As in any other introduction we would like to start with some points why learning motivation and how to motivate is important at all? According to Cheryl Spaulding the motivation is the key to student learning. Without motivating the kids, teacher cannot really teach them. It plays crucial role in the development of a human cognition. It influences our behavior and actually our behavior is built on motivation.  Knowing how motivation works, and how to motivate, would really help us to make our educational system efficient. Especially in the modern context, when individual approach is being introduced to the education, it requires us to know how to motivate every single student.  Motivation activates our resources, and the better motivation is, the better we can memorize things, the better achievement we get, the more effort we put in our activity.

Definition of motivation

There are different definitions of motivation, since it is a hard abstract notion.  According to business dictionary motivation is the Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. Motivation is the energizer of behavior and mother of all action. It results from the interactions among conscious and unconscious factors such as the intensity of desire or need, incentive or reward value of the goal, and expectations of the individual and of his or her significant others. According to Biehler and Snowman, motivation is typically defined as the forces that account for the arousal, selection, direction, and continuation of behavior. Jack Landry sees motivation as the energy that gives you the strength to get up and keep going, even when things are not going how you expected. We like the first definition the most, because it reflects the basic concepts of motivation, such as giving energy to do some task, it affects our behavior, makes us interested to being committed to some role, job or subject. But the most important point this definition provides, is that motivation is the factor in the first place, either external, internal, or both.

General types of motivation

Theorists and researchers of human motivation point out these two generic types of motivation as extrinsic and intrinsic (Deci and Ryan). “Extrinsic motivation exists when individuals are motivated by an outcome that is external or functionally unrelated to the activity in which they are engaged” (Spaulding “Motivation in the classroom). “When individuals are extrinsically motivated they hold some desired outcome as a goal (e.g. getting a good grade, avoiding punishment) they recognize that a certain way of behaving is expedient means to that goal, and they make plans to modify their behavior in such a manner that they are likely to experience the desired outcome” (Lepper and Hoddell, 1989). “In contrast to extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation exists when someone works because of an inner desire to accomplish a task successfully, whether it has some external value or not” (Spaulding). “Intrinsic motivation appears to be a by-product of two self perceptions. People tend to be intrinsically motivated in situations in which they fell both competent and self determining (Deci and Ryan). The simplest example of such motivation would be curiosity, like a child learns about “why the water is wet” because of pure interest. An example of a kid drawing a picture to show it to the adults and get some approval is a little bit more complicated. There are both components of motivation; the intrinsic is in kid’s desire to feel competent in drawing, to draw well. The extrinsic is in need of adults and peers approval, and maybe reward.

Ken Shah & prof. Param J Shah offered another typology of motivation. They differentiate such motivations as achievement, affiliation, power, competence, attitude, incentive and fear motivation. But we are going to concentrate of the typology of Deci and Ryan, since it is basic for understanding of motivation.

The extrinsic motivation

The motivation normally depends on individual differences of each person, of each child. What is it that motivates us to learn? One kind of motivation, which nowadays is very useful in our school, is the extrinsic motivation by which we mean, according to Paul R. Burden (2000), is the motivation from outside the learner and has to do with external rewards for completing a task. But if we take this into account, we have to know that “the reinforcement practices of extrinsic motivation can be effective, but the excessive use of rewards may be decreasingly successful in new situations, may foster dependence on the teacher, and may undermine intrinsic motivation.”(Paul R. Burden, 2000, pg 3). Therefore, it is good to use extrinsic motivation taking into account the rewards, when this is really necessary, for example, when the students find themselves less intrinsically interested and satisfied.

Once known, we must understand the relationship formed between extrinsic motivation and behavior of individuals, i.e., how people act in certain situation. Several investigations have shown what was the change in the behavior of people, and in our case, student behavior, when they got a reward for doing well in a given task. When receiving a reward for carrying out an activity, the children’s cognitive state changes, the child begins to associate the task with the final reward, which explains, therefore, that in many cases the child loses track of importance of the development of the task, do not usually think of the task itself, but only of  the reward, for example:

[Children in a class of first grade, are preparing to take a reading class. The teacher explains the activity to develop speed reading, but find that their students are not motivated by the activity, their reading speed has dropped, so he decides to reward the child who read more words in two minutes. Children, therefore, started to practice, and when their turn comes, they tried to make the best possible way. After they finished reading, the teacher asked about the understanding of the text and she realized that children had made a good read, but they could not understand what they had read.]

This example shows us the change in the behavior of children when a reward is given, and also the results obtained, in which one of the objectives achieved, but the most important are left forgotten. The extrinsic motivation produces a wide variety of behaviors, which became a mean to reach their goal. Therefore, within this kind of motivation, we find, according to Deci and Ryan (1991), four subtypes of extrinsic motivation:

• External regulation: When the behavior is performed to satisfy an external demand or reward. The behavior is influenced by rewards or punishments, for example: I should pass my exams so that my parents would let me spend more time with my friend during the summer. This is regulated by: compliance, external rewards and punishments.

• Introjected regulation: When the individual understands the reasons for carrying out these actions, but yet is influenced by rewards or punishments, for example: when a student tries to pass a test, because the previous test was not passed. This is regulated by: self-control, ego-involvement, internal rewards and punishment.

• Identified regulation: When the individuals are able to control his behavior, once understood the reason for their actions, for example: when an individual decides to study for the importance that the knowledge have in his life. This is regulated by: personal importance and conscious valuing.

• Integrated regulation: When they treat and evaluate the objectives of the action. The individual is fully conscious, and regulates his or her behavior, although it is considered extrinsic, because their behavior is carried out to achieve results. The integrated regulation is closely related to intrinsic motivation. This is regulated by: congruence, awareness and synthesis with self.

Knowing all of this, we can understand the means by which the behavior is influenced by the extrinsic motivation, how this adjusts our conducts.

Intrinsic Motivation in the classroom

The main object in this paragraph is to point out what are conditions responsible to improve or maximize intrinsic motivation in the classroom. As mentioned before numerous theories of human motivation have revealed that students´ perceptions of competence and control influence their motivated behaviour and task-related management in an impressive way. Thus teachers, who want to enhance their students´ intrinsic motivation in the classroom, must consider two things: they must create academic environments that provide their students with control opportunities and they must make certain that their students are competent of performing successfully in those environments. (Spaulding 1992 PG 11) This competence motive can be activated in any situation that provides opportunities for developing new competences, a variety of tasks, materials, activities and a suitable learning environment are some aspects which can be used to maximize the intrinsic motivation in the classroom. Even though students usually do not attempt school tasks unless there is some extrinsic reason for attempting them, if certain conditions are met, they may become intrinsically motivated to continue working on it. (Stipek 1988 PG 50)

The purpose of the following part is to identify and illustrate some instructional principles that can guide teachers` effort to encourage their students` intrinsic motivation in the classroom. To start with the first principle, this involves a predictable classroom environment. The principle shows one way to enhance students` self-perceptions of competence and control. Teachers can help students to feel better in school by creating predictable environments in their classrooms. Students most often prefer to know what the upcoming plans for their classes are so that they can deal effectively with the academic challenge. (Spaulding 1992 PG 48) To put this principal into practice teachers could for instance organize their classes in such a way that days of a week become associated with certain recurring activities or they could begin and end each class period with predictable routines. (Spaulding 1992 PG 29) Nevertheless it is important to mention that these kinds of activities do not imply that teachers do not have a responsibility to bring novel and interesting ideas into their lessons. (Spaulding 1992 PG 31) At the contrary to provide students with interesting lessons and activities is another important principle of intrinsic motivation. It suggests that teachers should make their lessons novel or unusual with discrepant or unexpected outcomes. If they do so students will probably be more interested in the content of their lessons. (Spaulding 1992 PG 49)

Another principle to maximize intrinsic motivation in the classroom is to find a balance between easy and moderately challenging tasks. Students must have the opportunities to demonstrate their existing competences by managing easier tasks and according to this develop new competences by successfully completing moderately challenging tasks. (Spaulding 1992 PG  49) Tasks that are too difficult are not intrinsically motivating for students. In that case they do not experience any development of competence, and therefore will not be motivated to continue to engage the task. (Stipek 1988 PG 54) According to Stipek each child must be given tasks that are hard enough to require some effort and to result in increased competency, but easy enough to be completed with no more than a modest amount of assistance. (Stipek 1988 PG 63)

Another variable that encourage intrinsic motivation is individual choice. Several recent studies have shown that interest in school-related activities is enhanced by less teacher control and more student choice in tasks. There are many ways to provide some student choice without creating chaos in a classroom. One approach could be to give students some directions in when they complete particular tasks so they can order tasks according to their personal preferences. Another choice can also be given in the difficulty level of assignment or tasks they work on. (Stipek 1988 PG 69)

Altogether many possibilities exist to improve intrinsic motivation in the classroom. Students are intrinsically motivated to manage tasks that are moderately challenging, novel and relevant to their own lives. Tasks which are too hard or too easy, repetitive, or perceived to be irrelevant do not encourage intrinsic motivation. Students will also feel more competent and proud, and thus more intrinsically motivated in tasks, when they can take responsibility for their success. (Stipek PG 73) However it is not always easy to put all these principles into practice, especially in classes with many students it could be a problem to respect individual needs.

The role of teacher-student relationship in the development of motivation

Some people consider the personality of teacher to be the most motivating factor in learning, “The relationship between a student and a teacher can create a barrier to learning, but it can also encourage the student to reach their full potential.” (Shirley, 2009), in this part we will find out how to create motivating relationships with your students, being their teacher. This type of relationship is characterized by mutual affection, respect, trust, support, positiveness, friendliness. (Spaulding 1992 PG 64-80). According to Spaulding there are a few things teacher should do to create relationships that increases student academic motivation drastically. Here we want to recite them with summaries of Spaulding`s and our thoughts.

First of them is “avoiding severe and excessive use of punishment”. Spaulding offered not to use any punishments that somehow create pain, suffering or humiliation. Either if this punishment is established by the teacher, or parents and authorities, with the help of teacher. Instead of this, she offers to use “subtle time-out procedures”. Somehow isolating the child from the environment that supports misbehaviour for a few minutes, as privately as possible – does not offend child that much, yet it helps by preventing the misbehaviour.

Another thing you should keep in mind is “avoiding humour targeted at students” and “avoiding differential treatment based on unjustified prejudices”. Some pupils do not understand the humour of adults, it may embarrass them. “The student should never be made the object of a joke” (Spaulding 1992 PG 64-80). All the students should be treated in the same manner, no matter the sex, religion or the colour of the skin. Even if it is impossible to communicate to some misbehaving kids – the attempts should be still made.

Showing interest and concern for students is important too. All the students should be treated as humans, not as some jar that needs to get filled with knowledge. If you are interested in students as in subjects of your job, some people you meet on your workplace, you are never making real relationships with them. To create successful relations with them, your interest should be sincere, and should be obviously manifested in your actions. Two other things that creates motivating relationships is being calm, consistent and forgiving, as well as having high but attainable expectations for student success. The last one is connected to the “flow” notion.

Yet there some things you should not overdo, or dependency (when students are depended on teacher’s approval) may be created. To avoid it, you should not focus on the social part of teaching, but academic. Even misbehaving students should be treated in the same manner as others, yet you should show that you are not amused by the things they do sometimes. Excessive use of praise leads to the dependency too. And the most important thing to do is to redirect students feeling of cause of their success and failures not to luck or teacher’s traits, but their own attributes. Showing the students the real cause of their success motivates a lot. If you manage to create such relationships, as described in that advice, you are surely to get a highly motivated and interested in learning process group of pupils.

Conclusion

Motivation is the key to student learning. It consists of different factors that are keeping us interested in some specific subject, job, role and goal achieving. Those factors could be either extrinsic or intrinsic, and sometimes both. The peculiarity of extrinsic motivation is  external reward for matching the expectations. The good side of extrinsic motivation is that it proves to be effective when the pupils are not intrinsically motivated, but the excessive use of reward can also undermine the intrinsic motivation and make the students dependent on teacher’s approval. The intrinsic motivation is the best side of motivation, but it is very hard to control and improve it. It is easier to establish intrinsic motivation in classes with less students, where you can perform individual approach. The role of teacher-student relationships is fundamental in the development of intrinsic motivation, and controlling the side effects of extrinsic. By creating trusting, supporting relationship the pupils tend to copy the patterns of the respected teacher, which instantly motivates them to learn the selected subject.

Our advice would be not to use too much of the extrinsic motivation, but to try to develop trusting, mutually affected, respectful relationship with your pupils, which is surely to lead to motivation that is coming from pupil’s hearts.

References

Cheryl L. Spaulding, 1992, “Motivation in the classroom”. McGraw-Hill inc.

Deborah J. Stipek, 1988, “Motivation to learn, from theory to practice”. A division of Simon & Schuster inc.

Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan, 2002, “Handbook of self-determination research”. By the university of Rotchester press.

Edward L. Deci & Richard M. Ryan, 1985, “Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour”. Plenum press, New York.

Paul R. Burden, 2000, “Powerful classroom management strategies: Motivating students to learn”. Corwin press inc.

Paul R. Pintrich, Martin L. Maehr, 2004, “Advances in motivation and achievemnt, volume 13. Motivating students, improving schools, the legacy of Carol Midgley”. Elsevier jai.

http://www.articlesnatch.com

http://www.allpsychologycareers.com

http://www.businessdictionary.com

http://www.laynetworks.com

Although formal teacher training in most countries includes both theoretical and practical experience, beginning teachers often feel unprepared for their occupation. There are different reasons for that. Besides learning the necessary skills and “tricks of the trade”, novice teachers also have to deal with changing social roles – from a learner to a teacher. To help with this transition, the first steps of teaching are often supported by more experienced colleagues or mentors. Mentoring – not only in the school context – has been defined as an “intense interpersonal relationship where a more senior individual (the mentor) provides guidance and support to a more junior organisational member (the protégé)” (Eby & Lockwood, 2005).

Different national school systems have different approaches to mentoring beginning teachers – some assign a formal mentor to each novice teacher, and sometimes mentoring is based on informal pieces of advice from colleagues. While starting out on our own teaching career, we met support on workplace, we received constructive instructions and feedback. Learning by doing plays an important part, and mentoring relationships may well continue even after teacher training courses, throughout the career, as each environment requires different behaviour patterns, including teaching methods, which may perfectly work for one class, but fail for the other one. Another important thing to remember is that novices are active agents in their own development, so not only does the quality of mentor and learning environment matter, but also the engagement of the novice him/herself.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

When talking about learning – whether at school or in the workplace – we first have to solve the ontological question of what we mean by “learning“. According to Anna Sfard (1998), there are two dominant discursive currents present in today’s educational research: some studies emphasise an acquisition metaphor and others a participation metaphor. The acquisition metaphor is based on the idea that individuals gain and construct knowledge like a commodity, and once it has been acquired it can then be applied, transferred, or shared with others. The participation metaphor, on the other hand, holds that knowledge is not located in individuals, but in communities, contexts, artefacts and social practices. Learning is therefore seen as the process of becoming a member of a particular community and participating in its activities, not as filling one’s mind with object-like knowledge. Despite the seemingly contradicting outlook of these two approaches, Sfard (1998) argues against dismissing either. Instead, she maintains that the metaphors complement each other. Following her advice, we shall attempt to give room to both perspectives when tracing the theoretical backdrop of mentoring in the field of teacher induction. First, we will consider the concept of expertise and what knowledge and skills need to be acquired by individuals in order to become an expert teacher. Second, we will give an overview of theories of participation in a community of practice such as that of the teaching profession. Lastly in this part, we will focus more specifically on models on mentoring and apprenticeship. It seems to us that the relationship between mentor and mentee serves as a good expression for both the acquisition and the participation metaphor, since mentors not only facilitate participation in the community of teachers, but also share knowledge in its more objectified sense with their protégés.

Theories of expertise

According to K.A.Ericsson’s model of expert performance, time and practice are not enough, there should be deliberate practice (a particular type of exercise), which encourage full mental activity of learners. At least 10 years are needed to achieve expert performance. Deliberate practice is “a highly structured set of activities, with the explicit goal of improving performance” (Ericsson et al, 2006, p. 306).
The main characteristics of deliberate practice are:

1. “effortful exertion to improve performance”
2. intrinsic motivation
3. practice tasks, corresponding to one’s ability
4. feedback, which necessary for knowledge of result
5. levels of repetition (Ericsson et al, 2006, p. 306).

Attention, concentration, specialized techniques are vital for deliberate practice. Based on this, we can move on to define experts and expertise: An Expert is someone, who is regarded as such by others.”Expertise seems to be a form of cognitive / behavioral adaptation to a particular domain of tasks, hence it is domain specific” (Ericsson et al, 2006, p. 748).
According to Mieg, we can get knowledge and become experts if we have “enough time to undertake the necessary learning” (Ericsson et al, 2006, p. 748).
On the way of becoming an expert, an individual should fulfil a lot of conditions. It is significant to form the goals which should be achieved; the student should be taught strategies how to organize and use knowledge, to be got in education process. Feedback is necessary for improvement, but at the same time an individual should learn to be able to make decision on his/her own and not be dependant on teacher’s/instructor’s feedback. In Ericsson et al.’s Handbook of Expertise it is stressed that one should avoid the arrested development or automaticity, as when automaticity is achieved, no improvement is going on (Ericsson et al, 2006). Future experts gradually create their own mechanisms when they participate in training tasks. “Training should help individuals to develop adequate mental models of typical problems in the domain and to choose the most appropriate working strategy” (Ericsson et al, 2006, p.384)

Learning through participation

This chapter is devoted to discussion on theories of participation in a community of practice as well as reference to the teaching profession. According to the Longman dictionary (http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/participation), ‘participation’ means ‘the act of taking part in an activity or event’. As for our specific context, ‘participation’ refers to learner’s engagement in practice to become a competent practitioner.  According to ´

Le Maistre, Boudreau and Pare (2006), there are two main notions which describe term ‘participation’ in an interesting way. First, it is important to mention that there is a gradual movement taking place between being a novice and becoming a qualified expert. There are, as previously spoken of, two notions that describe the movement or ‘transformation’ (Le Maistre et al., 2006): “guided participation” and “legitimate peripheral participation” (Rogoff, 1991 and Lave and Wenger, 1991). In both cases, the learner is ‘guided’ from slow, doubtful task fulfilment toward success and perfection. “Under the guidance of more experienced individuals, newcomers can engage in practice which is legitimate (that is, of worth to the functioning of the organization, rather than contrived), peripheral (failure to accomplish the task does not damage the organization, can be redone by the newcomer or can be remedied by experienced practitioners), and participatory (the newcomer is engaged in tasks of increasing complexity, rather than being an observer)” (Le Maistre et al., 2006, p.345). It is essential that qualified and experienced teachers influence newcomers in such a way that they take an active participation in the activity of the community. It is undoubtedly clear what teacher-students dread most when practising their skills and knowledge to becoming teachers – being left on their own in the classroom. Therefore it is significant to refer to a sequence of “zones of proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1978) on this stage of our discussion. Why do we have to step back and pay more attention to the development of novice’s working process? The most crucial reason is that once again we stress on the role of supervisor and how he/she guides us, newcomers, to the final step from which we as teachers proceed further and become independent specialists in our field of studies and work.  Through the techniques of scaffolding and fading, the mentor helps the novice to approach increasingly difficult task with increasing independence of action. The “zones of proximal development” are to be divided into the following groups:  intellectual space (cognitive problem-solving); social space (engagement into social interactions); activity space (delivering action and experimenting with tools); physical space (being left on one’s own to perform the task independently). While a future practitioner, a student, is moving through one zone to the other zone, one cannot but notice that community plays an inevitable role throughout the whole process of development into a professional. Therefore it is important for us to proceed to the definition of communities of practice and identify the importance of this term.

The concept of communities of practice focuses on a domain of shared interests, shared competence that identifies this particular group, distinguishing it from others (Wenger, 2004). However, it is not enough to merely share interests. What is important is that people are involved in the same practice. It is supposed that institutional boundaries might not be enough when it comes to informal learning. According to Wenger (2004), informal learning and immediate experience are significant. It shows that communities of practice involve many varied aspects of learning process, knowledge acquisition and shared competence. As for workplace learning, transformation from a novice to an expert, communities of practice sustain knowledge development and provide both mentors and mentees with different tools and resources to share and build knowledge.

Theories of mentorship

If newcomers to a profession are to learn by participating in legitimate, peripheral activities which take them closer to the centre of the community, they have to first be given the opportunity to do so by their workplace (Billett, 2001). One way of doing this is for a workplace to assign a more experienced member to act as mentor for the novice. The formality of such an arrangement depends of course on the workplace and, in the case of the teaching profession, on the country in which the induction period takes place. In the UK, for example, the duties and responsibilities between mentor and mentee are formally decreed by the national teacher training body, whereas in Russia, no official arrangement for mentoring beginning teachers exists. However, even in the absence of formal mentoring agreements, mutually beneficial mentoring relationships may develop spontaneously between a new teacher and a more experienced colleague.

According to Billett (2003), the specific roles of a mentor may depend on the actors and their environment: For example, some mentorships may include responsibilities for the mentee’s wellbeing and social acceptance in addition to skills development, and some might continue on throughout the protégé’s career, whereas others are terminated after a certain – often pre-defined – time. The structure and purposes of mentoring are also affected by whether the mentorship is of the formal or informal type, meaning whether mentors and protégés are assigned to each other by a third party as part of an official programme, or whether the relationship is initiated spontaneously by either – or both – of the individuals (Eby & Lockwood, 2005). In contrast to informal mentoring, formal mentoring often follows a pre-determined set of goals and guidelines, as well as a specific time-line. Furthermore, the fact that mentor and protégé have not selected each other in formal mentoring can make it difficult to develop a trusting relationship, and sometimes even to a mismatch of personalities or lack of commitment. Although formal mentoring thus has its share of potential problems, the benefits reported by both mentors and mentees also indicate mutual advantages for both parties. Benefits for mentees include learning, psychosocial support, opportunities for networking and career planning, whereas mentors reported benefits such as learning, developing a personal relationship, personal gratification and enhanced managerial skills (ibid).

Whilst these points apply to mentoring in general, Maynard and Furlong (1995) focus more specifically on newcomers to the teaching profession when they identify three models of mentorship in the existing research literature. Firstly, the apprenticeship model holds that complex skills are best learned by working alongside an experienced colleague, rather than simply by instruction. In this model, the role of the role of the mentor is to model and to supervise guided practice, whereas the protégé tries to emulate the mentor. On the other hand, the competence model advocates a more explicit programme of training based on a list of pre-defined competences, where the mentor observes the protégé, identifies areas for improvement, and gives feedback. Lastly, the aim of the reflective model is to develop a deeper understanding of the mentee’s learning process through reflection, and thus to enable continued professional development even after the induction period is over. Although Maynard and Furlong (1995) stress that each of these three models is on its own inadequate to describe the mentoring process, they argue that, if taken together, these models usefully reflect the changing needs of the beginning teacher. It can therefore be seen that different approaches to mentoring are required at different stages of the beginning teacher’s professional development.

EXAMPLES FROM STUDIES

Although most studies in the area of mentoring focus on the experiences of the recipients of this process, there are also some that examine mentoring from the point of view of the mentor. Taking this perspective is useful in that sense that it can help identify the demands placed on, and problems experienced by, mentors, and therefore suggest ways in which mentors themselves could be trained and supported more effectively in their task. One example of this perspective can be found in LeMaistre et al.’s (2006) longitudinal study which focuses on both novices and their mentors in four so-called “helping professions” (education, social work, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy) with the aim to find out how universities could assist the transition from school to work. In their interviews, the authors were particularly interested in the tension between a supervisor’s role as nurturing and supportive mentor, and as evaluator and gatekeeper for the profession. This tension was felt and lamented by the mentors in this study, who felt caught between the two roles, and also feared that their added responsibility of evaluator might encourage mimicking rather than risk-taking in the student-teachers (see Maynard and Furlong’s (1995) apprenticeship model). Billett’s (2003) study, though not specifically set in the school-as-workplace environment, also deals with the perceived demands on a mentor, as well as potential benefits. The eight mentors interviewed agreed that workplace mentoring was an effective and relevant way to assist co-workers learning and also derived some personal gratification from it. On the other hand, they identified inhibiting factors such as production demands, time constraints, and the attitude of trainees. What was also seen as crucial to the success of the mentoring programme was the level of support and acknowledgement received from the organisation’s management, which was reflected for example in the amount of training mentors received, in the daily obstacles (e.g. time or production demands) placed or removed, and in the organisation’s attitudes towards employee learning and development.

In looking more closely at what sustains novice teachers in their early career, Fox et al. (2010) have considered the wider social networks available beyond the workplace. In their article “Beginning Teachers’ Workplace Experiences” the emphasis is made on experiences (and prior experiences) of beginning teachers with different backgrounds, their social network, aspirations, in order to identify reasons of teachers’ retention. It is necessary for career-beginners to evaluate themselves and create “more expansive learning environments for themselves. Both formal and non-formal ways of social participation are significant for beginning teachers, as well as communication with experienced and beginning teachers and with out-of-school individuals.  Learning is happening from and with experienced colleagues. It is also important to refer to previous experience and create and develop, think more consciously about personal network, in order to solve arising problems It is necessary to take into consideration how future teachers understand workplace context and their aspiration and expectations

Their study showed that the active creation and use of personal networks both within and outside of school is crucial in receiving both professional and emotional support. It also emerged that some working environments were more supportive towards learning and professional development than other, making it easier for new teachers to access the knowledge of the community. At the same time, not all novice teachers were equally adapt at creating and taking advantage of social network, meaning that some did not ask for help even if it was available, and others managed to strive in a less supportive environment by cleverly making the contacts that would benefit them. In some cases, the pro-activeness of the trainee teacher eventually even transformed their workplace. This study shows that novice teachers are not only passive pawns in the mentoring game, but can strongly influence the success of their learning process through the level of their pro-activeness.

CONCLUSION

Mentoring has the potential of a being mutually beneficial process for both mentor and protégé. Whereas beginning teacher who are not supervised might still find ways of “getting by”, mentoring offers the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the skills and practices encountered through guided learning techniques such as modelling, coaching, questioning, and explanation (Billett, 2003). Furthermore, mentoring is effective because it can be tailored to the novice’s needs, because the knowledge and skills acquired are placed firmly into the context of the classroom, and because mentors can provide the encouragement and feedback that is needed to become an expert. At the same time, it has to be stressed that the success of a mentoring relationship does not depend on the mentor alone, but necessitates both the supportiveness of the environment and the pro-activeness of the mentee (Billett, 2001). The best conditions for learning will not have an effect if the new teacher is unwilling or unable to take advantage of them, but equally a novice with great networking skills may encounter obstacles in learning if the work-culture does not value such behaviour. It is therefore a balance between environmental and individual factors that enable or inhibit effective mentoring. Lastly, mentoring alone may not be enough to turn novices into expert teachers: the existence and active use of social networks outside of the immediate workplace may also play an important role in easing the transition between university and work life (Fox et al., 2010). As Siebert et al. (2007) remind us: “What needs to be remembered is that a single pedagogical approach to learning is unlikely to satisfy the needs of every learner.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Billett, S. (2001).Learning through work: Workplace affordances and individual engagement. Journal of Workplace Learning 13(5), 209-214.

Billett, S. (2003). Workplace mentors: demands and benefits. Journal of Workplace Learning 15(3), 105-113.

Eby, L.T. & Lockwood, A. (2005). Protégés’ and mentors’ reactions to participating in formal mentoring programs. Journal of Vocational Behaviour 67, 441-458.

Ericsson et al. (2006). The Cambridge Book of expertise and Expert Performance. Cambridge University Press.

Fox, A., Wilson, E. & Deaney, R. (2010). Beginning teachers’ workplace experiences: Perceptions and use of support. Vocations and Learning. Retrieved on 18^th Nov 2010 from http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy.utu.fi:2048/content/wr126174221g8753/fulltext.pdf

Gruber, H., & Palonen, T. ()2007. Learning in the workplace: New developments. Research in Educational Sciences 32. Finnish Educational Research Association.

Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

LeMaistre, C., Boudreau, S. & Paré, A. (2006). Mentor or evaluator? Assisting and assessing newcomers to the professions. Journal of Workplace Learning 18(6), 344-354.

Maynard, T. & Furlong, J. (1995). Learning to teach and models of mentoring. In T. Kerry & A. Shelton Mayes (eds.) Issues in mentoring (pp. 10-25). London: Routledge.

Rogoff, B. (1991). Social interaction as apprenticeship in thinking: guided participation in spatial planning. In L.B. Resnick, J.M. Levine, and S.D. Teasley(Eds), Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 349-64.

Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher 27(4), 4-13.

Siebert, S., Mills, V. & Tuff, C. (2009). Pedagogy of work-based learning: the role of the learning group. Journal of Workplace Learning 21(6), 443-454.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Wenger, E. (2004). Communities of Practise. In International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2339-2342, ISBN: 0-08-043076-7.

In a world of today, we are constantly directed towards future. A highly competitive labour market of new age causes that organizations and companies, of no matter what type, are facing retention challenges. Employees are not anymore likely to spend their working life in one company. But if it is about top performers (top managers, knowledge workers), a head of a company or organization should really be bothered by this fact. If a company intends to stay competitive and successful, there is a huge need for it to keep skilled employees. And this question of retention has been researched a lot in previous years and the research is not yet over. As the world and workforce are developing and changing in all ways, examining these kinds of questions is becoming of more and more importance. When we speak about retention of workers, we should think about topics like job satisfaction, organizational learning, motivation of employees, knowledge management and reasons for turnover.

Firstly, in this essay we will give a short theoretical overview about key terms regarding question of retention (organizational learning, knowledge management and motivation). The next part will consist of review of three relevant studies when it comes to retention and motivation of employees to stay in a company or organization. Finally, the conclusion will give a summary about the previous discussion.

THEORETICAL BACKROUND

Rodrigez (2008) reminds us that the question today is not if an employee will leave, but when. Employers have to face that fact – workforce of today is extremely mobile. The question we are trying to find an answer to here is: What makes someone stay in (or leave) the company? According to Rodrigez (2008), employees no longer feeling like they have to stick it out with a company when they are not growing, now they find it easier to leave for better job opportunities. Growth is a key word here. If one feels that s/he is growing (becoming more skillful, more experienced, more knowledgeable), one will be motivated to work harder and to stay where s/he is. Therefore, it is important that employers give employees the opportunity to develop and learn (Arnold 2005; Bernsen et al. 2009; Herman 2005, as cited in E. Kyndt et al. 2009).

The magical circle which is of interest for both employer and employee is the one from working in a company (organization), acquiring and using knowledge, being motivated by knowledge growth and back to working (staying) in a company. Having and retaining skilled employees is very important because employees’ knowledge and skills have become the key for companies to be economically competitive (Hiltrop 1999, as cited in E. Kyndt et al. 2009). In order to try to answer the abovementioned question, we will present a few theories concerning organizational learning, knowledge management and motivation of employees.

Organizational Learning

The term organizational learning (OL) may refer to individual learning within the organization, the entire organization learning as a collective body, or anywhere in between these extremes (Bennet & Bennet, 2004). The important thing about organizational learning is that it is a process; a process happening in a person or between persons inside organization. Learning as a process inside of a person is cognitive and behavioral process depended on structures that a person already had had. Learning inside an organization or a team is much more complicated and involves relationships and interactions between people (Bennet & Bennet, 2004) and also personal characteristics of persons within an organization or a team.

The first important theoretical model on OL was given in 1987 by Argyris & Schön. Most of the researchers of today are relying on their work. In their theory learning is seen as finding and correcting mistakes (today, we use concept of learning from errors). Namely, one will try to solve some problem, and if it fails, one will try to find distinction between expected and obtained. Once that relation is realized, a person will look for another strategy for solving a problem. This is called single-loop learning. If a person later starts questioning the reasons for its previous actions, we describe that as double-loop learning. Argyris (1990) argues that double-loop learning is necessary if practitioners and organizations are to make informed decisions in rapidly changing and often uncertain contexts.

In one of the newest studies on OL, Bontis & Serenko (2009) see it as one of the most significant characteristics of successful organizations in the long-term, and they connect OL with formal training and development (T&D) programs. They also emphasize role of managing learning and knowledge within a company or organization.

Knowledge Management

According to Bennet & Bennet (2004) knowledge management (KM) is the systematic process of creating, maintaining and nurturing an organization to make the best use of its individual and collective knowledge to achieve the corporate mission. These authors also claim that from a knowledge management perspective, all levels of learning are important and all must be nurtured and made a natural part of culture – an organizational learning culture, we would add.

Turnover is the rotation of employees around the labour market; among jobs, companies and professions; and between states of employment and unemployment (Abassi & Hollman, 2000 as cited in Bontis & Serenko, 2009).

Terms ‘knowledge management’ and ‘turnover’ are very closely related, in sense that if one company has good knowledge management, so if employees in that company acquire a certain knowledge, than a rate of turnover in that company should be as low as possible considering economical and human capital factors[1]. For one organization it is of great importance to keep knowledge workers. As defined in Wikipedia, a knowledge worker is a person which is valued for its ability to act and communicate with knowledge within a specific subject area[2].

Knowledge management is a term that goes hand to hand with organizational learning in sense that OL is a process of acquiring knowledge and KM refers to sharing that knowledge within a company. It is hard to approach theoretically to KM in general, because there are many specific areas in which KM has been investigated. According to Spender & Scherer (2007), there are some core components of KM: people, processes, technology, culture, structure. But all of these can be observed from the point of view of constructivism, intellectual capital, community of practice, etc.

Motivation

When we talk about motivation of an employee to work and stay in one company, we can talk about motivation that employee has for itself (intrinsic motivation), or motivational factors within a company that have an influence on its workers (extrinsic motivation). Definition of motivation by Robbins (1993, as cited in Ramall, 2004, p. 53) is the “[…] willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need”. Because of a huge number of theories of motivation (and almost all of them can be used as a model for employee motivation theory), here we will just briefly describe a few groups of theories:

• Drive/drive reduction theory comes from Freud (1961) and it interprets motivation as tendency to move organism from state of negative tension (because of some human needs are not satisfied) to a state of homeostasis – no tension. This is a circular process, so once the organism is in a homeostasis, it is just a matter of time when the balance is going to be impaired.
• Theories of needs have their basis in Maslow’s (1943) theory of hierarchy of human needs. Maslow claimed, and many agreed, that a person has five basic groups of needs and that they have this order: physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, needs of esteem and self-actualization need. Very popular Self-determination theory (further reading: Deci & Ryan, 2002) belongs to this group too.
• Job design theories are based on the idea that a task itself has a motivational role for employee. Variety, autonomy and decision authority are three ways of adding challenge to a job. Adding variety and challenge can be achieved by job enrichment and job rotation (Ramall, 2004).

In the following section we are going to present three previous studies regarding the question how organizational learning, motivation and retention are associated and what are the latest results in research.

PREVIOUS STUDIES

The Effects of Organizational Learning Culture and Job Satisfaction on Motivation to Transfer Learning and Turnover Intention

Egan et al. (2004) published a study concerning the relations between organizational learning culture and workers learning and performance results. Regarding to the researchers, the focus on developing knowledge in general, but especially in the job through a constant learning process, receives increasing attention in our time. Because of the rapid-changing economy it is imperative to advance skills to keep the job. Therefore also motivation and the willing to transfer knowledge are crucial factors. Concerning the authors the surroundings and culture of an organization affect “[…] the types and numbers of learning-related events and employee job satisfaction as well as employee motivation to transmit newly acquired knowledge to the workplace context” (Egan et al., 2004, p. 20). Consequently, they focused on the following questions to find out if their research verifies their presumptions:

1. Does organizational learning culture have a positive impact on employees’ job satisfaction?
2. What are the influences of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on employees’ motivation to transfer learning?
3. What are the influences of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on employees’ turnover intention?

In their study they used a survey research method to ask employees in the informational technology (IT) sector regarding to the supposed interactions. A questionnaire was used to get the required information about their attitude to 1) organizational learning culture, 2) job satisfaction, 3) motivation to transfer learning, 4) turnover intention. The research findings could confirm primary assumptions. Organizational learning culture showed a positive significant influence to the job satisfaction and motivation to transfer learning. Besides, there was also found a negative correlation between organizational learning culture and satisfaction regarding turnover intention. That means that organizational learning culture can be seen as a predictor for turnover intention. If the employee is learning and developing knowledge in the company, s/he is apparently more satisfied because s/he is challenged and therefore there is no reason to turnover to another company. Even if there have to be done more research on that field, there is already confirmation that organisational learning culture influences a worker positively (Watkins & Marsick, 2003)

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Learning Organisations and the Retention …of Knowledge Workers

Lee-Kelley et al. (2007) carried out a research that analyses the correlation between learning organisation theory and the opportunity to keep knowledge employees.

It was assumed that learning is related with job satisfaction and turnover. In accordance with Egan et al. (2004), they also claim that the significance of knowledge in our society increases especially in domains where knowledge is essential. It is important to retain skilled and well trained workers to make sure to preserve high quality within the company. Employees, who are motivated to learn at their workplace, get challenged and are able to see the benefits of their existing knowledge which is of great value.

A survey was made to get the needed information. Workers from the informational technology department had to answer an anonymous questionnaire. In order to find out about the relationship between learning organisation and retention five disciplines model, regarding Senge (1990), were used: 1) personal mastery, 2) shared vision, 3) shared mental models, 4) team learning and 5) systems thinking. They were put in context with six job satisfaction facets: 1) comfort, 2) challenge, 3) reward, 4) relations with co-workers, 5) resource adequacy and 6) promotion.

Analyzing result of the questionnaire showed that there are significant (p<0.05) relationships between learning organisation disciplines and facets of job satisfaction which can lead to turnover. These outcomes resembled the results of Egan et al. (2004). A very interesting finding was that challenge was the most important factor for staying in the company (mean=3.47 of 4). Especially the positive relationship between personal mastery[3] and challenge[4] seems very interesting. The results demonstrate that companies need to maintain the employee’s development of skills and also provide challenging tasks so that they can grow with the problems and utilize new ideas. Thus, workers are able to practise and learn at the workplace and may deepen their knowledge.

Employee Retention: Organisational and Personal Perspectives

Kyndt et al. (2009) implemented a study in which they wanted to analyse the reasons why employees stay in a company or what causes them to look for other job-opportunities. In their research they put special focus on workers’ learning because they assume that learning plays a very crucial role concerning retention. In contrast to the aforementioned studies (Egan et al., 2004; Lee-Kelley et al., 2009) they also focused on organisational and personal factors which might affect retention.

The following three research questions were formulated:

1. What is the relationship between the perception of the learning and working climate, and employee retention?
2. What is the relationship between having a high potential and employee retention?
3. What is the relationship of the personal characteristics of level of education, number of children, seniority, age, and gender to employee retention?

The participants of this study were employees from companies in the private sector. The first part of the study was a survey method containing a questionnaire. In addition to that there was also a qualitative, second part consisting an interview with a few full-time workers.

The investigation showed that (Kyndt et al. 2009, p. 207) “[…] the perception of the importance of learning to employees and the quality of work climate is a strong predictor of employee intentions to remain with their current employer.” Further they found out that appraisal and also stimulation influence workers positive regarding to turnover to another company. The researchers suggest that human resource management should future put more attendance to that in order not to lose their workers with specific knowledge and let them go to another company where they can apply it.

Studies summary

Finally, taking all shown results of the presented studies into account, in each research we can find fundamental links between learning, motivation, job satisfaction and retention. The findings demonstrate that workplaces where no learning processes take place are jobs with unsatisfied employees, compared to those who feel challenged and develop their knowledge. It was exposed that the learning organisation has to be exciting and motivating so as to investigate effort not just for the company but also for personal contentment. In order to keep high qualified and skilled workers in the company, the workplace has to provide attractive, challenging and appreciative working conditions.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

In times where competition on the market increases and the employee market is characterized by displacement, we have to think about effective tools to win workers loyalty. Dissatisfied employees who are not motivated to stay in their company anymore, often quit their jobs and look for a better one. In doing so, with them the company loses not just their knowledge, but also their experience and ideas.

In this essay we tried to find answers to the question why employees turnover to other companies, because we wanted to find out if there is a significant relation between learning at the workplace and employees’ wish to change the workplace.

According to recent studies, learning organization, motivation to develop further knowledge, as well as knowledge transfer, play a very important role in job satisfaction, which mostly leads to retention. As described, workers who feel necessity for their work, because they get appreciated and are allowed to show their skills by solving problems, prefer to stay and are more loyal with their company. Therefore, companies should be more sensitive for the needs of their workers because retention is an art and it requires serious work and efforts.

FURTHER LITERATURE

Further empirical studies

Here we listed further studies concerning the topic of this essay:

Hausknecht, J., Rodda, J. & Horward, M. (2009). Targeted Employee Retention: Performance-Based and Job-Related Differences in Reported Reasons for Staying. Human Resource Management, vol. 48, no. 2, 269 – 288.

Price, O., Scheeres, H. & Boud D. (2009). Re-making Jobs: Enacting and Learning Work Practices. Vocations and Learning, vol. 2, no. 3, 217-234.

Agho, A. O., Mueller, C. W. & Price J. L. (1993). Determinants of employee job satisfaction: An empirical test of a causal model. Human Relations, vol. 46, no. 8, 1007-1020.

Further articles

Here we also listed further articles dealing with this essay topic:

Hirschfeld, K. (2006). Retention und Fluktuation: Mitarbeiterbindung – Mitarbeiterverlust.

From: [http://www.uniglobalunion.org/UNIsite/Groups/PMS/publications/Retention-DE.pdf]

Further books

Deci, E., & Ryan, R., (2002). Handbook of self-determination research. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press.

Arthur, D. (2001). The employee recruitment and retention handbook. New York: AMACON Books.

Phillips, J.J., Conell, A.O. (2003) Managing employee retention: a strategic accountability approach. Burlington: Elsevier.

REFERENCES

1. Argyris, C. (1990). Integrating the individual and the organization. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
2. Argyris, C. & Schön, D. (1978). Organisational learning: A theory of action perspective.  Addison Wesley: Reading, Mass.
3. Bennet, A. & Bennet, D. (2004). The Partnership Between Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management. In: C.W. Holsapple, Handbook on Knowledge Management: Knowledge Matters. Heidelberg: Springer.
4. Bontis, N. & Serenko, A. (2009). Longitudinal Knowledge Strategizing in a Long-term Healthcare Organization. International Journal of Technology Management, vol.47, no. 1/2/3, 276–297.
5. Egan, T.M., Yang, B. & Bartlett, K.R. (2004). The Effects of Organizational Learning Culture and Job Satisfaction on Motivation to Transfer Learning and Turnover Intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3, 279-301.
6. Freud, S. (1961). Civilization and its discontents. J. Strachey, transl. New York: W. W. Norton.
7. Kyndt, E., Dochy, F., Michielsen, M. & Moeyaert, B. (2009). Employee Retention: Organisational and Personal Perspectives. Vocations and Learning, vol. 2, no. 3, 195-215.
8. Lee-Kelley, L., Blackman, D.A. & Hurst, J.P. (2007). An exploration of the relationship between learning organisations and the retention of knowledge workers. The Learning Organization, vol. 14, no. 3, 204-221.
9. Maslow, A.H., (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 4, 370-396.
10. Ramall, S. (2004). A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention within Organization. Journal of American academy of Business, vol.5, no. 1-2, 52-63.
11. Rodriguez, R. (2008). Learning’s Impact on Talent Flow. Chief Learning Officer, vol. 7, no. 4, 50-54.
12. Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday Currency.
13. Spender, J. C. & Scherer, A. G. (2007). The Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge Management: Editors’ Introduction. Organization vol. 14, no. 1, 5-28.
14. Watkins, K. E. & Marsick, V. J. (2003). Making learning count! Diagnosing the learning culture in organizations. Advances in Developing Human Resources, vol.5, no.2, 205-214.

In the following text we take a closer look at the concept of learning from errors and its potential outcome, negative knowledge, by critically analyzing some operational environments in which the concepts mentioned above manifest themselves. We share two real-life examples from different areas, an elementary school and the military, and discuss them from a critical point of view. We also consider the theoretical approaches behind the phenomena of learning from errors and how earlier research relates to the concepts at issue. To conclude we sum up our findings and learning resulting from the task, and consider further investigations.

INTRODUCTION

Errors in general involve evaluation based on norms, interpretation and acceptance of the environment, and are thus culture and environment related (Gartmeier et al. 2008). Gartmeier et al. suggest that ”…errors can be seen as actions that endanger the attainment of desired goals.” (95). Therefore it can be interpreted that for an individual to make an error, first the environment must perceive the procedure as an error, that is to say, as a threat to a desired goal.

Errors can lead to both individual and organizational learning in a permissive environment. The more complex the operations are, the more likely errors occur. Recent studies suggests that dealing with errors in an open and learning-oriented way is more sensible and productive than error-prevention (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007).

There are two types of approaches in the theory of learning from errors (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007):

1. Behavioristic approach and
2. Cognitive approach

Behavioristic approach stresses the process of learning from errors as learning from trial and error via repeated stimulus-response. While the behavioristic approach explains the generation of avoidance strategies, it does not explain the complexity of the learning process.

The cognitive approach emphasizes the reflective processes in learning from errors through reflective and reactive learning (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007). Harteis, Bauer and Haltia suggest that learning has to involve reflective processes positioned between non-formal deliberate learning and implicit learning, and that learning does not occur by mere sharing the information but always requires reflection. In order to learn from the process of making errors the flow of action has to be interrupted. Only then can the reflective process begin (Harteis & Bernhardt and Harteis, Bauer and Haltia. 2008)

The process of learning from errors is important in the production of negative knowledge. Negative knowledge is knowledge of what is wrong and what is to be avoided, and is gained experientially. Negative knowledge always requires reflection on earlier performance (Gartmeier et al. 2008). Gartmeier et al. suggests that the theory of negative knowledge is rooted in cognitive tradition and operates in the level of metacognitive functions. That being said it is not necessesarily given that errors and mistakes are followed by learning and thus gaining negative knowledge but requires an actor who is capable of reflective and reactive actions (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007). We will now share two different ”experiences of deviance” (Gartmeier et al., 2007, 94) which we consider relevant examples.

CAUGHT IN BETWEEN

As a novice teacher, it is normal to make mistakes.  I was in charge of teaching all subjects in English to native Spanish speakers to a group of twenty-two 3^rd grade children in a private English-immersion school. I quickly developed an extensive amount of negative knowledge to draw upon, and, once I could “know what not do do” (Gartmeier et al., 2007, 90), mistakes became less frequent. I don’t feel bad about the mistakes I made during my first years, because I accept that they were learning experiences that made me a better teacher. There is however one mistake that I am unhappy with the way it was handled.

During my second year the school implemented a new Science program which will be referred to as “ACME”. The old program was traditional and the classes centered around the teacher and the textbook, while the ACME program focuses on hands-on activities. Children are randomly grouped in teams of four and spend a week working on a “mission” (such as Plants, Electricity, Animals, etc). Each mission lasts a week and after that the children are switched to a new mission with a new group. Each mission consists of five sessions, and each session follows this pattern:

1. Read a “briefing” where concepts were introduced.
2. Answer questions about the briefing.
3. Do a related experiment.

There were seven different missions going on simultaneously, with the teacher supervising them all. Unfortunately there were complications that the coordinators who chose the program hadn’t considered. First, while the sessions were supposed to last 60 minutes, the time we had scheduled for Science classes was 45 minutes, in which we also had to walk to and from the special lab. Second, the program was meant for native speakers, which our students were not. Therefore the briefing, briefing questions and even the experiment instructions took a lot of time for them and were very challenging as there was a lot of vocabulary they didn’t possess. Third, there was no one in charge of all the different logistics and materials needed for all seven missions which meant that if some material or ingredient ran out during a class, the other classrooms wouldn’t be able to do the experiment. It also meant that instead of supervising students’ progress, teachers spent their time fetching or replacing materials. And finally, our students’ experience working in teams was non-existent, and as groups were random there were additional issues, like bad social or academic combinations which affected the kids’ progress. On top of all the other problems, children did badly on the pre-made ACME tests we were ordered to use, which made parents very unhappy.

Teachers shared their concerns and problems with coordinators, and they told us to take time from other subjects and use it to have an extra Science session each week in which to catch up, and an assistant was hired to be responsible for materials being in the Lab. This was a start, but there were still many adaptations that needed to be made for the program to work in our context. However, coordinators showed no flexibility and furthermore decided to invite parents to open Science classes, to show off the innovative program.

My students tried their best but were unable to finish their experiments because it took them a long time to read and answer the briefing questions. So a mother asked me if the children would continue where they left off, with the same experiment, the next day.

“No,” I said truthfully. “They have to answer the next session’s briefing questions, and then do that new experiment.”
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“We have to cover all the briefings.”

The mother didn’t ask more, but she complained about the new Science program to the school board. My boss, the principal/coordinator was furious at me, like she had never been before when I’d made a mistake, and scolded me in front of other 3^rd grade teachers.

“Why did you tell parents that?” she demanded.
“Because it’s the truth,” I said.
“It’s not the truth. There is a whole extra class added, so the kids can go back to an incomplete experiment that day. That’s what you should have said.”

Of course she and I both knew that one extra class was not enough for five incomplete experiments, but that was the official version of things, and I hadn’t said it.

My mistake was that I wasn’t diplomatic enough, and that I as an employee had not protected the school’s image. I thought the point of the open classes were for parents to see exactly what went on in the classes, but apparently we were expected to show a perfect classroom and if there were any problems, we were expected to embellish the situation so as to show the school in a positive light. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I was doing something wrong in telling that mother something that to me was a frustrating truth. This could be a matter of experience, because I didn’t like being scolded by my boss in front of my co-workers, and therefore I might not do the same thing if I were in that situation again. But it might be a matter of personality too. And despite the negative consequences for myself, after the mother’s complaint to the school board, further changes were done to improve the Science program.

I don’t mean to blame-shift, but I think in this specific situation the mistake wasn’t only mine. First, the new program should have been tested on a pilot group first. It should have been analyzed more thoroughly to foresee some of the complications. Coordinators should have admitted that this lack of analysis and testing was their mistake, instead of behaving like the teachers weren’t working hard enough to make the program work. That would have created a better, more permissive atmosphere and would have taken pressure off us teachers. I would have felt much more loyalty towards the program and the coordinators that had chosen it, if they had at any point acknowledged that it should have been easier for us teachers to do our jobs, and for students to do theirs, if they had shown more care in selecting the program and if they had been more willing to listen to teachers’ feedback.

However, the only person affected by their mistake in this case was me. It became my fault that a parent was unhappy with the program, and that the school had had a complaint. Luckily there were no lasting effects or consequences for me, and though there was coolness between my boss and me for a few weeks, soon all was forgotten.

AN UNUSUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

There is a vast variance between tolerance of errors and assimilation of information from errors in different environments. My example is placed in an highly organized, hierarchical and controlled environment, the military. In the following example I reflect on mistakes I have done but wasn’t encouraged to learn from during my service, and consider how an organization like the military is disposed towards making mistakes, not to mention how in a such environment one can learn from errors.

In Finland it is mandatory for a man between the ages of 18 and 29 to go through the military service from six months up to a year, depending on the training. The ”system” pushes through 27 000 individuals per year, which requires quite a lot of human resources skills and tolerance of people making mistakes from the system’s point of view, or at least you might expect so.

I did my one year service in the mortar company as a forward observer. I was the foreman for group of five men, and was subordinate for many myself as well. At the early stages of training we (peers) had quite a lot of cognitive challenges in forms of intellectual tasks, tests and lectures. Quite fast, in a time span of 3-4 months, training shifted to teaching, lecturing and training each other under the intensive control of a supervisor who was a staff member of the military. Then after six months the newcomers came and were placed under our supervision.

I was in charge of transferring the newcomers to a Provisioning Center on a regular basis, and one day I was short on time on gathering the men into the assembly area. The staff supervisor noticed that we were late and punished the whole company because of my mistake. We were bullied by the supervisor and ordered to change out garrison gear to battle gear and back over and over again for a considerable period of time. Then after the ”exercise” we had our closets all muddled up, as one could imagine, yet had a closet inspection within a ridiculous time after the ”exercise”. Our lunch time was long bygone.

In all my time of training there had been thousands of mistakes made, dripping with possibilities of learning in a constructive way, but error situations were not discussed. What was left was a mere unattached physically explained negative knowledge and the gut feeling that such an error is to be avoided even though we didn’t know exactly what was the meaning or the ideology behind the error.

In some odd way it is understandable that many actions in warfare are to be made unquestionably for a mass people to function cohesively and effectively, and that those automatic non-cognitive motorized skills are to be trained. In a context learning from errors should mean learning from trial and error via repeated stimulus-response-learning processes (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007) but comes through as a repeated physical exercise that resembles pain. Needless to say in such an environment a mistake or an error can cause dramatic consequences. Nevertheless it seems that there are numerous of wasted possibilities in learning from errors in the military but the environment is too rigid to utilize that information. Instead mistakes are kept silent and avoided at any cost.

The management ideology and training practices in the Finnish military have come a long way in the last ten years. What used to be a sanctuary of behavioristic learning (learning by doing), now is emphasized more on cognitive skills. The cornerstones of a modern military system are 1) trust,  2) inspirational way of motivating, 3) intellectual stimulation and 4) confronting an individual. All in all, the management has moved from managing matters to more or less managing people. Still even though management is more humane than before, mistakes remain a taboo. Behavioristic approach to training generates avoidance strategies that are not open to a cognitive learning (Harteis, C., Bauer, J., Haltia, P. 2007). Things are still learnt through physical motivation in the military training and at the same time the philosophy of ”errors and mistakes equal pain and shame” is fostered and maintained.

CONCLUSIONS

Although these two situations seem to be quite different, there is something they have in common: in both deviant episodes, there is a discomfort with the way mistakes were handled. In the school case, the principal/coordinator got angry and shouted at the person who did the mistake in front of her peers. In the army case, the staff supervisor punished not only the person in charge of getting the group to the assembly area on time, but punished the entire group by forcing them to do a physically demanding and senseless activity during their lunch hour.

In both cases, reactive learning took place by the behavioristic approach: both subjects learned that a certain action brought negative consequences to themselves, such as physical or emotional punishment, and therefore learned to avoid those same actions in the future in order to avoid shame and pain. Thus it is clear that negative knowledge was attained. But it is not clear whether the subjects would be able to transfer that knowledge to other similar situations, as not having been given the opportunity to reflect upon why their actions were wrong, subjects might only develop trivial competence- they would know how to act to avoid consequences in a specific scenario, but without really understanding why they need to act that way other than it bringing them less trouble.

For example, the staff supervisor could have explained why it is essential that in the military training, groups of men develop the ability to speedily transport themselves to different locations within a given time. This might have led the subject to understand that some seemingly harmless mistake, such as tardiness, actually might have big consequences in another same situation within the military. The subject might then start reflecting upon which other skills are essential in a military atmosphere, and engage more actively in the routine. Billett claims that ”Individuals need to find meaning in their activities and value in what is afforded for them to participate and learn” (213), and this can also be seen in the school example. Perhaps if the coordinator had left her anger aside and engaged in a private conversation with the subject, the situation would have become a positive learning experience for both coordinator and teacher. The teacher could have reflected upon the importance of choosing words carefully when dealing with parents in every situation, as well as the importance of working as a team member and behaving professionally regardless of personal disagreements with the way things are handled.

It seems, however, that in both these situations shaming was the strategy the used to deal with a mistake. We believe that other more positive ways might have been more productive and equally illustrative. For further research, we are interested in the role shame plays in learning from mistakes, as well as how shaming as a strategy has varied throughout the years.

REFERENCES

Billett, Stephen. (2001) Learning through work: workplace affordances and individual engagement. Journal of Workplace Learning vol 13 n 5. (209-214) MCB University Press

Gartmeier, M et al. (2008) Negative knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise. Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education. 87-103 doi:10.1007/s12186-008-9006-1

Gruber, H., & Palonen, T. (2007) Learning in the workplace: New developments. Research in Educational Sciences 32. Finland: Finnish Educational Research Association.

Harteis & Bernhardt. (2010). Learning from Errors: ELE 7 Workplace Learning [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://wm.utu.fi/Public/Edu/LLEES%20Master%20programme/?bookmark=split

Harteis, Christian et al. (2008) The culture of learning from mistakes: How employees handle mistakes in everyday work. International Journal of Educational Research. (223-231). doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2008.07.003

Harteis, Bauer & Haltia. (2007). Learning from errors at the workplace – Insights from two studies in Germany and Finland. In Gruber, H. & Palonen, T.  (Eds.), Learning in the workplace: New developments. Research in Educational Sciences 32. (89-103). Finland: Finnish Educational Research Association.

By Gabriel U. Ezechukwu & and Sonya Sahradyan

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are life-long conditions with presumed neurodevelopmental aetiology (Matson & Rivet, 2008). It is classified under The American Psychological Association DSM-IV- TR (2000) as one of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). ASD is consists of classical autism, Asperger’s syndrome (AS) and pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified. Persons with autistic spectrum disorder are quite heterogeneous in their characteristics. While some may experience difficulties in learning, others function on the normal intelligence or cognitive skill level of the general population. Others still may possess exceptionally high cognitive abilities especially in the areas of logics and music and visual arts. This last group is often referred to as autistic servants. However, the underlining features of person with ASD are deficits in social interactions and communication, and the presence of stereotyped behaviors interest and activities (DSM-IV- TR, 2000). The focus of this article is on Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), a part of the autism spectrum. The distinguishing features of people with AS is that they do not experience the delayed language development that is typical of persons with classical autism though they still have problems with pragmatic aspects of language. In addition, people with AS have average or above average intelligence; often defined as having intelligence quotient of 85 and above (Pijnacker et al., 2009).

A quick look at the above paragraph may portray this article as being out of place and better suited for Psychology and Special Education journals and audience. However, professionals in workplace learning and the business world will benefit from this. This is because as already noted; persons with AS often operate at above average intelligence. This means that they are good at what they do. They were exceptional students in school (considering their high scores in academic subjects) and are able to attain expertise in their profession. However, their social and communication inaptitude makes it difficult for them to negotiate the complicated world of work (Foden, 2008a). The life outcome of an adult with AS who has strong intellectual capability may not turn out well. Impairment in his or her social skills may mask his or her talents in the workplace, making him or her vulnerable to job loss and lack of advancement. He or she may be excluded from the better-paying jobs that offer health insurance, paid vacation, and other employee benefits, though she is qualified or even overqualified in terms of job skills (Foden, 2008b).

A second point for consideration is that most of today’s adults with AS are undiagnosed. This means that there are chances that a work colleague may have a problem that he or she is unaware of but which nevertheless affect the atmosphere of the work. There is also the observed tendency of adults with AS to deliberately withhold information about their disability because of the widespread employment discrimination against persons with disabilities (McMahon et al., 2008). One of the purposes of the article is to shed light into the nature of AS and its interaction with work especially teamwork.

THEORETICAL FRAMWORKS

Though there is no clear-cut theoretical framework in which the study of the interplay of work and disability could be based, since like most applied fields, disability and rehabilitation do not have their own theories, but depend on theories from other behavioral and social sciences (Shamar, 2005). There are however a few theories that support the practice of making reasonable accommodations for the effective participation of persons with disability in the workplace. One of such theories is the Amartya Sen’s Capability Theory, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Science in 1998.

The capability Theory emphasizes people’s opportunities to make use of available resources to achieve well-being. (Shamar, 2005) The capability theory is made up of five basic constructs namely character, functioning, wellbeing, capabilities and exchange entitlement. For the purpose of this article, attention will be given only to functioning and capabilities constructs since they are of major implications for working live of persons with disabilities.

In the Sen’s Capability Theory, Capabilities refer to things a person can achieve or could have achieved in life. They are a range of attributes which can either be innate or acquired that help a person to attain a particular goal. When applied to persons with AS, the capability construct highlights the need to explore the potentials of the group to meaningfully contribute to the success of the organization were they ply their trade. According to Shamar (2005) the notion of capability is essentially one of freedom. For persons with AS, this freedom has to do with the acceptance of their unique personality and the liberty to be creative in the quest for expertise.

Another important construct in the Capability Theory with implications for persons with HFA is “Functionings”. Functionings refer to a mixture of “doings” and “beings” or the various options or actions we perform in everyday life to achieve things in life” (Shamar, 2005, p. 127). The unique feature of the Capability Theory is its emphasis on the equality of capability and not functioning. This means that it is not all about what one does and how he or she does it but in the equality of opportunity for self-development and fulfillment that comes from successful career.

The hallmark of the capability theory is its focus on the capabilities or real opportunities that people have in their lives, to achieve things they can and want to achieve. Sen argues for egalitarian access to capabilities for all. Persons with AS are at a disadvantage as the capabilities in their lives are often stunted due to the communication and social limitations imposed by their disability (Shamar, 2005).

This article posits collaborative teamwork as an ideal workplace practice for persons with AS collaborative teamwork is analyzed from the theoretical frameworks of cognitive acquisition of learning and the socio-culturally oriented situative perspective of learning. These are the two main approaches to empirically study and theoretically conceptualize how new knowledge is constructed in social interaction (Leinonen, 2007).

Cognitive perspectives presuppose that an individual extends his or her knowledge as he or she engages in work through the creation of new cognitive structures (Leinonen, 2007). In terms of the different learning metaphors, this falls in line with the knowledge acquisition metaphors which emphasis an individual’s ability to construct knowledge through practice. In Leinonen’s (2007) opinion, the Piagetian theory of the two learning mechanisms, assimilation and accommodation, can be adopted to explain how individuals make sense of the workplace activities in which they interact and how they integrate these experiences into their understanding. With assimilation, an individual makes meaning out of a learning task by reconciling present experience with past experiences while accommodation has to do with the creation of new categories of knowledge from experiences (Piaget, 1985; Leinonen, 2007). In the socio-cultural perspective, learning is conceived as an interactive process of participating in various cultural practices and shared learning activities rather than a simple process of individual knowledge formation (Hakkarainen et al., 2004). Instead of emphasizing an individual’s cognitive processes and knowledge acquisition, in the studies conducted from the socio-cultural perspective, the individuals’ participation in social practices are usually analyzed (Hakkarainen et al., 2004; Gruber et al., 2007). Thus the socio-cultural perspective adopts the participatory metaphor of learning.

The idea behind the adoption of these two theoretical approaches is that the practice of collaborative teamwork requires that an individual engages self advancement in order to benefit from and contribute to team knowledge.  Moreover, neither of the perspectives is limited to either activity by groups or to individuals acting alone (Anderson et al., 2000; Leinonen, 2007).

The process of collaborative learning and work situations will give rise to both an individual’s cognitive development and a group’s or a team’s shared construction of new knowledge. This supports the practice in which aspects from both theories are gradually incorporated in collaborative learning and work studies (Leinonen, 2007). Leinonen (2007) cites one of such studies in which Shirouzu et al. (2002) showed how the key in social construction of new knowledge was an individual’s opportunity to monitor the shared problem-solving situation and the perspectives of others. After monitoring and evaluating others’ perspectives, she or he was able to construct a new knowledge representation and again was able to contribute to the discussion about the shared task.

ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AND WORK

Research on the career lives of persons with AS is new and very few studies have been carried out in this field. Much of what is currently known about career trajectories of this group of persons came from books and articles that relate the personal accounts of persons with AS. (A project is however under way which is aimed at gleaning data from adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/home) These personal accounts are often a tapestry of frustration and anxiety. Their inability to meet the interpersonal and social standards of the workplace imposes severe restrictions on for employment success.

On the other hand, many studies have been carried out on the cognitive and social characteristics of persons with AS. In one study, Chen et al. (2009) investigated the superiority of nonverbal intelligence in children with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome. The result of the study which compared HFA/AS children with chronological age matched peers with typical development found a trend of superior nonverbal performance in Raven’s Test in HFA/AS participants compared to controls, and this “superiority” achieved statistical significance in the HFA/AS subgroup with a FIQ ≥ 90. The result also indicates superior fluid intelligence seemed to exist in individuals both with HFA and with AS.

Whitehouse et al. (2009) researched the relationship between friendship, loneliness and depression in adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome. Relative to the comparison group, the participants with AS reported poorer quality of best-friendship and less motivation to develop friendships. The findings indicate that increased levels of negative affect may be related to the poor quality of social relationships often reported in this population.

In another study, O’connor (2007) examined the ability of adults with Asperger’s syndrome and age-matched typically-developing controls to identify incongruent and congruent emotional information from the face and voice. The result of the study shows that relative to controls, adults with AS were less accurate at distinguishing between congruent and incongruent expressive faces and voices. Both groups obtained similar accuracy to expressive faces and voices presented in isolation. These findings may partially explain some of the difficulties individuals on the autistic spectrum have with social interaction.

Persons with AS often display impairments in both expressive and receptive communication. They may develop an extensive vocabulary, yet lack affect when speaking or use odd words and phrases. Their enthusiasm regarding topics of interest may lead to monologues or overly talkative encounters which others can find tedious. At other times, individuals with AS may seem at a loss of words especially during times of anxiety. They equally have problems with nonverbal communication and the pragmatic use of language(Bloch-Rosen, 1999; Graetz & Spampinato, 2008). Other difficulties according to (Graetz & Spampinato, 2008, p. 21) “include initiating and sustaining a conversation. While the individual with AS may want to follow a given verbal directive, their difficulties in processing auditory information make this an impossible task. This can be especially problematic when the individual with AS is participating in a group discussion and must shift focus from one member to another while interpreting quick verbal messages”. The limitations in communicative competence of persons with AS has severe negative implications for collaborative teamwork.

A difficulty with socialization is the main defining feature of Asperger’s Syndrome.  Persons with AS often want to socialize with others but find the task overwhelming and frustrating. Though individuals AS are aware of other people and are desirous of friendship, they are often (involuntarily) socially isolated because their approaches tend to be inappropriate and peculiar. Graetz & Spampinato (2008) cited Baron-Cohen (1998) as saying that persons with AS lack a “Theory of Mind”, the ability to understand that others may have different thoughts, feelings and interests. This creates a problem in imagining the state of mind of another and a difficulty in understanding the motives of another’s behavior.  Baron-Cohen (1999) however points out that though  AS individual may be able to correctly describe other people’s intentions, emotions, and conventions, they are nevertheless unable to execute this knowledge in a spontaneous and useful manner. Their lack of spontaneity is accounted for by their rigid adherence to the formal rules of behavior. AS persons are often quite eager to relate to others but lack the requisite skills to do so (Klin & Volkmar, 1995).

Meyer (2001) listed some negative work characteristics of persons with AS. It should however be noted that the list is neither exhaustive nor universal to persons with AS;

• Difficulty with teamwork
• Discomfort with completion, poor reaction to loosing
• Difficulties in handling relationships with authority figures
• Difficulties in receiving and giving criticism and correction
• Reluctance to accept positions of authority
• Difficulty in negotiating conflict situations and poor self advocacy skills
• Perfectionism
• Too much concerned about order and appearance of personal work area.
• Daydreaming
• Easily forgetful of the position and location of items and tools
• Low awareness of danger to self and others
• Difficulty starting a project
• Attention to details
• Slowness at work
• Unorthodox work routine
• Enjoyment of routine and repetitive tasks
• Strong reaction to changes in persons, working condition and environment
• Low motivation to perform task of no immediate personal interest
• Unpleasant reaction to interruption, noise and other distracting elements
• Difficulty in writing and making reports
• Strong discomfort with unstructured time and priority
• Punctual in attendance.

COLLABORATIVE TEAMWORK

Levine and Moreland defines a work group, as a group of three or more persons who regularly interact to perform a joint task, who share a common frame of reference, and whose behaviors and outcomes are interdependent (as cited in Leinonen, 2007). This definition can be applied to the concept of “team” in which case the team members who work together to construct new knowledge. It involves the skillful combination of appropriate individual talents with a positive team spirit to achieve results. Salama (N/V)

To describe this kind of team in more detail, conceptualization of a ‘negotiation team’ follows. According to Devine (2002), members of a negotiation team are especially engaged in an intellectual task which is usually fairly structured. To solve their shared task the members of a negotiation team may have critical debates for various reasons, such as their different understandings considering their common goal. In a negotiation team, the primary uncertainty associated with their shared task stems from not knowing how the other team members or the team will act or respond during collaborative activities.

An understanding of collaborative teamwork will also be aided by an understanding of collaborative learning, in which an explicit goal is to build knowledge that helps answer an initial question posed by the group’s shared task or provide group members with a deeper understanding of a topic they are working with. This also applies in a collaborative teamwork context, where a common goal is the aim of two or more persons and who work together to construct new knowledge (Leinonen, 2007).

In collaborative teamwork, is expected that learning occur as a result of the collaboration. The new knowledge that occur presupposes that “participating individuals share their own point of views, internalize others’ presented point of views, contribute to discussions with new points and draw together conclusions about their shared understanding of the problem at hand” (Leinonen, 2007).

BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE TEAMWORK FOR PERSONS WITH ASPERGER’S SYNDROME

Though we were not able to find any study that addressed the benefits of teamwork for persons with AS, few case studies on workplace learning for persons with similar disabilities supports this. In two of the case studies carried out by National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE, 2010) on the work-based learning of persons with Pervasive Development Disorders under which AS falls, cited participators as reporting that they “enjoyed working as a team with everybody and also being able to do things independently of others”. In some cases, they are encouraged to buddy up so that they can support one another

The paucity of empirical studies about the work lives of persons with AS makes this work a little more difficult. However, ideas from the personal accounts of adults with AS, their known characters and the well researched benefits of collaborative teamwork will provide insight in this regard.

It is rather ironic that individuals with AS do not like teamwork. Nevertheless, their dislike of teamwork stems from their experience of misunderstanding and sometimes, outright dislike by other people. It may also be as a result of negative self-concept that developed as a result of their communicative and social incompetency. Thus for collaborative teamwork to be mutually beneficial, individual team members must try to understand and respect the individual differences of one another especially, their atypical team member. If this is done, the team member with AS who wants to talk and make friends, but is limited in his or her ability to do so will be encouraged to associate and socialize within the work context. This is one way in which collaborative teamwork benefits persons with AS.

Collaborative teamwork also has the potentials of improving the work habits of persons with AS. Once in a context where there is mutual trust and acceptance, the AS persons tend to be more open to correction and criticism and also feels free to offer advice and suggestions. Since collaborative teamwork does not emphasize competition but cooperation, the AS person will be able to work at his or her own pace while the motivation for collaboration will encourage him or her to complete assign tasks on time. Moreover, technical deficiencies in work if any can be corrected within the team in a manner that is supportive rather than evaluative.

Furthermore, a good team-spirit will encourage the AS person to freely share his or her insight about the task at hand with colleagues thus contributing to the team’s shared knowledge. Since collaborative teamwork provides a working context for trial of ideas, the AS person feels free to share his or her ideas which can be tested against those of other team mates. Particular work characteristics of AS persons that could be beneficial for collaborative teamwork are the attention to details and derive for perfection. The team can explore these to ensure that the final output is of acceptable quality.

Finally, collaborative teamwork encourages close relationships and friendships. The more people work together with a common goal, the more they get to know and appreciate one another. For the AS person, the opportunity of having people who understand and accept him or her will open up the social dimension of learning which hitherto was closed as a result of his or her disability. This will equally go a long way in attaining his or her career potentials.

REFERENCES

Anderson, J., Greeno, J., Reder, L., & Simon, H. (2000). Perspectives of Learning, Thinking, and Activity. Educational Researcher, 29(4), 11-13.

Bloch-Rosen, S. (1999). Asperger’s Syndrome, High Functioning Autism, and Disorders of the Autistic Continuum. Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 18.08, from www.aspergersyndrome.com/html/research_paper.html

Chen F., Planche P., and Lemonnier, E. (2009). Superior Nonverbal Intelligence in Children With High-Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4 (3), 457-460.

Devine, D. J. (2002). A Review and Integration of Classification Systems Relevant to Teams in Organizations. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6(4), 291-310.

Foden, T. J. (2008a). Adults with ASDs: Where are They Now? Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 8.54, from  http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/articles/adults_with_asds_where_are_they_now

Foden, T. J. (2008b). Adult Employment: Strangers in a Strange Land. Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 8.56, from http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/articles/strange_land

Graetz, J. E. & Spampinato, K. (2008). Asperger’s Syndrome and the Voyage through High School: Not the Final Frontier. Journal of College Admission, 198, 19-24.

Gruber, H., Palonen, T., Monika, R., & Lehtinen, E. (2007). Understanding the Nature of expertise: Individual knowledge, Social Resources and Cultural Context. In Gruber, H. & Palonen, T. (eds.) Learning in the workplace – New Developments.

Hakkarainen, K., Palonen, T., Paavola, S. & Lehtinen, E. (2004). Communities of Networked Expertise.Professional and Educational Perspective. London, Elservier.

Leinonen, P. (2007). Interpersonal Evaluation of Knowledge in Distributed Team Collaboration. An unpublished PhD Thesis presented, with the assent of the Faculty of Education of the University of Oulu.

Matson, T. L. & Rivet, T. T. (2008). Characteristics of Challenging Behaviours in Adults with Autistic Disorder, PDD-NOS, and Intellectual Disability. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 33 (4), 323-329.

McMahon, B. T., Roessler, R., Rumrill, P. D., Hurley, J. E., West, S. L., Chan, F. & Carlson L. (2008). Hiring Discrimination against People with Disabilities under the ADA: Characteristics of Charging Parties. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 18 (2), 122-132.

Meyer, R. N. (2001). Asperger Syndrome Employment Workbook: An Employment Workbook for Adults with Asperger Syndrome. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. (2010).  Developing Blended Learning Tools for NVQ Assessors and Developing Support for Learners with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities in Work-based Learning. Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 21.15, from http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/f/i/file_3_10.pdf

O’Connor, K. (2007). Brief Report: Impaired Identification of Discrepancies between Expressive Faces and Voices in Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome.  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(10). Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 8.32, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/ym75778j51217214/

Pijnacker, J., Hagoort, P.,  Buitelaar, J.,  Teunisse, B. & Geurts, B.(2009). Pragmatic Inferences in High Functioning Adults with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Autism Development Disorder, 39, 607 – 618.

Salama, R. (date not available). Motivation towards Teamwork.    Retrieved on 25-11-2010, by 20.12, from www.pitt.edu/~super4/36011-37001/36041.ppt

Sharma, M. (2005). Reifying Capability Theory in Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 16 (2), 125.

Volkmar, F. R., & Klin, A. (1995). Validity and Neuropsychological Characterization of Asperger Syndrome: Convergence with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 36(7), 1127-1140.

Whitehouse, A. O., Durkin K., Jaquet E. &  Ziatas K. (2009). Friendship, Loneliness and Depression in Adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome. Journal of Adolescence, 32(2), 309-322.

Kyriacou (1998) in his book called Essential teaching skills emphasizes how “the art of successful teaching” is related to “developing decision-making skills and action skills” (p.1). He lists the three key characteristics of the nature of teaching skills as follows:

1. They involve purposeful and goal-directed behaviour.
2. Their level of expertise is evidenced by the display of precision, smoothness and sensitivity to context.
3. They can be improved by training and practice (p.2).

Among the key characteristics mentioned above, the third item particularly captures my attention.  The concept of improvement through training and practice is essential and might encourage teachers to take a step forward for their professional development. I am an advocate of the idea of continuous engagement in the development of expertise in the field of teaching. As teachers, we play important roles in the learning outcomes of our students and therefore, we need frequent training and practice. In addition, this continuous interest in professional development through training and practice is likely to improve the quality of education in our institutions.

The need for further professional growth or development of expertise in teaching can be explained by the concept of “flow” I experience when I teach. The term introduced by Csikszentmihalyi refers to “an experience of sustained pleasure that he found to be reported by artists of all kinds, athletes, scientists, mountain climbers and many others, when they were absorbed in an activity…” (as cited in Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993,  p.103).  Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) point out the resemblance of flow with the process of expertise in their book called Surpassing ourselves: An inquiry into the nature and implications of expertise. The experience of flow is likely to encourage us to be more active and determined to take the initiative to continuously raise the quality in our teaching.

This paper focuses on fostering development of expertise through Critical Friends Group (CFG). The first part of the paper introduces the definition and characteristics of expertise and experts, skill acquisition and development of expertise. The second part focuses on CFG and a small project I conducted using this model at the Language Centre of the University of Turku where I am currently working as a visiting language instructor.

Definition of expertise and expert

In the cognitive sciences, the concept of expertise is defined as “a well-organized body of accessible and useful domain-specific knowledge, which an agent draws upon and adds to, in effectively solving complex problems (Chi et al. 1982; Ericsson & Lehmann 1996; Ericsson & Smith 1991; Glaser & Chi 1988 studies cited in Hakkarainen, Palonen, Paavola & Lehtinen, 2004, p.17). Bransford, Brown and Cocking (1999) define the same concept as being “able to think effectively about problems” in particular domains (p.19). Following their definition of expertise, it is essential at this point to understand who they consider as experts. Bransford et al. (1999) identify experts as the ones who “have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment” (p.19). Tsui (2003) who carried out a study on expertise in teaching sheds a light on the concept and elaborates on identification of expert teachers and the development of expertise. In her description of experts, Tsui (2003:1) states:

When we say people are experts in their profession, we expect them to possess certain qualities, such as being very knowledgeable in their field; being able to engage in skilful practice; and being able to make accurate diagnoses, insightful analyses, and the right decisions, often within a very short period of time.

Johnson (2010) who also focuses on the domain of teaching defines an expert “as someone who is particularly skilled in a specific area, and the study of expertise looks at what characteristics experts possess, what procedures they follow, and how they differ from non experts” (p.217).

However, when it comes to giving a definition of expertise and experts in the field of teaching, one must be careful as the definitions of these concepts are rather relative. Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) emphasize the difficulty of identifying expert teachers by indicating “everyone can and does teach in some fashion” (p.6).  Berliner (2001) also draws our attention to the difficulty on the definition of expert teachers due to the “lack of objective criteria” and the possibility of several factors affecting teachers’ performances such as the conditions of the workplace.

Another key issue is the importance of understanding cultural differences. A teacher who may be thought as an expert in one culture may not be appreciated in another one. Alexander’s (2001) research elaborates on this issue and gives a better picture on how perceptions change from culture to culture. Berliner (2001) also supports the significance of taking the cultural differences into consideration when identifying expert teachers. Tsui (2003) too, shares the same concern on how cultural differences may affect what is described as expertise and expert teachers. Rich (1993) reminds us that “[n]ot all expert teachers are cut from the same cloth” (p.146). He thinks some teachers may easily shift their pedagogical expertise to novel situations and environments and adapt quickly whereas some others may not be so comfortable with the change.

Characteristics of expertise and expertise

In the previous section, various definitions of expertise and experts from the well-known researchers related to the field were introduced. To further clarify the concept, this section will first give a general introduction regarding the attributes of expertise and experts and then focus on the field of teaching.

Understanding the concept of expertise is crucial because it gives us insights and creates awareness on how experts think and go through the process when they solve problems. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) refer to this stage as the “Hamlet model of decision-making – the detached, deliberative and sometimes agonizing selection among alternatives – is the only one recognized in much of the academic literature on the psychology of choice” (p.28). However, Johnson (2005) refutes Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and argues that ‘agonising selection among alternatives’ is a trait of non-experts. Tsui (2003) in her study, stresses on the fact that expertise has attracted the attention of researchers’ from the field of education and focuses on the concept of expertise in the domain of teaching and identifies the characteristics of expert teachers. She points out that some teachers can reach their students’ minds and predict the problems they may have. Such teachers know how to maintain their students’ attention. Tsui (2003) also states that these teachers have a way of teaching which seems effortless and fluid which comes as automatic due to their experiences.

Based on the research on expertise in teaching, Berliner (2001:472) lists the “validated prototypical set of features of expert teachers”.

• expert teachers excel mainly in their own domain and in particular contexts;
• expert teachers develop automaticity for the repetitive operations that are needed to accomplish their goals;
• expert teachers are more opportunistic and flexible in their teaching than are novices;
• expert teachers are more sensitive to the task demands and social situations surrounding them when solving problems;
• expert teachers represent problems in qualitatively different ways than do novices;
• expert teachers have faster and more accurate pattern recognition capabilities;
• expert teachers perceive more meaningful patterns in the domain in which they are experienced; and
• expert teachers may begin to solve problems slower, but they bring richer and more personal sources of information to bear on the problems that they are trying to solve.

Skill acquisition and development of expertise

“Probably no one is naïve enough to believe that there could be some general method, encapsulated in a book with a money-back guarantee, which would enable one to by-pass novicehood in any chosen field and go directly to being an expert”  (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993, p.16). I think this sentence expresses straightforwardly the difficulty of going through the process of expertise. Amirault and Branson (2006) in The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance introduce the short history of theories and models in the field of educators and expertise and how the acquisition of expertise became a theme of interest particularly among cognitive psychologists, whose attempt was finding out the reasons for better human performance. Ericsson (2006) emphasizes the term “deliberate practice” which requires learner’s full attention in order to surpass the boundaries and reach the defined goal. Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993) emphasize that Dreyfus and Dreyfus “provide the most thoughtful elaboration of the conventional view, [and] identify five stages of progress toward expertise (p.17). “As human beings acquire a skill through instruction and experience, they do not appear to leap suddenly from rule-guided ‘knowing that’ to experience based ‘know how” (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986: p.19).  Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) studied how people in different domains including adult learners of a second language acquire the necessary skills and observed a common pattern in all cases which they call the five stages of skill acquisition: Novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency and expertise. Since developing one’s skills takes time and commitment, it is essential at this point to consider how one can improve his/her skills using certain models. As teachers, we are fortunate because we work with people who we can cooperate with and learn from. Bowman and McCormick (as cited in Vo & Nguyen, 2010, 207) “content that collaboration among teachers is a valued and often necessary factor for effective schooling because it fosters expert instruction”.

Critical Friends Group (CFG)

“The Critical Friends Group (CFG) brings together teachers at all levels of experience to prompt and support one another’s professional growth” (Franzak, 2002:259).

Commonly used protocols involve looking at student work in which a teacher brings a sample of student work and presents the work along with a focusing question. Members of the group then take turns describing and hypothesizing about the work while the presenting teacher takes notes. After several rounds of comments, the presenting teacher shares what she found useful in the conversation. Then the group debriefs the entire process. Protocols used for peer observation involve two teachers using a predetermined format and focus for observing each other’s teaching. Problem-solving protocols open with the presenter asking a question about a specific dilemma. Participants then ask probing questions and discuss the problem among themselves while the presenter takes notes until the discussion is finished,  at which point the presenter shares what she heard that was useful or important for her dilemma. All CFG protocols use specific turn-taking rules, and the feedback given is observational, not judgmental. (Franzak, 2002:261)

Bambino (2002) expresses how the lessons in a coaches’ training program for building collaboration and reflection among colleagues —a Critical Friends Group (CFG) have changed her life.  She further explains that CFG focuses on several protocols which may help teachers to collaborate and reflect in order to improve both the student outcomes and the teachers’ work. Bambino (2002) highlights the concept as “critical” because educators are faced with challenges in order to improve the way they teach.  However, she also indicates that educators should not be threatened when they are involved in such a group. Andreu, Canos, de Juana, Manresa, Rienda and Tari  (2003) in their project refer to the same tool which Costa and Kallick describe “as an assessment [which] requires someone who will provide new lenses through which learners can refocus on their work” (as cited in Andreu et al., 2003:32). Andreu et al. (2003) formed a group of six lecturers from the Department of Business Management. As the members of the group, they went through the process of identifying their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their teaching. The idea was to focus on the teacher’s work in order to improve students’ learning. Vo and Nguyen (2010) also point out the positive effect of CFG on teacher’s professional development and student outcomes. In their pilot research Vo and Nguyen (2010) aimed to find out the experiences and reflections of a group of EFL teachers in Vietnam during their involvement in a CFG.

Franzak (2002), Bambino (2002), Andreu et al. (2003), Vo and Nguyen (2010) indicate positive findings on CFG. However, there are varying opinions on the number of people that will form CFG. Moreover, different authors in the field suggest various ideas on how often and how long the meetings should be. According to Franzak (2002) CFG should consist of 10 to 12 teachers who meet for at least two hours a month whereas Andreu et al. (2003) suggest a smaller group size which is about four to ten members who meet periodically.  At this point, I do not think the number of members is an issue as long as they are willing to collaborate and work towards the philosophy of the CFG.

The project

In one of the staff meetings we have had this semestre at my current institution; our new director introduced the objectives and strategies of the Language Centre both for the current and coming academic years. One of the points he mentioned was “Peer observation” which reminded me of CFG. Personally, I was very enthusiastic about the possibility of being involved in such a project. Right after the staff meeting, a colleague and I had a conversation and agreed on observing each other’s classes in order to see if we could come up with some reflections and see the feasibility of the observations. At the beginning of our mini project my colleague and I had a pre-observation meeting where we discussed the process and the criteria. We have agreed to use the protocol for peer observation. Data were collected through classroom observations. I observed four of his classes (each lasting two hours). Post-observation meetings were conducted after each class. During these meetings, we focused on the following items based on my observations:

• Selection and use of instructional materials
• Educational climate for learning
• Variety of instructional activities
• Instructional methods
• Student participation
• Teacher’s responsiveness to student participation

In pre-and post-observation meetings, both my colleague and I had a relaxed attitude and there were friendly exchanges. My colleague was very cooperative and open-minded and positive about being a part of the observation. His reflections on the experience were sincere and positive.

As the observer, I enjoyed CFG experience, learned new instructional techniques and had a chance to exchange professional ideas.

Conclusion

CFG may help build collaboration among colleagues, create opportunities to learn from one another, increase motivation, and eventually lead to better student outcomes. Andreu et al. (2003) highlight the necessity of getting teachers at universities to work on their professional development. They are aware that not all teachers can be expected to participate in such a program however; still it may be possible to inspire a majority of them to be involved in such a group in order to improve their teaching. They also strongly suggest that universities integrate these programs in their quality plans.

You might have begun your teaching career recently or been teaching for years. If your goal is to improve the quality of your teaching, develop your expertise and help your students achieve better learning outcomes, you may want to consider initiating or joining a Critical Friends Group in your institutions.

References

Alexander, R. (2001). Culture and pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education, Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Amirault, R. J. & Branson, R. K. (2006) Educators and expertise: A brief history of theories and models. In K. A.Ericsson et al., (Eds.) The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert   performance. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 69–86.

Andreu, R., Canos, L., de Juana, S., Manresa, E., Rienda, L. & Tari, J. J. (2003). Critical friends: A tool for quality improvement in universities. Quality Assurance in Education, 11(1), 31-6.

Bambino, D. (2002). Critical friends. Redesigning professional development, 59(6), 25-27. Retrived from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar02/vol59/num06/Critical-Friends.aspx.

Bereiter, C. & Scardamalia, M. (1993). Surpassing ourselves: An inquiry into the nature and implications of expertise, Chicago IL: Open Court.

Berliner, D. C. (2001). Learning about and learning from expert teachers. International Journal of Educational Research, 35, 463-482.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school, Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over machine. The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. New York: The Free Press.

Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance. In K. A.Ericsson et al., (Eds.) The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 683-703

Franzak, J. K. (2002). Developing a teacher identity: The impact of critical friends practice on the student teacher. English Education, 34(4), 256-61.

Hakkarainen, K., Palonen, T., Paavola, S. & Lehtinen, E. (2004). Communities of networked expertise: Professional and educational perspectives. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Johnson, K. (2010). Expertise in language learning and teaching. ELT Journal, 64(2), 217-218.

Johnson, K. (Ed.) (2005). Expertise in second language learning and teaching. New York, N.Y: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kyriacous, C. (1998). Essential teaching skills. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Rich, Y. (1993). Stability and change in teacher expertise. Teaching and Teacher Education 9(2), 137-146.

Tsui, A.B.M. (2003). Understanding expertise in teaching: Case studies of EFL teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vo, L. T. & Nguyen, H. T. M. (2010). Critical friends group for EFL teacher professional development. ELT Journal, 64(2), 205-213.

Introduction

By the end of the 19^th century, together with the first steps of psychology as a separate branch of science away from philosophy and sociology the first theories for learning started to appear. For the following decades behaviorism, one of the first and most important theoretical approaches in psychology which has definitely left its mark to the field, was trying to study, understand and explain how people learn. That legacy of the previous century became the base for many theories which are developed even in our days.

At the same time, in Europe the Industrial Revolution had already begun. As we all know the development of technology during that period was radical and as a result not only our scientific knowledge was enriched but also mankind’s quality of life was increased extremely. But probably the most important inheritance of the Industrial Revolution was the fact that it was then when the foundations of modern capitalism had been put. Increase of productivity, efficiency and of course profits were the main aim of all huge companies and investors. Consequently, industry and enterprises called up except for the natural sciences such like physics, chemistry and more, social sciences and mainly psychology to help them in that race of development and profits. Psychology could offer knowledge about things people had never counted and though before in correlation with working procedure. Because of that, psychology found its own place among with the other social sciences. One of the children born from the unification of Economy-Industry and Psychology-Social Sciences was the field of workplace learning which practically and simply examines how people are learning in their working environment. Additionally, from the beginning of 20^th century, effective management theories coming from different schools and backgrounds were stated and tested for the first time, such us Taylor’s scientific management theory and Mayo’s theory which focused on the relationship between people.

Supportive and friendly working environment

Together with these, many other theories from different fields have been proposed and tried to explain in the best possible way which are the factors affecting learning in workplaces. These theories are mainly divided in two major categories: Those who focus on individuals (e.g. Ericsson’s deliberate practice theory) and those who are looking one step further and focus on the interaction in working place and the social context. Of course it is usually censurable to set these boarders and separate the action field of a major theory but this split up of the main directions helps to understand better where each theory applies the most, in the individual or in the social aspect of working place.

Where we would like to stray our attention in this essay, is the social dimension of workplace learning. In the beginning we will look through theories which apply in workplace learning and then we are going to examine what is happening if the working environment does not support learning since supportive working places are not always the occasion. Especially in the middle of a financial crisis where companies are trying to be efficient and employers are trying to keep their job in the fear of unemployment, the opportunities for workplace learning are limited anyway. But before examining the hostile environment in work it would be useful to see what could happen in a friendly and supportive working environment.

The authors strongly believe that any kind of working environment is deeply social which automatically means that employers in every workplace have to interact with their colleagues or the organization itself and through that interaction, learning takes place. Even in occasions when the individual develops himself for his profession outside the workplace he is forced by reality to bring that knowledge in the working environment and use it in that context. Acquired knowledge which cannot be used and communicated is useless so, workplace learning seems to be social oriented and in the next paragraphs we will prove all the above by looking at theories which support that point of view.

The first evidence of learning in a supportive working environment comes from the theories which support the role of social influence. Result of a supportive environment could be a quality transactive memory (Wegner 1985) of the organization members and therefore the creation of a productive environment where everyone knows who is better and in which task. It is a fact that every organization and working place is a small community with special characteristics. This means that in a workplace where the members are interacting and knowing better each other both in a personal and in a professional level then, a metacognitive knowledge of the total capacity of the workplace is developed which helps not only the organization but the working quality of the employers.

As we saw, if people actively seek for it, the working environment can become a live community which can be beneficial for everyone who participates. In this frame we can have also communities of practice (Wenger & Lave 1991) when the employers interact informally every day and they share their knowledge, experience and thoughts. That could enhance the metacognition of the group and the transactive memory of it as well.

It is also really useful in workplace learning to have a teacher or someone like mentor. That idea comes close to Rogoff’s theory for guided participation. In many organizations the administration in an official way assigns these teachers who are usually the older population of the place to the newbies in order to help them deal with the issues which might rise the first weeks. In a non-official way and through the relationships between the workmates which can be developed in a supportive working environment, teachers might be next to some other colleagues and informally share their knowledge and their experience with their apprentices promoting the workplace learning.

Moreover, network theories could be also useful to explain how a supportive environment in work promotes learning. As discussed in these theories each person carries his knowledge and as a result his own network in the workplace. That means that every individual in the workplace consists of a bridge between different groups of people and knowledge fields. In a supportive working environment every person is possible to enrich the knowledge of the workplace and especially the newbies can become knowledge breakers (Burt, 1999; Moreland, 1999) and build new social bridges which benefit their workmates and the organization in general. From another perspective, Cross, Rice & Parker discussed the benefits when asking for help from another person promoting in that way the general idea of networks in workplace learning.

Last but not least we have to discuss the necessity and the contribution of the organization for successful and efficient workplace learning. It seems like except for the rest social perspectives of learning in working environments the role of the organization plays a huge part too (Billet, 2001). These theories summon the dual bases model (Billet, 2001) for workplace learning and demand the participation of both the organization and the employers to occur. The idea behind the theory is that the organization has to create opportunities for learning and take actions towards that direction. On the other hand the individual has to take advantage of the existing available opportunities and engage (Billet, 2001) by grasping them. In that occasion we have a combination of the specific characteristics of the individual and the affordance (Billet, 2001) the workplace can offer. We have to underline that in order for this model to work successfully it is important both parts to participate actively and equally.

As we have seen active participation from the employers can promote workplace learning and if the organization helps then learning has the best odds to occur. But life is not so convenient and most of the times neither the organization nor the colleagues and the relationship between the employers are available. What is happening then? That’s what we are going to discuss in the rest of this paper.

Hostile working environment

Though workplace theoretically should provide substantial opportunities for learning to their workers, which is acknowledged throughout the world, and workplace learning has actually drawn increasing attention, it is undeniable that due to various reasons, lack of funds, for example, hostile environments still exists in certain workplaces up to date. According to Gustavo Guzman, hostile work environments are defined as related to both organizational and social contexts. From the organizational perspective, hostile environments results from tight division of labor, task fragmentation and the existence of vertical supervisory hierarchies. From the social perspective, hostile environments mean low inter-personal trust and unwillingness of experts to mentor novices (2008). Clearly, both organizational and social environments of the workplace can vastly influence the learning processes and outcomes of individual employees.

Organizational perspective

In many an organizationally hostile workplace, the division of labor, task fragmentation and vertical supervisory hierarchies are manifest, which imply that the individual learning opportunities are severely restricted compared to other employee-friendly workplaces. Because workers are highly likely to do the same type of job for most of their working time under such working conditions and environments. Consequently they are quite familiar with a certain skill for a job and they might tend to lose opportunities to develop other work-related skills from a wider respect; it in turn restricts the employees’ mobility. In manufacturing industry, for example, less-skilled workers are likely to do exactly repeated jobs for many years. What they have learned is perhaps simply mechanical repetitive skills, and this is evident not in the interests of personal development, not to mention coping with the ever-changing work demands. Survey research already suggests that employers invest less in training lower level workers, and consequently, these groups have fewer (formal) training opportunities than their more senior and secure peers (Beinart and Smith 1998, La Valle and Blake 2001).

The division of labor, task fragmentation and vertical supervisory hierarchies also seriously discourage employees’ learning intention. People nowadays are more aware of the need of updating their work-related skills; however, if employees perceive that they are competent at their jobs, their learning subjectivity can dramatically decrease. Let us imagine at a hostile workplace, worker A is assigned job of type A while worker B is assigned job of type B. Over time they are eventually capable of successfully fulfilling their own share of job, and there are no more requirements of other work skills from them, because the division of labor is clear-cut, and the task fragmentation of task is also strict. All wanted from both A and B are only performing their specifically set tasks. Then it will be challenging for them to keep learning at workplace, for not all people are highly self-motivated, especially without clear goals in their minds or without definite requirements from them, or without the sense of urgency.

Social perspective

M. Weber, one of the most important sociologists in the first half of the 20th century, defined “social acting” in a way, that the sense of the action is related to others’ behavior (Weber, 1922). Social environment plays a very important role in how employees behave and think at workplace. Thus social environment invariably weighs heavy against informal learning among employees, especially between the skillful and the less-skillful. Concerning informal learning, learning-by-observing is largely employed, but it has limitations under this hostile work environment. As mentioned above, the situation of low inter-personal trust and unwillingness of experts to mentor novices surrounds hostile workplace; it is realistically difficult for novices to obtain essential practical knowledge through certain types of informal learning, such as observing or consulting other more skillful coworkers. In a workplace of vertical supervisory hierarchies, it is clear to employees that the more exclusive skills they possess the more power or higher hierarchy they hold; as a result such situation further creates and propelled keeping skills or expertise to themselves among skilled employees—they are unwilling to teach or help their counterparts master any skills, in fear that other less-skilled coworkers are able to share the similar remuneration or working status with themselves. Under work environment like this, it is difficult for new comers or novices to learn effectively at the workplace.

Another phenomenon should be taken into account is age discrimination. The term, age discrimination here, refers to the reduced organizational or formal opportunities of learning for older employees. It is not uncommon that older employees tend to be left behind when it comes to personal and professional developments of the workforce.

Potential learning channels

Employees are able to expand their repertoire of professional skills by engaging in a number of formal learning activities and informal learning activities as well under hostile working environments. Employees can attend relevant learning programmes at their own expenses, though which is not common within workforce in many parts of the world; this tendency, however, is gaining momentum, especially in highly self-propelled groups of workers, for they feel the need to update personal professional skills and expertise to better adapt to this ever-changing world.

According to a survey, conducted by Shelley A. Berg and Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, the most frequently used type of informal learning was reflecting on the previous knowledge and actions (2008). Reflecting is highly likely to be a means of improving professional knowledge and skills. Donald Alan Schön emphasized that reflection is a way in which professionals can bridge the theory-practice gap, based on the potential of reflection to uncover knowledge in and on action (Schön 1983). Reflective learning is the process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which reacts and clarifies meaning in terms of self and which results in a changed conceptual perspective (Boyd & Fales, 1983). In the context of learning, reflection is a generic term for intellectual and affective activities, in which individuals engage their experience to create and clarify meaning in terms of self, and which results in a changed conceptual perspective (Boud et al., 1985).

Reading relevant journals, trial and error, and web-based learning are also alternative vehicles of learning. By reading professional journals one are able to know the latest advancement and development in his/her working area, to get in touch with technological progress, and thus broadens one’s horizon and keep fresh professional mind. Nowadays people have great access to most information they need through the Internet. With regard to learning, the net provides vast professional techniques and information to ordinary people, it is possible to learn as much knowledge as one wishes through the net, but our epistemic beliefs might set boundaries to this kind of learning. Though in hostile workplace, it is difficult to get help from other coworkers concern learning, trial and error can greatly facilitate employees to learn, which involves trying several possibilities and learning from mistakes. Learning will speed up if people combine some of the methods mentioned above. Let us imagine, through trial and error, one knows what are wrong, then read relevant journals or reading information on the net, it is highly likely that huge amount knowledge will be filled into the mind.

In hostile workplace, the processes of learning might be more difficult; the determination and energy of learning might be called for from employees, for the learning resources or supportive factors are reduced. Be that as it may, workplace learning can still take place, even in hostile working environments.

References

Books and Journals

• Beinart, S., & Smith, P. (1998). National Adult Learning Survey 1997, Research Report 49.  (Nottingham:Department for Education and Employment).
• Billet, S. (2001). Learning through work: workplace affordances and individual engagement. Journal of Workplace Learning. Volume 13(5) pp. 209-214.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. London: Kogan Page.
• Boyd, E., & Fales, A. (1983). Reflective learning key to learning from experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 23(2), pp. 99-117.
• Gustavo, G., (2008). Sharing practical knowledge in hostile environments: a case study, Journal of Workplace Learning，20(3), p.196. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1464256831).
• La Valle, I., & Blake, M. (2001). National Adult Learning Survey (NALS) 2001, Research Report 321 (Nottingham: Department for Education and Skills).
• Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How practitioners think in action. New York: Basic Books.
• Shelley A. B., & Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung. (2008). Factors that influence informal learning in the workplace. Journal of Workplace Learning, 20(4), p. 234.  Retrieved November 11, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1484477891).
• Δικαίος, Κ., Κουτούζης, Μ., Πολύζος, Ν., Σιγάλας, Ι., & Χλέτσος, Μ. (1999). Βασικές Αρχές Διοίκησης Διαχείρισης (Management) Υπηρεσιών Υγείας. Ενότητα 1.2., ΕΑΠ: Πάτρα.

Presentations

• Ketterl, K., & Hirschmann, M. (2010) Workplace Learning, LLEES: University of Turku
• Palonen, T., (2010). Skill acquisition and development of expertise, LLEES: University of Turku

Websites

• http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/Wegner,%20Giuliano,%20&%20Hertel%20%281985%29%20Cognitive%20interdependence.pdf
• http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm

Due to the process of globalisation it becomes more and more essential for companies of all branches to be adaptive toward the requirements of the markets. A well-known example for this circumstance is the trade rivalry between the famous companies Apple and Microsoft in order to get the predominance at the global operating-system-market. Therefore are employees needed, who are competent and motivated to learn on their workplaces with the aim to improve the competitiveness of their companies. Furthermore the rapid technical progress is a major part of current workplaces, which underline the exigency of workplace learning.

The results of a great amount of researches imply the value of the self determination theory for workplace learning. That is the reason why techniques like motivational interviewing and the screening instrument for learning conditions (SILC) are based on this approach.

Initially we will define workplace learning and explain the ways how this process can occur. After this we will expose the basic aspects of motivation. Based on this the Organismic Integration Theory of Deci and Ryan will be stated as well as the implications for workplace learning. Afterwards fundamentals and deduction for the given topic of the self determination theory will be clarified. Based on this information the SILC will follows with the development procedure and the structure of the instrument. Subsequently the assumptions and according to these the techniques of motivational interviewing will be presented. Finally the conclusion will be summarizing the significant perceptions in order to solve the given problem.

1. Theoretical backround

In generally workplace learning contains all „ […] processes and outcomes of learning that individual employees and groups of employees undertake under the auspices of a particular workplace […]” in order to improve “[…] knowledge and understandings, and skills that have relevance for a particular workplace.” (Holliday, 1998, p.15)

Eraut (2000) identified tree ways how workplace learning can occur, which differ under each other in their intentionally and consciousness. The most intentional and conscious one is the deliberative learning. In contrast to this is reactive learning, which is noticeable after a specific event, for example a mistake during the work. This kind of learning is predominantly spontaneous and the “level of intentionality” (Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 71) can vary between people and events. The last way that was identified is the implicit learning, which occurs unintentional and unconscious. Occasionally a person is even not aware about the outcome.

According to Bauer, Rehrl and Harteis (2007) a huge amount of evidence are traceable, that learning in the workplace takes place mostly in the last mentioned way.

The 3 ways of the permanent process workplace learning can be found in formal settings, but rather more in informal settings. These are characterised due to a lack of external control, organisation and guidance. Therefore a high degree of self-regulation is needed, because learning in this setting is mainly self-directed and voluntary. But independent of the way or the setting of learning, they all share one base: Motivation.

Motivation in general is defined as “the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal”. (wordreference, 2010) Therefore it can be seen as a reason for actions with an aim and why they are differing under each other for example in direction and persistence. To sum up the value of this psychological term in the words of Deci and Ryan (2000, p. 69): “Motivation produces”.  One of the most profitable products is the biological, social and cognitive regulation of persons. Due to the fact, that motivation is caused by activated motives, it is the link between these and actions.

It is current common to divide the even mentioned psychological construct into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation, also known under term “high-quality Motivation”(Bauer, Rehrl & Harteis, 2007, p.14), correlate with learning achievement in a positive way.( Schiefele and Schreyer, 1994). This awareness becomes even more crucial due to the already mentioned fact, that workplace learning occurs mostly voluntary and self-directed. Therefore it is especially relevant to improve the intrinsic motivation of a person in order to foster the outcomes of workplace learning.

This kind of motivation is only noticeable when interest, enjoyment and inherent satisfaction are the relevant regulatory processes of people proceedings. That implies that the locus of causality of an action is internal, which leads to intrinsic regulation, which is also known under the term self-regulation. In contrast to this external regulation, for example compliance to other persons, external rewards or punishments, results in extrinsic motivation, because the locus of causality is external.  This causes significant differences in the quality of actions. According to Deci and Ryan (1991) people who are intrinsic motivated, have a higher degree of performance, persistence and creativity in their activities then people, who are extrinsic motivated.

The Organismic Integration Theory of Deci and Ryan (1985) provides an even more differenced view of motivation, because it is seen as continuum between amotivation, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Furthermore it emphasizes different regulatory styles as a possible result of external motivation: external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation and integrated regulation. What style appears is caused by the perceived locus of causality, which can differ from external to internal. Due to the fact, that “[…] self-directed learning consist of a set of integrated values, motivations, beliefs and knowledge structures, that where either intrinsic to people or […] internalised “it can be said that integrated regulation is the most important one of the previously mentioned for workplace learning. This most autonomous kind of extrinsic motivation is only traceable, if external regulation are completely assimilated with the values of a person, but they are still caused from external regulation, because “[…] they are done to attain separable outcomes rather there are inherent enjoyment”. (Deci and Ryan, 2000, p.71) Therefore is promoting of the internalization of extrinsic motivation as well as the improvement of intrinsic motivation itself advisable.

2. Self-determination theory

Self-Determination-Theory (SDT) deals with the motivation and the personality of humans. This approach provides information, which conditions must be fulfilled for occurring ones feeling of self-determination. SDT is based on the assumption that every person have inherent growth tendencies as well as 3 initiate psychological needs.
The needs were identified as competence, social relatedness and autonomy. According to White (1959, p. 300), competence means “[…] to being effective in dealing with the environment a person finds themselves in”, whereas relatedness is defined “[…] as the universal want to interact, be connected to and experience caring for others”. (Baumeister & Leary,1995, p. 502). Autonomy “is the universal urge to be causal agents of our own life and act in harmony with our integrated self.” ( Deci & Vansteenkiste, 2004, p.18)

Satisfactions of these are the base for a high-degree of intrinsic motivation or integration of extrinsic motivation, for example for self-directed learning in workplaces settings, because self-determination is perceived. Furthermore lead the even mentioned case to personal well-being, health and to pursue the inherent growth tendencies and personality integration. According to Kasser and Ryan (1993) the reason for this fact is, that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs includes also the achievement of live goals, which have an intrinsic aspiration, like affiliation, generatively or personal development.

The Cognitive Evaluation Theory, a sub-theory of the SDT, emphasizes the crucial role of social context, for example the workplace of a person, for the satisfaction of the 3 basic needs. This implies that workplaces have to provide a learning culture, using “cultural elements […] which are integrated in immediate workplace settings and have direct influence on individual learning conditions” (Bauer et. al., 2007, p.16) that are suitable to satisfy the even mentioned needs. This makes learning in the workplace more probably as environmental conditions, which are not satisfy the 3 psychological needs of a person.

3. Screening instrument for learning conditions at the workplace (SILC)

An instrument called screening instrument for learning conditions at the workplace (SILC) was developed. It based on large analysis of existing literature and the foundation is the self determination theory. The instrument obtains on the features: “[…] “in use” within the workplace and employs the individual employee`s perception of the workplace as the base for the assessment”. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.21).  The Instrument consists two parts:  “the employee`s experience of (1) the quality of task and (2) of the quality of social relationship within a workplace”. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.21) Besides the two variables, the three basics from the self determination theory: autonomy support, competence support and social relatedness, as already mentioned and explained above, play an important role for the SILC.

The two parts “Quality of task” and “Quality of interactions” contain different items. They are specified for the each of the two parts. The items in part one advert to characteristics of the task and in part two all the items refer to the quality of relationships with colleagues and supervisors. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.22)

The part one “Quality of tasks” contains the holistic task, the degrees of freedom, transparency, complexity, exposure to changes, possibilities for reflection and the requirements for interaction and co-operation. The holistic tasks include that the employee achieve his task by participating in the whole action: planning, goal-settings and problem solving. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.22). The degrees of freedom mean that the employees are independent in making decisions regarding their work or themselves. Both items support the feeling of autonomy. Furthermore a crucial fact is the transparency. The task for the employees is to know how important their work for the whole company is. Complexity is similar to the item holistic but in this case it refers to the competence of the employees while holistic tasks are related to the autonomy. Exposure to changes means that the employees can challenge their self. There are always changes in their work and it is important to know how to handle these. Possibilities for reflection demands if the workplace offers possibilities to reflect the done tasks and mistakes. The items transparency, complexity, exposure to changes and possibilities for reflection are supposed to support the feeling of competence. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.23). Requirements for interaction and co-operation denote if the workplace offers opportunities to get in contact with colleagues so that problems could be solved in an interactive way. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.23).

The part two “Quality of relationship” contains 7 items. They are the supervisor conveys autonomy, the appreciation of one`s contributions, the mutual assistance, constructive feedback, respecting other`s feeling and perspectives, mutual trust and informal contact. The supervisor conveys autonomy means if the employees can propose his own opinion and it will be accepts by the supervisor. This item fosters the feeling of autonomy. Furthermore a fundamental aspect is the appreciation of one`s contributions. To honor the work, ideas and competencies of the employee by the colleagues and supervisors improve the feeling of competence. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.23). To support the feeling of competence, social competence, the employees help each other with the problem solving. The item which belongs to this description is called mutual assistance. Constructive feedback sustains the feeling of competence and it signifies that the employees obtain positive and negative comments about their work to improve their knowledge. The 5^th item is about respecting different opinions. Varying feelings should be appreciated from the colleagues and the supervisor. This is to strengthen the social relatedness. To sustain the constructive interaction and the group affiliation the item mutual trust is crucial. To have a trustful climate within the workplace makes the work of the employees more successful. The last item is about Informal contact and contains the social integration of the employees at the workplace. It is crucial that the employees have the feelings that they are personally respected.  In order to fulfill the content of the last item “Informal exchange” it is necessary that employees and supervisor interact on a friendship-oriented basis. The exchange is productive for work-related and private issues. (Bauer et al., 2007, p.24). Finally it can be said that it is advisable for managers to provide workplaces, which fulfill the above mentioned conditions of employment in order to strengthen employees’ motivation toward learning on and for the workplace.

4. Motivational interviewing

A great amount of approaches in the domain of applied psychology are based on the self-determination-theory. The concept of motivational interviewing, developed by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick, is the most fruitful one for workplace learning. According to the earlier mentioned people it is defined as “[…] directive client-centred counselling style for eliciting behaving change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence “.(1995, p.325)  Initially it was used in clinical contexts, for example to treat alcoholics.  But nowadays it is traceable in nearly every field, in which changes of behaviour are desirable, for example to motivate employees toward workplace learning.

Motivational Interviewing can be characterized due to very basic assumptions. The most important one is that the relationship between counsellor and employee is rather more like a partnership, in which both sides has the same rights, then an expert-recipient-relationship. Therefore the counsellor has to confirm the employees’ freedom and self-direction, even when this leads to negative consequences for the person himself. This implies the unsuitableness of techniques like direct persuasion or confrontation in order to change the employees’ behaviour. Instead of this it is more appropriate to give advises without commitment toward current situations in the workplace, which make reflective listening and adaptable conversation-structure necessarily. Furthermore it is necessary for counsellor to express empathy, acceptance and affirmation toward the living and working of the employee with help of a non-judgmental and non-confrontational way of conversation between the counsellor and the employee. Therefore the concept of motivational interviewing distinguishes between “good” aspects and “not-so-good” aspects in evaluation-conversations in order to avoid an increasing of resistance toward changing the behaviour. This occurs very probably when aspects are labelled as negative by the counsellor, but the employee does not agree with this. Furthermore the counsellor has to support the self-efficacy of the employee, because a change in the behaviour will only occur, if a person believes in its feasibility. Because of the even mentioned facts is the counselling style of motivational interviewing “generally a quiet and electing one”. (Miller & Rollnick, p. 326, 1995)

Another basic assumption is the need of motivation of a person to change the behaviour. This can be not forced by the other people, but rather more it must a result of values and goals of a person, which leads to intrinsic motivation. Therefore the employees’ frame of reference and the ideal-self must be known by the counsellor in order to reinforce the intrinsic motivation. This has to be done in the beginning of a counselling –process with help of “open-ended-questions”, that means asking in a way, which make answering with less words impossible. Due to this information the counsellor can provides the development of discrepancy “between what they are and where they want to be” (Miller & Rollnick, p.330, 1995). This technique leads ideally to an activation of intrinsic motivation, because people are anxious to eliminate this discrepancy, which resulted in a change of behaviour as outcome.

Changing the own manner is mostly linked with ambivalence, because the current and the desired behaviour provide profit benefits and costs. Despite this fact it is not the task of the counsellor to articulate and resolve these but rather more it is the clients’ one. The counsellor can only alleviate this process, for example to help a person to find ways on their own to elicit, clarify and resolve the given ambivalences. This obstacle must be necessarily overcome for a persistent change of behaviour. Nevertheless the concept of motivational interviewing containing not the training of people, in  order to copy a certain behaviour, because that would lead to circumstance, that the person is a passive recipient instead of an active designer of his or her own. This is the base for long term success.

Finally the concept of motivational interviewing assumes the willingness to chance of the own behaviour not as a part of human being. It is rather more a product of the interpersonal interaction. Therefore it is necessary for the counsellor to keep an eye on the employees’ degree of readiness to change and to think about the reason why resistance exists. Next to this a counsellor has to “roll with resistance” (Rollnick & Miller, 1995, p. 334), because in the concept motivational interviewing is resistance not seen as the reluctance of the employee toward a behavioural change, but rather more as result of expecting a too high degree of readiness to change by the counsellor. In this case it is advisable to explore the frame of reference, encourage the employees in finding the own solutions to self-defined problems in more extended way then before instead of counteracting the given resistance. This implies that the counselling process has a high demand on time.

Due to the abovementioned mentioned techniques the human need of autonomy get strengthened, which is necessary to strengthen the intrinsic motivation toward self-directed workplace learning.

5. Conclusion

After explaining of the basic aspects of motivation, for example the differentiation of this construct into extrinsic and intrinsic, we came to the awareness that workplace learning cannot occur without motivation. After this we stated the self-determination theory, which claim that the 3 basic needs autonomy, social relatedness and competence must be satisfied in order to strengthen intrinsic motivation, for example for learning in and for the workplace. Several approaches toward motivation for workplace learning are based on this theory. Initially we explained the SILC. According to this instrument it can be said that holistic tasks, degrees of freedom, transparency, complexity, exposures to changes, possibilities for reflection and requirements for interaction and co-operation for employees must be given in order to provide tasks, which have satisfactory quality. Furthermore a superior quality of the relationships must be also given. This contains that the supervisor conveys autonomy for the employee and appreciate those contribution as well as provide mutual assistance and constructive feedback. It is also crucial that employees respecting the feelings and perspectives of others and that the employees have a mutual trust under each other as well as informal contact the fulfillment of these conditions is equivalent with the satisfaction of the 3 basic needs. Another presented approach is the technique of motivational interviewing. This client-centred counselling style characterized due to that the relationship between counsellor and employee is rather more like a partnership and that intrinsic motivation, as result of person’s values goals and not external force, is necessary to change the manner. Furthermore assume this approach that is the task of person and not of the counsellor to articulate and resolve the ambivalences which are linked with changing the own behaviour. The last very basic assumption is that the willingness to change the own behaviour is not a part of being, but rather more product of interpersonal interaction. Therefore the counsellor has to be emphatic toward the persons’ frame of reference. Working with this conditions leads to autonomy-supportive environment, which strengthen the motivation toward changing the behaviour in a desirable direction, for example learn in and for the workplace.

6. References:

books:

Bauer,  J., Rehrl,  M., & Harteis, C. (2007). Measurement of learning culture: A motivational approach. In H. Gruber & T. Palonen (eds.), Learning in the workplace – new developments in the relation between learning and working. Turku: Finnish Educational Research Association .

Deci, E. L.  & Ryan, R. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Perspectives on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Deci, E. L.  & Ryan, R. M. (1995). Human autonomy: The basis for true self-esteem. In M. Kernis (Ed.), Efficacy,agency, and self-esteem (pp. 3149). New York: Plenum.

Holliday, R. (1998). Workplace learning.  Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University.

journals:

Baumeister, R., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R.M. (2000 b). Self-determination-theory and the facilitation of Intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78 S

Deci, E. L., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2004). Self-determination theory and basic need satisfaction: Understanding human development in positive psychology. Ricerche di Psichologia, 27, 17-34

Eraut, M., (2000). Teacher education, designed or framed. International Journal of Educational Research, 3, 5, 557- 574

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). Further examining the American dream: differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 280-287

Rollnick S., & Miller, W.R. (1995).  What is motivational interviewing?  Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 23, 325-334.

Schiefele, U. & Schreyer, I. (1994). Intrinsische Lernmotivation und Lernen. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 8 (1), 1-13.or

White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.

internet:

Wordreference. (2010). Search for Motivation. Available in http://www.wordreference.com/definition/motivation (01.11.10)

Does it matter whether you are a man or a woman when it comes to learning at your workplace? How does your popularity influence the process? And: Who really is the person in your company that passes on the important knowledge? These Questions are all asked under one basic premise: Learning is a process of social interaction, and so it is subject to multiple social factors. Workplace Learning is no exception to that, so our task was to take a closer look on how social reality is constructed at a workplace. Since we were especially interested in the questions mentioned above, we decided to focus on two main issues: gender and network structures. At first, however, we want to explain our concept of the term “socio-cultural” in order to prevent misunderstandings and shed a little light on our idea of the social construction of knowledge.

The “socio” in “socio-cultural”

Social refers to a characteristic of actors. It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms or artifacts and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary. (Referring to: Wiki[en])

Based on this very common definition of “social” we have worked out four major aspects :

• Interaction
• Collective Coexistence
• Awareness
• Voluntary or Involuntary

Interaction is interpreted by every actor, and this can be very different. Since most workplaces are populated by more than one person, learning at workplaces takes place as a collective process. People are not necessarily aware of this. The question whether an interaction is voluntary or involuntary determines the amount of intrinsic motivation a learner might have.

The “cultural” in “socio-cultural”

Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be “understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another”. (Referring to: Wiki[en])

Again, we tried to work out the main points based on this definition. We found that the following are relevant to the issue of Workplace Learning:

• Patterns and Symbolic Structures
• Significance and Importance of Activities
• Ever Changing Systems (Social Construction)

By knowing some generally accepted patterns and symbolic structures actors are able to plan their social interaction. Even communication is easier while recognizing these patterns. Every actor interprets the importance and significance of activities in a different way, because the understanding of actions always depends on the specific cultural setting. The construction of social reality by the actors (and their individual backgrounds) is ever changing and makes it very difficult to introduce one workplace culture.

Keeping this in mind, we wanted to gain a better insight on how gender issues and network structures influence the learning process at a workplace.

Gender Issues in Workplace Learning

Inspired by a swedish study byLena Abrahamson, a researcher at the Lulea university of technology, we want to keep the perspective on the gender issue in Workplace Learning and gender-based learning dilemmas.

In that study, the questions is raised, what links exist between between gender and organizational changes on the one hand, and gender and learning at work on the other hand. Precisely, the aim is to discuss how gender-based organizational patterns can be obstacles to both individual learning and organizational learning in the company.
The study focuses the attention on gender-related issues, e.g. what occurred in the organizations when organizational changes were implemented, or only discussed, in the companies. So we want look closer to this relationship between gender and organizational change.

Abrahamson performed a lot of qualitative interviews in eight companies of different industries. She then divided them into three gender-dominated types

• male-dominated workplaces
• gender-segregated workplaces
• gender-balanced workplaces

One initial point in the gender question at the workplace is that the impulse of organizational change is not initated because of the selflessness and altruism of the companies. The change is much more started because the companies want to reach more flexibility and productivity – and therefore learning at the workplace is unavoidable!

Very optimistic expectations can be found in research on the gender question, through the implementation of organizational change instruments like a flatter hierarchy, job rotation or a more decentralized organization mode.

But the sucess of organizational change is strictly limited. One problem is that often high aims were declared, but while implementing the companies often reverted to the old structures. One reason for that could be that there is a high inconsistency between the managment discourse and the real practice. So there are a lot of restoring and restraining mechanism shown by Abrahamson. One of that mechanisms is the gender-order in the participating companies.

What could these mechanisms be? Baude frames five very important gender-based mechanisms, why organizations rest in their old structures:

• Clear segregation of the sexes within the companies in a functional, physical and hierarchical way
• Gender-labeling of work, competencies, places and things
• Stereotypical ideas of gender-specific attributes and stereotypical myths and conceptions of male and female
• Myths of women’s work and men’s work
• Taboo, silence on these questions and the labeling of phenomena as personal problems or individual choices

Summarizing we can say, that gender segregation and stereotypical gender-coding is a huge obstacle to reach organizational change and leads to enormous problems for both individual and organizational change. Change, however, is a neccessary prerequisite for learning: Only persons that are willing and able to change their old views if they are an obstacle for development and learning can learn effecitvely. The Question about social factors that influence our development and effecitveness of learning poses a second question – How do the structures of our social environment influence our proceedings? At this point, another methodological perspective comes in useful: The social network analysis.

Network Structures and the Flow of Knowledge

Another very interesting paradigm for WPL research is that of social network analysis. The main idea is that groups of people can not only be seen as individuals interacting with one another – you can also focus your interest on the flow of information in this group of people. That changes many things.

First, you kind of reverse your point of view. While you normally try to find out which key criteria an expert or other important persons have, you now try to find out where there are persons that moderate the flow of information in a group. And more importantly: persons that moderate the flow of knowledge.

Why knowledge? Information is – put very simple – merely  a set of numbers, types and icons. People have to know and understand only that part of information which is crucial for their role in the group. In our case, this is their role in the workplace.

If you compare social network analysis to “traditional” approaches, you will find some unaccustomed strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand you can visualize social groups in a rather vivid way (e.g. figure one), you can pinpoint certain types of actors (moderators, bridges, brokers…) by their position in the network, and you can refocus your area of research: Is the group you think of as the one in question really the very one you need to concentrate on?

Figure 1: The social Ego-Networks of a Twitter-User (Creative Commons License; © Nimages DR; 2007. Source: Flickr.com)

You’ll pobably have to get used to the meanings of each knot and tie in the visualization in a graph that illustrates a social network. Yet once this is no longer a problem, you can manage to integrate some factors that you find most important and then take a closer look at the person that is “behind” the knot.

This is related to the second strength of the approach. Let’s take the “broker” as an example. Normally, the term means a person working at a stock exchange. And this also applies to brokers in any other social network – the difference is only what they trade with.

Since we are looking at learning processes at a workplace, an “effective” broker would be someone who “deals” with important knowledge. A Person that passes knowledge on to other colleagues, especially to novices.

This is exactly the point, where social network analysis delivers new insights. Let’s have a look at a certain scenario to make it clear:

Let’s assume a company wants to find out which competences their trainers need. Normally you would look at the persons that work as a trainer and try to find out what characterizes them. But what if they only get payd for the job, but do not really help people in learning what they have to learn? You could – anonymised of course – just ask people about the 3 persons they would most likely ask if they have a question about a certain working field. The data you get can be visualised as seen above. And then you go back to persons, and ask some important questions: Are the persons that are employed as trainers the ones that most people would seek help from? If not: Who are the persons that most people would ask if they have a specific problem?

This gives you a very powerful tool to critically evaluate who is called an expert trainer and who is perceived as an expert trainer. Or to find out which persons are generally accepted as an expert, and what qualifies them?

At first glance this seems to be an additional effort in practice. We would nonetheless think that you should give it a try. It is a rather new approach, stemming mostly from general informational research and sociology. It is, however, a method of working with social factors influencing the development of people in groups. Learning is not only accquiring knowledge. It is also about being able to accquire knowledge, and that makes it important which persons moderate the flow of knowledge in a company or other institution, and maybe even between companies and institutions.

The social network analysis shows certain parallels to the “communities of practice” theory, is definitely linked to the situated cognition theory and can probably be effectively applied in various theoretical and practical fields of educational work.

For further reading on the roots of social network analysis, we recommend the work of the following autors:

• Simmel, Georg – He had some early concepts on how group sizes and relationships influence the way people interact and exchange ressources.
• Burt, Ronald S. – One of the pioneers of social network analysis. Had a great impact on the question, whether weak or strong ties between persons are good or bad for certain aims.
• Granovetter, Mark – He also contributed heavily to issues of relationships between people. One of his most popular works is “The strength of weak ties” (American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, Iss. 6, 1973; pp. 1360-1380; available online.)
• Cross, Parker, Prusak and Borgatti published an Article with the title “Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks”. (Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 100-120, 2001) It is a very informative document dealing exactly with the issue of learning in a social network.

The topic of expertise is discussed more and more in our civilization. It isn’t easy to define the area of an expert. A simple way of the development into an expert could in our opinion be explained by regarding pupils, teachers and professors. The majority of people believes that every professor is an expert. In order to become a professor you have to absolve a higher school, then you have to specialize in a specific domain. For some people the teacher’s expertise is between that of a pupil and that of a professor. But is this already expertise? We want to show up different aspects, that might help to regard this discussion from different points of view.

One part of achieving expertise is a wide knowledge of problem solving. John R. Anderson (1993) dealt with the canonical conception of problem solving.

In order to have the same understanding of the word ‘problem’, we want to give a short definition. A problem is an obstacle that someone has to overcome in order to achieve a desired goal. Problems refer to a situation, condition, or issue. In summary, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between the actual situation and the situation that is desired.

As we already know, problems exist as a barrier on the way to expertise. A problem is defined through the problem space. The problem space is the concept of a problem solving state and an operator. A problem solution starts in an initial state of the problem, further on it goes through intermediate states and finally it arrives at a state that matches the goal.

Another key- construct of the problem space are the problem solving operators. These are actions that transform one state into another. What characterizes operators, is the change they produce in the state. Normally a problem solver has an internal representation of the operators, preconditions and effects. Once again: the state and the operators are the concept of a problem space. The difficulty in the problem- solving action, is the search, that means to find a sequence of problem- solving operators.

In our opinion this way of analyzing problems is a very good method, because if we think of problems, the way is just true. For example during studying, you have to write a test, your goal is to get a good grade, but in order to reach this goal, you have to learn, in order to learn you have to get the information about the contents. So you always have different operators.

John R. Anderson (1993) also studied several problem-solving methods. The critical issue in solving a problem is how to select the next operator and the principles used for selecting operators (blind search versus systematic search). The process of problem-solving can progress through changing the problem space. If an operator can be applied, the problem-solving progress moves one step forward. There are several problem-solving methods, and those convert what is learned into performance in order to achieve a goal. For example, people use the simple method of hill climbing: here people select operators that create states similar to the goal state. Another problem- solving method is the ‘means-ends analysis’. The key-features of this analysis are difference reduction and subgoaling. In general one can say that the means-ends analysis is a way of understanding why difference reduction and subgoaling are pervasive in human problem solving. Difference reduction is the tendency of a problem solver to select operators that produce states that are more similar to the goal state. Subgoaling can involve creating many subgoals, but it is difficult to remember these subgoals. Further on, the time you need to make a move to the goal is correlated with the number of subgoals.

Three topic points are most important in the means-ends analysis: you have a focus on eliminating a single large difference, you select operators by what difference they reduce, and finally it is the subgoaling of preconditions. In summary the problem solver searches for operators relevant to remove differences. If the operator can not be applied, the problem solver sets the subgoal of eliminating blocking conditions, and so he or she is no longer working on the original goal, but on a subgoal, that is a means to the ultimate end.

It is not hard to understand that there is a great variability of problem-solving in our knowledge-rich domain. Because of the differences among cognitive models of different people, different paths and individual ways exist to solve a problem. Problem-solving is even an cognitive activity. Sometimes even higher level cognition is a problem- solving process; that’s how problem-solving provides a bridge between learning and performance. Problem-solving methods even provide mechanisms for converting knowledge into behavior. A significant observation is, that it is not possible to achieve a high level of performance without a great investment of time – experts mostly agree upon a time of ten years, in which you can achieve the masters’ level. But you can see a difference between routine and real problem-solvers: it is the amount of search involved in the process. Because of becoming familiar with a problem, we learn which operators apply without having to search. Finally it is interesting to know that the best effect of increased practice of a particular skill is that it is performed more quickly and also more accurately.

Another part of the topic ‘knowledge and expertise’ is the way of becoming an expert. Dreyfus and Dreyfus developed the way of acquiring skills in five steps. These steps are: novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency and expertise.

But again we want to make sure to have the same understanding of the word ‘expertise’. This phrase is defined by the attributes efficiency, accuracy, knowledge and experience. It explains exceptional skills to solve problems; that means a special performance in a particular domain, which goes along with a broad experience. The knowledge or the skills of an expert and the condition of being an expert is also called expertise.

The first step on the way to reach expertise is the novice, the absolute beginner. During this time the acquisition of knowledge through instruction is superficial. That means that someone learns rules to manage acts. In this stadium a person is learning rules without a context (that is context-free), because the newly learned elements are seen objective.

The second step is the stadium of the advanced beginner. For this part it is necessary to already have great experiences in handling a situation. The best chance here is the self- made experience in a concrete situation. Own experience is always more useful and reasonable than an experience where you are just an observer. In this second stadium the experience already becomes expert knowledge, but you are still aware of the concrete situation in which you have gathered the specific experience.

The third stadium on the way to expertise is called Competence. Now the person has to choose between different decision- procedures, because he or she already has had a lot of experience. Now also the intuition is more and more important. From now on, the person has a certain routine and feels responsible for the results of the act he or she does. It is easy to understand that now even emotional factors play a significant role.

If you are in the fourth stadium, you have the proficiency. Now a procedure simply happens, basically because of remembering a similar situation in the past – that is what we call learning. From now on, this memory activates plans and acts, which operated similar in the past. The intuition is now superior.

The final step actually is the expertise. A person that has taken all steps of the way can assert that he or she is an expert. The skills of an expert are part of his person; it is no longer necessary to be aware of them. So it is no longer problem- solving, but actually a critical observation of the own intuition (Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986).

It is hard to really accept this explanation, because we think that people are so individual, that you cannot generalize that everybody gains expertise in these five steps. For me, also talents or capability play an important role, which aren’t mentioned here. Of course there might be many people who become experts this way, but in order to handle this complex topic from several points of view, it’s not enough.

Further on there is a lot of theories about expertise. We decided to inform about the following aspects.
It’s a long way from novice to expert. In rather unstructured workplaces it is also hard to find out if people gained expertise. Even practice time is not the only factor that defines the levels of expertise and experience (Lichtenberg 1997).

Strasser and Gruber (2004) wrote about differences in behaviour and knowledge of novices and experts in the unstructured workplace of psychological counselors.

Beginners feel rather unsafe and uncomfortable with their professional role. They have difficulties in using their theoretical and methodical knowledge. “During counselling, beginners are primaly concerned with themselves and therefore pay little attention to the information clients present. They stick to “safe” interventions, which are rather simple and well established. With increasing experience, counsellors are able to supervise their own counselling activities more critical.” They evaluate their own behaviour, especially about functionality and effectiveness instead of methodical exactness. Therefore the theoretical orientation becomes less important, and experts have more options for action. They select clinical tools and intervention strategies from different approaches. Also the quality of argumentation increases with experience. “Professionals show superior performance if the client’s problems increase in complexity (Gunzelmann, Schiepek, & Reineckerm 1987)”.

On the way to expertise, there are some stations the novice should pass. The first one- and in our opinion the most important one- is reflection. Active and systematic reflection leads to changes in cognitive structures. The next one is that novices should work with a variety of different complex and difficult cases. Supervision is also important and can hold with different degrees: experts serving as model, experts serving as internal supporters, experts serving as external supporters and regular advisors. In addition, experts can help with: informative feedback, story-telling and teaching problem solving-procedures (Strasser/Gruber 2004).

In our opinion it is very important to know how people gain expertise. So one can compare his (or her) own living, his own studying, his own educational work with the way to expertise. It reminds this person of reflecting on his own actions. Reflection is something very easy to do, but often working-teams don’t take the time.
Unfortunately there isn’t enough time and money to help novices to gain professional experience in many jobs. So it depends on the people if they want to perform like professionals or novices.

“Durlak (1979) concluded from a meta analysis on 42 studies that laymen with no or specific training reached at least the same results as professional helpers. However, such effective lay helpers usually received much support and supervision by professional staff.” On the other hand “professionals show superior performance if the clients problems increase in complexity (Gunzelmann, Schiepek, & Reineckerm 1987)” (Strasser/Gruber 2004). It is also unknown whether the tasks were set on a realistic problem and on a high level of difficulty. On low levels everybody can solve problems, but only experts can solve on high levels.

Now you have read a lot about expertise and the aspects that affect experts. In order to get back to our beginning, we still can not give a general and true answer to the question whether professors are experts or not. We decided for ourselves, that expertise is a wide domain, that is not easy to define correct. But looking at professors, it might be true to say that they are experts, but their only expertise refers to a special theoretical domain. Of course during school and additionally during studying you get specific knowledge. But on the other hand you have to specialize on certain aspects and that is why it’s hardly possible to become an “all-around” expert.

More Information?

Some of the following links might not work from campuses other than Regensburg or inside Bavaria due to licensing reasons.

• The Dynamics of Sensemaking, Knowledge, and Expertise in Collaborative, Boundary-Spanning Design – Susan Gasson (Available online.)
• Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge – Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice (Available online.)
• Complex Acts of Knowing paradox and descriptive self-awareness – David Snowden (Available online.)
• Gains from Trade through Imported Expertise – Markusen, James R. (Available online.)
• Participation in groupware-mediated communities of practice: a socio-political analysis of knowledge working – N. Hayes and G. Walsham (Available online.)

Literature:

• Strasser, J. & Gruber, H. (2004) The role of experience in professional training and development of psychical counsellors. In H.P.A. Boshuizen, R. Bromme & H. Gruber (Eds.), Professional learning: Gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert . Dordrecht: Kluwer
• Anderson, J. R. (1993). Problem solving and learning. American Psychologist, 48
• Dreyfus, H. L. & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over machine: The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. Oxford: Basil Blackwell