Rethinking the workplace as a learning space: Reflecting on what research tells us works in the workplace
Karen Evans Karen Evans is Professor of Education and Lifelong Learning at the Institute of Education, University of London, previously Head of the School of Lifelong Education and International Development. She has carried out a series of national and international collaborative research studies of learning in and through the workplace, as a leading researcher in the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES).
Research into the ways in which adults access learning opportunities for literacy and numeracy development through the workplace has already yielded important lessons for practice. We know, for example, that persistence and incremental learning bring results over time (Reder and Bynner, 2008). While courses do not necessarily have to be long and continuous, there does need to be support for employees progressively to build capabilities through the bite-sized learning activities at work that are favoured by employers. This includes opportunities and support for practising new capabilities both in their everyday work and also outside working hours. Through our ongoing research, we already know the potential of collaborative pedagogies for bridging between functional and situated knowledge and skills (Taylor, Evans and Abasi, 2007). We know that workplace cultures and practices impact on adult learning and that there is a need for teacher sensitivity to workplace roles outside programmes (Evans, Hodkinson, Rainbird and Unwin, 2006). Decisively, we know that employees' new capabilities have to be used if they are to develop further, and that this challenges employers to think about the job content of those adults they send on programmes.
The shifts from Skills for Life to Functional Skills present particular challenges for workplaces. As Judith Swift (2012), of Unionlearn, recently noted in an Adults Learning supplement on functional skills, adults at work will need more time to develop the broad-based skills of English and Maths than that which employers may have been used to with Skills for Life programmes. We know that without sufficient workplace support to meet challenges, confidence declines and with it the motivation to learn. Workplace learning is about much more than delivery of courses.
Thinking about the workplace as a learning space is important because it brings into view key influences on learning that are often overlooked. These include:
· The immediate setting of day to day work activities (micro-system) · Concurrent settings e.g. courses accessed through workplace, home and 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).
Focusing on work as a learning space brings into view the importance of the interplay between the formal and the informal opportunities that adults have for learning at work. Informal learning includes reflection on practice, learning by observing others, participating in collective activities, seeking out information independently and practising without supervision. Too often we concentrate on either the formal or informal dimensions of learning with only cursory attention to the ways in which they inter-connect. Formal programme participation can be a catalyst for informal learning. As one manager observed, 'It was like employees were re-awakened to their own learning capabilities as a result of the programme, and this provided a different viewpoint about their own workplace and their jobs.'
The notion of the learning space also assumes greater importance as we have come to recognise that virtual 2
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