Stephen Billett – författare

Drawing on three decades of practical investigations, this book establishes new understandings about the importance of learning through work, outlining its purposes, contributions, conceptions and the curriculum, pedagogical and personal practices that shape its effectiveness.

Against views proposing it as being informal and leading to concrete outcomes, this volume presents learning through work as being central to human development, informing individual choices and developing one’s capacity for working life and occupational competence. In Section One, Billett makes a case for the value of learning through work and why it should be considered and engaged with as a legitimate mode of learning and model of education. Section Two sets out the foundations for the processes of learning through work that have underpinned its utility across human history. Section Three sets out bases by which that this educational model and mode of learning can be understood through the concepts of practice curriculum, practice pedagogies and personal practices. These are presented based on the kinds of knowledge that they generate and how they can be realised in and through day-to-day work activities in practice settings, including the development of innovations in work settings.

A much-needed resource from a leading expert in the field, this book will be of interest to educators, workplace trainers in a variety of settings, policy-makers and students in professional education courses.

Drawing on three decades of practical investigations, this book establishes new understandings about the importance of learning through work, outlining its purposes, contributions, conceptions and the curriculum, pedagogical and personal practices that shape its effectiveness.

Against views proposing it as being informal and leading to concrete outcomes, this volume presents learning through work as being central to human development, informing individual choices and developing one’s capacity for working life and occupational competence. In Section One, Billett makes a case for the value of learning through work and why it should be considered and engaged with as a legitimate mode of learning and model of education. Section Two sets out the foundations for the processes of learning through work that have underpinned its utility across human history. Section Three sets out bases by which that this educational model and mode of learning can be understood through the concepts of practice curriculum, practice pedagogies and personal practices. These are presented based on the kinds of knowledge that they generate and how they can be realised in and through day-to-day work activities in practice settings, including the development of innovations in work settings.

A much-needed resource from a leading expert in the field, this book will be of interest to educators, workplace trainers in a variety of settings, policy-makers and students in professional education courses.

In recent year, efforts to understand learning for and throughout working life have moved away from a focus on workplace training to concerns about learning as a component and outcome of engaging in work and work-related activities and interactions. This shift acknowledges a broader set of workplace factors that shape workers’ learning and development. Yet equally, it acknowledges that this learning through engagement is also necessarily shaped by the diverse ways that individuals elect to engage or participate in workplace activities. Central here is the issue of individuals’ subjectivity and how this is shaped by but shapes engagement in work and, therefore, what learning flows from their participation. It is in considering the relations among subjectivity, learning and work that it is possible to advance both the conceptual and procedural bases for understanding learning through and for working life. Moreover, the focus on relations among subjectivity, work and learning represents a point of convergence for diverse disciplinary traditions and practices that are provided by the book’s contributors. In this way, the contributions represent something of the emerging perspectives that are elaborating the complex relations among subjectivity, work and learning, and circumstances in which they are played out.

This edited volume offers a range of insights about, practices of and findings associated with enrichening health and social care students’ learning by their engagement in educational processes during and after the completion of their practicum experiences in health and social care settings. That is, using post-practicum intervention to augment and enrich those learning experiences. The collected contributions here draw on the processes of trialing and evaluating educational processes that aimed to enrich those practicum experiences for purposes of improving students’ understandings, abilities to address patients’ needs, and health and social care related dispositions. These processes and findings from these processes across medical, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, pharmacy, exercise physiology, dietetic and speech pathology education speak directly to educators in both clinical and educational settings in the health and social care sectors. These messages, which arise from educators and clinicians enacting and evaluating these interventions, offer practical suggestions as well as conceptual advances. The reach of the accounts of processes, findings and evaluations is not restricted to this sector alone, however. The lessons provided through this edited volume are intended to inform how post-practicum interventions might be enacted across a range of occupational fields. 

This edited volume offers a range of insights about, practices of, and findings associated with, enrichening higher education students’ learning by their engagement in educational processes during and after the completion of their work integrated education experiences. That is, using post-practicum intervention to augment and enrich those learning experiences. The collected contributions here draw on the processes of trialling and evaluating educational processes that aimed to enrich the work integrated education experiences for purposes of improving students’ understandings, abilities to address workplace and occupational requirements. These processes and findings from these processes across a range of disciplinary fields including pharmacy, psychology, physiotherapy, service learning, occupational therapy, journalism and business students education speak directly to educators in both workplace and educational settings across a range of occupational sectors. These messages,which arise from educators and practitioners enacting and evaluating these interventions, offer practical suggestions as well as conceptual advances. The reach of the accounts of processes, findings and evaluations is not restricted to the occupational fields in which the interventions occurred. The lessons provided through this edited volume are intended to inform how post-practicum interventions might be enacted across a range of occupational studies.

This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across both countries with developed and developing economies.