Understanding Applied Learning

Developing Effective Practice to Support All Learners

Tanya Ovenden-Hope, Sonia Blandford

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138911215
• eBook ISBN: 9781317434696
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Understanding Applied Learning enables teachers, lecturers and educators to facilitate applied learning effectively with learners in schools, colleges and universities. It introduces teachers to the concept of applied learning in practice, cutting across any vocational and academic divide to show how this approach supports high-quality and effective outcomes for learners. Applied learning prepares and equips learners for life in the twenty-first century and lifelong learning. Offering practical guidance on why and how to adopt applied learning in all post-primary settings, this practical resource introduces and explores the core concepts, practices and benefits of using this approach. Illustrated with real-life scenarios, it examines why applied learning is relevant today, how it enables learners to connect knowledge with new situations, how to navigate and solve intellectual and skills-based problems and how to work collaboratively and develop higher-level thinking skills.

Key topics covered include:

• A range of applied learning theories and strategies
• Relevant, Engaging, Active Learning (REAL) for successful knowledge and skills development
• The relevance of applied learning to employers
• Overcoming issues in embedding applied learning approaches
• How to embed creativity into learning experiences.

Understanding Applied Learning is an authoritative, down-to-earth guide to facilitate applied learning effectively and successfully with students in secondary schools, colleges and universities. It is a source of support and inspiration for all those committed to high-quality and effective outcomes for learners.

CHAPTER 1
What is applied learning?

This chapter will:

● explain the concept of applied learning;

● discuss why applied learning is relevant to teaching, learning and assessment today;

● describe how teachers and educators can begin to incorporate some of the underlying concepts of applied learning into their professional practice;

● suggest some prompts for professional reflection.

Applied learning sets learning within practical situations to improve the learner’s understanding of how theory works in practice. Ask yourself the following questions and if the answer is ‘no’ to any of them, then you are already likely to be an advocate for applied learning.

● Would you want to be treated by a doctor who had never practised medicine?

● Would you want a lawyer who had never practised law?

● Would you want to be taught by a teacher who had never been on teaching practice?

So why is applied learning important for learners in schools, colleges and universities?

The answer is because applied learning is fast becoming recognised as one of the key approaches needed to meet the needs of the young people today who will live their adult lives in the mid-to-late twenty-first century and into the twenty-second century. While this is a bold claim, it is one that is based on a strong and growing research base, which we will explore in this chapter. However, we must, of course, be cautious about predicting the future needs of young people, and tread carefully when assuming what strategies and approaches will meet those needs.

As Sir Ken Robinson observed in a conference presentation in 2006, “Children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue … what the world will look like in five years’ time. And yet we’re meant to be educating them for it” (Robinson, 2006). However, research into twenty-first century employability and the challenges of teaching and learning for the future are already highlighting applied learning as a secure approach to teaching and learning that is highly relevant to meeting the economic and workforce demands of the future.

For example, the 2016 CBI/Pearson report (CBI, 2016) concluded that businesses and employers are looking for two key skillsets in young people: (1) literacy and numeracy, but also, (2) “skills that go beyond academic ability” (CBI, 2016, pp. 31–32). This second category of skills includes communication, problem solving, analysis, resilience and creativity. These are described as “essential skills for the workplace and the rest of life” (CBI, 2016, p. 32). What is most striking is that all of these skills (alongside literacy and numeracy) are effectively and dynamically developed through applied learning.

Similarly, a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report highlighted the changes and challenges for teaching and learning, with education moving towards teaching for innovation and creativity (OECD, 2012). The report highlighted a framework developed by Charles Fadel, founder of the US-based Center for Curriculum Redesign, as being highly relevant for twenty-first century education. This framework (Fadel, 2015) highlights the importance of:

● Knowledge – what we know and understand, where content (curricular) needs to focus more on ‘real-life’ situations.

● Skills – how we use what we know, with teaching of skills integrated into the teaching of knowledge. This is of particular relevance in light of the higher level skills: creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

● Character – how we behave and engage in the world, where development of values is seen as essential for lifelong learning, relationships – within the family and beyond – and participation in the world.

● Meta-learning (learning how we learn) – how we reflect and adapt learning.

Each part of this influential framework points towards applied learning as being key and relevant to young people’s future work, life, and effective twenty-first century learning experiences.

Defining applied learning

Applied learning is the development of knowledge, skills and understanding through settings or scenarios that relate to the [employment] sector. It enables learners to develop skills and understanding in a variety of contexts with teachers, other learners and individuals from outside the classroom.

(QCA, 2009, p. 2)

Experiential and active learning are common terms in teaching, and are linked to, and underpin, the ethos and approach of applied learning.

Experiential learning

Experiential learning encourages learners to identify the purpose of the task being undertaken, to learn through reflection about how they undertook the task, and then apply (or transfer) this learning to other situations.

Experiential learning is therefore central to successful applied learning. It is an important part of the applied learning cycle. This cycle is a way of ensuring that learning experiences are relevant to learners and contextualised by a journey that takes them from the school/college to a simulated workplace to a real workplace and back to school/college. Figure 1.1 summarises the applied learning cycle.

Figure 1.1 The applied learning cycle

Active learning

Active learning requires the learner to learn by doing, in order to process skills or information. Active learning can include taking notes, transforming text into a graph, discussing a point with a partner or preparing a presentation. However, all of these activities could be done without thinking about the actual purpose of the learning, or how the learning might be applied to another context.

Active learning can move learners away from being ‘passive consumers’ of knowledge-based learning towards being ‘active explorers’ of knowledge, skills and ideas. However, it is important to remember that learners need to be aware of the value of their learning tasks to avoid poor motivation. ‘We have constructed ways of being together in formal education that are dull, draining of human creativity, and that fly in the face of intrinsically motivating learning’ (Collins, Harkin, & Nind, 2002, p. 167).

Applied learning

Applied learning can simply be defined as: Education put to practical use; learning is experiential, contextualised to real situations and personalised to the learners’ needs.

Effective applied learning brings relevance and meaning to learners through activities that move them from the classroom to the workplace. Activities should centre around real investigation and inquiry, based on contact with working professionals and the roles that they do, wherever possible. Learning should be active, but have a purpose and cross different contexts so that learners can apply knowledge, understanding and skills throughout their lives.

Many learning strategies, such as work-related learning, problem-based learning, creative problem solving and authentic creative challenges can be seen to have elements of, and links to, applied learning. These strategies are often embedded in either experiential or active learning, but the challenge for teachers is to facilitate an appropriate applied learning strategy (or strategies) that has authenticity for the learner and is relevant to the discipline being learned.

Professionalism in practice

Applied learning provides opportunities for learners to take control of their learning. Experiences need to be planned carefully by the teacher, so that learners can make real decisions within parameters of the applied learning activity. Solomon and Rogers, cited in Harkin (2007), conducted a small-scale study of pupil referral units and learner disaffection. They discovered that learners largely felt that learning was something that was done to them and was beyond their control. It is possible to engage learners by giving them more control. Within an applied learning context, this means giving the learner choice and responsibility.

As the teacher you need to manage learners’ control and choice. It is worth noting that although it may feel worrying at first to release control to your learners, many teachers report that learners given responsibility in lessons become highly motivated.

Why not give it a go? Identify an element of a lesson you control, such as the plenary, and give your learners the responsibility of designing it from a series of structured options using the principles of applied learning – experiential, contextualised and personalised.

Applied learning and the practice of teachers

In the remainder of this chapter we will look at some of the key aspects of teachers’ everyday practice and how this practice can relate to, support or facilitate effective applied learning.

However, it is important to remember that research shows that teachers tend to interpret new learning through previous experience, which is in turn influenced by their personal beliefs and values. The result is that sometimes new ideas that could be beneficial to teaching, learning and assessment may not get the attention deserved and are not implemented as they should be. By making you aware of this possibility, coupled with the fact that you are reading this book, it increases the chance of full engagement with applied learning as an approach for your professional practice.

Applied learning seeks to address the needs of young people in the future, and to establish a more integrated and holistic approach to teaching and learning. This change in approach requires us as teachers and educators to effectively challenge our own assumptions about educational practice. Each of the following sections challenges us to think differently about an area of practice that forms a part of an effective ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 What is applied learning?
• 2 The theory and ‘pedagogy’ of applied learning
• 3 Applied learning in teaching
• 4 Applied learning, employment and employers
• 5 Facilitating applied learning
• 6 Creativity in applied learning
• 7 Reflective learning and self-evaluation in practice
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• Index