In order to learn (or teach) the fundamental skills of any job or occupation we must first learn the language of that occupation. We must also learn how to listen to the narratives that experienced individuals use to describe what they do. We need to be able to separate the tasks and duties of our job so that we can develop competence. To do that we need a framework of understanding and some agreed upon terminology. Some of these terms will have common meanings but some will represent specialize useages of common terms.
One currently popular framework for understanidn what adult educators do is the theory of communities of practice. All the practitioners of a certain occupation or social group form a community of practice. The community of practice is like a living thing and like any living thing one of the major preoccupations is replication of community. Anthropologists and sociologists have studied the process by which a community replicates itself and some patterns emerge. They describe a systematic process that seems to occur in any human society, primitive or modern.
One analysis of the systematic process is the theory put forward by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger.
Basically, Lave and Wenger say that all learning is situated, that is, true learning of a skill occurs in the environment where the skill will be displayed. Formal learning may occur before this but
true learning is only complete when the skill is used in context.
Lave and Wenger go on to describe the process where by newcommers become oldtimers in any occupation. Their theory is known as Legitimate Peripheral Participation in communities of practice.
- Newcommers gain their entree into the community of practice by various means but in most occupational settings this means they get hired and they are allowed to be in the workplace where the job is happening. They are legitimately there.
- Initially they are not expected to do much just watch and learn and perform minor duties as the oldtimmers see fit. They are on the periphery of the job.
- Finally, there is an expectation that they will participate in the performance of the duties of the community at some point.
Later as they become more accomplished they will be the sole responsible agents for minor parts of the performance and then later they will be aspiring experts and then oldtimers themselves.
Lave and Wengers process is very similar to the traditional understanding of apprenticeship.
The main means of transmission of knowledge in this scenario is observation and narrative. The narrative takes particular forms and occupational narratives share some characteristics across occupations. Hero sagas, cautionary tales, BS stories all contain the elements of the job. Newcomer must be in postion to hear these stories and must behave in a way that elicits the stories. If a newcomer can survive the first three weeks on the job, usually an oldtimer will take them in hand and begin the process of education. Most of the time our task as occupational educators is to prepare newcomers to survive the first three weeks.
Terms we need to unpack.
Learning
Teacher
Student
Connectivism Blog
