learning task and a spatial learning task. Networking proved more effective than rote learning and the control group on both tasks; networking also allowed for improved retention over time (in this case, one week). This article reviews some of the research on learning strategies and suggests how the network strategy can enhance learning in academic situations.     

Peer teaching as a strategy for conflict management and student re-engagement in schools

This article reports on a major action research program that experimented with the use of cross-age peer teaching in schools to assist teachers to manage conflict issues in their classrooms, and to re-engage disaffected students in learning. The research, which was conducted in a range of elementary and secondary schools in Australia, was part of a larger international project using conflict resolution concepts and techniques combined with drama strategies to address cultural conflict in schools. The use of formal cross-age peer teaching emerged as a highly effective strategy in teaching students to manage a range of conflicts in schools, and especially in learning to deal with bullying. Operating as peer teachers also enabled a number of students in the study, with serious behaviour problems, to re-engage with their learning. The article therefore evaluates the effectiveness of peer teaching in both conflict management and student re-engagement.     

Reflections on a failed action learning intervention

This paper reflects on the failure of a recent action learning intervention with a UK television company. The aim of the project was to gain insight into the reasons why the viewing figures of their factual programming channels were in decline and to develop a new strategy enabled by the action learning methodology. Unfortunately, this intervention was not successful and resulted in the project being cancelled after only one set meeting. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the reasons for this failure and to share my thoughts with others in the action learning community. The paper concludes that the reasons for this failed intervention were due to: my presence being considered by some set members as a threat to their credibility; a resistance to engage in the process of assumption breaking and reflective practice; and due to the perceived time it takes to apply the action learning methodology.     

大学新生英语学习策略使用与英语成绩的关系

本文调查了长沙理工大学非英语专业学生的英语学习策略使用情况。借助社会科学统计软件(SPSS for Windows10.0)对数据进行单向方差分析。本项调查为学习策略与英语成绩的关系提供了实证材料。不同水平的学生在 45 条学习策略的使用数量上有显著地区别。元认知策略和功能操练策略对外语学习的成功与否起决定性作用,学习策略使用与学习成绩有线性因果关系学生过多使用母语策略对外语水平的提高有负面作用。学生应注意母语策略的负面影响,尽量少用它。     

Solving wicked problems through action learning

This account of practice outlines the Oxyme Action Learning Program which was conducted as part of the Management Challenge in my final year of the MSc in Coaching and Behavioral Change at Henley Business School. The central research questions were: (1) how action learning can help to solve wicked problems and (2) what the effect of an action learning program is on the individual set members, the set and the organization as a whole. This paper also describes my personal development as a facilitator of change and ends with key learnings and recommendations for future action learning programs.     

Building better futures: leveraging action learning at Kentz Engineers & Constructors

This article provides a case study of how Kentz Engineers & Constructors, with more than 10,000 employees in 26 countries, are leveraging learning to ‘Build better futures’ for its stakeholders: clients, shareholders, employees and communities. Kentz provide opportunities for learning at all levels, ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. This case study focuses on the development of leaders within Kentz, including utilizing action learning to align the development of people with the process of mobilizing people to effect change and turn strategy into effective action. It draws upon the experiences of participants at different levels within Kentz in examining their learning, their action and the learning process.     

An educational framework for participatory action learning and action research (PALAR)

The purpose of this article is to provide an educational, theoretical, and methodological framework for using a special kind of action research, namely PALAR (participatory action learning and action research). This integrated methodology of lifelong action learning (AL) and participatory action research (PAR) has been developed over the past 25 years. It has been proven to be an effective approach to individual, professional, organizational, community (and generally practice) development. PALAR can be instrumental in pursuit of social justice and is well suited for both experienced and beginning researchers interested in researching and improving their own practice. The article illustrates with case examples how this framework has been put into practice for various programs in a variety of fields and countries. The PALAR framework is the basis for a generic program design, structure, and content, and for processes of learning, teaching, assessment, evaluation, and leadership development. It is a systemic and systematic program on how to design, justify, conduct, evaluate, write, and publish research that is particularly useful for community or work-based theses at master’s, professional doctorate, and PhD levels. An original feature of this article is its comprehensive overview and summary of the theory and practice of PALAR for the first time, with references to further readings.     

独立学院综合英语教学元认知策略培训研究

针对独立学院学生学习特点,对独立学院英语专业大一学生综合英语课程,从了解学习认知和策略认知、目标制定和计划制定、自我监控和自我评价等三方面进行元认知策略培训。通过定性和定量研究总结元认知策略培训结果及成效。研究结果表明,元认知策略培训融入英语教学过程中是可行的且富有实效的;有效的培训可提高学生元认知意识,提升学生自主学习意识。此项研究对于普通高校英语教学也有一定的借鉴意义。     

远程教育学习者学习策略反思与重构

根据远程高等教育在＂试点＂之后的发展变化和学习者在学习需求上表现出的一些新特征,对学习者的学习策略进行了反思,认为满足学习者需要的学习策略就是好的策略。同时认为学习策略重构也是必要的,在具体实践中,其定位原则、方法各不相同,影响的因素包括学习者自身的观念,学习者的学习自主性以及老师的主动性等。