Informal Learning & Development in the Workplace
Brian A. Altman, PhD
Education Coordinator, HJF
National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health
20 September 2012, 1200-1330
USU, Building B, Sanford Auditorium
Learning Objectives:
As a result of participating in this session, attendees will be able to...
* Identify and encourage informal learning processes, including knowledge capture and sharing, in their work and the work of their students
* Apply informal learning concepts to a range of settings including: medical students learning in small groups and faculty working together on curriculum planning
Outline of Session:
1. Introduction
- Operating Assumptions
- Learning Experiences
- Theoretical Lens
2. Coombs and Ahmed’s definitions: formal/nonformal/informal
3. Discussion of examples in health professions
4. Knowledge capture and sharing (formally, nonformally, informally)
5. Discussion Example
6. How can we foster informal learning processes including knowledge capture and sharing in your work and that of your students?
7. Application of informal learning concepts to two settings:
- Medical students learning in small groups
- Faculty working together on curriculum planning
Definitions
“Meaningful learning has three requirements:
1. Relevant prior knowledge: That is, the learner must know some information that relates to the new information to be learned in some non-trivial way;
2. Meaningful material: That is, the knowledge to be learned must be relevant to other knowledge and must contain significant concepts and propositions;
3. The learner must choose to learn meaningfully: That is, the learner must consciously and deliberately choose to relate new knowledge to relevant knowledge the learner already knows in some non-trivial way.” 1, p.23
Formal education: “the highly institutionalized, chronologically graded and hierarchically structured ‘education system,’ spanning lower primary school and the upper reaches of the university.”2, p. 8
Nonformal education: “any organized, systematic, educational activity carried on outside the framework of the formal system to provide selected types of learning to particular subgroups in the population, adults as well as children.”2, p. 8
Informal education: “the lifelong process by which every person acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experience and exposure to the environment—at home, at work, at play; from the example and attitudes of family and friends; from travel, reading newspapers and books; or by listening to the radio or viewing films or television. Generally, informal education is unorganized and often unsystematic; yet it accounts for the great bulk of any person’s total lifetime learning—including that of even a highly ‘schooled’ person.” 2, p. 8
Selected Quotations from the Literature
Survey questions used in a clinical setting in the Netherlands:
“1. When you experience a lack of knowledge or skills during your work on the ward, whom of the following persons do you ask for advice, help or explanation?
2. With whom do you share thoughts about your activities and develop new ideas for your work?
3. Looking back at the past 6 months, what persons made such a contribution or had such an influence on you that you decided to change a working habit/routine?
4. Whom do you observe using work-related skills that you later find yourself applying to your own work?” 3, p. 175
From a study in the UK at day surgery units, which utilized an ethnographic methodology:
“Our findings illustrate how the often mundane and taken-for-granted exchanges between clinicians at the margins of the clinical workplace constitute an important form of knowledge sharing and can make significant, if sometimes ‘hidden’, contributions to patient safety” 4, p. 337
From a study in the Netherlands in internal medicine:
“Our investigation into whether physicians deliberately engage in work activities to foster learning showed that patient care was their first concern. The physicians checked guidelines and consulted knowledgeable colleagues when they felt this was necessary to help their patients. They indicated that they learned most from the patient cases they encountered and the discussions about patients” 5, p. 91
References
1. Novak JD. Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge; 2010.
2. Coombs PH, Ahmed M. Attacking Rural Poverty: How Nonformal Education Can Help, a research report for the World Bank prepared by the International Council for Educational Development. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins; 1974.
3. Wagter JM, van de Bunt G, Honing M, Eckenhausen M, Scherpbier A. Informal interprofessional learning: Visualizing the clinical workplace. J Interprof Care. 2012;26:173-182.
4. Waring, JJ, Bishop S. “Water cooler” learning: Knowledge sharing at the clinical “backstage” and its contribution to patient safety. J Health Organ Manag. 2010;24(4):325-342.
5. van de Wiel MWJ, Van den Bossche P, Janssen S, Jossberger H. Exploring deliberate practice in medicine: how do physicians learn in the workplace? Adv in Health Sci Educ. 2011;16:81-95.
Additional Recommended Reading
Cofer, DA. Practice Application Brief No. 10: Informal Workplace Learning. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education; 2000.
Kegan, R. What “form” transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In: Mezirow J. and Associates. Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2000: 35-69.
Merriam SB, Caffarella RS, Baumgartner LM. Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass; 2007.
Sargeant J, Mann K, Sinclair D, Ferrier S, Muirhead P, van der Vleuten C, Metsemakers J. Learning in practice: Experiences and perceptions of high-scoring physicians. Acad Med. 2006; 81(7):655-660.
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