Expansive Learning In Professional Contexts

This book discusses approaches to organizational learning from a materialist point of view. Inspired by research into Police Firearms training, features of expansive learning inform the development of perspectives on training which challenge traditional modes of research and delivery. The book critically reviews a range of approaches to expansive learning and organizational research, establishing the bases and limitations of an Expansive Learning Index whose aim is to support collaborative provision in the context of work-based research. Reflecting on this process, it stresses the strangeness and mobility of workplace learning and develops a philosophical pragmatics for professional development. Approaches to knowledge and enquiry which place language and subjectivity at the heart of development are challenged by a more pragmatic approach to expansive learning: its consequences for training, research, and professional development lead to a discussion of the need for immanent forms of professional ethics.

This book applies Fuller and Unwin's increasingly influential concept of 'expansive and restrictive learning environments' to a range of settings engaged in education and training including, workplaces and educational institutions providing upper secondary, tertiary and higher education. "Expansive learning" features include the opportunity for learners to: engage with multiple communities of practice; gain broad experience across the organisation; pursue knowledge-based as well as competence-based qualifications; learn off-the-job as well as on-the-job; have a recognised status as a learner; and have access to career progression and extended job roles. An expansive learning environment develops a broad range of 'key skills', by encouraging learners to cross boundaries and experience different work-related contexts. The approach challenges the assumption behind situated learning theory that all novices proceed on a linear journey from 'newcomer' to competent or even 'expert', with their progress dependent on the extent to which their participation is facilitated by 'experts'. Through a series of 'real life' case studies, the book provides a practical guide that illustrates the ways in which an expansive approach was developed within the context of diverse types of organisational setting. The reader will be shown how to analyse the characteristics of the particular environment and how to design a set of questions that need to be asked in order to develop the conditions for expansive learning. Each case study will also be accompanied by 'boxes' providing the reader with the tools to analyse the specific setting and to apply the lessons learned to their own professional contexts. By adopting the 'expansive-restrictive framework' presented in the book, readers will be able to apply the principles of expansive learning environments to their own unique contexts. A key aim of the book is to encourage and support educational institutions to see themselves as workplaces which create for their employees (at all levels) the type of expansive learning environments they provide for their learners. Two specific case studies (of a community college in the US and a university in the UK) will illustrate how the learning potential of the educational 'workplace' can be transformed. This ground breaking book will support educators, trainers, and Human Resource and Management personnel in designing, managing and sustaining environments that maximise the potential for individual and collective learning.

As policy makers increasingly focus on workplace learning as a way of improving organizational performance, the debate about the learning organization has grown. Counterbalancing the often over-optimistic assumptions made about the future of work and learning, this book argues that without a contextualized analysis of the field, our understanding of the learning environment is limited. It reconsiders the true role and nature of workplace learning in context. Grounded in original research, the book features case studies which illuminate how the workplace environment can provide both barriers to and opportunities for learning. It explores learning in different organizational contexts and different countries, sectors, types of public and private sector organization, and by different occupational groups. This multi-disciplinary approach provides a coherent perspective of the institutional, organizational and pedagogical contexts of workplace learning, and as a result, policy-makers, trainers, trade unionists and educators alike will welcome this groundbreaking text, as it gives the intellectual tools required to understand how learning in the workplace can be improved.

Teachers from schools across the world believe that there is more to education than success in examinations. Many practitioners are becoming increasingly familiar with expansive education concepts such as learning dispositions, habits of mind, and expandable intelligence, and are striving to instill these valuable mind-sets into their pupils. In this groundbreaking and visionary book, acclaimed authors Lucas, Claxton and Spencer define, consolidate and reinforce this revolutionary shift. Expansive Education: Teaching learners for the real world showcases a growing number of schools that are developing methods of teaching and learning that deliberately cultivate powerful learners. Drawing on established theory as well as current research and practice, this essential resource encapsulates the best of these approaches, and demonstrates discernible links to achievement gains and learner engagement. Expansive Education offers: Radical thinking about the purpose of schools, underpinned by latest literature from the learning sciences A critical exploration of what works in practice and an analysis of pioneering concepts that support dispositional approaches to learning A scaffolding framework that assists teachers in consistently choosing those methods most likely to create expansive learning environments A powerful manifesto for individual schools, clusters of schools, districts and national systems to articulate a different vision of education and a means of tracking real progress.

Workplace and professional learning, lifelong learning, adult learning, learning in different contexts have become of more and more interest and now dominate all aspects of 21st century life. Learning is no longer about ‘storing and recall’ but ‘development and flow’. Theories of Learning in the Workplace offers fascinating overviews into some of the most important theories of learning and how they are practically applied to organisational or workplace learning. With each chapter co-authored by an academic researcher and an expert in business or industry, this unique book provides practical case studies combined with thorough analysis of theories and models of learning. Key figures in education, psychology and cognitive science present a comprehensive range of conceptual perspectives on learning theory, offering a wealth of new insights to support innovative research directions. Containing overviews of theories from Schön, Argyris, Senge, Engeström, Billet, Ericsson, Kolb, Boud and Mezirow, this book discusses: adult learning; workplace learning; informal learning; reflective practice; experiential learning; deliberate practice; organisational and inter-organisational expansive learning. Combining theory and practice, this book will be essential reading for all trainee and practicing educational psychologists, organisational psychologists, researchers and students in the field of lifelong learning, educational policy makers, students, researchers and teachers in vocational and higher education.

Making links between different professional roles, policies and practices, Working in Multiprofessional Contexts equips you with the skills, knowledge and understandings that managers, practitioners and students need to work in integrated multiprofessional settings. Authors John M. Davis and Mary Smith draw on case studies to consider the dilemmas, challenges and complexities common within your workplaces.

The knowledge and decisions of professionals influence all facets of modern life, a fact reflected by the increasing and distinct emphasis on public accountability for what professionals know and do. The nature of this accountability has been fundamentally transformed in response to a changing context of market pressures, network arrangements, declining discretion and public trust, and public managerialism. To tackle these challenges, an important body of research has emerged which concentrates on the material elements and processes of professional learning, and considers how these affect wider society. This volume presents specific pressures on professionals’ learning in different occupational contexts ranging from public school teaching to medicine and creative industry. These pressures are wrought by changing regulatory frameworks, changing modes of organising, changing demands and changing knowledge authorities in professional practice. The authors stress the importance of understanding these relations as sociomaterial webs through which the important moments of professional action and decisions emerge. This approach moves us beyond accepting ‘learning’ as an identifiable, individualist phenomenon by emphasising the multiplicities around professional practice ‘standards’ and ‘quality’, workarounds, responsibility, agency, and knowledge practices. As the chapters here demonstrate, sociomaterial perspectives raise new questions and methodologies that can highlight what is often invisible in the sometimes messy dynamics of professional learning, and point to new ways of promoting and supporting professional education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Work.