Learning at work in the future economy

Stephen Billett, Griffith University, Australia

Progress

Learning and change at work• strengths and limitations

Changing nature of work• work being undertaken

• ways of participating in work

• composition of paid work force

• requirements for performance at work

Future of work: requirements• Conceptual and digital work

Learning at work for the future economy

• Practice curriculum

• Practice pedagogies

So what?

Learning and change at work

No separation between participation in practice and learning

... Also, remaking of cultural practice (e.g. occupational practice) – innovative practices

These changes occur interdependently: i) individuals’ learning and ii) the transformation of workplace practices (i.e. innovation)

They co-occur - they are interdependent – reliant on one another

Innovations at work central to sustaining enterprise viability in times of constant change in work requirements and client needs

So, there are legacies associated with the work being undertaken: learning, remaking of the work and innovation

Learning through work

Most common and sustained mode of learning occupations and onnovation across human history

Central to humanity and human progress

Similar processes in Europe and Asia

Family and local workplaces sites for learning in Europe (Grienhart2002), India (Menon & Varma 2010), Japan (Singleton 1989) and China (Ebrey 1996)

Engagement with ‘master’, little evidence of teaching

Vast majority appears based on mimesis (i.e. observation, imitation and practice)

That is - a learning process - not being taught

But what do we know about that process of learning?

Learning through everyday practice

Contributions to learning through everyday occupational practice include:

i) engagement in work tasks (“just doing it”) – legacies of goal-directed activities (cognitive & socio-cultural constructivist accounts);

ii) indirect guidance provided by the setting (“just being there”) – observation and imitation (cognitive & neuro-science accounts);

iii) practice within that setting – practise, rehearse, refine and associate (cognitive accounts of procedural & conceptual development); and

iv) close guidance (proximal) by other practitioners and experts – assisting develop knowledge that cannot be learnt through discovery (Billett 2001).

Notes: 1. key contributions are individuals’ intentionality, agency and interdependence

(i.e. not just self-direction)2. Will these contributions remain important in the future?

Limitations of learning through everyday work activities

• learning that is inappropriate (i.e. bad habits, unhelpful, wrong)

• lack of access to activities and guidance

• not understanding the goals for workplace performance

• reluctance of experts to provide guidance

• absence of expert guidance

• limits in developing understanding in the workplace

• reluctance of workers to participate (Billett 2001)

So, how will these limitations play out in future work and workplaces?

Changing nature of work: pathways to the future

Changes to the:

1. work being undertaken

2. ways of participating in work

3. composition of paid work force

4. requirements for performance at work (from Billett 2006 –Work, change and learning)

1. Changes in the available work

• Predictions of a shift to high discretionary, high skill and high paid work not generally upheld

• Shift towards professional, technical and service work and away from manufacturing and agriculture, in many countries

• Realignment and/or reclassifications of categories of work(e.g. technical and agricultural work)

• Burgeoning service sector the antithesis of high paid and discretionary work (US, UK, Australia and Singapore)

Let us look at some of the changing trends

Category 1950 1960 1970 1980 1991 Net Change

Farm workers 12 6 3 3 3 - 9

Professional/Technical 8 10 14 15 17 + 9

Craft and kindred 14 14 14 12 11 - 3

Operatives/Laborers 26 24 23 18 15 - 11

Clerical and kindred 12 15 18 17 16 + 4

Service 11 12 13 13 14 + 3

Managerial/Administrative 9 8 8 10 13 + 4

Sales workers 7 7 7 11 12 + 5

Occupational categories as a percentage of the labor force, US 1950-1991 (Source US Department of Labor)

Note changes to farm, craft and manual work compared to professional, technical and service work

Industry

2000 2005 2009 2010

Total employed 136,891 141,730 139,877 139,064

Agriculture and related 2464 2197 2103 2206 Mining 475 624 707 731 Construction 9931 11197 9702 9077 Manufacturing 19644 16253 14202 14081 Retail 15763 16825 15877 15934 Transportation - Utilities 7380 7360 7245 7134 Finance 9374 10203 9622 9350 Professional – Business services

13649 14294 15008 15253

Education 11255 12264 13188 13155 Health services 14933 16910 18632 18907 Leisure - Hospitality 11186 12071 12736 12530 Government 6113 6530 6875 6983

US labour force 2000 - 2010

Patterns of growth and decline continue

1983 1988 1993 1997/98 Change

Agriculture, forestry, fishing hunting 6.6 5.8 5.3 4.9 - 1.7

Mining 1.5 1.3 1.2 1.0 - 0.5

Manufacturing 18.1 16.4 14.1 12.8 - 5.3

Electricity, gas and water 2.2 1.5 1.2 0.8 - 1.4

Construction 6.2 7.2 7.3 7.2 + 1.0

Wholesale and retail trade 19.5 20.4 20.9 20.7 + 1.2

Transport and storage 5.9 5.2 4.8 4.6 - 1.3

Communications 2.2 1.8 1.5 1.7 - 0.5

Finance, property, business services 9.2 11.0 11.2 14.6 + 5.4

Public administration and defence 5.0 4.4 5.1 3.9# - 1.1

Community services 17.3 17.8 19.4 16.7 - 0.5

Recreation, personal other services 6.3 7.2 8.0 6.2 - 0.1

Total 100 100 100 100

Labour force 6,241.1 7,353.4 7,621.0 8,555.0

Occupational categories as % of Australian work 1983-1997/8 (Source ABS)

Percentage 2007 2010 2011 2012

Legislators, senior officials and managers 0.60 0.90 1.10 1.05

Professionals 4.50 5.10 5.30 5.52

Technicians and associate professionals 2.90 3.70 3.60 3.48

Clerks 1.20 1.40 1.50 1.67

Service workers and shop and market sales workers 7.30 14.60 14.90 16.07

Skilled agricultural and fishery workers 5.70 15.50 13.90 12.74

Craft and related trade workers 12.50 12.60 12.10 11.96

Plant and machine operators and assemblers 3.30 7.10 7.00 7.27

Elementary occupations 61.70 39.10 40.40 39.98

Vietnam: Industrial structure of the labour force and its rate of growth (2007-2012)

Like many western countries, the portion of Korean workers in

agricultural, forestry and fishing jobs has declined significantly

in the period between 1970 and 1993.

Similarly, through the same period, Professional, Technical

and Administrative jobs, Service and Clerical jobs have also

increased significantly, while Sales jobs have enjoyed modest

increases.

Production jobs have experienced strong growth and

constitute the single largest portion (32%) of the Korean

labour market (Korean Economic Planning Board 2005).

Korea

China employment, by industry, 1980 -- 2001

1980 1990 1995 2000 2001 % change

(In millions, at the end of year)

Farming, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery 291.2 341.8 330.2 333.6 329.7 +13%

Mining and quarrying 7.0 8.8 9.3 6.0 5.6 - 25%

Manufacturing 59.0 86.2 98.0 80.4 80.8 +36%

Electricity, gas and water 1.2 1.9 2.9 2.8 2.9 +241%

Construction 9.9 24.2 33.2 35.5 36.7 +370%

Geological prospecting, water conservation 1.9 2.0 1.4 1.1 1.1 -72%

Transport, storage, Post and

telecommunications

8.1 15.7 19.4 20.3 20.4 +251%

Wholesale, retail trade and catering services 13.6 28.4 42.9 46.8 47.4 +348%

Bank and insurance 1.0 2.2 2.8 3.3 3.4 +340%

Real estate, social services, health and

education

18.5 26.3 27.0 30.7 31.5 +170%

Government, party agencies and social

organisations

5.3 10.8 10.4 11.0 11.0 +207%

Others 5.9 18.0 44.9 56.4 58.5 +991%

Total 423.6 647.5 680.7 720.9 730.3 +73%

Consequences for individuals, communities and countries

Kinds of work available

Growing distinctions between categories of work (e.g. pay, conditions, prospects)

Occupations in decline can impact upon entire communities (e.g. rural

communities, industrial towns)

Limits options for nations (e.g. range of activities to compete in a globalised

market place)

So what?

2. Changing ways of participating in work

Contingent workers

Increasing percentage of worker are contingent (involuntary part-time,

contractual), particularly impacting women, migrants, non-native

speakers

Contingent work being sustained in countries experiencing high levels

of economic performance (US & UK)

Separation

Increase in workers who are home-based, part-time and isolated

Difficulties in participating fully in workplaces, being competent,

accessing opportunities for advancement etc etc

3. Changing composition of paid work force

Women’s participation in the workforce (US – between 1970-2000 –

women 16+ from 43% to 61% participation, By 2000 women comprised 47%

of US workforce; Australia – between 1970 – 1996 – women aged 25-24

increased from 41 to 71%, UK - 1980- 2000 female participation in labour

force increased from 42% to 47%.

However, women comprise 82% of part-time workers in Britain - concerns

about ‘good work’ - women, more likely than males to be employed in low

paid and contingent work, and admin roles.

Older workers

Longer working life

Older workers suffer from privileging of youth

4. Changing requirements for work performance

Little in the way of uniformity across enterprises, industries, countries

Darrah (1997:249) “jobs seem so diverse as to obviate the need for

generalisations about how people perform work”

Countries – can have quite different means of working (e.g. Japan)

Industries – different means across industries (e.g. garment manufacture,

retail)

Enterprises – different goals, procedures and outcomes (e.g. hairdressing)

Increasing intensity (e.g. nurses’ work)

Shorter production cycles (e.g. production, processing)

Enhanced complexity (e.g. broader range of tasks, more discretion)

Enhanced requirement for conceptual and symbolic knowledge (e.g. requirements for contemporary work emphasizes need for understanding)

Flatter organizational structures (e.g. – team member - broadening of work role and enhanced responsibilities)

Both specialization and diversification (e.g. the particular is valued as being able to perform a wider range of roles)

Despite the lack of uniformity it is possible to identify some emerging trends:

Future work requirements

Contemporary work is becoming more reliant on conceptual and

symbolic knowledge

It is important – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, less dramatic examples of banking, commerce etc

Scribner (1985: 138) – “hardly have we approached the problem of understanding the intellectual impact of the printing press than we are urged to confront the psychological implications of computerisation”

CNC lathes – Martin and Scribner (1991) the integration of

traditional machining knowledge with symbolic knowledge and

logical skills involved in new informatics

Many domains of activity represent a mix of these two systems

Xerox technicians (Orr 1996) developed an understanding of principles and then enriched with stories from practice

principled understanding and practices

then, development of strategic practices, heuristics and problem-solving strategies

Symbolic knowledge also an important mediator of how we learn - become personal tools that we use of mediate our work and learning.

One claim: adults acquire practical or everyday concepts through participation in everyday activities; whereas scientific concepts are acquired through organised instruction

Three key observations about learning conceptual and symbolic

knowledge:

1. can be hard to capture in written form;

2. difficult to learn and access; and

3. cannot easily be ‘taught’, needs to be learnt.

Provision of selected experiences and learner engagement essential

Learning at work for the future economy

Some considerations of curriculum and pedagogies of practice

Practice curriculum

Ordering of experiences

Sequencing of activities - from those of low error risk to where consequences of errors are greater (Lave 1990)

Tailors – Hairdressers – Production workers – Room attendants -- doctors (Sinclair 1999)

1. Apprenticeship as a way of life - Lived experiences within a community (Jordan, 1989, Rogoff 1990, Bunn, 1999)

2. Deliberate structuring of learning experiences (Bunn, 1999)

Curriculum models

Learning

curriculum

Accessing tasks of increasing demands and error cost (Lave 1990). Commence with

observations to understand goal states and progress through activities of increasing

error cost. Where each component of work has same salience - engage in a linear

order (Jordan, 1989)

Learning activities

as work conditions

permit

Stages of learning around work activities. (e.g. learning pottery based on access to

potter’s wheel: i) pre-practice observation as apprentices engage in menial activities;

ii) tentative experiments with wheel (when not being used); iii) assigned regular

practice at wheel; iv) assigned production tasks at wheel; and v) period of work to

repay training (Singleton, 1989)

Learning pathways Organising learning pathways for novices comprising specific work tasks (e.g. doctors –

taking patients’ histories and conducting examinations, often repeating registrars’

tasks (Sinclair 1997)

Parallel practice Individuals engaging in an occupational practice, and being monitored and checked by

a more experienced partner at key point in tasks completion (Billett & Sweet 2015)

Practice pedagogics

Story telling (Jordan, 1989)

Verbalisation (Gowlland, 2010)

Pedagogically rich activities (Billett 2010)

Guided learning/proximal guidance (Rogoff 1995 Billett 2001, Gowlland, 2011)

Direct instruction and ‘hands on’ (Makovicky, 2010)

Indirect/distal guidance (Gowlland, 2011)

Heuristics (Billett, 1997) and mnemonics (Sinclair 1997)

Partially worked example (Makovicky, 2010)

Practice Description Purposes

Story telling Telling stories about work events and incidents (Jordan 1989) Illustrating or capturing concepts or hypothetical

formulations to assist in decision-making;

legitimate practitioner as expert

Verbalisation Talking aloud whilst performing a work task as a form of direct

guidance can be linked to ‘hands on’ engagement (Gowlland 2012)

Explaining thinking and acting being used whilst

performing work tasks

Pedagogically rich

activities

Workplace activities that are inherently pedagogically rich e.g.

handovers (Billett 2010) or mortality and morbidity meetings

Developing conceptual and specific and strategic

procedural capacities

Guided learning

(proximal guidance)

Direct guidance by more experienced co-workers: modelling,

demonstrating, guided practise, monitoring progress and gradual

withdrawal of direct guidance, placing hands on novices’ to assist

getting the ‘feel’ of pottery, guided discovery - placing novices in

situations where they can practice, hone skills, and gain experience

independently, yet still have direct guidance

Extending what individuals can learn through

discovery alone, by modelling of activities to be

learnt, guidance to assist achieve modelled

performance and providing opportunities to

refine and hone.

Partially worked

example/direct

instruction and hands

on

Combination of guidance and using a worked example. (e.g.

experienced lace-maker producing a small piece of simple lace,

showing novice how bobbins are held, and placing hands on novice’s

to assist learn hand movements to use the bobbins.

Provision of models for performance, ability to

engage in sub-skills associated with that

performance and build understanding about

procedural capacities.

Heuristics Tricks of the trade (i.e. procedures that will give you certainty) Procedural cues to perform work activities

Mnemonics Developing and using mnemonics (doctors’ use of 5 Fs, DANISH to

remember about cerebellar lesions) and actual patients to remember

conditions, other procedures

A means to remember and recall propositions

and secure procedural efficacy

Artefacts Artefact or notation system, assists by embedding the knowledge

required in a localised context and assists skill and proficiency

providing clues and cues on how to proceed

Workplace pedagogic practices

Learning digitised knowledge

Making accessible and able to understand conceptual and symbolic knowledge

Stories, analogies, explanations, illustrations

Developing conceptual models of tasks provides learners with:

• an advanced organiser for attempting to execute the task

• bases to utilise feedback, hints and corrections during interactions

• an internalised guide for independent practice by successive approximation

• a conceptual model that can be updated (Collins, Brown & Newman 1989)

Opportunities to apply knowledge in a variety of circumstances –procedural development - successive approximation of mature practice,

Ways of indexing knowledge: mnemonics; concrete examples

So what?

Constant changes (occupational; situational; knowledge and knowing)

Ways of knowing and working are central to learning and remaking and transforming work, including in the digital era

Greater challenges for the learning of knowledge that is difficult to secure and/or comprehend

Much of that learning will need to occur through work so the work context can assist with indexicality, etc

Importance of workplace curriculum and practice-based pedagogies

Also, importance of personal mediational processes (i.e. personal epistemologies)