Professional development of teacher educators is an important issue. In order to be able to teach the teachers of the future, teacher educators have to keep their own knowledge and skills 'future proof'. When it comes to professional development, very often people think of 'attending courses'. But attending courses to keep up knowledge and/or skills, is only a small aspect of the broad range of possible activities to fill in ones professional development. A lot of professional development takes place at work, the so-called workplace-learning or informal learning. In this study we look at the professional development of teacher educators through informal learning. Often forms of informal learning are not recognized by the learner, because they are so integrated with work. In this study the goal is to stimulate awareness of informal learning processes by teacher educators. Teacher educators use a logbook and report daily, weekly or once in three weeks what they have learned. After a three-week period they analyse their logbooks by looking at 'what is learned, 'how is learned', with or from who is learned'. This study has two types of outcomes: (1) awareness of the informal learning processes of the participating teacher educators themselves and (2) insights into the processes of stimulating awareness of informal learning processes. The study is in progress (march 2012) and we will present our findings at the conference in Antwerp.
From the article: "Abstract, technology-enhanced learning can be used to replicate existing teaching practices, supplement existing teaching or transform teaching and/or learning process and outcomes. Enhancing workplace learning, which is integrated into higher professional education, with technology, calls for designing such transformations. Although research is carried out into different kinds of technological solutions to enhance workplace learning, we do not know which principles should guide such designs. Therefore, we carried out an explorative, qualitative study and found two such design principles for the design of technology-enhanced workplace learning in higher professional education. In this research, we focused on the students' perspective, since they are the main users of such technology when they are learning at the workplace, as part of their study in becoming lifelong learning, competent professionals."
In their postgraduate educational programs, residents are immersed in a complex workplace. To improve the quality of the training program, it is necessary to gain insight into the factors that influence the process of learning in the workplace. An exploratory study was carried out among 56 nursing home physicians in training (NHPT) and 62 supervisors. They participated in semi-structured group interviews, in which they discussed four questions regarding workplace learning. Qualitative analysis of the data was performed to establish a framework of factors that influence workplace learning, within which framework comparisons between groups could be made. A framework consisting of 56 factors was identified. These were grouped into 10 categories, which in turn were grouped into four domains: the working environment, educational factors in the workplace, NHPT characteristics and supervisor characteristics. Of the factors that influence workplace learning, social integration was cited most often. Supervisors more often reported educational factors and NHPTs more frequently reported impediments. Conclusion: The educational relationship may be improved when supervisors explicitly discuss the learning process and learning conditions within the workplace, thereby focusing on the NHPT needs. Special attention should be paid to the aspects of social integration. A good start could be to answer the question regarding how to establish a basic feeling of 'knowing where you are' and 'how to go about things' to make residents feel comfortable enough to focus on the learning process.
Studenten in het beroepsonderwijs leren op de werkplek om een goede beroepsuitoefenaar te worden. Beoordeling van het werkplekleren gebeurt vaak op de werkplek en door de werkplek. Dit promotieonderzoek wil in kaart brengen hoe werkplekopleiders de student beoordelen.
Studenten in het beroepsonderwijs leren op de werkplek om een goede beroepsuitoefenaar te worden. Beoordeling van het werkplekleren gebeurt vaak op de werkplek en door de werkplek. Dit promotieonderzoek wil in kaart brengen hoe werkplekopleiders de student beoordelen.Doel Het doel van dit promotieonderzoek is om het beoordelingsproces van werkplekopleiders in kaart te brengen en te analyseren. Door inzichten over dit proces te ontwikkelen en de huidige praktijk te analyseren willen we sterke en zwakke kanten van dit proces identificeren om zo bij te kunnen dragen aan de ondersteuning van werkplekopleiders. Implementatie Op basis van de resultaten van dit promotieonderzoek kunnen interventies ontwikkeld worden waarmee beoordelaars ondersteund kunnen worden in het beoordelen van het functioneren van studenten in de beroepspraktijk. Resultaten Ronde tafel-presentatie (2017). Beroepsbekwaamheid beoordelen: zicht krijgen op beslissingsprocessen van beoordelaars op de werkplek. Onderwijs Research Dagen 2017 Paperpresentatie (2017). Supervisor assessment of performance at the workplace in vocational education deconstructed. European Conference of Assessment in Medical Education 2017 Paperpresentatie (2018). Understanding how educators at the workplace reach judgements when assessing students’ professional performance. European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction – Special Interest Group 1 2018 Proefschrift (2023) met titel Understanding how workplace educators assess student performance (verdediging 30 juni 2023). Looptijd 01 september 2016 - 01 september 2020 Aanpak Dit promotieonderzoek betreft een samenwerking tussen de OU en het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs. De promotor vanuit de OU is prof. dr. Elly de Bruijn (ook lector Beroepsonderwijs), en de co-promotor vanuit het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs is dr. Liesbeth Baartman. Tijdens dit promotieonderzoek nemen we interviews af en doen we een literatuurreview om in beeld te brengen wat er al bekend is in theorie en praktijk. Daarna doen we een longitudinale case study om het beoordelingsproces van werkplekopleiders gedurende de stage in kaart te brengen.
