Work based learning pedagogies and academic development

The research project team examined the pedagogical practices of tutors working on Work Based Learning (WBL) programmes in HE in England and Wales and carried out a series of interviews and an in depth review of the literature on related pedagogies. The findings specify essential knowledge and abilities a tutor should have who is engaged with WBL in HE and offers a practical and informed response to enhance the successful delivery of WBL by preparing staff to act as WBL advisers. It presents a curriculum guide and its findings contribute to the current debates and issues. Through asking and finding out what WBL pedagogies are and what the rationale underpinning work based learning strategies might be, it takes up the challenge of more traditional knowledge transmission pedagogies in HE and puts forward a reasoned argument for an approach to WBL’s academically sound pedagogies, such as the epistemology of practice, and its increasingly pivotal role in the future direction of HE. This is a direction which needs to manage growing complexity through the pursuit of new knowledge, widening participation and collaborating across disciplines and across different domains of professional practice. It requires being proactively engaged with the private and public sectors, professional bodies, communities and various institutions. Most importantly it has to be able to offer purposeful and relevant pedagogies, successful delivery (often on-line) and assessment that continue to raise standards, an emphasis on learner-centred learning and a developing tendency towards transdisciplinarity. The learning strategies of WBL include accreditation of prior learning, learning agreements, practitioner-led projects, critical reflection and research and development methodologies. The approach is based on reflexivity and relevance and on ensuring the availability of advisers who have the knowledge and characteristics to be experts in the epistemology of practice and in learning conversations. This report will support tutors and workplace advisers of WBL in the development and articulation of their practice through the shared insights, conceptual frameworks and ideas which are contained in this work.

A Research Project funded by the HEA Subject Centre for Education, ESCalate 2011.