Characterising work-based learning as a triadic learning endeavour

With work-based learning (WBL) forming an increasingly prevalent dimension of modern higher education practice, conceptual models of the pedagogies underpinning WBL are increasingly emerging. There is broadening recognition of the need to capture and represent the values and presuppositions underlying WBL in order to support facilitators and learners engaged in WBL for the first time. Accordingly, the current study proposes a new characterisation of WB higher education which can helpfully inform the design and delivery of WBL curricula, schemes of work and teaching and learning strategies. Informed by the authors' extensive facilitation of WBL programmes for such diverse fields of professional practice as dance teaching, event management, security and the military, the model represents WBL as a triadic learning endeavour in which student, work-based facilitator and university tutor are engaged in a mode of learning which is best conceived as ‘academy-aligned' rather than ‘academy-based', and in which the signature pedagogic principle is one of ‘responsive facilitation'. The application of the model in a number of programmes is demonstrated and some recommendations for WB practice outlined.

[1]  Michael Eraut,et al.  How Professionals Learn through Work , 2008 .

[2]  David Boud,et al.  Work-based learning: a new higher education? , 2001 .

[3]  R. W. Revans,et al.  ABC of Action Learning , 1998 .

[4]  John Cowan,et al.  On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher , 1998 .

[5]  Gillian Nicholls.  The age of learning , 2001 .

[6]  Anne Sigismund Huff,et al.  1999 Presidential Address: Changes in Organizational Knowledge Production , 2000 .

[7]  M. Lundeberg,et al.  Metacognitive Aspects of Reading Comprehension: Studying Understanding in Legal Case Analysis. , 1987 .

[8]  Victoria J. Marsick,et al.  Informal and incidental learning in the workplace , 1834 .

[9]  J. Mezirow.  Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress , 2000 .

[10]  C. Griffin,et al.  The Theory and Practice of Learning , 1998 .

[11]  John B. Biggs,et al.  Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does , 1999 .

[12]  M. Eraut.  Developing professional knowledge and competence , 1994 .

[13]  Roger Dalrymple,et al.  The Patchwork Text: enabling discursive writing and reflective practice on a foundation module in work‐based learning , 2008 .

[14]  Elke Gruber,et al.  Learning at the workplace , 2009 .

[15]  Amanda Hayes.  Teaching Adults , 1967, Nature.

[16]  D. Schoen.  The Reflective Practitioner , 1983 .

[17]  David Boud.  Work as the curriculum: pedagogical and identity implications , 2001 .

[18]  M. Knowles.  The adult learner : a neglected species , 1979 .

[19]  M. Eraut.  Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. , 2000, The British journal of educational psychology.

[20]  D. Schoen.  Educating the reflective practitioner , 1987 .

[21]  Lynn McAlpine,et al.  Building a metacognitive model of reflection , 1999 .

[22]  Paul Gamache,et al.  University Students as Creators of Personal Knowledge: an alternative epistemological view , 2002 .

[23]  Elaine Harries Jenkins,et al.  From both sides of the table: the role of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education , 2015 .

[24]  E. Eisner.  From episteme to phronesis to artistry in the study and improvement of teaching , 2002 .

[25]  D. Bligh.  Learning to teach in higher education , 1993 .

[26]  Ian Ball,et al.  Making it work: a guidebook exploring work-based learning , 2010 .

[27]  David Jaques,et al.  Learning in groups : a handbook for improving group work , 2000 .

[28]  Peter Williams,et al.  Quality and Standards in Higher Education. , 2010 .

[29]  Clare Morris,et al.  Work‐based learning , 2010 .

[30]  Susan Sisola.  Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress , 2004 .

[31]  Victoria Hoban,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner , 2013 .