Loading...
The impact of work based learning: A creative exploration of learners’ experience
Scott, Deborah
Scott, Deborah
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Publication Date
2019-03
Submitted Date
Collections
Files
Loading...
Thesis
Adobe PDF, 6.97 MB
Other Titles
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of work based learning through a
creative exploration of learners’ experience. The impact expected in work based
learning is at personal, professional and/ or organisational level, and might extend
beyond the organisation, to social order. However, the nature and extent of impact is
variable, and sometimes not evident at all. This variability and apparent lack of impact
is of pedagogical and economic concern for all parties involved in the tripartite work
based learning relationship: learners expect to perceive some benefit from undertaking
such a course of study; higher education providers need to show relevance to the
working world; organisations assume there will be operational or strategic outcome
from their employees’ engagement in work based learning. Wider than this, the
significance of learning of relevance to the United Kingdom’s productivity is articulated
in the government’s Industrial Strategy (GOV.UK, 2017).
The investigation takes a narrative research approach to explore the experiences of
recent Masters graduates of a negotiated work based learning programme for distance
learners. The data were analysed using the concepts of Thirdspace, equality, creativity,
and critical reflection. The creation of play scripts is an innovative feature of this thesis,
representing an interpretation of participants’ stories about their work based learning
experience. This imagined embodiment of learners’ experience facilitated greater
empathy and understanding, supporting a critical perspective on the nature of impact.
Insights emerging from the research suggest that impact was experienced by all
research participants, but varied in nature and extent due to factors such as
employment position; self-confidence, self-perception and personal experience; the
culture and economic position of the organisation. Some participants’ employment
position supported their use of their work based learning to instigate organisational
change. For others, a marginal employment position offered opportunity to use learning
for professional development. However, marginalisation might also hinder impact
beyond the personal when combined with other factors such as an organisation’s
financial constraints, and might prevent enactment of emerging radical ideas about the
social order. Even when impact was deep, it might not be overt. A further insight was
that collaboration was significant in effecting impact. This investigation offers a new
perspective on impact in the context of work based learning, which highlights the
creative, subtle and emotional aspects.
The findings prompt review of teaching, learning and assessment practice leading to
identification of strategies to accommodate and support students’ performance and
development.
Citation
Scott, D. S. (2019). The impact of work based learning: a creative exploration of learners’ experience (Doctoral dissertation). University of Chester, United Kingdom.
Publisher
University of Chester
Journal
Research Unit
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Thesis or dissertation
Language
en