In the knowledge economy, many companies are well aware of the vital need to maintain the professional expertise of their workers at a high level. Though there have been a lot of research studies in the areas of professional expertise and workplace learning, few examined the learning pathways novice workers went through to become experts in their…

The use of stories from professional experience in continuing professional education has been on the rise in many fields, often aimed at bolstering capacity through sharing professional knowledge and/or supporting reflective practice. Practice stories are also suggested to be beneficial in supporting professional learning of new concepts. These…

Experiential learning styles remain popular despite criticisms about their validity, usefulness, fragmentation and poor definitions and categorisation. After examining four prominent models and building on Bergsteiner, Avery, and Neumann's suggestion of a dual cycle, this paper proposes a twin-cycle experiential learning model to overcome…

This paper revisits the more conventional approaches of volunteering, by looking into the experiences of young people involved in long-term cross-border volunteering in Romania. Drawing on qualitative interviews with European Voluntary Service volunteers, the paper examines how this experience is intersecting their learning trajectories. The…

It is a peculiarity of the solicitors' profession that it has historically relied on methods of pre-qualification "training" by way of apprenticeship and that an entirely respectable non-graduate route into the profession remains. In a political context, however, where the profession is called upon positively to demonstrate its standards of…

This article draws upon research funded by the National Council for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) on trends in teaching and learning in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and internationally in the United Kingdom and Europe and from a series of workshops on innovation in teaching and learning in VET which the authors…

In a previous study it has been suggested that there are six stages that adults move through before they feel ready to participate in higher education, and proposed a chain-of-response (COR) model to describe the process. In this study we examine the reported experiences of nine adult entrants during the second year of a work-related degree…

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being recognized globally for their influential role in realizing the UN Millennium Development Goal of education for all in developing countries. NGOs mostly employ untrained para-educators for grassroots activities. The professional development of these teachers is critical for NGO effectiveness, yet…

Kolb's experiential learning theory has been widely influential in adult learning. The theory and associated instruments continue to be criticized, but rarely is the graphical model itself examined. This is significant because models can aid scientific understanding and progress, as well as theory development and research. Applying accepted…

The topic of informal learning and work has quickly become a staple in contemporary work and adult learning research internationally. The narrow conceptualization of work is briefly challenged before the article turns to a review of the historical origins as well as contemporary theories and methods involved in researching informal learning and…

The paper presents critical reflections of five years' hands-on experiences of setting up and managing an e-learning institute, the Beiwai Institute of Online Education (BIOE). It first spells out the Chinese educational context towards the end of the 20th century. This is followed by a critical review of the national ICT initiatives taken by the…

Education is centre stage in current UK government initiatives to promote multi-agency team work. This paper draws on a research project which explored the way in which multi-disciplinary teams work and learn together in their practice with children, to consider the implications of "joined-up" practice for theorizing dilemmas of knowledge creation…

Consideration of the qualities of good teaching leads to a new model that emphasizes the importance of sense making to professional development. A strong core of qualities that assist teachers in using sense making includes strength, confidence, balance, ballast, and value maturity. (Contains 27 references.) (SK)

Reviews the status of graduate education for women in the United States and Canada, historical perspectives on women's work in the workplace and home, and barriers to graduate education for women. Uses psychological and liberatory models of feminist pedagogy to elucidate a feminist direction for graduate education. (Contains 49 references.) (SK)

A model describing experiential learning in terms of 10 attributes was tested with a group of 311 education majors. They compared the effectiveness of experiential learning (readings, case study, observation, interview, report) to learning with study journals using assigned readings. The validity of the model was upheld and students reported that…