Situated learning: a workplace experience

Abstract

This article describes the procedures and findings of a study of workplace learning arrangements in a mining and secondary processing plant. The evaluation was conducted on-site between July and October 1993, and involved 15 employees of the plant as participants. The study examined the nature and outcomes of workplace learning arrangements, which comprise formal structured learning arrangements and informal learning arrangements experienced as part of everyday work practice. The article
\ncommences by outlining the basis for situated learning. The nature of the research method and sample is described next. Three types of formal findings are subsequently reported, through perceptions of the utility
\nof different components of the learning arrangements, providing a comparative analysis among these arrangements and a basis to speculate how types of knowledge are likely to be generated within these
\narrangements. These findings are then discussed, along with concerns about the development of conceptual understanding through workplace learning and some observations about the role of personal values and epistemologies associated with engaging in learning arrangements.