Rethinking the workplace as a ‘learning space’

Reflecting on what research tells us works in the workplace

Karen EvansUniversity of London

Maurice TaylorUniversity of Ottawa

and

Building on Anglo-Canadian collaborations:

What we already know (published and available):

• Persistence and incremental learning bring results.

• Potential of collaborative pedagogies for bridging between functional and situated knowledge and skills.

• Workplace cultures and practices impact on adult learning.

• Need for teacher sensitivity to workplace roles outside programmes

• ‘Use it or lose it’ – use of skills in practice

Judith Swift (Unionlearn):‘Employer engagement is an issue . . . Learners will need more time to develop these broad-

based skills [English and Maths] than employers may have been used to with Skills for Life

programmes.’

•Without sufficient workplace support to meet challenges ‘confidence declines and with it

motivation to learn’ (Eraut on learning in the workplace.)

Thinking about the workplace as a ‘learning space’ emphasises:

• The immediate setting of day to day work activities (micro-system).

• concurrent settings e.g. courses accessed through workplace; home &family; (meso-system).

• Institutional policies, procedures and cultures that influence a person’s work setting (exo-system).

• Overarching institutional and labour market factors/cultural values (macro-system).

• See Kolb and Kolb 2005; Evans et al 2006; Kersh et al 2012 .

Focusing on work as a learning space brings into view:

• The importance of developing the ‘formal-informal’ learning interplay

• The role of virtual learning in changing the boundaries of learning spaces

• Supporting learning in and through work:

• Rethinking ‘self-directed learning’

• The role of ‘social capital’.

• Significance of coaching .

Formal-Informal: Developing the

Interplay

• Formal program participation – catalyst for informal learning • Synergetic and connective• “it was like employees were re-awakened to their own learning capabilities as a result of

the program and this provided a different viewpoint about their own workplace and their jobs”

Types of ‘Informal Learning’

1) Observing from ‘Knowledgeables’2) Practising without Supervision3) Searching Independently for

Information 4) Focused Workplace Discussions5) All potentially supported by

effective mentoring and coaching

Some factors that increase formal-informal learning

interplay:1) Trigger events – company ethos of quality

performance; safety concerns2) Attitudes towards lifelong learning- curiosity,

creativity, imagination3) Inner recognition – personal and work benefits• Informal learning not primarily motivated for

monetary rewards or up-ward mobility• “spurred on by a need for the challenge or a variety in the everyday

work routine”

TRIANGULAR RELATIONSHIPS between

• Agency – and motivation to be active in learning;

• Confidence: ‘knowing that you can’ and

• Quality of opportunities in the workplace

• See Evans and Waite 2009

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Going beyond SFL: Examples 1. Coopers’

• Coopers provides for a range of formalized learning within the company structure but also accords official space for the opportunities for informal learning (observation of other employees, sharing of ideas in ‘huddles’) .

Coopers

• Worked well:• Virtual learning accessed

through Learning Centre leads into supported self directed learning.

• Feeds into ‘huddles’ reviewing work practices and development opportunities

• Could have worked better:

• Involvement of employees with the least skills, who tended to be left out and left behind.

(avoidance of huddles)

. Thorpton Local Authority

• The local authority formally allocates more experienced colleagues to guide recently appointed caretakers, but the mentoring process is largely unstructured and informal.

Thortons Local Authority /ctd

• Worked well:• Formal course (English)

increased confidence on the part of employees which led to further courses as well as informal learning opportunities (through the taking on higher level roles that also entail “hands on” learning).

• Could have worked better:

• Involvement of supervisors

• Mentoring and coaching support needed to be more systematic – missed opportunities

Thorpton’s Local Authority ctd.

• Care should be taken not to confuse strategies for ‘getting by’ at work with informal learning. Supervisors taking pre-emptive or ‘circumventing’ action over tasks involving literacy skills can create a vicious circle of employees’ over-reliance (on supervisors to fill in forms, for example). This misses the opportunities for practice and coaching support and reinforces underlying skills deficiencies instead of helping to solve them.

HLN Engineering

• the learners’ motivation for engaging in the course was underpinned by a high value placed on learning for its own sake (and its relevance for other aspects of their lives)

• The course was means of ascertaining the formal level (or “classroom level” ) of their numeracy skills which had been quite highly developed through practice in the workplace.

Weapons Defence Establishment: (WDA)

• The levelling out of management structures within the Weapons Defence Establishment has increased the significance of both formal and informal learning opportunities

• The successful “IT and English” courses at this organization were tailored to ‘delegation of responsibility’ priorities of the organization.

• Potential benefits in pay and promotions

Visible and Invisible

Learning which is largely

invisible:Learning from colleagues and

customersThrough trial and error and

critical incidentsSearching out opportunities

and resources

Visible learning:

CoursesTime-tabled

activities

Evidence extends existing frameworks for understanding informal learning and the scope for adults to seek out learning activities at and through work.

Beginning of a learning opportunity – often less self-directed; active learning increases with encouragement

More complex notion of self-directed learning – relationships among employees, context and opportunities support or impede active learning

Importance of newly acquired confidence in recognising informal learning opportunities

Towards a more complex notion of active and ‘self-directed’ learning at work that factors in relationships,

contexts and opportunities

• We know that adult English and Maths learners develop the readiness and social resources for further learning….

• New findings on how social capital co-evolves with human capital to develop more confident use of the ‘learning spaces’ at work and beyond (SSHRC Taylor et al, 2013).

Management of the learning space goes beyond ‘programme delivery’.

Crucial role of support provided by supervisor and co-worker relationships;

Management of the learning space involves training managers, learning representatives, working with providers.

Some sources:• Evans, Kersh, Waite articles in Journal of Education and Work,

2012; in Transfer – European Review of Labour and Research, 2010;

• in Changing Spaces of Education (Routledge 2012); in Sage Handbook of Workplace Learning, 2011 and Helve and Evans 2013 book, Tufnell press.

• Taylor and Evans in Literacy and Numeracy Studies 2009; Journal of Adult and Continuing Education; 2010; Journal of Research in P-C Education 2011; Taylor et al in press 2013 publications.

• Wolf and Evans Improving Literacy at Work, Routledge 2011.