Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemInformal learning at work: the art of learning by doing( 2011)In contemporary Australian society, educational institutes – schools, TAFE Colleges and universities – are well-recognised as places of formal education. However, there are many people who, upon reflection, would admit that much of what they know and can do, particularly at work, has been acquired, not during formal institutional education but outside of those institutions, while at work, either doing or attempting to do, their work. This research draws on the works of educational researchers and theorists including Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Ryle, Knowles, Nonaka, Illeris, Choo, Jarvis, Schön, Billett, Hager, Beckett, and others. The research initially reviews theories relating to learning such as behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. I then move on to those relating to adult and workplace learning, such as Knowles’ Andragogy, Dewey’s purpose, and Illeris’ three dimensions of learning, before finally reviewing the more holistic or organic theories of human learning put forward by Jarvis, Beckett and Hager, Schön, and others. This framework of theories is then used to provide the base upon which this research is built. Eight case studies of adults at work, and their encounters with novel situations, are analysed and discussed to formulate an understanding of the processes involved in this type of learning and the value it provides to both the informal learners and the organisations in which they work. Finally, what is learned from both the literature and the eight cases studied, is combined and distilled to provide an understanding of this type of learning, and identify its defining characteristics.