Book 2025

Learning Through Work: Practices, Purposes and Outcomes

Learning Through Work: Practices, Purposes and Outcomes
Journal · pp. 1-191
Abstract

Drawing on three decades of practical investigations, this book establishes new understandings about the importance of learning through work, outlining its purposes, contributions, conceptions and the curriculum, pedagogical and personal practices that shape its effectiveness. Against views proposing it as being informal and leading to concrete outcomes, this volume presents learning through work as being central to human development, informing individual choices and developing one's capacity for working life and occupational competence. In Part I, Billett makes a case for the value of learning through work and why it should be considered and engaged with as a legitimate mode of learning and model of education. Part II sets out the foundations for the processes of learning through work that have underpinned its utility across human history. Part III sets out bases by which this educational model and mode of learning can be understood through the concepts of practice curriculum, practice pedagogies and personal practices. These are presented based on the kinds of knowledge that they generate and how they can be realised in and through day-to-day work activities in practice settings, including the development of innovations in work settings. A much-needed resource from a leading expert in the field, this book will be of interest to educators, workplace trainers in a variety of settings, policy-makers and students in professional education courses. © 2026 Stephen Billett. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Author Keywords

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Index Keywords

Teaching Curricula Human development Educational modelling Individual choice Leading experts Occupational competence Practical investigations Process of learning Work activities Work practices Working life
Author Affiliations
Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
1 Learning in the Workplace Strategies for Effective Practice, (2001)
2 Billett, Stephen Richard, Mimesis: Learning Through Everyday Activities and Interactions at Work, Human Resource Development Review, 13, 4, pp. 462-482, (2014)
3 Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace, (1990)
4 Tynjälä, Päivi T., Perspectives into learning at the workplace, Educational Research Review, 3, 2, pp. 130-154, (2008)
5 Integrating Practice Based Experiences into Higher Education, (2015)
6 Live Longer Work Longer, (2006)
7 Billett, Stephen Richard, Work, change and workers, Work, Change and Workers, pp. 1-298, (2006)
8 Learning Through Practice Models Traditions Orientations and Approaches, (2010)
9 Billett, Stephen Richard, Personal epistemologies, work and learning, Educational Research Review, 4, 3, pp. 210-219, (2009)
10 Eraut, Michael R., Informal learning in the workplace, Studies in Continuing Education, 26, 2, pp. 247-273, (2004)
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