Reconstructing work for competence development: A collective resources approach.

This study has three objectives: (1) to critique existing approaches to upgrading workforce qualifications; (2) to propose an alternative approach based on the concept of collective inductive learning; and, (3) to outline the implications of the model for theory, research and practice in the broad field of worker education. This dissertation examines the question of how work tasks and processes can be intentionally designed to promote continuous learning and competence development. Its primary thesis is that the development of greater skill and knowledge is primarily influenced by the situation-specific opportunities and demands for complex work performances in combination with the response latitude and resources afforded in the immediate work context, rather than by formal off-the-job education and training. The secondary thesis is that extant theories of work redesign and organizational change lack an ecologically valid model of such contextual learning to serve as the basis for work restructuring processes. Following a critical review of existing conceptual and methodological frameworks through which human science workers observe other classes of workers, a curricular perspective is proposed for examining teaching-learning transactions immanent in the structural and processual features of work activity. The curricular perspective is used as the basis for a conceptual review of the literature on the relationship between work context and worker competence development for the purpose of uncovering the hidden curriculum of work. Formal models of learning and problem-solving are then contrasted with the characteristics of complex, ill-defined problems and the dynamics of everyday learning. The evidence suggests that, even in unskilled work, competent workers display complex problem-solving procedures that differ substantially from formal models and that highly educated novices are unable to duplicate until they acquire experience. A collective resources model for reconstructing work is proposed. The model incorporates recent theoretical advances in the study of nonformal inductive learning into the participatory action research (PAR) paradigm of human development. The relevance of the model for designing work content and contexts to promote competence development as well as for the process of organizational change is explicated. Implications of the model for further conceptual development, empirical research and practice for workers in the field of worker education are outlined. The principles of adult education and the role of trade unionism and collective bargaining are reaffirmed.Ph.D.Adult educationEducationEducational psychologyLabor relationsSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/128907/2/9226995.pd