PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN A CHANGING SOCIETY

1
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN A CHANGING SOCIETY

• Professor Karen Jensen, UiO (project leader)
• Professor Leif Lahn, UiO
• Postdoc. Monika Nerland, UiO
• Postdoc. Jens-Christian Smeby, HiO
• Professor Kirsti Klette, UiO
• Professor Monica Rudberg, UiO

Funded by The Research Council of Norway
2
Objectives

• To expand theories on professional learning
• To conduct a comparative study between core
  professions covering their view on knowledge,
  motivation to learn, identity formation and
  community alignment
• To follow up initiatives taken to construct an
  European network of researchers on professional
  learning, in order to promote a transdisciplinary
  theoretical discourse and lay the ground for
  comparative studies

3
Background

• Shifts in the structure of knowledge
• From personal and local to to abstract and
  symbolic inputs
• Lacks in current learning theory
• Problem solving - objectual desire

4
Research questions

• What attracts persons to abstract knowledge and
  contributes to generate a will and desire to
  learn and relearn?
• What ties do different professional groups have
  to different knowledge forms and cultures?
• What knowledge forms are given primacy within the
  frame of professional education and how are these
  further developed, or contested and altered,
  during the course of working life?
• What role does abstract knowledge play in the
  construction of a professional identity?

5
Four core groups

• Nurses
• Teachers
• Accountants
• Engineers

6
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
WORK-RELATED STUDIES

• CURRICULUM STUDIES
• Content, structure, routines and innovations
  (focus on links between theory and practice)
• National survey (StudData) of students in higher
  professional education in nursing, teaching,
  accounting, engineering.
• Themes
• Learning environment
• Professional identities
• Learning strategies
• Knowledge ties

• FOLLOW-UP STUDIES 3. YEAR
• SURVEY (StudData.)
• Themes
• Learning environment
• Professional identities
• Learning strategies
• Knowledge ties
• THE CURRICULUM OF WORK LIFE
• Professionalization strategies
• Knowledge power and trust
• Visions for the future
• IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS (N10 for each group)
• The transition to working life
• Exploration of key themes

• LONGITUDINAL STUDIES 3- 5 YEAR
• LEARNING LOGS
• Formal and informal learning situations
• Shifts in ties and alignments
• FOCUS GROUPS
• Desires, needs and wants
• Visions for the future
• FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEWS
• Exploration of key themes