Introduction
The increase in demand for skill development in
Australia has resulted in the consideration of a
range of options for developing vocational skills.
These options need to be accessible and be able to
address a widening range of specialized
occupations which now require skill development
provisions[1]. An increasing emphasis is being
given to learning in the workplace, whose initial
attraction is that it provides access to expertise
and infrastructure that is often unavailable
through the public training system. In the past,
learning in informal settings, such as the
workplace, has been dismissed as being ad hoc,
incidental and peripheral[2]. However, as current
research and theorizing is emphasizing, it is time
to reconsider utilizing the workplace as a learning
setting. Central to an acceptance of situated
learning is the now increasingly commonly held
view that thinking and acting has sociocultural
origins[3,4]. Within this view of learning, the
activities of vocational practitioners are derived
from a culture of practice which has developed
over time. Consequently, learning arrangements
require access to activities and guidance within a
culture of vocational practice. Workplaces can
offer these qualities, as learners are able to
observe, participate and be guided by experts
within an authentic culture of practice.
This article commences by describing current
research and theorizing about the knowledge and
attributes required of vocational experts. Next, the
nature of learning in workplaces is discussed
using outcomes of a study of skilled workers. In
this study elements of apprenticeship learning –
observation, coaching, scaffolding and fading –
were strongly supported as means of acquiring
and maintaining vocational skills. Some
principles for using workplaces as learning
settings while adopting an apprenticeship model
are advanced in the next section. In addition,
conditions that may inhibit the utility of
apprenticeship learning are also discussed.
What are the Qualities of Skilled
Vocational Practitioners?
In recent years considerable advances have been
made in understanding complex human
performance – expertise. This understanding has
been advanced through an acknowledgment of the
significant role that factors external to the mind
play in thinking and acting[4,5]. Rather than
being solely a product of internal processes of the
mind, it is now recognized that external factors
also play a major role in complex thinking. The
role of domain-specific knowledge[6] (in
particular, the influences of the sociocultural
context) provides a framework for a coherent and
purposeful set of actions concerning the
acquisition of expertise[7]. What is being
proposed is that cognitive processes are mediated
by external influences such as social interactions
with peers and experts, the activities learners
engage in and their ability to appropriate the
nature and concepts within vocational practice.
Appropriation is defined here as the
individualized process of constructing meaning
from socially and contextually defined
knowledge, using the individual’s idiosyncratic
structuring of knowledge and understanding.
Cognitive processes are defined as an array of
cognitive activities deployed by an individual
when engaged in any type of information
processing – thinking, acting or learning.
Cognitive structures, which comprise levels of
VOLUME 26 NUMBER 11
1994
9
Situating Learning in the
Workplace – Having Another
Look at Apprenticeships
Stephen Billett
Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 26 No. 11, 1994, pp. 9-16
© MCB University Press, 0019-7858.