ERIC ED384697: Facilitating Learning in the Workplace. EEE700 Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace A.

93 Pages·1991·1.6 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CE 067 741
ED 384 697
Watkins, Karen
AUTHOR
Facilitating Learning in the Workplace. EEE700 Adults
TITLE
Learning: The Changing Workplace A.
Deakin Univ., Victoria (Australia).
INSTITUTION
Victorian Education Foundation.
SPONS AGENCY
ISBN-0-7300-1262-X
REPORT NO
PUB DATE
91
93p.; Type somewhat smeared on pages 37-48.
NOTE
Adult and Workplace Education, Faculty of Education,
AVAILABLE FROM
Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia 3217
($20 Australian).
Instructional Materials (For
Classroom Use
Guides
PUB TYPE
Learner) (051)
MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Adult Development; Adult Education; *Adult Learning;
DESCRIPTORS
Annotated Bibliographies; Educational Environment;
*Educational. Strategies; *Education Work
Relationship; Foreign Countries; *Industrial
Training; *Labor Force Development; Models
*Australia; *Facilitators (Personnel Development);
IDENTIFIERS
Facilitator Styles
ABSTRACT
This publication is part of the study materials for
the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing
Workplace A, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The
first part of the document examines the roles, skills, and methods
used by facilitators of workplace learning in light of a social
action view of learning. The following topics are discussed: the
nature of learning (the sociological and other perspectives);
learning in the workplace and a new model for learning in the
workplace: learning in and out of school); human resource development
(the changing workplace context, current status of human resource
development in the workplace, and human capital theory); and
strategies for facilitating learning in the workplace (facilitation
methods, facilitator skills, interpersonal helping skills, action
science, and steps in the action science process). The bibliography
contains 45 references. The following papers constitute approximately
60% of the document: "Learning in the Workplace: The Case for
J. Marsick); "Human
Reflectivity and Critical Reflectivity" (V.
Watkins);
Resource Developers: Producing Unintended Consequences" (K.
"A Critical Definition of Adult Education" (S. D. Brookfield); and
"The Facilitator's Role in Adult Learning" (S. D. Brookfield).
Concluding the document is a nine-item annotated bibliography.
(MN)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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FACILITATING LEAR NING
L A C E
W O R K P
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I
U.S. DEPARTMENT OP EDUCATION
Office or Educahonsl Rematch and Improvement
THIS
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Ms document has been reproduced as
received horn IM Person or atomization
originating n
O Minor changes have wen made to improve
rproductoon quality
Points of v** or opmona.statard in this dOeu.
mint do not necessarily represent official
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TO THE EDUCATIONAL
OERI positan or policy
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
2
CHANGING WORKPLACE A
EEE700
LEARNING
FACILITATING
IN THE WORKPLACE
KAREN WATKINS
Deakin
University
this book forms part of EEE700 Adults learning The changing workplace A
which is one of the units offered by the School of Education
in Deakin University's
Open-Campus Program. It has been prepared for the Adults learning: The
changing workplace A team, whose members are:
Richard Bates
Jill Blackmore
Mike Brown (chair)
Robin Mc Taggart
Helen Modra
Frances Patrick (unit developer)
John Smyth
Peter Watkins
Steve Wright
Consultants
Elaine Bernard
Craig Littler
Harvard University
Griffith University
Chris Bigum
Jean McAllister
Deakin University
University of Regina
David Boud
Robert Priebe
University of New South Wales
University of Regina
Sue Collard
David Walker
University of British Columbia
Education Centre, Sydney
Nancy Jackson
:Caren Watkins
McGill University
University of Texas
David Little
Michael Welton
University of Regina
Dalhousie University
The study materials include:
Elaine Bernard, Technological Change and Skills Development
Karen Watkins, Facilitating Learning in the Workplace
David Boud and David Walker, Experience and Learning: Reflection
at Work
Jean McAllister, Robert Priebe and David Little, Adult Learning in
Vocational
Education
Further titles may be added to this list from limo to time.
These books are available from Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria
3217
Enrolled students are supplied with a guide to the unit and
supplementary
material.
Distributed by Deakin University Press
First published 1991
0 Deakin University 1991
Edited, designed and typeset by Deakin Univei siiy Book Produrtion
Unit
Printed by Deakin University Printery
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-ii-Publication data
Watkins, Karen E., 1946
.
Facilitating learning in the workplace.
Bibliography.
ISBN 0 7300 1262 X.
1. EmployeesTraining of. 2. Adult education 3. Learning. I. Deakin
University. School of Education. Open Campus Program. II. Title.
658.3124
This course was produced in part with developmental funding from
the Victorian
Education Foundation.
CONTENTS
5 )
SERIES INTRODUCTION
7 )
FACILITATING LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE
9
INTRODUCTION
9
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
12
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
14
WHAT THEN DO THESE VIEWS OF LEARNING HAVE IN COMMON?
15
LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE
16
A NEW MODEL FOR LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE
16
LEARNING IN AND OUT OF SCHOOL
18
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
21
THE CHANGING WORKPLACE CONTEXT
22
WORKPLACE
CURRENT STATUS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE
23
HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY
24
STRATEGIES FOR FACILITATING LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE
24
FACILITATION METHODS
25
FACILITATOR SKILLS
25
INTERPERSONAL HELPING SKILLS
26
ACTION SCIENCE
29
STEPS IN THE PROCESS OF ACTION SCIENCE
29
CONCLUSION
31
REFERENCES
35 )
READINGS
LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE: THE CASE FOR REFLECTIVITY AND CRITICAL
1
REFLECTIVITY
37
V.J. MARSICK
CONSEQUENCES
2 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPERS: PRODUCING UNINTENDED
49
K. WATKINS
3 A CRITICAL DEFINITION OF ADULT EDUCATION
61
S.D. BROOKFIELD
4 THE FACILITATORS ROLE IN ADULT LEARNING
67
S.D. BROOKFIELD
91)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
94 )
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
95 )
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
5
SERIES INTRODUCTION
the workplace has been the subject
The nature and purpose of education in
While the vagaries of local and
of much debate in Australia in recent years.
reconsider the role of
international competition have led many firms to
this entails, governments
their workforce and the training requirements
education systems to the per-
have been equally keen to adapt existing
have been distinguished in
ceived needs of industry. Leading union bodies
outlining the path by which a recon-
this debate by their pro-active role,
place in the world
structed industrial climate can win the nation a new
economy.
volume is a part explores the
The series of monographs of which this
industry. In the process
approaches to learning currently modeled within
existing orientations and
the question inevitably arises as to whether
stakeholders in the workplace.
practices are in the best interests of the various
address themselves
The arguments developed in these monographs
industrial education. To date, prevail-
to a range of contemporary issues in
instrumentalist notions of learn-
ing approaches have rested upon narrow,
out to challenge this
ing; in their different ways, the writers have set
questions of gender,
orthodoxy. In doing so, they highlight the silenceson
outlook still dominant in
class or ethnicitythat underpin the behavourist
the world of training.
the course team has sought to
In preparing this series of monographs,
those involved in the
address issues that are of fundamental concern to
learning. It is hoped that, in its
complex and uemanding field of workplace
have developed can serve to exemplify
own modest way, the pedagogy we
industrial education might become.
a different notion of what
6
5
FACILITATING LEARNING
IN THE WORKPLACE
7
Introduction
is that undertaken by
Perhaps the largest current educational endeavour
their work-related
individuals in organisations in an effort to improve
has there been an
performance (Carnevale 1984). And yet, only recently
of learning in the workplace.
attempt to analyse and to examine the nature
have Ied to the pos-
Changing organisational contexts and new priorities
initiative of the
sibility that learning will become part of the strategic
by employees will be seen
corporation, such that the knowledge possessed
organisation's competitive edge. As this
as a critical component of that
need to be both formal and informal,
occurs, learning will increasingly
Organisations can
individual and organisational, discrete and continuous.
educational function to individuals who have
no longer afford to leave the
educated facilitator of
little or no training. Rather, an increasingly better
learning in the workplace will be needed.
title: facilitating,
This monograph explores each of the key terms in the
other. Definitions of
learning and workplace and their relationship to each
discussed
learning from the behavioural to the sociological perpective are
The roles, skills and
in terms of their relevance to learning in the workplace.
light of a social-
methods used by facilitators of workplace learning in the
of the workplace
action view of learning are then presented. The nature
learning at work rather than at
context, as well as the differences between
from other forms of
school, help to distinguish learning in the workplace
learning is
learning. The field of practice of facilitators of workplace
which grows out of
currently called human resource development, a term
field. This theory is further delineated and
a human capital theory of the
and strategies to
critiqued. A definition of the field, an overview of practice
improve practice conclude the monograph.
The nature of learning
ultimately
Learning has been defined by many different theorists, each
emphasise behav-
reliant upon their own paradigm. This has led them to
and personal
iour, cognitive fields and changes of insight, experiences
growth. Compare the following definitions of learning:
learning always refers to some systematic change in behavior or
...
behavioral disposition that occurs as a consequence of experience in
some specified situation. (Estes 1975, p. 9)
butalsoemphasises
This definition focuses on learning asbehaviour change
the role of experience as a trigger to learning.
9
6
Similarly, Ralph Tyler defined learning as:
... the acquisition of new patterns of behavior through experience.
Behavior is used in this sense to include all kinds of reactions
an
individual is capable of carrying on. One can acquire a new skill, a new
habit, a new interest, a new attitude, a new way of thinking, a new way
of perceiving some complex phenomenon; all of these are illustrations
of human learning. (Tyler 1976, p. 1)
He described learning as an instinctive, universal characteristic of all
human beings, one without which we could not get through the first
year
of life. 'The problem of the educator is to stimulate and guide students in
learning what is educationally valuable'_(Tyler 1976,
p. 2).
Learning is an active rather than a passive process. It is what learners
do. Education is planned, self-conscious learning. Kidd (1973) emphasises
that learningbringsabout change in the learner. The learner does something:
opens up himself (sic)', he stretches himself, he reaches out, he incor-
porates new experience, he expresses or unfolds what is latent within
him. The critical part of the process of teachinglearning is how the
learner is aided to embark on this active, growing, changing, painful,
or exhilarating experience we call learning. (Kidd 1973, p. 14)
Kidd notes that, although learning often seems to defy definition,
we
all know it when we see or experience it. He
agrees with Smith (1982) that
much of the confusion among definitions is that we
use the term 'learning'
to denote a product (what was learnedthe outcomes), a
process (how it
was learned) and a function (what helps one learn, e.g. motivation).
Marsick (1987) emphasises that it is important for workplace educa-
tors to turn the focus of their attention from teaching to learning. Her
argument grows out of her process definition of learning and her quarrel
with a limited functional understanding of learning
as a behavioural
outcome of teaching. In fact, learning occurs as often despite teaching
as
because of it, and may include learning to resist teaching. Moreover,
learning in the workplace has been predominantly defined in behaviourist
terms, neglecting the cognitive field view, the interpersonal and contextual
influences on what is learned, and the critical social science perspective
(see
Carr Sc Kemmis 1986). She therefore defines learning
as: 2
... the way in which individuals or groups acquire, interpret, reorgan-
ize, change or assimilate a related cluster of information, skills and
McTaggart (1990, pers. comm.) notes that feminist literature contends that the
'
use of the masculine pronoun in these early references may be gender blindness and
yet also correct in the sense that current research, such as that on women's
ways of
knowing, is beginning to suggest that women may indeed learn differently. Per-
haps a gender differentiated theory of learning may yet
emerge.
9
10
feelings. It is also primary to the way in which people construct
(Marsick
meaning in their personal and shared organizational lives.
1987, p. 4)
of the term
Change is clearly central to this definition. Also by her use
rather
'the way', Marsick is signalling an emphasis on learning as a process
than an outcome.
is that
A view of learning whichmay combine process and outcome
offered such
which evolves from an action frame of reference. Jarvis (1987)
a view of adult learning in the social context:
The model [his learning model] connects the process of human learning
of a learning
to the person, who may grow and develop as a result
experience, may remain virt ually unaltered, or may actually be harmed
It will also be noted that one
as a result of the experience of learning....
CO.
might
of the outcomes of learning is a more experienced person, who
have new knowledge, a new skill, a different attitude, a changed self-
complexity
concept, or any combination of these, which illustrates the
of human learning (Jarvis 1987, p. 24)
Jarvis conceived of learning as a process in which a person encounters
have learning reinforced but not
a situation from which he or she may
changed; or, through practice and experimentation, the person may
memorise new information, reason and reflect on the experience, evaluate
order and
it and ultimately be changed. The process may not occur in this
for the person. He defined
may or may not result in real change or learning
learning as a transformation of experience into knowledge, skills and
attitudes, which again emphasises process. Jarvis believes that the proper
domain of interest to the educator is the process of learning; the learner is
and does
in control of the outcomes. Even this view remains individualistic,
the
not yet explain the influence of the historical or social context on
consciousness of the learner.
situ-
Jarvis identified nine types of responses to a potential learning
ation:
learning through the process of socialisation or presumption;
1
the
2 nonconsideration (when a learner is too busy to respond to
opportunity);
learning);
3 rejection (when a decision is made not to accept or pursue
and
4 preconscious or incidental learning (learning which is accidental
tacit);
5 practice;
little or
6 memorisation (committing new knowledge to memory with
no reflection or evaluation);
1 0
11