The Pedagogy of Work-based Learning - University of Winchester

This short paper seeks to describe some of the main traditions in the pedagogy of work-relatedlearning (WRL). The focus is primarily on 14-19 where WRL becomes especially important foryoung people and where there are a number of current policy developments taking place.While some reference is made to more general thinking about work-based learning (in otherwords the learning or training undertaken by adults), the emphasis is on WRL for 14-19 yearolds, in work experience, on apprenticeships and undertaking vocational courses. An underlyingprinciple throughout the paper is that, as Kurt Lewin observed: “There is nothing so practical asa good theory” 2 . In other words, that, in becoming a better learner or teacher, it may be usefulto have clearer and more accurate mental models of what is going on beneath the surface, andthat such understanding may be practically useful.Initially intended to initiate discussion among the DCSF 14-19 Expert Pedagogy Group 3 , thepaper is also designed to stimulate discussion between policy-makers, researchers andpractitioners about the relative benefits of using different pedagogies in different WRLsituations. The paper is necessarily limited in scope as it has involved a short rather thanexhaustive review of the literature.Pedagogy in generalInternationally, as the quotation from the USA which begins this paper illustrates, pedagogy hasnot always had a good name! Too often it is associated either with new-fangled methods orwith an overly abstract view of what practitioners actually do when they are actually teaching(the “socially useful” jibe of the Mencken quotation) In England we are, arguably, even morereticent than other European countries with regard to pedagogy although there has often beentalk about “teaching methods”. So, nearly thirty years ago Brian Simon lamented our lack ofinterest in pedagogy. 4 In 2004 Robin Alexander was driven to make a similar complaint, thistime with regard to the Primary curriculum 5 . Most recently there has been an explicit attemptto underpin 14-19 policy with pedagogical thinking in The Diploma and its pedagogy. 6 And theformation of the Department for Children Schools and Families 14-19 Expert Pedagogy Groupwhich commissioned this paper is a further indication of a resurgence of interest in matterspedagogical.There are, of course, many different kinds of workplaces, from production lines to the creativeindustries, social enterprises to global companies and we should not be surprised if learningwithin these different kinds of organizations is very different. It will be interesting to see2 Lewin, Kurt (1951) Field theory in social science; selected theoretical papers. Cartwright, Dorwin (Ed.) New York:Harper & Row3 The DCSF 14-19 Expert Pedagogy Group was created by the Department for Children Schools and Families in 20094 Simon, Brian (1981) Why no pedagogy in England? In Simon, Brian and Taylor W (Eds) Education in the eighties:the central issues. London: Batsford, 124-1455 Alexander, Robin (2004) Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary educationCambridge Journal of Education, Vol 34, No 1, 7-336 Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick (2008) The Diploma and its pedagogy London: QCA2

whether there are any commonly applicable principles of pedagogy which may be useful inworkplaces and in the educational institutions which offer WRL and which are different fromtraditional school-based pedagogies.A definition of work-related Learning (WRL)For the purpose of this paper, WRL is considered to be a broader concept than work-based orwork-place learning. Practical examples of WRL include work experience, apprenticeship, workshadowing, service learning, community-based projects, vocational courses, Diplomas,simulations, and the teaching of wider employability and real world skills. WRL involves learningfor, at and through work. It includes learning which is formal and informal, assessed and notassessed. WRL can be experienced in a range of settings and learned in a variety of ways. Theformal DCSF definition of WRL is “planned activity that uses the context of work to developknowledge, skills and understanding useful in work, including learning through the experienceof work, learning about work and working practices, and learning the skills for work.” 7 But thesedescriptions do not quite do the complex subject of WRL justice. For it sits on a continuumbetween classroom-based and work-based learning, often explicitly requiring transfer oflearning between work and education contexts.Given that WRL is provided in England by and at a range of institutions - schools, colleges,universities, independent learning providers and workplaces - our interest is primarily in theinterface between these organizations and in what each can do to ensure that WRL is mosteffective. The supposition is that, if we understand more about the pedagogy of WRL, we maybe able to acquire practically useful insights about learners, learning, teaching, attitudes toknowing and doing, and the affordances of and demands of the different contexts in which WRLtakes place. WRL became a statutory requirement of the Key Stage 4 curriculum fromSeptember 2004 8 .Characteristics of Work-related Learning (WRL)Much WRL takes place in contexts whose primary purpose is not teaching or learning andwhere the “teaching” may be done by many different people who are not teachers. As hasalready been observed, not all WRL takes place at work, although a significant amount of it –apprenticeship and elements of diplomas are two obvious examples - clearly does. Workenvironments and cultures are very different, and various commentators have attempted todescribe the complexity of workplace contexts.7 DCSF (2008) The Work-related Learning Guide – First edition A guidance document for employers, schools,colleges, students and their parents and carers8 For more on the progress of WRL in schools, see a useful study of 2007, Work-related learning at key stage 4 Firstreplication study: a QCA-commissioned report on the development of work-related learning in the three years sinceSeptember 20043

Michael Eraut 9 , usefully summarises the factors which may facilitate or inhibit learning in aworkplace. These include: the extent to which there are transactions with other outside people the range and variety of activities the extent to which activities allow flexible and discretionary decisions the scope and demand for inventiveness, problem-solving and creativity, individuallyand in teams the degree to which there are opportunities for planning, reviewing and strategicthinking the degree to which it is possible for individuals to perform to the best of theircompetence, and the nature of formal and informal communications within theworkplace.Eraut also found that two specific factors above others were influential 10 – the “micro-cultureof the workplace” and “how a person is managed”. Each of these can be hugely pro- or antilearning.It would seem logical to assume that, within workplaces, different pedagogies may be requireddepending on the: different kinds of learners and their prior experiences subject being learned available resources and, of course context.Within schools and colleges, the primary locations of WRL provided by educational institutions,a range of pedagogies are utilized. Some of these are explicit (as with formative approaches tolearning epitomized by Assessment for Learning 11 ). Others are much less so, as for example, inthe range of approaches that can be found to the organization of work experience or in theways that colleges deliver components of apprenticeships.A classic description of the difference between learning in educational institutions and learningelsewhere (at work and at home, for example) was provided by Lauren Resnick 12 more thantwenty years ago. Toni Griffiths and David Guile helpfully summarise Resnick’s thinking 13 :9 Eraut, Michael (2004) Deconstructing apprenticeship learning: what factors affect its quality? In New Approachesto Vocational Education in Europe Oxford: Symposium Books10 Op. cit.11 See http://www.qcda.gov.uk/4334.aspx for a summary of the principles developed by Paula Black and DylanWiliam and now interpreted by QCDA12 Resnick, Lauren (1987) Learning in school and out, Educational Researcher, Vol 16, 13-4013 Figure 1 is adapted from Griffiths, Toni and Guile, David, Pedagogy in work-based contexts in Mortimer, Peter(1999) Understanding Pedagogy and its impact on learning. London: Sage Publications4

Figure 1 – Different approaches to learningLearning in school and collegeDecontextualisedSecond-handExtrinsically motivatedOften individualisticAssessed by othersFormalLearning at work and at homeReal contextFirst-handIntrinsically motivatedOften collaborativeSelf-assessedInformalA key question, and one asked by a series of Teaching and Learning Research Programmeseminars in 2005 and 2006 14 , is: “What forms of pedagogy can most effectively mobilizelearning across domains, and for what purposes?” 15 In other words, given that a characteristicof WRL is that it occurs across a number of different contexts, which pedagogies are mosteffective? What follows is an attempt to stimulate discussion of some possible answers to thisquestion.WRL, wherever it occurs, takes as its starting point the task associated with a particular workingpractice and, through a combination of on the job and off the job methods, seeks to extract thelearning from this. Or it might anticipate a workplace activity and prepare learners by teachingthem or allowing them to discover some core aspects of theory, processes and practicesbeforehand. In this WRL is different from general education and learning which is still largelypredicated on areas of knowledge, frequently described as “subjects”.Where a student in a school learns aspects of Geography or Biology, an apprentice might belearning about aspects of farming which require both geographical and biological knowledge. InWRL the eventual application is likely to influence the methods by which learners areintroduced to key concepts and skills. Arguably the second of these “models” of learning hasmuch to commend it in pedagogical terms, whereas the subject-based tradition, the first of thetwo just mentioned, may leave the learner uncertain about how what they have learned canbest be applied (other than in tests or examinations).Indeed this shift away from a narrow focus on subjects has been recognized for youngerlearners in the broader Programmes of Learning and the accompanying Essentials for Learningand Life that make up the new Primary curriculum 16 and in other contributions to the policydebate 17 . Of course in good teaching and learning such crude polarizations are seldom present14 See http://crll.gcal.ac.uk/tlrp/tlrp_seminar.htm15 See Edwards, Richard and Miller, Kate (2007) Putting the context into learning Pedagogy, Culture and SocietyVol 15, no 3, 263-274 for a summary of many of these issues16 Rose, Sir Jim (2009) Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum: Final Report London: HMSO17 Lucas, Bill and Claxton, Guy (2009) Wider skills for learning; what are they, how can they be cultivated, how couldthey be measured and why are they important for innovation? London: NESTA5

as the educators concerned select those pedagogies and methods most appropriate for thelearning to be undertaken.If “pedagogy” seems too general a term to describe what goes on in WRL, Figure 2 offers somespecific examples of the kinds of methods which tend to be used.Figure 2 - Some examples of Work-related Learning (WRL) methods 18Learning by watching. The importance of learning by observation is oftenunderestimated and it is a key element of much WRL. Young children are extremelygood at it, though they often get ‘educated’ out of it, to their detriment. 19 Brains arebuilt to learn by observation, and they do not stop doing it when children becometeenagers. 20Learning by practising. Practising is a complex set of learnable learning skills. Theliterature shows how different kinds of practice are optimal for different learning’jobs’. 21Learning by imitating. Observation and practice combine most powerfully in imitation:the attempt to emulate an observed performance. The human brain is designed tolearn by imitation, and this disposition provides vital social ‘glue’ that holds groupstogether, as well as being one of the apprentice’s most powerful learning methods. 22Learning through feedback. Students learn faster if they can ‘hear’ feedback as a usefulguide to improvement, rather than as a negative evaluation of self-worth. Thisdisposition can be cultivated through conversation and modelling. 23Learning by chatting. Much useful learning happens in informal conversation betweenpeers, and between more and less experienced students. The exchange of peerinformation and ideas remains a central learning strategy throughout working life inmany sectors. 2418 This set of examples is largely adapted from Lucas, Bill, Claxton, Guy and Webster, Rob (2010) Mind the gap;research and reality in practical and vocational education. London: Edge19 Rogoff, Barbara (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development, New York: Oxford University Press20 Hurley, Susan and Chater, Nick (eds) (2005) Perspectives on Imitation, Vols I and II, Cambridge MA: Bradford/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press21 Lavallee, David, Williams, Jean and Jones, Marc (eds) (2008), Key Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology,Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education22 Hurley, Susan and Chater, Nick (eds) (2005) Perspectives on Imitation, Vols I and II, Cambridge MA: Bradford/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press23 Dweck, Carol (2006) Mindset; the new psychology of success New York: Ballantine24 Mercer, Neil (2000) Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together London: Routledge6

Learning by teaching and helping. Apprentices often act as teachers as well as learners.Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin 25 describe apprentices claiming to learn a good deal fromtheir efforts to help other people, as well as deriving satisfaction and self-esteem.Learning by real-world problem-solving. Problem-based learning is commonly used inWRL. Effective simulations and role-plays offer learners the opportunity to developqualities of mind such as thinking, imagination, resilience and collaboration in theprocess of tackling genuinely difficult tasks together. 26Learning by listening, transcribing and remembering. There are many things that anapprentice has to know and remember, and some of these can be efficiently learnedthrough drill and repetition. However this method becomes overused andcounterproductive when learners have to commit knowledge to memory that isnecessary only to pass exams, and can thereafter be safely forgotten.Learning by writing and sketching. There is a necessary place in WRL for developing thesense of when and how it is useful to think something carefully through on paper; theability to use drafts, sketches, diagrams and models to clarify and stimulate thinking;the know-how to write necessary reports and accounts.Learning on the fly. This is a nice phrase 27 to describe the opportunistic nature of WRLwhereby learners make requests for help from whoever is available to answer theirquestions.Characteristics of 14-19 year old learnersThe period of teenage life on which we are focusing has specific challenges in terms ofpedagogy. For in addition to understanding factors such as the content of what it to be learnedand the context in which this takes place, the young learners are themselves in a relativelyvolatile state. Young people at this age tend, quite naturally, to be risk taking and boundarypushing as they seek to develop their own identity. Knud Illeris 28 puts it like this:“All learning from the age of 12 or 13 onwards is very much orientated towards theformation of identity and can only be understood in this light…Whereas childhood is aperiod for constructive assimilative learning, youth is a period for major accommodations25 Fuller, Alison and Unwin, Lorna (2004) Young People as Teachers and Learners in the Workplace: Challenging theNovice-Expert Dichotomy, International Journal of Training and Development, 8(1), 31-4126 Barell, John (2007) Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach, New York: Corwin Press27 Suggested by Beach, King and Vyas, Sapna (1998) Light pickles and heavy mustard; horizontal developmentamong students negotiating how to learn in production activity. Paper presented at the Fourth Conferences of theInternational Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory, University of Aarhus, Denmark28 Illeris, Knud (2007) How we learn; learning and non-learning in school and beyond. Oxford: Routledge7

and transformations in which, one by one, profound changes are made to the knowledgestructures and emotional patterns with regard to identity.”For some learners there is an additional challenge of low esteem in that, if they are following alearning pathway involving WRL, this may largely be because they have failed to jump overvarious academic hurdles during their school life and consequently feel in some sense secondrate.While practitioners are often acutely aware of this, there has not yet been enoughdiscussion of the implications of low esteem for pedagogy?On the other hand, the chance of moving into a WRL context can be a motivating force too.William Richardson sees the more adult atmosphere of work (and life in an FE college) as moremotivating for those learners who have not done well academically:“The majority of this group who want to leave school [early] have huge capacities andabilities and potential, but we have just incredibly crude institutions and structures forenabling and releasing it. So they get shunted into a low status, low prospects route andthen feel trapped and let down. But their potential could have come alive had thepedagogic environment been much richer. You see people thrive quickly when the settingchanges.” 29The clear implication of the Richardson comment is that the development of richer pedagogicenvironments for 14-19 WRL must assume more importance.Richard Pring and colleagues helpfully approach the issue of the characteristics of 14-19learners from another angle, namely by considering what a 19 year old learner might be able todo and know by age 19. The Nuffield 14-19 research 30 which he led concluded, among othermatters, that more active and practical learning of the kind found in WRL was required foreveryone.And, of course, we should not forget the fact that, in terms of learning media, the youngergeneration – and 14-19 year-olds are often at the leading edge of this – is adept at using ICT inways which baffle many of their teachers and mentors.Key traditions of pedagogy in WRLWhile there is much less written about the pedagogy of WRL than about more general schoolbasededucation, WRL has a long history stretching back to the early days of apprenticeship inthe Middle Ages. As WRL has developed over the centuries it has also borrowed and adaptedpedagogies from other contexts. And since the 1980s, when Peter Senge coined the phrase29 Interviewed as part of research in Lucas, Bill, Claxton, Guy and Webster, Rob (2010) Mind the gap; research andreality in practical and vocational education. London: Edge30 Pring, Richard et al (2009) Education for All: the future of education and training for 14-19 year olds Oxford:Routledge8

“The Learning Organisation” to suggest that the workplace could be a specific location forlearning, there has been a new interest in understanding the socio-cultural implications ofworking and learning while being employed. Indeed Peter Senge 31 argues for the value of WRL:“As the world becomes more inter-connected organizations that will truly excel in thefuture will be (those)...that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity tolearn.”What follows is a brief overview of some of the key traditions of WRL pedagogies 32 . While eachone may appear to be a discrete entity, in practice the boundaries between them are morepermeable.The Transmission MethodWithout necessarily being dignified by any specific research tradition, the idea that learningtakes place best when the teacher or tutor or expert is transmitting their knowledge to theirclass or to their pupil or to their apprentice is deeply embedded in educational history. Thisapproach to pedagogy is not unconnected to longstanding (and false) views of young learnersbeing either tabula rasa (blank slates) waiting to be “written” upon by those who know betteror “little vessels” needing to be filled up with facts chosen by the knowledgeable adult.In this model of pedagogy, the teacher is firmly in control of the knowledge that is delivered tolearners and the students demonstrate their successful acquisition of the knowledge by someform of testing. This approach can appear to be effective (as in efficient) in that maximuminformation is transmitted by an “expert” in relatively small amounts of time, with activitiesdesigned to embed knowledge. But in fact it is frequently ineffective, with learners having apassive and dependent relationship to what is being taught.In a much more positive vein, skilled expert instruction and demonstration can be an extremelyeffective means of cultivating habits of mind and of learning certain skills in learners. Indeedthis approach is at the heart of traditions of apprenticeship across the world. Klaus Nielsen, forexample, has shown how a subtle combination of instruction, observation and increasingopportunities for learner practical experimentation is a highly effective method of developingapprentice bakers 33 .31 Peter Senge (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization, Doubleday, New York32 There are a number of useful existing summaries of workplace pedagogies of which Fuller, Alison and Unwin,Lorna, Developing pedagogies for the contemporary workplace, in Evans, Karen, Hodkinson, Phil and Unwin, Lorna(Eds) (2002) Working to Learn; transforming learning in the workplace London: Routledge is particularly useful33 Nielsen, Klaus (2008) 'Scaffold instruction at the workplace from a situated perspective', Studies in ContinuingEducation, 30: 3, 247-2619

The Humanistic ApproachAlthough developed in a therapeutic context, echoes of the thinking of Carl Rogers 34 can befound in the practice of many WRL practitioners. Often referred to as Humanist on account ofhis special respect for the individual learner, Rogers saw teaching not as didacticism but as akind of facilitation. All people, he believed, have the potential for growth and it is the teacher’srole to facilitate such development. In manifesting his approach Rogers considered thatteachers should be “real” (prepared to share what they are really thinking or feeling withlearners), should value the learner as an individual and should constantly strive to beempathetic in their relationship with learners.Arguably the impact of Rogers thinking on education is in his emphasis on the quality of therelationship between teacher and learner: ‘The facilitation of significant learning rests uponcertain attitudinal qualities that exist in the personal relationship between facilitator andlearner’ 35 .Experiential LearningIn many ways the idea of experiential learning is related to the Humanist or person-centredtradition. As David Kolb argues: “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created throughthe transformation of experience.” 36 First we experience something, then we observe andreflect on our experience, then we develop theories to account for what we experience andfinally we actively test out our conceptual understanding and experiment. This is theexperiential learning cycle associated with Kolb.Kolb’s theory is at least in name one of the most often cited with regard to WRL (indeed it isspecifically mentioned in The Diploma and its pedagogy and is part of the thinking behind theuse of the term “applied learning” in the Diploma). Perhaps because of its attractive simplicityor because of the way that, through valuing experience, it empowers an individual, Kolb’slearning cycle is widely used as an example of pedagogy in action. And there is much commonsensecontained in it. You learn how to use a lathe by using a lathe not by reading about it orbeing told about it, the argument goes.One of the most important features of Kolb’s thinking is not its emphasis on experience but itsfocus on reflection. So it is not the fact that you do something that is valuable but more thatyou may do it differently (better) as a consequence of reflecting on and “extracting the learningjuice” from the situation in which you are involved.But as a pedagogical theory, Kolb’s cyclical approach to experience can appear to be too neatwith regard to how we learn. In some cases as we will see later in this paper, Kolb is just plain34 Rogers, Carl (1969) Freedom to Learn : a view of what Education might become Columbus, OH: Merrill35 Kirschenbaum, Howard and Henderson, Valerie (Eds.) (1990) The Carl Rogers Reader, London: Constable36 Kolb, David (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. EnglewoodCliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall10

wrong in that sometimes we learn more effectively when we develop a theoreticalunderstanding first and then test it out later in practice! Overstressing the value of experiencecan also run the risk of undervaluing the value of the teacher and neglect the pedagogicprocesses involved. It also says nothing about the context in which WRL is situated.ConstructivismPerhaps the most widely drawn upon set of pedagogies in WRL are those which are broadlydescribed as constructivist. Clearly related to both the experiential and the Humanistictraditions, constructivism puts more emphasis still on the learner’s role in creating knowledgeand new thinking. Constructivism has implications both for the role of the teacher (increasinglymore facilitative than didactic). It also articulates a profound shift in the balance of power inany relationship between learners and teachers in its attitude to knowledge. Knowledge, thisview of pedagogy suggests, is something that can be created by anyone, even those who arenot experts. Indeed it is precisely the act of constructing meaning that is at the core of learning.Knowledge ceases to be something existing independently and abstractly and becomes apersonal act of meaning-making from experience.Some core principles of constructivist teaching have been summarised by John Savery andThomas Duffy 37 :1. Anchor all learning activities to a larger task or problem.2. Support the learner in developing ownership for the overall problem or task.3. Design authentic tasks.4. Design the task and the learning environment to reflect the complexity of theenvironment the learner should be able to function in at the end of the learning.5. Give the learner ownership of the process used to develop a solution.6. Design the learning environment to support and challenge the learner's thinking.7. Encourage the generation of alternative ideas, views and contexts.8. Support opportunities for reflection on both the content learned and the learningprocess throughout the learning.Whether in WRL or more generally in any learning situation, these principles resonate withmany practitioners today. They helpfully introduce a new element in our discussions, namelythe idea of authenticity, that the learning needs to seem “real” to the learner for it to besuccessful.One aspect of authentic, constructivist pedagogy developed directly in a WRL context isnormally referred to as problem-based learning. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogicalapproach that suggests that learning is effective when the learner is empowered to undertakeresearch into real problems or challenges applying both theory and practice to developsolutions. Developed in the 1970s for the training of doctors in North America, PBL sought to37 Savery, John and Duffy, Thomas (1995) ‘Problem Based Learning: An Instructional Model and its ConstructivistFramework’, Educational Technology, 35, 31-3811

take medical education away from its abstracts by recreating the kind of real-world workenvironment into which doctors will go as part of their training. Researchers examining thisproblem-based approach found that it was at least equal to more conventional methods whenit came to medical board examinations but superior in terms of the development of clinicalproblem-solving skills 38 .Problem-based learning is intuitively attractive to WRL practitioners as it somehow replicatesthe messy real-worlds of work in which challenges abound. However grappling with problemswithout other methods being used – personal reflection and collaborative enquiry, for example– may mean that the approach is less useful 39 .A logical extension of constructivist thinking is the idea of peer learning, where learnersexplicitly seek to learn from and each other. David Boud’s description 40 makes this clear:“Students learn a great deal by explaining their ideas to others and by participating in activitiesin which they can learn from their peers”. The use of peer learning indicates a potential roledevelopment beyond the idea of teachers becoming facilitators to one where learners becometeachers. This is no mere whimsy. For it turns out that, when learners act as teachers, there is amajor impact on their educational achievement. John Hattie in his exemplary review 41 ofhundreds of meta-analyses of aspects of teaching and learning puts it like this:“The remarkable feature of [all this] evidence is that the biggest effects on studentlearning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when studentsbecome their own teachers…Many of the most debated issues are the ones with the leasteffects.”It should be noted that the constructivist tradition has its critics. Paul Kirschner 42 andcolleagues, draw on current understanding of memory structures in the brain to argue thatdepriving novice learners of explicit guidance early on in a process can reduce the effectivenessof the learning. For without appropriate mental models, schema or rules, novices may struggleto integrate what they have learned with their prior knowledge and experience. So, instead ofleaving learners to “flounder” in a highly experiential and minimally guided environment,Kirschner argues that giving them worked examples and process worksheets is likely to be38 Albanese, Mark and Mitchell, Sandra (1993) Problem-based learning: a review of the literature on its outcomesand implementation issues Academic Medicine, Vol 68, 52-8139 See Yeo, Roland (2008) How does learning (not) take place in problem-based activities in workplace contextsHuman Resource Development International Vol 11, No 3, 317-33040 Boud, David (2001) Introduction: Making the Move to Peer Learning. In Boud, David, Cohen, Ruth and Sampson,Jane (Eds.) Peer Learning in Higher Education: Learning from and with others London: Kogan Page Ltd41 Hattie, John (2009) Visible Learning; a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement Oxford:Routledge42 Kirschener, Paul, Sweller, John and Clark, Richard (2006) Why minimal guidance during instruction does notwork: an analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery-based, experiential and inquiry-based teachingEducational Psychologist Vol 41, 75-8612

eneficial. Practitioners may of course conclude that these aspects of pedagogy can both beusefully incorporated into WRL.WRL is a broad concept and practice. And many of the different strands of pedagogy mentionedso far can complement each other and be incorporated in WRL at 14-19. But sometimes thereare potential clashes or at least questions of concern. These include consideration as to thetiming of formal instruction, the degree to which teachers instruct or facilitate, and, to return tothe criticism levelled by Richardson on page 8, how we can create richer pedagogicenvironments for 14-19 education more generally.Social views of learningMost learning is social or at least has a social dimension. We learn through observation,imitation and collaborative endeavour and a key influence on pedagogy in WRL and elsewhereis the work of Lev Vygotsky. 43 Knowledge, Vygotsky argues, is something that we constructsocially through our interactions with our peers and with those who are more knowledgeablethan ourselves. From Vygotsky’s translators we have acquired the idea of the ‘zone of proximaldevelopment’ (ZPD). Unlikely as it may sound, the ZPD is a very useful idea in PBL. The ZPDdescribes the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she mightbe able to achieve with expert support. It is at the heart of much apprenticeship, coaching andteaching. For the good teacher understands the learner’s stages of development and is able toprovide the necessary ‘scaffolding’ - tools, maxims, access to other more expert learners and soforth - for him or her to progress and grow.Vygotsky also suggests that social interaction precedes (rather than follows) individualdevelopment: “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on thesocial level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) andthen inside the child (intrapsychological).” 44 This also has potential application within WRL interms of the explicit valuing and legitimizing of social interaction.Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger take Vygotsky’s thinking a stage further with their idea ofCommunities of Practice (CoP) 45 , groups of people who are undertaking a common or similaractivity. Indeed CoP have been one of the most influential conceptualizations of WRL in the lastfew decades. The originality of the idea is in the way it suggests that learning is largely socialand largely based on our experiences of taking part in day to day living rather than mainlymodeled on some kind of classroom.43 Vygotsky, Lev (1978) Mind and society: the development of higher mental processes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress44 Op. cit.45 Lave, Jean and Wenger, Etienne (1991) Situated Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press13

Lave and Wenger also coined a specific phrase - legitimate peripheral participation - to describethe complex and largely informal learning which takes place within a CoP as someone movesfrom the edge of the group:“Legitimate peripheral participation provides a way to speak about the relations betweennewcomers and old-timers, and about activities, artefacts and communities of knowledgeand practice. It concerns the process by which newcomers become part of a communityof practice.” 46Their research into various craft apprenticeships, such as tailoring, for example, showed howpeople learn to become experts without there being formal pedagogical processes in place asthey move from being peripheral members to fully participating members of a particularcommunity. (Although the expert tailors had cleverly worked out that apprenticeships shouldstart at the end of the process with simple activities unlikely to damage the garment, onlyworking back to the cutting, where expensive mistakes could be made, once they were moreexpert. The expert tailors had ordered the learning experiences of their apprentices accordinglyin their CoP.)The specific nature of the learning involved arise from the way that it is “situated”, in otherwords from its context. So a community of footballers or dry-stone wallers or professors orgarage mechanics are situated in their places and cultures, developing processes, patterns ofbehavior, tools, stories and vocabularies to suit their specific needs. Significantly we are all insome kind of community of practice so whether we are in a “teaching” or “learning” role wewill have experience and knowledge of the process of becoming more expert in something tobring to any new situation.CoP goes beyond the idea of experiential learning in the way that it specifically anchors learningto social contexts; knowledge, even that gained through experience, exists in context and totalk of it in isolation from where it is used is, according to Lave and Wenger nonsensical.Alongside CoP and ultimately tracing its roots to Vygotsky is another approach to WRL knownas Activity Theory, a model or framework for understanding complex human activities (such asthose situated in a work environment). Activity Theory suggests that internal activities cannotbe understood if they are explored separately, in isolation from external activities. So toolsdeveloped in a specific work context are closely connected to and influenced by the context ofthat environment. Tools are influenced by the environment in which they are created andbecome a means by which learning is shared within that context. So, a landscape gardener willhave various methods for checking the levels within a garden that go beyond go beyond the useof the obvious tool, a spirit level.46 Op. cit.14

From this tradition of thinking Yrjö Engeström has developed the idea of CoP to create theconcept of “expansive learning”. Expansive learning occurs “when a community of practicebegins to analyse and transform itself.…a long-term process of re-defining the objects, toolsand social structures of the workplace”. 47 Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin have taken thisapproach further still to describe different approaches to apprenticeship, one which they term“expansive” (which is full of opportunities for learning and development of many kinds) and theother called “restrictive” (where the constraints of the working environment and the demandsof the institution leave little space for individual learning). 48As with all pedagogies there are those who point out areas of weakness in the idea of CoP.Fuller and Unwin and colleagues, for example, while broadly positive about the essence of Laveand Wenger’s thinking, helpfully remind us of its potential limitations as a theory 49 . These areas follows:1. CoP, while useful as a way of understanding how novices progress, has less to say aboutexperts continue to learn.2. Lave and Wenger’s opposition to formal teaching is unhelpful and limiting.3. Learner identity, especially the knowledge and skills brought by new members of a CoPfrom outside is insufficiently developed.4. CoP does not acknowledge the very considerable power inequalities which exist inworkplaces and is, in this area, potentially over idealistic.Toni Griffiths and David Guile have attempted further to develop the CoP concept to overcomesome of the limitations implied so far. They call it the “connective model of learning” 50 which ischaracterized by: an emphasis on reflexive activity (learners extracting the meaning of what they aredoing) vertical and horizontal development (learners of all levels of expertise learning together) organizations full of environments which facilitate learning.Another way of viewing complex, connected working environments is through the lens of apsychological theory developed by Edwin Hutchins to describe the ways in which groups ofpeople are able to work and learn together “in the wild” 51 . In his research Hutchins reports a47 Engeström, Yrjö (1994) Training for change: new approach to instruction and learning in working life Geneva:International Labour Office48 Fuller, Alison and Unwin, Lorna (2003) Learning as apprentices in the contemporary UK workplace: creating andmanaging expansive and restrictive participation Journal of Education and Work Vol 16 no 4 407-42649 Fuller, Alison, Hodkinson, Heather, Hodkinson, Phil and Unwin, Lorna (2005) Learning as peripheral participationin communities of practice: a reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning. British Educational ResearchJournal Vol 31, No 1 49-6850 Griffiths, Toni and Guile, David A Connective Model of Learning: the implications for work process knowledgeEuropean Educational Research Journal Vol 2 No 1 56-7351 Hutchins, Edwin (1995) Cognition in the wild, Cambridge MA: MIT Press15

detailed case study of the way in which a ship is navigated in and out of a harbour. He notedthe extraordinary way in which tasks are intelligently shared among the different peopleon board. So a course is steered with a new set of data being relayed every few seconds. Noone individual could manage alone, because nobody is in possession of all the informationneeded – there is no individual ‘in charge’. A sophisticated piece of problem-solving relies oneach member of the team doing their bit at the right time, and passing their vital pieces ofinformation on to the right person. It is not just that people are being intelligent and sociallyaware in a group; complex, intelligent action emerges from the coordinated efforts of the groupitself. From the field of distributed cognition comes a direct challenge to all those involved inWRL – to understand the complex roles played by individuals in a fast-moving task in a complexenvironment and then to find the right balance of direct experience and facilitated guidance tohelp learners to become expert members of the team. The potential influence of variousaspects of new thinking about cognition on learning and teaching has been explored in workcommissioned by the Edge Foundation 52 .The opportunities of e-learningIn schools, colleges and workplaces there have been extraordinary advances in ICT in the lastdecade which have provided a range of new learning methods and virtual learningenvironments. In this short overview of pedagogy there is not space to explore developments inthis area in any detail. There is currently some significant research 53 underway from which itshould be possible to learn much. One question seems immediately important. Does ICT offerdifferent pedagogies? I wonder whether it may be the case that ICT offers e-versions of many ofthe existing WRL pedagogies.)Issues arisingIn this short paper I have described some of the main traditions of pedagogy with regard toWRL. They raise a number of issues which I close by addressing in the form of some questionsto stimulate further discussion.1. To what extent are there pedagogies which are useful across all aspects of WRL?2. To what extent is the selection of appropriate pedagogies context-specific?3. How does learner experience and biography impact on choice of pedagogy?4. What can we learn from each of the different traditions of WRL pedagogy?5. To what extent is authenticity in the eye of the beholder or can it be anticipated?6. How can we make the informal learning which is so characteristic of WRL more visible,how can we “surface” what is going on more clearly?7. What do we know about learning transfer between different contexts for WRL and howcan we “teach” for transfer more effectively?52 Claxton, Guy, Lucas, Bill and Webster, Rob (2010) Bodies of Knowledge; how the learning sciences couldtransform practical and vocational education53 The UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) e-Learning programme and in particular the e-Learning andPedagogy strand www.jisc.ac.uk/elearning_pedagogy.html is currently underway16

8. Can the different demands of spaces set up for working as opposed to those created forlearning be reconciled and, if so, how?9. How can the tensions between the development of specific expertise and the need forwider skills - for employability and living – be better resolved?10. What can we apply in WRL from other pedagogies not mentioned in this paper?EndnoteAs David Boud says: “The conventional separation of learning and work is breaking down. Ourpractice is grounded at a very deep level in a set of assumptions about the separateness oflearning and work.” 54 This has to change. What’s good for WRL may actually be good for alllearning. And increasingly it may be desirable for all learners to have experiences of WRLthroughout their formal education.Given the huge variety of working practices, it seems logical to conclude that no one pedagogycan adequately describe the different kinds of learning and learners, the skills and dispositionsthey are seeking to acquire and the hugely variable contexts in which learners find themselves.By the same token it may well be that some learning theories turn out, to misquote Kurt Lewin,to be much more practically useful than others. It is hoped that discussion by the DCSF 14-19Expert pedagogy Group may begin to enable us to be clearer about the specific utility of thedifferent pedagogical approaches currently used in WRL for 14-19 year olds.54 Boud, David (2003), Combining work and learning: the disturbing challenge of practice, Keynote address to theInternational Conference on Experiential-Community-Workbased: Researching Learning outside the Academy,Glasgow, 27-29 June 2003.17