Strategies for Supporting Self-Regulation during Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace

Abstract

[Excerpt] The goal of the current chapter, therefore, is to examine strategies that can be used to support self-regulation during self-directed learning in the workplace. Over the past decade, researchers have developed and evaluated a number of interventions designed to support self-regulated learning, including adaptive guidance, self-regulation prompts, planning interventions, metacognitive instruction, and structured reflection. Because this work has been largely compartmentalized, I adopt an integrative perspective in this chapter that argues that these various interventions represent manifestations of three overarching strategies for supporting self-regulation during self-directed learning. By focusing attention on these broader strategies, the aim is to not only gain greater insight into what we know about supporting self-directed learning but also to uncover issues that warrant future research attention.

Employee opportunities for self-directed learning at technology organisations: features and frames of self-directed learning projects

“…The scanning SDLP is similar to the voluntary project but differs in that it has no externally defined outcomes or goals and is more of a continuous and daily learning process (Clardy 2000). These notions strengthen the understanding that organisations have many kinds of frames which affect the opportunities for SDL at work, but we still need more understanding of what organizational frames enable and produceopportunities for SDL in working life (Clardy 2000;Bell 2017).…”

“…In the early stages, SDL was seen as a strongly individual and autonomous form of adult learning (Knowles 1975;Lindeman 1926;see, e.g., Merriam 2001). Nowadays, SDL in the context of workplace learning (Author 2019) should be seen as a more context-based (Candy 1991;Schmit 2000) and situational (Bell 2017) learning process that the learner closely controls him-or herself (Knowles 1975;Tough 1971). Thus, SDL should be seen as a socio-cultural entity resulting from the interaction between individual action and environmental opportunities (see Vygotsky 1978;Billett 2001).…”

“…Increasingly high competition and technological changes force the employees of technology organisations to continue learning during every day work (Harteis 2017;Author 2019;Ha 2015). Thus, courses and external training alone are no longer seen as sufficient to meet this challenge (Noe et al 2014), but learning through work and practice (Billett 2014) seems to be more efficient (Ellinger 2004;Bell 2017). The concept of self-directed learning (SDL), which emphasizes learner's responsibility in his or her own learning (Knowles 1975), has been found as an important starting point for describing learning through work in modern times (Bell 2017;Yeo 2008;Author 2019) because the responsibility for work (Rigby and Ryan 2018) and learning has been increasingly transferred from organisations to employees (Ellinger 2004;Brown 2001;Noe et al 2014).…”

“…In addition, the so-called 'informal' learning situations at work also contain many formal and collective elements (Billett 2001(Billett , 2014Collin 2005). Thus, learning should also be approached by sociocultural starting point (Vygotsky, 1978) focusing on the informal context and situations (Collin 2005;Tynjälä 2013) as well as workplaces' formal affordances and frames for learning (Billett 2014;Bell 2017).…”

Emotions in Learning at Work: a Literature Review

“…In recent research, self-regulated learning and self-directedness have been of growing interest in relation to learning at work (e.g. Bell 2017;Raemdonck et al 2017). These studies emphasise the employee's active role in goal-setting, the choice and application of learning strategies and the critical assessment of learning when participating in certain learning activities at work (e.g.…”