Search Results for
"learning"

This article discusses the results of a qualitative research study that examined clerical workers’ experiences of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in two retail banks, which were piloting Level 2 NVQs in Customer Services and Banking. The research suggests that the implementation of NVQs within the two banks did not bring about the kind of changes in work-based learning envisaged by advocates of the qualification framework. NVQ candidates conceptualised the process of doing an NVQ as ‘writing stories’ about routine work tasks in order to accredit existing skills. The potential for learning new skills and developing greater flexibility in the workplace was found to be very limited. On a more encouraging note, the research also identified a number of positive outcomes of doing an NVQ. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article reports an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of apprentices, workplace host employers and off-the-job teachers engaged in an apprenticeship programme regarding the nature and contributions of on and off-the-job environments to apprentices’ learning. An interpretive (expressive) approach was taken, using individual interviews and focus groups. learning on-the-job was perceived to be more real life and focused on the ‘how’. learning off-the-job was less pressured, broader in scope, more theoretical and concerned with ‘why’. The findings indicate that these two environments make valuable, but different contributions to apprentices’ learning and supports the need for both. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study researches the contributions made to the development of corporate capability when workers complete competency based workplace qualifications, such as the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) in eight United Kingdom organisations and the Vehicle Industry Certificate (VIC) in two Australian organisations. The study explores the features and indicators of successful learning in organisations from a social learning perspective and draws implications for organisations and employees from the case studies completed. Differences between organisation-driven and learner-driven engagement that emerged from the study, are also discussed. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Secondary-level career education, designed to prepare students for their occupational lives, generally adopts a human capital approach to learning. We critique this approach by comparing a range of career-education polices and programs with three key principles for democratic learning. We identify areas that would be enhanced by introducing these principles: avoiding the ahistorical depiction of labour-market and working conditions, expanding current conceptions of lifelong learning, offering students alternative viewpoints on occupationally related issues, respecting moral reasoning in character development, and strengthening critical thinking strategies.

This paper situates mathematical content and process knowledge within the construct of broad occupational competence. It is critical of many developments in vocational mathematics curriculum and pedagogical practice in Australia over the last decade or so, especially the trend towards the de-institutionalisation of disciplinary knowledge. This has been accompanied by a chronic lack of professional development for many involved in vocational education to enable development of this mathematical knowledge. Meanwhile, workers' actual and potential mathematical knowledges remain largely unrecognised, whilst irrelevant, often infantile, pedagogic texts form their subjectivities as doers rather than knowers, always in need of more training to adapt to ever-changing technologies of workplace plant and management. It argues that to attempt to satisfy government and industry demands for a creative, problem-solving workforce−to say nothing of workers' entitlement to democratic participation−there is a need for mathematical disciplinarity beyond current practice. © 2001, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Recently the meaning of lifelong learning has been transformed by economic imperatives from a focus on securing personal development to individuals' maintenance of their vocational practice throughout their working lives. These imperatives aim to reshape the responsibilities and goals for adults' learning throughout their working lives. This paper proposes an account of learning at work as a component of individual's development across their lifespan. It argues that learning throughout working life is an inevitable product of everyday thinking and acting, shaped by the work practices in which individuals participate. However, the quality of learning is contingent on the kinds of activities individuals engage in and the guidance they can access. These contributions are referred to as the activities and interdependencies afforded by the workplace. Continuities and discontinuities in development through working life can be understood in part by patterns of participation in these social practices. Yet there is tension between individuals' interest in participation and the affordance of the work practices in which they act. It is proposed that, although able to regulate their participation, ultimately individuals' ability to maintain their vocational practice is constrained by the way workplaces afford opportunities for engagement and interactions. © 2001, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The term 'learning' is now used to signal a range of political, social and economic aspirations. At the same time, the political, economic and cultural conditions under which learning occurs are changing. In these circumstances, it is appropriate to return to some fundamental questions about what learning is. This paper draws from a four-year longitudinal study of young people and their experiences of learning, jointly directed by Phil Hodkinson and myself. The study was based upon semi-structured interviews commencing with 50 young people in their final year of compulsory schooling. Over the four-year period, it witnessed transformations in their lives, including transformations in their dispositions to learning. In the paper, I draw from a range of theoretical sources for the illumination of these transformations and attempt to ground the work in a critical theoretical framework. I argue that theory must acknowledge the situated, positional, relational and participatory nature of learning if it is to capture adequately the complexities of learning and transformational processes. I conclude, also, that the explanatory power of theory is enhanced when it incorporates a temporal dimension and when it addresses how learning is embedded within the complex and continually changing patterns of other life experiences.