014220 Learning and its Trajectories

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

Description

This subject introduces students to key concepts of adult and professional learning and their theoretical developments. Students also learn about the purposes and benefits of learning, forms of learning, and learning a diversity of sites. Students engage with these ideas by evaluating, critiquing and connecting them in terms of relevance for learning in their own specific contexts. Focus Activities provide student choice for further engaging with, and applying, aspects of learning of relevance to their professional context and interests. Students develop their academic literacies and learn about their peers’ perspectives through participating in a community of mutual inquiry.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

• Synthesise advanced knowledge of complex concepts to make research and theory informed judgements about a broad range of professional learning and / or leading practices (1.1)
• Critically and creatively reflect on complex relationships between theory and professional practice using highly developed analytical skills (2.2)
• Engage respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledges, histories, policies and priorities and their implications for learning, leading or research (4.1)
• Apply strong communication and interpersonal skills to engage diverse audiences around complex professional practice issues (6.1)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

This subject addresses the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Professional Readiness

1.1 Synthesise advanced knowledge of complex concepts to make research and theory informed judgements about a broad range of professional learning and / or leading practices

2. Critical and Creative Inquiry

2.2 Critically and creatively reflect on complex relationships between theory and professional practice using highly developed analytical skills

4. Indigenous Competencies

4.1 Engage respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledges, histories, policies and priorities and their implications for learning, leading or research

6. Effective Communication

6.1 Apply strong communication and interpersonal skills to engage diverse audiences around complex professional practice issues

Teaching and learning strategies

Students are guided through a series of six weekly, online modules. Each contains rich content that is, in turn organised, around a series of topics. Each topic includes activities that help students actively engage with the content. Students engage interactively through online discussion boards, embedded comments, and concept-based activities, and opportunities to self-assess their learning. Four 90 minute synchronous online seminars provide an opportunity to revise key concepts, further develop connections with other students, and to prepare for assessments. Session-long blogging tasks, and ‘mutual inquiry groups’ are key strategies for encouraging collaborative learning. Learning journals are strongly encouraged as a complementary learning strategy. Students receive formative feedback on assignment tasks both from their lecturers and peers, including early formative feedback.

To ensure practice-relevant and authentic outcomes, teaching and learning strategies for this subject involve students customising learning to suit their professional practice context. This occurs through the ‘capability wrap’ process. Students develop a ‘subject learning plan’ for each subject, as a way of customising assessments and their learning in the subject to their professional context. As a first step in this process, students must complete their ‘course learning plan’ and portfolio (Part A - if not previously completed) and their ‘subject learning plan’ (Part B) which are compulsory (non-graded) tasks and constitute minimum requirements for this subject.

Students also complete a ‘subject wrap-up’ on conclusion of the subject by reflecting on their learning in relation to their course and subject learning plans. This also contributes to the ongoing ‘capability wrap’ process.

Content (topics)

The first part of the subject begins with the idea of learning pathways, before moving to lifelong and life-wide learning and then learning ecologies. This trajectory also includes a scan of sites of learning that includes, but is not limited to, educational institutions.

In the second half of the subject, students trace the development of learning theory. Starting with traditional learning theories, students then learn about contemporary conceptualisations of learning before looking at the future of education and learning. There is emphasis on workplace and professional learning in this second trajectory.

Students can choose to focus on specific content areas (above) based on their personal learning goals, and this means that the content is covered in varying intensities.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Practice Focus Activity: Valuing multiple stories

Assessment task 2: Focus Activities & Blogging

Assessment task 3: Map and reflective narrative

Minimum requirements

The satisfactory completion of the Course Learning Plan (Part A) (if not previously completed) and the Subject Learning Plan (Part B) are minimum requirements for this subject as they are key components of the ‘capability wrap’ process and a defining feature of this course. Failure to meet this requirement will result in the final assessment task not being considered for assessment.

Students who fail any of the assessment tasks will be awarded a Z Fail grade even if other assessment tasks have been completed successfully.

This is one of the first (ideally first) subjects MEdLL students complete, and it serves an important purpose to provide students with opportunities to; (1) develop foundational knowledges of learning theory; and, (2) develop academic literacies they need to succeed in future subjects. Tasks 2 and 3 are closely linked, although require students to achieve different SLOs.

Required texts

There are no required texts for this subject. Recommended readings will be available via UTS Library and the subject site.

References

Adult Learning Australia. (2020). Adult community education: Australian Environmental scan 2020. Melbourne, Victoria: Adult Learning Australia.

Belanger, P. (2016). Self-construction and social transformation: lifelong, lifewide and life-deep learning (A. Daigen, Trans.). Hamberg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.

Bergman, M. (2020). Adult learners in higher education. In T. Rocco, M. Smith, L. Merriweather & J. Hawley (Eds.), The handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 266-272). Vancouver: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Billett, S. (2020). Vocational education and the individual. In T. Rocco, M. Smith, L. Merriweather & J. Hawley (Eds.), The handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 41-61). LLC: Stylus Publishing.

Boud, D. L. & Rooney, D. (2018). The potential and paradox of informal learning. In: Informal Learning at Work: Triggers, Antecedents and Consequences. G. Messmann, Segers, M. and Dochy, F. (eds.) New Perspectives on Learning and Instruction. Routledge, 134-152.

Brown, T. (2018). Lifelong learning: an organising principle for reform. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 58(3), 312-335

Evans, K. (2020). Learning ecologies at work. In R. Barnett, Jackson, N. (Ed.), Ecologies for learning and practice: emerging ideas, sightings, and possibilities. (pp. 163-176). London and New York: Routledge.

Fuller, A. and Unwin, L. (2003) Learning as Apprentices in the Contemporary UK Workplace: creating and managing expansive and restrictive participation, Journal of Education and Work, 16 (4) pp.407-426

Guile, D., & Unwin, L. (2019). VET, expertise and work: situating the challenge for the 21st century. In D. Guile & L. Unwin (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of vocational education and training (pp. 19-40). New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Jackson, N., Barnett, R. (2020). Introduction: steps to ecologies of learning and practice. In N. Jackson, Barnett, R (Ed.), Ecologies for learning and practice: emerging ideas, sightings, and possibilities (pp. 1-15). London and New York: Routledge.

Jackson, N. (2013). The concept of learning ecologies. In N. Jackson (Ed.), Lifewide learning, education and personal development (pp. 1-15). Surrey, UK.

Jubas, K., Sandlin, J., Redmon Wright, R., & Burdick, J. (2020). Adult learning through everyday engagement with popular culture. In T. Rocco, M. Smith, L. Merriweather & J. Hawley (Eds.), The handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 168-174). Vancouver: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Thompson, T. (2015) I’m deleting as fast as I can: negotiating learning practices in cyberspace, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 20 (1), 93-112

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Traditional learning theories Learning in adulthood (pp. 275-297). San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

Merriam, S., Baumgartner, L. (2020). Learning and knowing: Eastern and Indigenous perspectives, Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide (pp. 268-282). New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Nakata, M. (2007). The cultural interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36(S1), 7-14.