CRADLE 2020 - keynote #2 with Professor Monika Nerland

The afternoon sessions were on moderation with focus on voices of sessional academics and support for disabled assessees. Rapid orals were then presented and these covered a range of topics. I did not take notes on these when too quickly.

The closing sessions begin with a keynote from ProfessorMonika Nerland who is Professor of Education at the University of Oslo. She speaks on ‘Reconfiguring relations between higher education and work: Knowledge practices and learning in the (post)digital era’.

The presentation concentrates on how knowledge practices have changed in the workplace and in turn, this impacts on how the processes are recognised as complex work. Examples from professional learning used to explain the various perspectives. Began with an overview of HE and digitalisation. Much attention now focused on digital platforms for learning and communication. Within work, specialised digitalisation processes are now advancing rapidly. There is therefore an extension and complexity of the possible learning spaces which are distributed across activities and resources. Less attention to the digitisation and its effects on work. Yet, as work shifts, work tasks also shift and these require attention and study.

Discussed the concepts of expert communities and how they are characterised by distinct knowledge practices. Professional expertise tends to be recognised by fellow-experts. May rest on different forms of knowledge and ways of knowing that are applicable in different work contexts. Ways of developing, enacting and recognising expertise is embedded in the distinct forms within specialised communities. The actors and networks at play are variable and specific to occupational specialities.

Epistemic practises is the knowledge which is generated and shared in a given field of practice. Includes the socially and interactionally accomplished ways that  the group communicate, justify, assess and legitimise knowledge. They play a crucial role in making knowledge ‘actionable’ and are required to help assemble, translate and represent practice.

In the post digital area has increased epistemic complexity. There is more abstraction in how knowledge is visualised to allow for computation thinking and automation.  This makes it difficult to access these knowledge domains.

Challenges to professional expertise includes the working with advanced technologies and representations as demanding’ increased need for systems understanding; extended responsibilitie for mastering knowledge; and the need to also establish and manage social relations both internally and externally of organisations.

Provided examples from an ongoing project (CORPUS) to study the changing requirements in public services due to the consequences of digitisation in general and specialised occupations. For example, a study of the introduction of ‘smart care tech’ into the health sector’. How is this new process/system developed and how does it evolve as it forms their new professional roles and responsibilities and a new approach to work. Requires system understanding to bring in the many ‘actors’. Listed a few research challenges – access to observing and participating in knowledge practice as a learner; develop specialised expertise; and navigating complex information environments and constructing productive spaces for learning.

So what is the role of HE in supporting the new demands on learning. Need to enrol students in evolving professional knowledge culture – to providing access to and participation in epistemic practices help to make the profession’s ‘machinery’ of knowledge construction more transparent. With learning an ongoing process of becoming rather that predicated on one end point.

Provided case studies in legal, teacher and software engineering education through design of inquiry tasks to help learning identified epistemic practices (learning outcomes) with professional knowledge sources and the ‘transformative’ means for getting there (i.e. signature pedagogies).

Another way is to attend to students’ navigation and ways of constructing spaces for learning – i.e. moving between educational and professional environments. Also a need to keep pace with an evolving field by developing productive relations between sets of epistemic practice in education ad work and to reconfigure educational arrangements, roles and responsibilities to move beyond the education-work divide.

Conclude with a call to move beyond the education – work dichotomy and to understand that professionalism is not a given. It needs to be continually worked on.

The conference closes with the launch of the book ‘ReimaginingUniversity Assessment in a Digital World’ by Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver (Deakin). See brief notes on book here. 

Stephen Billett - Learning through practice - overview of work and bibilography

I prepared this list for a colleague of mine, starting on her PhD journey. She is researching practice-based learning. As many people find Billett's work to be 'dense' and as much of it is now considered the seminal articles on workplace and practice-based learning, I looked into providing her with a smooth introduction into his work.

Firstly, there is a short video (under 4 minutes) which provides a good overview.  As Stephen was my PhD supervisor, I had the opportunity to gain familiarity with his work over a period of time. His first seminal articles on workplace learning were published in the 1990s and early 2000s. I advise other scholars, interested and beginning in the field of workplace learning, practice-based learning and learning through practice to at least read 3 to 4 of Stephen’s articles from the 1990s. They set up a good background for his current work.

The seminal papers on various topics include:

Workplace learning – including concepts of affordances / interdependencies

Billett, S. (1996). Situated learning: Bridging sociocultural and cognitive theorising. Learning and Instruction, 6 (3), 263–280.

Billett, S. (2001). Learning at work: workplace affordances and individual engagement. Journal of Workplace Learning, 13(5), 209-214.

Billett, S. (2002). Toward a workplace pedagogy: Guidance, participation, and engagement. Adult Education Quarterly, 53(1), 27-43.

Billett, S. (2002). Workplace pedagogic practices: co-participation and learning. British Journal of Education Studies, 50(4), 457-481. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8527.t01-2-00214

Billett, S. (2003). Sociogeneses, activity and ontogeny. Culture and Psychology, 9(2), 133-169.

Identity – subjectivities

Billett, S. (2006). Constituting the workplace curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36 (1), 31-48.

Billett, S. (2008). Learning throughout working life: A relational interdependence between personal and social agency. British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(1), 39-58.

Billett, S. (2008). Subjectivity, learning and work:Sources and legacies.  Vocations and Learning, 1(2), 149-171.

Billett, S., & Somerville, M. (2004). Transformational work: Identity and learning. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 309-326.

Billett, S., & Pavlova, M. (2005). Learning through working life: Self and individuals’ agentic action. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 24(3), 195-211.

Practice based learning

Billett, S. (2009). Personal epistemologies, work and learning. Educational Research Review, 4, 210-219.

Billett, S. (2010). Learning through practice. In S. Billett (Ed.), Learning through practice:Models, traditions, orientations and approaches (pp. 1-20). Netherlands: Springer.

Billett, S., & Choy, S. (2013). Learning through work: emerging perspectives and new challenges. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(4), 264 – 276. 

Cleland, J., Leaman, J., & Billett, S. (2014). Developing medical capabilities and dispositions through practice-based experiences. In C. Harteis, A. Rausch & J. Seifried (Eds.), Discourses on Professional Learning: On the Boundary between Learning and Working (pp.211-230). Drodrecht, Netherlands: Springer.

Mimetic learning

Billett, S. (2014). Mimetic learning at work. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.

Mud Masons of Djenne - ethnographical study of apprenticeship and workplace learning

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is curating a series of video interviews of with the masons of Djenne . The video interviews (in French) are with the 'master' masons, present practitioners and apprentices. Viewing the videos bring to life the work of Professor Trevor Marchand and the descriptions and scholarship from his books 'Minaret building and apprenticeship in Yemen (2001) with a supportive review and 'The Masons of Djenne (2009)' and an overview paper.

The videos are short but provide a window into the world of the learning of a pre-text based craft. Mimetic learning is the norm with apprentices learning 'by stealth' and gradual belonging into the community of masons. Worth a look through for background into studies of learning through practice.

Ways of knowing: Anthropological Approaches to crafting experience and knowledge – book overview

Ways of knowing: Anthropological Approaches to crafting experience and knowledge - Edited by Mark Harris (2007) published by Berghahn Books.

Brief summary in previous blog but now undertaking a deeper read into pertinent chapters for several articles I am working on.

The book has 14 chapter. The 3 chapter summarized in greater detail here are all from Part 3 – the rethinking embodiment section.

Chapter 8 by Professor T.Marchand ‘crafting knowledge: the role of ‘parsing and production’ in the communication of skilled-based knowledge among masons. The proposal in this chapter is the concept of embodied practice and manual movement as a form of communication. Hence, to study how trades people work, there is a need to understand how they go about doing work, often with very little verbal interaction. Yet, a multitude of nuanced activity is ‘parsed’ between workers. Activity includes how ‘assistants’ anticipate the needs of masons as they go about building structures and how groups of masons, working on one section of a building, coordinate activity to contribute to the final objective. Each goes about their activity individually but each is also cognizant to what other workers are up to. Therefore, the activity is choreographed without verbal interaction but communication through body language, task completion and shared understandings of the quality and functional objectives.

Chapter 9 with Dr. C.Grasseni on ‘communities of practice (CoP) and forms of life: towards the rehabilitation of vision? Grasseni uses ethnographical studies with farmers to understand the importance of vision in judging the characteristics of beef cattle and dairy cows. Grasseni’s thesis is how vision of quality indicators in animals, is learnt mainly, through long engagement with farming practice. The children of farmers are theorized as being submerged into farming CoPs from a young age and are able to recognize the physical characteristics of the animals under their care. The term ‘skilled vision’ is used to encompass the range of farming visual skills. These skills are used not only with animal husbandry but across the various farming work tasks. Many tasks include sociomaterial interactions, for instance with the landscape, weather and tools / machinery of farming. 

Chapter 10 by Associate Professor G.Downey presents ‘seeing with a ‘sideways glance’: visuomotor ‘knowing’ and the plasticity of perception. This interesting chapter, uses the ethnography of the Brazilian martial art, capoeira, to argue the thesis that expertise in martial arts, goes beyond the physical actions when ‘fighting’ occurs. There are other physical skills (gaze, walk, balance) and dispositions (tenacity, resilience, patience) learnt as practitioners hone their fighting skills.

These 3 chapters contribute to understanding the aspects of learning which have been difficult to pin down and describe. In particular, the role of observation in learning physical skills and judgement related to specialised activities. Also, the unspoken communications of skilled practice and how learners have to learn the 'language' if they hope to make progress. 

Discourses on Professional Learning: On the boundary of learning and work - chapter summaries

Discourses on Professional Learning: On the boundary between learning and working.

Edited by C. Harteis, A. Rausch and J. Seifried (2014) and published by Springer. Hardcopy in CPIT library.

The book has introductory and concluding chapters, 15 chapters collected into 3 parts. Below, summaries of chapters relevant to my current work and research.

Introduction by the editors

Part 1 – Analytical perspectives – learning in work context - has 6 chapters.

Chapter 2 – Agentic behaviour at work: crafting learning experiences by M. Goller and S. Billett. This chapter provides a rare critique to the ‘deliberate practice’ concept. Work is held to be complex, contextualised to individual workplaces, open to distinct socio-cultural and socio-material challenges and reliant on individual’s intrinsic motivation. Precepts of deliberate practice have been derived from studies of expertise founded in narrowly prescribed fields (i.e playing chess, sports, music) comprising small number of well-defined activities. Whereas all work is undertaken in difficult to define environments, structured to allow for organisational objectives (i.e. same occupation but different focuses – e.g. chef in hospital, café, fine-dining restaurant, fast foot etc.). Individual’s agency is held to be significant in how workplace learning progresses.

Chapter 5 with S. Billett on the topic ‘mediating learning at work: personal mediations of social and brute factors. As with chapter 2, the emphasis is on individuals being agentic in their approaches to workplace learning. Important to focus on socio-cultural and socio-material (the inter-psychological processes) but and how individuals learning (the intra-psychological processes). However, it is the ways in which inter and intra psychological processes inter-relate that are important. In particular, how individuals deploy intra-psychological processes to deal with the world around them.

Chapter 6 on ‘error climate and how individuals deal with errors in the workplace’ by A. Baumgartner and J. Seifried. An interesting study with apprentices in the hotel and restaurant industry. The importance of ‘error climate’ is introduced to explain how in some circumstances, learning through making mistakes can be useful contributors to workplace learning, and how in other workplaces, making mistakes is unsupported and thus seen to be impediments to progress. So, the workplace and worker attitudes to error are contributing factors.

Chapter 7 by T. Schley and M van Woerkom on ‘reflection and reflective behaviour in work teams’. Extends on understandings about the role of reflection in learning. Much based on intra-psychological / individual as reflector model. However, just as important to view reflection and reflective approaches in team-based work teams. Little research on how teams contribute to organisational improvement through work team reflection so proposes need to carry out more detailed studies.

Part 2 covers – analytical perspectives – work as learning environment – has 6 chapters

Chapter 9 contributed by M. Tyler, S. Choy, R. Smith and D. Dymock discusses ‘learning in response to workplace change’. Based on large study based in 4 occupations. Found workers tended to concentrate on work tasks changes rather than on organisational strategic directions. Workers tended to concentrate on maintaining their immediate employability skills. Therefore, workplace change needs to be focused on helping workers gain skills they perceive as contributing to their professional development to complete their current jobs well.

Chapter 12 – ‘developing medical capacities and dispositions through practice-based experiences’ with J. Cleland, J. Leaman and S. Billett. Goals and objectives of workplace learning for new medical staff identified as – identification / confirmation of individual’s fit within the medical specialities; learning skills to perform as medical staff; and continue to develop as medical staff through their occupational lives.

Chapter 13 – ‘ ePortfolio: A practical tool for self-directed, reflective and collaborative professional learning’  by A. L. Daunert & L. Price provides a guide to the different ways eportfolios may be used in professional learning and development contexts. Introduces the concept of eportfolio and undertakes a review of reported advantages /positive impacts  and the reverse on challenges of eportfolios. Also provides guidelines on linking eportfolios to professional development plans based on adapted ADDIE (analyse, design, develop, implement, evaluate).

Part 3 covers methodological issues

Chapter 15 on ‘social network analyses (SNA) of learning at workplaces’ by T. Palonen and K. Hakkarainen. Provides rationale for and introduces the precepts of social network analysis as a way to study ‘socially distributed expertise’. SNA is used to find out how individuals, their groups / sub-groups relate to each other. How people interrelate to each other is a focus in organisational management studies using SNA. SNA also useful in other fields for studying spread of disease, diffusion of information, animal social organisations etc. Future potentials and limitations of SNA are discussed.

Chapter 16 with L. Filliettaz on ‘learning through interactional participatory configuration: contributions from video analysis'. Introduces the frameworks and rationale for using video analysis of workplace practice. Two items discussed in the article – video useful in exploring and making sense of interpersonal relationships in learning / workplace situations; and promoting video as a viable method for research studies into professional practice.

Chapter 17 by A. Rausch on ‘using diaries in research on work and learning’. Rationale for using diaries to record workplace learning presented and discussed. The various ways to deploy diary-based studies (diaries as research instruments) can be deployed are also presented – work task diaries, social interaction diaries, problem diaries, and interruption diaries. A comprehensive chapter on with how to, why, when etc. for the use of diarie.

Conclusion drawn by S. Billett with discussion on ‘interdependence on the boundaries between working and learning’.

Development of professional expertise – book summary

Title of the book is ‘Development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments’ (2009) - Cambridge University Press, and it has 21 chapters organised into 4 sections. With a summary/discussion chapter at the end of each section. The book is edited by K. Anders Ericsson, who has completed a body of work on expert performance and deliberate practice using research methods centred around protocol analysis and verbal reports on thinking.

The Kindle version costs US$18.70 which is a real bargain compared to the hardback version at $109! Have ordered the hardcopy for the library. As yet, there is no preview available in google books. Book review / summary also simplified as I could read on Ipad, take notes on PC and save on blogger. The summary was completed across a series of months, from initial reading while travelling in July. The bookmarking and highlighting function on the Kindle app comes into good use to mark initial points of interest and themes. At work, it was a matter of following up on the bookmarks and notes to complete the summaries of each chapter. 

The book has a focus on studying measurable situated expertise and the unravelling of factors that promote the acquisition, maintenance and on-going development of expertise. The myth that expertise is a result of accumulated experience is debunked. Instead, the need for conscientious deliberate practice is required for both novices and recognized experts to attain, maintain and continually hone skills is required.

      1) A brief history of the study of expertise is provided in chapter one. The chapter also provides background to the rationale, origins (a conference on expertise) and structure / approaches of the book.  The book as a whole, has a focus on measurable performance of expertise in a range of real world work (many within a military training / leadership context) and learning activities with the aim of understanding better, how individuals and teams acquire and develop superior performance. Brief summaries of each of the chapters is also provided.

Section 1 – historical overview covering challenges in the past and contemporary efforts.

2)   20^th century revolution in military training (R. E. Chapman).

This interesting chapter, describes the evolution of training within the United States military. In particular, the move in the 1970s towards using forms of experiential /active learning supported with feedback structures, to improve outcomes of military training. Of interest is the description of the navy’s ‘top gun’ programme for combat pilots, which improved the odds of survival of fighter pilots. The norm of two planes shot down to one enemy plane shot down, improved in the navy’s favour to 12.5 planes for each enemy plan shot down, after the ‘top gun’ programme became the training approach. Top gun training involved pilots training in a simulated environment against ‘enemy planes’ that flew like and used enemy strategies.  A ‘after-action review was then used to evaluate each pilot’s performance, confronting pilots with their errors and forcing them to reflect on their performance.

The ‘top gun’ training programme was then adapted to infantry training and has been adapted over the years. Findings from the many cohorts trained through this programme include that there is a levelling off of the learning curve after initial rapid improvement.  Learning curves can be cumulative. Part task initial learning is followed by simplified whole-task training. Then realistic whole task training is undertaken before actual mission training is undertaken.  Skills also atrophy if they are not being used within 2 – 3 months of training programme.

 3) Developing professional expertise with a cognitive apprenticeship (S. P. Lajoie)

Has a good overview of the cognitive apprenticeship model as it applies to avionics troubleshooting and medical diagnosis. Describes the use of Sherlock – a task- or job specific computer assisted training programme / intelligent tutoring system to help avionics technicians work through troubleshooting airplane component faults. Following on, the concepts used have been developed further to assist medical students and doctors to learn or revise medical diagnostics.

4) Leaderships development and assessment: describing and rethinking the state of the art (M.D., Mumford, T.L. Friedrich, J.J. Caughron and A.L. Antes)

Presents a model of leader cognition as an alternative to mainly business / corporate approaches to understanding leadership.  In particular, that leadership skills are difficult to pin down, highly contextualised and leadership training does not guarantee performance at time of stress / greatest need (as when things ‘turn to custard’ on the battlefield).

      5)  Revolutions, leaders and diagnosticians: reflections on themes in chapters 2-4 (E.B. Hunt)

Not just a summary but a readable critique of the preceding three chapters.  Some historical overview also provided to help situate each chapter into time/place so that findings are taken with caution.

Section 2 – continues with past and contemporary efforts to design instruction, train and maintain professional performance has 4 chapters.

      6) Research on past and current training in professional domains: the emerging need for a paradigm shift (J.J.G. VanMerrienboer and E.W. Boot). The chapter summarises the challenges presented in present day training of professionals and discusses the role of instructional systems design (ISD) in conjunction with technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs) and presents implications for future practice.  The context is training in the military. Provides a good overview of ISD including social constructivist and whole-task design models and how these no longer cope with the challenges of present day military training demands. Also overviews of TELEs including computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, dynamic visual presentations and animations, hypertext and hypermedia, and computer simulations and virtual reality. Argues for the need to abandon atomistic ISD and optimise TELEs towards whole-task approaches.

 7) Designing training for professionals based on subject matter experts and cognitive task analysis (J.M. Schraagen). This chapter provides a good overview of the actual task analysis process as applied in instructional design (ID).  Provides discussion on both the advantages and disadvantages of task analysis approaches. Offers the cognitive task analysis approach, using subject matter experts as a foundation and provides a thorough explanation via case study of how to bring about a change and convert from original ID programme to cognitive task analysis. The example uses training in structured troubleshooting in the training of weapons engineers in the Royal Netherlands Navy.

      8) How to help professional maintain and improve their knowledge and skills: triangulating best practises in medicine (D.A. Davis). This chapter is based on a study of medical practitioners need to maintain currency in practice. In the past, the main models have been the update, competence and performance models. The Currency of Credit currently used is critiqued. A new model based on professional self-assessment, competency assessment and performance assessment is proposed.

 9) Advances in specifying what is to be learned: reflections on themes in chapters 6-8 (R.E. Mayer) – A couple of good tables in this chapter (9.1 and 9.2) summarise approaches to specifying what is to be learnt and kinds of knowledge. Need to assist specification of compartmentalised behaviours, compartmentalised knowledge, integrated knowledge, individualised knowledge to determine what the learner needs to know and then determine what the learner already knows and how to teach (what the learner does not yet know).

Section 3 has 5 chapters covering assessment and training of skilled and expert performers in the military

      10) Toward a second training revolution: promise and pitfalls of digital experiential training (R.E. Chatham). A long but useful chapter.  The chapter is a continuation from Chapter 2, adding in the TELE type approaches now used by the US of A military to cope with the challenges of training personnel for modern warfare. As Chatham writes, “everything short of war is similuation” . The chapter provides many examples of using TEL including simulations and games. The advantages and disadvantages of simulations and games are discussed and examples provided. Development of simulations and games is not cheap, so it is important to ensure the $$ lead to learning outcomes, in this case, life and death outcomes for military personnel. Future work on ‘distributed experiential training’ is proposed to end the chapter.

11) Evaluating pilot performance (B.T. Schreiber,W. Bennett, Jr., C.M. Colegrove, A.M. Portrey, D.A. Greschke and H.H. Bell). Here, there is an interesting historical overview of flight simulators. Learning to fly, under combat conditions, provides a good example of the holistic task analysis approach now used to ensure training is situated, experiential and authentic. Of note is that even though flight simulators are able to gather a range of assessment information from learner pilots, there is still a need for an experienced instructor pilot to complete the final instructional evaluation and make the final decision on competence / capability.

 12) Contrasting submarine specialty training: sonar and fire control (S.S. Kirshenbaum, S.L. McInnis, K.P. Correll). Two specialities requiring different forms of skill are studied to determine the efficacy of changes to the training approaches. The descriptions of the specialist skills in each occupation provides examples of detailed task analysis. The chapter details the application of the Kirkpatrick levels of assessment framework, using four levels to assess students’ skill acquisition – reaction, learning, behaviour, results.

      13) Training complex cognitive skills: a theme based approach to the development of battlefield skills (S.B. Shadrick and J.W. Lussier). An interesting chapter on the importance of ensuring soldiers are taught to think is as important as teaching them how to fight.  There is good overview and discussion on the various approaches to teaching people how to be more adaptable, flexible and versatile – the need to attain adaptive performance and adaptive thinking. Example is used of how the Soviets used to train chess players, not only to learn the mechanics of chess but to be able learn the thinking  strategies to ‘think like a grandmaster’. Interesting table 13.1 on the themes of battlefield thinking adaptable to other contexts. Also good summary of principles of deliberate practice in table 13.2. Uses the think like a commander (TLAC) TEL simulation as an example.

      14) Structuring the conditions of training to achieve elite training programs and related themes – chapters 10-13 (R.A. Bjork). This chapter unpacks the many concepts and ideas in the chapters in section 3 and reports on commonalities of the approaches. Summaries of each chapter also included.

Section 4 focuses on development of expertise and expert conference with 7 chapters.

15)  The influence of learning research on design and use of assessment (E.L. Baker).  As the title implies, this chapter covers the implications of learning design on assessment . The chapter begins with recognising that assessments will never be able to capture the inherent complexity of learning. There is also a brief overview of the history of testing including various models of learning  that inform the process of testing – table 15.4. A model based assessment of learning to encompass content understanding, problem solving, metacognition, communication and teamwork / collaboration is proposed through learning design techniques like knowledge maps and ontologies. All in a good overview of assessment.

 16) Acquiring conceptual expertise through modelling: the case of elementary physics (K.Vanlehn and B. Van De Sande). Uses physics as the context for understanding how concepts are learnt and how novices might attain misconceptions. The model assumes that conceptual expertise includes mastery of descriptive based knowledge, applying the knowledge to known conditions and confluences (equations learnt through superficial understanding followed by constructing a semantic version of the equation and eventually understanding through producing a qualitative version.

17) Teaching for expertise: problem-based methods in medicine and other professional domains (H.P.A. Boshuizen). An important chapter bringing the application of some of the ideas through the book, towards ideas of how to better teach so that students are able to learn.  Advocates for the need of horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge required to attain occupational skills and how problem based learning (PBL) may be one approach. Uses examples to explain the advantages of PBL

18)  Enhancing the development of professional performance: implications from the study of deliberate practice (K.A. Ericsson). This chapter provides a thorough overview of the studies from which the deliberate practice (DP) model was derived. There is a good summary of the rationale for the development of DP.  Application of DP to professional training and practice is also covered. Superior performance requires the learning and integration of a range of skills, knowledge and attributes. DP involves the selection of actions, the monitoring of learning as the activity is practiced and control of how the ongoing learning is progressing. All of these lead to incremental improvements in performance.

19) It takes expertise to make expertise: some thoughts about why and how – reflections on the themes chapter 15-18. (J.D.Bransford and D.L. Schwartz). The four chapters on expertise are summarised, critiqued and discussed including the both the learning and the teaching of expert performance.

20) The value of expertise and expert performance: a review of evidence from the military (J.D. Fletcher). In this chapter, the various themes throughout the book are contextualised overtly to the military learning and training context. Themes include self-assessment and self-directed learning; deliberate practice to develop expertise; agility in expertise and professional performance; assessment of professional growth towards attaining expertise; the centrality of cognition in expertise; and the importance of designing learning environments to promote expertise.  Will have a go in another blog to see how similar concept can be applied to vocational education setting.

 21)  Expertise in the management of people: a new frontier for research on expert performance (S.E.F. Chapman). This chapter explores the use of case-based instruction.  Also proposes research agenda for the future.

     Overall, a book that bring together the theoretical frameworks of expertise and reports on application of various studies to range of occupations. The situated and contextual nature of learning is affirmed as is the need for novices to have guided, structured learning experiences to attain expertise in occupations requiring the deployment of a complex range of skills. Well worth the time to work through all the chapters as each brings applicable recommendations towards the improvement of vocational education curriculum development (through ID processes), structuring learning activities to maximise learning and alignment of authentic assessment activities to what is expected in real-world practice.

The fundamentals of workplace learning:

Another ebook has arrived at the library. It is by Danish Professor Knud Illeris, who recently retired at the age of 70 from the university but is still active in research and consultancy.


The book is called “The fundamentals of workplace learning: Understanding how people learn in working life” and consolidates Professor Illeris’ many years of research and work.

Chapter two summarises ‘how we learn, and parts of this chapter are on Google books. The next chapter discusses the concept of the workplace as a ‘learning space’ Followed by a chapter bringing the concepts introduced and discussed in the previous chapters to explain the ‘two triangles’ advanced workplace learning model.

Chapter five enters into a discussion into competency, it’s role in workplace learning. Definitions and advantages /disadvantages of trying to explain work in terms of competency. The important things that competency does not address including aspects of insight, empathy, structural understanding and the importance of judgement.

Then follow 5 chapters on workplace learning in practice with the last 3 chapters ‘cross cutting perspectives’ connecting the introductory theory chapters with the workplace learning in practice chapters.

Overall, a slightly different approach from the various other theorist I am more familiar with. The model brings together the various socio-cultural influences on individual's and workplace contributions towards formation of work identity through engagement with workplace practice. Of interest is the blending of aspects of competency into the discussion and model.

Working knowledge in the globaliizing world

I am putting the time in this week to catch up on reading of books recently purchased by the CPIT library. Firstly, a hard copy book edited by Liv Mjelde and Richard Daly as part of the series published by Paul Lang on studies in vocation and continuing education called ‘working knowledge in the globalizing world'. The articles in this book originated from papers presented at a conference in oslo in 2004 on vocational education and training.


The chapters in the book have been divided into two parts. Part one with writings on ‘working knowledge: work related learning’ and part two on ‘vocational education training: policies and practices in a globalizing world. I concentrated my reading on the chapters in part one although there are also a few chapters in part two marked for future follow up.

The chapters of relevance in part one are:

‘apprentices’ transfer of knowledge from school to workplace in the VET dual system: a study of a VET-programme for rescue officer’ by Vibe Aarkrog provides a good overview of the ‘transfer’ challenge. The main premise of the chapter is that more complex work situations tend to involve some form of customer service component. Least complex tasks tends to see a transfer of knowledge learnt at vocational school towards applying or replication of learnt knowledge/skills. Whereas more complex tasks involve interpretation / re-estimation and reflection of learnt knowledge/skills.

The second article by Faizul Bhyat is based in a South African printing press workplace context and discusses ‘From the particularities of practice to the generalisation of theory’. The author works with a team of printing press workers to enhance their understanding of printing based engineering through situated and applied learning of physics. An interesting article, detailing a strong theoretical framework, a good description of the challenges and case study and the possibilities for the approach to workplace learning. In the conclusion, the author summarises the approach as ‘consciously applying scientific thinking to industrial processes, through conscious introduction of concepts in their appropriate syntax and application context, provides a material basis for what has been previously been seen as the abstract language of science knowledge.’

Jeanne Gamble’s chapter on ‘what kind of knowledge for the vocational curriculum’ provides for a good overview of her work with apprentices in cabinet making. There is a good summary of Bernstein’s work on pedagogical practice and an attempt at explaining craft pedagogy in terms of the relationship between ‘externally visible performance’ and ‘internally held competence’. This leads to discussion on forms of knowledge in relation to the vocational curriculum. The main premise is that epistemology from academic and vocational traditions are both valid but need to be respected for what each has to offer. In respect to the vocational curriculum, theory and practice can be brought together, each with their context dependent meanings.

‘Cooperative education: learning to work- working to learn, and trying to make sense of it all’ is written by Garnet Grosjean to discuss the challenges of helping students learn through work based attachments / internships etc. The chapter provides overviews of activity theory, constructivism and socioculturalism as pertaining to cooperative education programmes, bringing the frameworks together to help students ‘become a professional’.

Tony Irizar and Adita Chiappy contribute the next chapter on ‘the concepts of ‘working knowledge’ and ‘zone of proximal development’ as applied to teaching English as a secondary language’. There is an overview linking the various concepts to enhance communicative language teaching and a call to acknowledge the contributions of zpd to assist students in learning a new language.

Last chapter in part one is from Liv Mjelde on ‘ workshop pedagogy in vocational education: working knowledge and the zone of proximal development’. Here the work of John Dewey, Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Vygostsky are synthesised with Mjelde’s work to explain how to best utilise the zone of proximal development to assist ‘apprentices and master’ reach learning goals through ‘learning by doing’ to move from simple/concrete to the complex/general; learning through goal orientated activity and the integration of hand, mind and heart.