In studies of professional learning, the rise of sociomaterial accounts draw attention to the political importance of nonhuman as well as human actors, the material as well as discursive, as inter-related in knowing and action. Of particular relevance to the issue of inter-professional work in health services, some researchers have argued that…

Workplace relations like any social relation first and foremost have a moral dimension. Thus, if vocational education sees one of its major goals in helping apprentices to deal with moral issues, one of the core objectives in vocational education is the support of the apprentice's development of moral judgement competence. Since Lawrence…

This article outlines a conceptual framework for mapping and understanding training trends. It uses the metonyms of floors and ceilings to distinguish between different types of training configurations. The argument is made that the ups and downs of employer reports of training activity are a crude basis on which to make judgements about the…

Student internships are widely seen as a valuable part of education provision and there is a growing body of research into internship programmes from student, employer and educator perspectives. This paper explores the experiences of a group of information technology interns employed in a small organisation involved in health care business…

This paper sets out to examine how vocational knowledge is recontextualised in curricula, pedagogy and workplaces, by learners, and to ensure the availability of valuable and relevant knowledge for vocational practice. Starting from Bernstein's notion of recontextualisation, and with reference to literature in the sociology of educational…

A qualitative case study was carried out in order to understand the enacted reality for three primary school teaching assistants of the notion of situated learning in relation to Lave and Wenger's concept of communities of practice and their description of legitimate peripheral participation. The case study subjects were studying for a…

This paper is based on research undertaken on the supervised practice of an undergraduate programme of study which leads to both BA (Hons) degree and a professional qualification in youth work in a university in England. Youth work, for those unfamiliar with it, is a form of informal and experiential educational practice with young people often…

This article investigates whether the characteristics of feedback identified by the literature can be found within written assessment records for work and competence-based qualifications. It uses a brief literature review and analysis of the formative feedback within 257 learner portfolios. The characteristics identified by the literature are…

There is an assumption that e-learning is considered as a valued resource with great potential. This research explores how hairdressing apprentices experience vocational e-learning and makes recommendations on how good practice can be shared. An estimated 35,000 hairdressing and barber salons account for a quarter of a million UK workers and…

Research has demonstrated that the use of worked-out examples to present errors has great potential for procedural knowledge acquirement. Nevertheless, the identification of errors alone does not directly enhance a deep learning process if it is not adequately scaffolded by written self-explanations. We hypothesised that in learning a professional…

In a longitudinal case study of apprentices, the term proximal participation was coined to describe the entry process of young people, with unclear career destinations, into the trade of baking. This article unravels the significance of proximal participation in the decision-making processes of young people who enter a trade through initial…

During a number of years Swedish municipalities have work with improvement of competence and long-term quality in elderly care. The overall aim of the present study was to compare different learning activities (workplace improvement and/or courses), and to relate these activities to learning climate, learning strategies, and perception of care…

Workplace training is a key strategy often used by organisations to optimise performance. Further, trainee motivation is a key determinant of the degree to which the material learned in a training programme will be transferred to the workplace, enhancing the performance of the trainee. This study investigates the relationship between several…

Unacceptable levels of adverse healthcare events, combined with changes to training, have put the spotlight on junior doctor decision-making. This study aimed to describe the decisions made by junior doctors and the contextual factors influencing how decisions were made and justified. Stimulated recall interviews with 20 junior doctors across five…

Apprenticeship in developed and industrialised nations is increasingly understood and practised as learning which connects workplace activity and formal study. The concept of "expansive apprenticeship" defines frameworks for workforce development where participants acquire knowledge and skills which will help them in the future as well…