At the intersection: an Australian model of work-based learning and research

In work-based learning (WBL), autodidactic, informal, nonformal, and formal approaches to learning are viewed not as dichotomous, distinct, or divergent spheres along a continuum but as intersected and clustered spheres. In WBL, prior learning, professional development, advanced standing, and other forms of learning are therefore formally recognised and used to guide future learning; the past merges with the future, informal learning inspires formal learning, work experience and professional practice inform and animate scholarship, and the personal combines with the professional to create a rich and well-considered hybridised learning experience. Using a proto-theoretical model of learning at the postgraduate level, this paper examines the nature of this intersected learning space and provides a real-world example from an Australian postgraduate WBL degree programme to vitalise and concretise the proto-theory. To effectively approach and begin the systematic interrogation of work environments and complex work-related problems, which is a hallmark of WBL, every necessary form of learning must be brought to bear on (or at the least be made available to) practitioners who seek to understand and adapt to the situatedness of rapidly changing work. In so addressing, this paper contributes to the literature on WBL as it has been applied to higher education.