Transfer is usually cast as an educational, rather than learning, problem. Yet, seeking to adapt what individuals know from one circumstance to another is a process more helpfully associated with learning, than a hybrid one called transfer. Adaptability comprises individuals construing what they experience, then aligning and reconciling with what…

A project funded through the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation program investigated higher education programs--mostly bachelor's and associate degrees--offered by technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. This overview highlights some of the implications for teachers identified by this project. [This…

Although workplace learning is frequently characterized as informal, it usually involves structured, goal-directed, intentional activities. Instead, learning should be seen as interdependent between the individual and the social practice. Tensions arise between the need for continuity and work practices and individual needs to realize goals.…

Three Australian studies identified attributes of workplaces as learning environments: authentic activities, experts, other workers, and task engagement. Limitations of workplace learning included inappropriate knowledge, lack of access to activities, expert reluctance, absence of expertise, opaque knowledge, and problems with instructional media.…

The purpose of this support document is to: (1) provide a fuller version of the literature review than in the report and issues paper; and (2) provide the interview schedules that were used to gather the data for this project. (Contains 7 footnotes.) [Funding for this report was provided through the Australian Department of Education, Science and…

The factors that influence learning in workplaces were examined through a study of guided learning in five workplaces. Special attention was paid to the dual considerations of how workplaces afford opportunities for learning and how individuals elect to engage in activities and the guidance provided by the workplace. The readiness of the workplace…

The reciprocal process of engaging in and learning through work was examined. Reciprocity between how workplaces invite individuals to participate in and learn through work (its invitational qualities) and individuals' engagement in the workplace was proposed as a means of understanding how learning through work proceeds. Workplaces' invitational…

This book, which is designed for human resource practitioners and students in courses on professional development and adult and vocational learning, examines strategies for effective practice in workplace learning. The introduction discusses interest in and ambivalence toward workplace learning and key premises of workplace learning. The following…

Arguing against a concept of learning as only a formal process occurring in explicitly educational settings like schools, the paper proposes a conception of the workplace as a learning environment focusing on the interaction between the affordances and constraints of the social setting, on the one hand, and the agency and biography of the…

Any setting can contribute to learning, and learning theories must account for settings, enculturation, and social contributions. Theories of learning in informal or "natural" settings must be quite distinct from existing theories of formal learning. (SK)

Understanding how learning for small businesses should best proceed constitutes a worthwhile, yet challenging, pedagogic project. In order to maintain their viability, small businesses need to be able to respond to new practices and tasks. Yet small businesses seem neither attracted to nor to value the kinds of taught courses that are the standard…

Recent research on Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system and women in small business was synthesized to identify ways of making VET more responsive to the needs of women in small business. Special attention was paid to the following topics: key issues affecting public policy (globalization, economic development, industry…