often considerable. Carré (2013) has recently written that self-direction is largely confined to those in professional and managerial roles. For employees at the lower end of the earnings distribution, we know from workplace research that there is little scope for self-direction at the beginning of a learning opportunity, but active learning can increase with encouragement and support and often extends beyond the workplace.
What adults make of the spaces they have for learning is significant, as cases analysed in detail have shown. What is needed is a more complex notion of self-direction in workplace learning, one that pays more attention to the relationships-oriented nature of much workplace learning and the work environments, contexts and opportunities that are either conducive to learning or impediments to it (see Waite et al 2012 and Evans and Waite 2013).
Research is indicating the connection of newly acquired confidence with informal learning opportunities. Latest evidence from research in several Canadian provinces is showing that adult English and Maths learners develop the readiness and social resources for further learning (Taylor et al, 2013). Canadian and British researchers are now working collaboratively to understand better how social capital co-evolves with human capital to develop more confident use of the learning spaces at work and beyond. This depends crucially on the support provided by supervisor and co-worker relationships. Management of the learning space at work involves training managers and learning representatives, working with providers, analysing, “upstreaming” from the learner, and understanding the dynamics of the workplace and its influences on learning engagement.
References
Carré, P. (2013) Heuristics of Adult Learning, in Hiemstra, R. and Carré, P. (eds) (2013) A Feast of Learning: International Perspectives on Adult Learning and Change. Charlotte: Information Age Publishers. Evans, K. (2009) Learning, Work and Social Responsibility. Dordrecht: Springer.
Evans, K., Hodkinson, P., Rainbird, H. and Unwin, L. (2006) Improving Workplace Learning. Abingdon: Routledge.
Evans, K. and Waite, E. (2009) Adults learning in and through the workplace, in K. Ecclestone et al (eds) Change and Becoming through the Lifecourse: Transitions and Learning in Education and Life. Abingdon: Routledge.
Evans, K. and Waite, E. (2010) 'Stimulating the innovation potential of “routine” workers through workplace learning, in TRANSFER', European Review of Labour and Research, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 243-258.
Evans, K. and Waite, E. (2013) Activating events in adult learners lives: understanding life changes through a retrospective lens, in Helve, H. and Evans, K. Youth and Work Transitions in Changing Social Landscapes, London: Tufnell Press.
Felstead, A. & Jewson, N. (2012) New places of work, new spaces of learning, in Brooks, R., Fuller, A. and Waters, J. (eds) Changing Spaces of Education. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kersh, N., Waite E. and Evans K. (2012) The Spatial Dimensions of Workplace Learning: Acquiring Literacy and Numeracy Skills within the Workplace, in R. Brooks et al (eds) Changing Spaces of Education: New Perspectives on the Nature of Learning (pp.182-204). Abingdon: Routledge.
5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62