Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to document the ways pharmaceutical representatives learn for work and report attributes of (in)formality and other characteristics of ways of learning perceived as effective and frequently used. Design/methodology/approach: A total of agents 20 from 11 pharmaceutical manufacturers across Canada participated…

Students in competence-based senior secondary vocational education are expected to actively construct personal knowledge during school-based learning and workplace learning. This study introduces the construct "personal professional theory" (PPT) to monitor and analyse students' personal knowledge development. It aims to investigate the…

Self-regulated learning processes have a potential to enhance the motivation of knowledge workers to take part in learning and reflection about learning, and thus contribute to the resolution of an important research challenge in workplace learning. An equally important research challenge for the successful completion of each step of a…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to reveal and analyse dominant learning processes in emergency response work from the fire-fighters' point of view, and how fire-fighters develop their competence. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted an explorative approach using participant observation. The objective of this open-minded approach…

To meet the requirements of an increasingly innovative and competitive environment, workers need to continuously develop and maintain competence. Consequently, initial vocational education and training should prepare (future) workers by providing a basis for lifelong learning in developing both routine and flexible competence. The question is…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study of an industrial company's top management team (TMT) that fought to survive an economic crisis. Specifically, the article seeks to focus on describing the TMT's composition, group processes, and work during a period of high external pressure; analysing the TMT's work in…

Purpose: This paper seeks to review current approaches to learning from health and safety incidents in the workplace. The aim of the paper is to identify the diversity of approaches and analyse them in terms of learning aspects. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted searching for terms incident/accident/near…

Despite the ever-increasing practice of using e-learning in the workplace, most of the applications perform poorly in motivating employees to learn. Most workplace e-learning applications fail to meet the needs of learners and ultimately fail to serve the organization's quest for success. To solve this problem, we need to examine what workplace…

Teachers' lounges are often thought as places that breed negativity. This two-year ethnography conducted in the United States explored teachers' interactions within teachers' lounges and congregational spaces. This article discusses that an important occurrence in these spaces, professional knowledge sharing, took place instead of perpetual…

Purpose: This paper seeks to investigate the potential role of emotional intelligence (EI) abilities within learning in teams. The research focuses on examining how EI abilities are enacted within team contexts and how these are associated with critical reflection and team processes associated with learning. Design/methodology/approach: A…

This paper deals with the professionalization of human service work. It analyses learning processes and identity development in the emerging profession of child care with concrete examples from empirical research, based on a life history approach. It discusses examples of careers mainly based on students' life experience, pointing out that their…

The Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE) of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) provides a forum for the discussion of international issues related to adult education in general, as well as adult education in various countries around the globe. The following purposes summarize the work of the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate some of the kinds of formal and informal workplace training activities that workers with low literacy engage in from different parts of Canada and the United Kingdom. The study employed a multi-site case study research design with 31 employees and 18 instructors from seven different types of…

Purpose: This paper seeks to challenge the view that student part time employment detracts from academic attainment and presents evidence that when linked to formal undergraduate study provides rich learning experiences. It also explores the extent to which formerly accepted pre-requisites for work based learning (WBL) apply in this model and how…

This research set out to explore perceptions about the concept of an emergent learning space within private organisations, as the current literature on learning does not adequately differentiate between organised learning and emergent learning. The research objectives explored the existence of, and perceived level of organisational encouragement…