Not Teaching but What? Academic Support of Higher Level Learning in the Workplace Dr Anita Walsh, Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College

Not Teaching but What? … Workplace learning has a long tradition in higher education BUT in very specific contexts Placement in sandwich courses, practice placements Such learning either relatively disregarded or under tight control of professional ‘experts’

Not Teaching but What? … Establishment of academic credit practice shifted culture to consideration of outcomes of learning (rather than input of teaching) This, together with emphasis on characteristics of learning (level) rather than specific subject content, meant that a much broader range of learning could be given full academic recognition

Not Teaching but What? … These developments in the context of an established tradition which:  is organised on the basis of academic disciplines  gives primacy to theoretical knowledge  prefers decontextualised to contextualised knowledge (?transferability of learning)  assumes that teaching is necessary for learning to take place

Not Teaching but What? … Biggs:  ‘The view of university teaching as transmitting information is so widely accepted that delivery and assessment systems the world over are based on it. Teaching rooms and media are specifically designed for one way delivery. A teacher is the knowledgeable expert who expands the information the students are to absorb and report back accurately …’

Not Teaching but What? … The academic recognition of workplace learning has therefore been ‘problematised’ Workplace learning does not fit neatly into disciplines (transdisciplinary) In the absence of teachers and without a curriculum specifying subject content, it is frequently assumed that ‘learning through work may be weak, ad hoc, concrete and incidental’ (Billett)

Not Teaching but What? … This is from perspective of established HE tradition, but other perspectives? Status of knowledge/learning:  Mode 1 and Mode 2 knowledge (Gibbons et al)  Biggs: declarative, procedural, conditional, functioning  Lave and Wenger: legitimate peripheral participation  Erault: ‘tidy maps of knowledge and learning are deceptive’

Not Teaching but What? … Knowledge in the workplace?  Portwood’s learned worker = engaged in professional practice  Weinstein: conscious competence model  Eraut: Tacit knowledge (situational understanding, routinised procedures, intuitive decision-making)  Eisner’s Enlightened Eye (=eye for the significant) (Learners bringing intellectual (not by definition theoretical) capital with them to the University)

Not Teaching but What? Workbased learners are already operating autonomously in environments of uncertainty and change (knowledge in the university is ‘pre-packaged’) ‘From this student-centred standing point, students are facilitated into theorising from a position of some existing expertise’ (Portwood)

Not Teaching but What? … For academic recognition, therefore, the issue is one of ‘translation’ Brennan and Little: role of academic - Support and facilitate or quality assure? To help learner identify/develop:  Metacognition  Critical reflection  Appropriate research skills

Not Teaching but What? … Wagner: ‘Work doesn’t fit into disciplinary boundaries but disciplinary knowledge can enrich learning and diversify action possibilities’ This means theory – Workbased learners take their curriculum content from the workplace and integrate relevant theories into their studies – content/process debate?

Not Teaching but What? … Apple: ‘The curriculum is never simply a neutral assembly of knowledge … It is always part of a selective tradition, someone’s selection, some group’s vision of legitimate knowledge’ Thus far the debate concerning theory and workplace has not been fully explored – Biggs claims HE teachers tend to identify themselves as scholars in their discipline so can be difficult to engage re transdisciplinarity

Not Teaching but What?... Workbased learner as an autonomous collaborator with the University is in a much more egalitarian position than those ‘being taught’ – concern re standards? BUT not equal and when working together to produce knowledge both ‘negotiables’ and ‘non-negotiables’ must be identified – through the latter that standards are assured