This article reflects on the previous articles in this special issue by discussing some common themes and raising some proposals for future research on the topic of workplace learning and its boundaries. The article subsequently discusses objects and results of workplace learning, the issue of learning through acquisition and/or participation, the interplay between organisational and individual factors, the issue of access to learning opportunities, the role of workplace learning in education and HRD, respectively.
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To adequately deal with the challenges faced within residential care for older people, such as the increasing complexity of care and a call for more person-centred practices, it is important that health care providers learn from their work. This study investigates both the nature of learning, among staff and students working within care for older people, and how workplace learning can be promoted and researched. During a longitudinal study within a nursing home, participatory and democratic research methods were used to collaborate with stakeholders to improve the quality of care and to promote learning in the workplace. The rich descriptions of these processes show that workplace learning is a complex phenomenon. It arises continuously in reciprocal relationship with all those present through which both individuals and environment change and co-evolve enabling enlargement of the space for possible action. This complexity perspective on learning refines and expands conventional beliefs about workplace learning and has implications for advancing and researching learning. It explains that research on workplace learning is itself a form of learning that is aimed at promoting and accelerating learning. Such research requires dialogic and creative methods. This study illustrates that workplace learning has the potential to develop new shared values and ways of working, but that such processes and outcomes are difficult to control. It offers inspiration for educators, supervisors, managers and researchers as to promoting conditions that embrace complexity and provides insight into the role and position of self in such processes.
From the article: "The goal of higher professional education is to enable students to develop into reflective practitioners, having both a firm theoretical knowledge base as well as appropriate, professional attitudes and skills. Learning at the workplace is crucial in professional education, because it allows students to learn to act competently in complex contexts and unpredictable situations. Reflection on learning during an internship is hard to interweave with the working process, which may easily result in students having little control over their own learning process while at work. In this study, we aim to discover in what way we can effectively use technology to enhance workplace learning, by synthesizing design propositions for Technology- Enhanced Workplace Learning (TEWL). We conducted design-based research which is cyclic in nature. Based on preliminary research, we constructed initial design propositions and developed a web-based app (software program for mobile devices) providing interventions based on these propositions. In a pilot study, students from different educational domains used this app to support their workplace learning. We evaluated the initial design propositions by carrying out both a theoretical and a practical evaluation. With the insights obtained from these evaluations, we developed a next version of the design propositions and improved the app accordingly. The research result is a set of design propositions for TEWL. For daily practice, the developed web-based app is available for re-use and further research and development."
