International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning Springer International Handbooks of Education For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6189 Stephen Billett • Christian Harteis • Hans Gruber Editors International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning Editors Stephen Billett School of Education and Professional Studies Adult and Vocational Education Griffith University Brisbane, QLD, Australia Christian Harteis Institute of Educational Science University of Paderborn Paderborn, Germany Hans Gruber Institute of Educational Science University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany ISSN 2197-1951 ISSN 2197-196X (electronic) ISBN 978-94-017-8901-1 ISBN 978-94-017-8902-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8902-8 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014943258 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 This work is subject to copyright. 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Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Acknowledgements We acknowledge the contributions of following persons to the development of this book project whose efforts directly contributed to the identification of contributors and the quality of the accepted chapters. Members of Editorial Board Frank Achtenhagen David Berliner Anneli Eteläpelto Laurent Fillietaz Bärbel Fürstenau Silvia Gherardi David Gijbels Erno Lehtinen Sten Ludvigsen Monika Nerland P. Robert-Jan Simons Reviewers of Contributions Frank Achtenhagen James Avis David Berliner Chris Bigum Sarojni Choy Georgina Davis Anneli Eteläpelto v vi Acknowledgements Laurent Filliettaz Silvia Gherardi Paul Gibbs David Gijbels Michael Henninger Helen Jossberger Eva Kyndt Erno Lehtinen Sten Ludvigsen Monika Nerland Ian Stronach Dineke Tigelaar We would also like to thank the following three staff members of Springer Education, for their support, advice and contributions to the development and publication of this Handbook. Bernadette Ohmer Judy Pieren Marianna Pascale Contents Volume 1 Part I 1 2 Professions and Professional Practice Professionalism, Profession and Professional Conduct: Towards a Basic Logical and Ethical Geography ................................ David Carr 5 The Concept of Professionalism: Professional Work, Professional Practice and Learning....................................................... Julia Evetts 29 3 Moral Aspects of Professions and Professional Practice ..................... Gerhard Minnameier 57 4 Professional Work and Knowledge........................................................ Lina Markauskaite and Peter Goodyear 79 5 Conceptions of Professional Competence ............................................. 107 Martin Mulder 6 Becoming a Practitioner: Professional Learning as a Social Practice .................................................................................. 139 Silvia Gherardi and Manuela Perrotta 7 Productive Systems of Professional Formation .................................... 163 Jim Hordern Part II 8 Research Paradigms Understanding Learning for the Professions: How Theories of Learning Explain Coping with Rapid Change................................. 199 Erno Lehtinen, Kai Hakkarainen, and Tuire Palonen vii viii Contents 9 Understanding Learning for Work: Contributions from Discourse and Interaction Analysis .............................................. 225 Laurent Filliettaz 10 Research Paradigms of Practice, Work and Learning ........................ 257 Paul Gibbs 11 A Phenomenological Perspective on Researching Work and Learning ................................................................................. 279 Gloria Dall’Alba and Jörgen Sandberg 12 The Neuronal Base of Perceptual Learning and Skill Acquisition ............................................................................... 305 Mark W. Greenlee 13 Hierarchical Linear Models for Research on Professional Learning: Relevance and Implications ................................................. 337 Eva Kyndt and Patrick Onghena 14 The Anthropological Paradigm of Practice-Based Learning .............. 369 Catherine Hasse Part III Educational Institutions and Systems 15 Professional Education Between School and Practice Settings: The German Dual System as an Example............................. 397 Peter F.E. Sloane 16 The Dual System of Vocational Education and Training in Germany – What Can Be Learnt About Education for (Other) Professions ........................................................................... 427 Bärbel Fürstenau, Matthias Pilz, and Philipp Gonon 17 From University to Professional Practice: Students as Journeymen Between Cultures of Education and Work................. 461 Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke, Berit Karseth, and Sofia Nyström 18 Integrating Professional Learning Experiences Across University and Practice Settings ............................................... 485 Stephen Billett and Sarojni Choy 19 Transitions to Working Life: Securing Professional Competence ...... 513 Päivi Tynjälä and Jennifer M. Newton 20 Interprofessional Education in the Health Workplace ........................ 535 Elizabeth Katherine Molloy, Louise Greenstock, Patrick Fiddes, Catriona Fraser, and Peter Brooks 21 Medical Education .................................................................................. 561 Tim Dornan and Pim W. Teunissen ix Contents 22 A Phenomenographic Way of Seeing and Developing Professional Learning ............................................................................. 591 Ming Fai Pang 23 Changing Cultures of Knowledge and Professional Learning .......... Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen 611 Volume 2 Part IV Practice-Based Learning Activities 24 Identity and Agency in Professional Learning ................................... Anneli Eteläpelto, Katja Vähäsantanen, Päivi Hökkä, and Susanna Paloniemi 645 25 Simulation Learning ............................................................................. Jan Breckwoldt, Hans Gruber, and Andreas Wittmann 673 26 Learning from Errors at Work ............................................................ Christian Harteis and Johannes Bauer 699 27 Learning in the Circumstances of Professional Practice ................... Stephen Billett and Raymond Smith 733 28 Apprenticeship as a Model for Learning in and Through Professional Practice ............................................................................. Geoffrey Gowlland 759 29 Implicit Knowledge and Work Performance ...................................... Britta Herbig and Andreas Müller 781 30 Intuition in Professional and Practice-Based Learning..................... Eugene Sadler-Smith 807 31 An Organisational Perspective on Professionals’ Learning .............. Bente Elkjaer and Ulrik Brandi 835 32 Professional Learning in the Ambulance Service ............................... Morten Sommer 857 33 Mimetic Learning at Work: Learning Through and Across Professional Working Lives .............................................. Stephen Billett 887 Part V Implementing and Supporting Professional Learning 34 Professional Development and the Profession .................................... Anton Havnes and Jens-Christian Smeby 915 35 The Real Professional is a Learning Professional .............................. P. Robert-Jan Simons and Manon C.P. Ruijters 955 Contents x 36 Team Learning in Education and Professional Organisations ......... Filip Dochy, David Gijbels, Elisabeth Raes, and Eva Kyndt 987 37 Teams, Communities of Practice, and Knowledge Networks as Locations for Learning Professional Practice .............. 1021 Victoria J. Marsick, Andrew K. Shiotani, and Martha A. Gephart 38 The Role of Human Resource Development in Organizational Change: Professional Development Strategies of Employees, Managers and HRD Practitioners ............ 1043 Rob F. Poell and Ferd J. Van Der Krogt 39 Mentoring as a Strategy for Facilitating Learning: Protégé and Mentor Perspectives ........................................................ 1071 Lillian Turner de Tormes Eby, B. Lindsay Brown, and Kerrin George 40 The New Professionalism: An Exploration of Vocational Education and Training Teachers in England ............. 1099 James Avis and Kevin Orr 41 Older Professionals, Learning and Practice ....................................... 1125 Tarja Irene Tikkanen and Stephen Billett 42 Promoting Practice-Based Innovation Through Learning at Work .................................................................. 1161 Per-Erik Ellström and Per Nilsen 43 Technology-Enhanced Professional Learning .................................... 1187 Allison Littlejohn and Anoush Margaryan Part VI Assessing Professional Learning 44 Evaluating Professional Learning ....................................................... 1215 Thomas R. Guskey 45 Assessment of Professional Competence ............................................. 1237 Dineke E.H. Tigelaar and Cees P.M. van der Vleuten 46 Assessment of Professionals’ Continuous Learning in Practice........ 1271 Tara J. Fenwick 47 The Influence of Evidence-Based Decisions by Collaborative Teacher Teams on Student Achievement ............... 1299 Patrick Griffin, Esther Care, Judith Crigan, Pamela Robertson, Zhonghua Zhang, and Alejandra Arratia-Martinez 48 Large-Scale Assessment of Vocational Education and Training ....... 1333 Frank Achtenhagen and Esther Winther Index ............................................................................................................... 1355 Contributors Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden Frank Achtenhagen Faculty of Economics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Alejandra Arratia-Martinez Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia James Avis School of Education, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK Johannes Bauer TUM School of Education, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany Stephen Billett School of Education and Professional Studies, Adult and Vocational Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Ulrik Brandi Department of Education, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Jan Breckwoldt Vice-Deanery of Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Peter Brooks Australian Health Workforce Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia B. Lindsay Brown Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA Esther Care Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia David Carr Professor of Ethics and Education, Jubilee Centre for the Study of Character and Values, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK Sarojni Choy School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD, Australia xi xii Contributors Judith Crigan Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Gloria Dall’Alba School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Lillian Turner de Tormes Eby Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA Filip Dochy Centre for Research on Professional Learning and Development, Corporate Training and Lifelong Learning, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Tim Dornan Department of Educational Development and Research, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands Bente Elkjaer Department of Education, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Per-Erik Ellström Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden HELIX VINN Excellence Centre, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden Anneli Eteläpelto Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Julia Evetts School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Tara J. Fenwick School of Education, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK Patrick Fiddes Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Laurent Filliettaz Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Catriona Fraser Australian Health Workforce Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Bärbel Fürstenau Faculty of Business and Economics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany Kerrin George Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA Martha A. Gephart Department of Organization and Leadership, J.M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Silvia Gherardi Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy Paul Gibbs Department of Education, Institute of Work Based Learning, University of Middlesex, Middlesex, UK Contributors xiii David Gijbels Institute for Education and Information Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Philipp Gonon Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland Peter Goodyear Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Geoffrey Gowlland Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS, University of London, London, UK Mark W. Greenlee Institute of Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany Louise Greenstock Australian Health Workforce Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Patrick Griffin Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Hans Gruber Institute of Educational Science, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany Thomas R. Guskey Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, College of Education, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA Kai Hakkarainen Department of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland Christian Harteis Institute of Educational Science, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Catherine Hasse Department of Education, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark Anton Havnes Centre for the Study of Professions, Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway Britta Herbig Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany Päivi Hökkä Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Jim Hordern School of Education, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK Karen Jensen Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Berit Karseth Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Eva Kyndt Centre for Research on Professional Learning and Development, Corporate Training and Lifelong Learning, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Erno Lehtinen Centre for Learning Research and Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland xiv Contributors Allison Littlejohn Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK Anoush Margaryan Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK Lina Markauskaite Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Victoria J. Marsick Department of Organization and Leadership, J.M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Gerhard Minnameier Business Ethics and Business Education, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Elizabeth Katherine Molloy Health Professions Education and Educational Research (HealthPEER) Department, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Martin Mulder Education and Competence Studies, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands Andreas Müller Institute for Occupational and Social Medicine, Heinrich-HeineUniversity, Duesseldorf, Germany Monika Nerland Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Jennifer M. Newton Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Per Nilsen Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden HELIX VINN Excellence Centre, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden Sofia Nyström Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden Patrick Onghena Methodology of Educational Sciences Research Group, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Kevin Orr School of Education, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK Tuire Palonen Centre for Learning Research and Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland Susanna Paloniemi Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Ming Fai Pang Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Manuela Perrotta School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom Contributors xv Matthias Pilz Faculty of Economics, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany Rob F. Poell Professor of Human Resource Development, Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands Elisabeth Raes Centre for Research on Professional Learning and Development, Corporate Training and Lifelong Learning, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Pamela Robertson Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Manon C.P. Ruijters Stoas Vilentum, University of Applied Sciences, Wageningen, The Netherlands Twynstra Gudde Management and Consultants, Amersfoort, The Netherlands Eugene Sadler-Smith Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK Jörgen Sandberg School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Andrew K. Shiotani Department of International and Transcultural Studies, J.M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA P. Robert-Jan Simons Center for Education and Learning, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands NSO, Netherlands School of Educational Management: Academy for Leadership in Education, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Peter F.E. Sloane Business Administration and Economics, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Jens-Christian Smeby Centre for the Study of Professions, Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway Raymond Smith School of Education and Professional Studies, Adult and Vocational Education, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Morten Sommer Department of Industrial Economics, Risk Management and Planning, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavenger, Stavenger, Norway Pim W. Teunissen Department of Educational Development and Research, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands xvi Contributors Dineke E.H. Tigelaar Graduate School of Teaching, ICLON-Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands Tarja Irene Tikkanen Faculty of Teacher Training and Cultural Education, Stord/Haugesund University College, Stord, Norway Päivi Tynjälä Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Katja Vähäsantanen Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland Ferd J. Van Der Krogt Department of Education, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Cees P.M. van der Vleuten Department of Educational Development and Research, School of Health Professions Education, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands Esther Winther Business Administration and Economics, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Andreas Wittmann Institute of Educational Science, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany Zhonghua Zhang Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Introduction The need for both a thorough and robust initial preparation as well as provision supporting ongoing learning has become essential for the professions within the last decades. This is because the requirements for occupational practice continue to become more complex and demanding, and more frequently transform as labour markets have dramatically changed, and the requirements for practice continually change. Moreover, across western countries with advanced industrial economies, the key growth in employment can be found in occupations that are referred to as para-professional and professional occupations. Hence, there is a growing demand for both initial learning and ongoing development for professional occupations. In all, increases in demand for occupational development, transitions in individuals’ occupational careers, and changing requirements for occupational activities and tasks make for both thorough initial preparation and ongoing learning throughout professionals’ working lives essential now. Furthermore, as changes in these occupations’ requirements for performance are usually manifested in particular set of everyday work tasks, both initial preparation and professional development provisions wholly located in educational institutions decrease in their salience. Correspondingly, learning and development experiences in and as part of professional activities has increased in their salience, and are often included within both initial and professional development programs. Consequently, educational provisions for the professions now focus increasingly on the analysis and the support of learning for, within and throughout professional lives, and often include practice-based experiences. It follows, therefore, that research on professional and practice-based learning is emerging as a crucial topic within educational enquiry, and one whose findings requires to be broadly considered, widely disseminated and acted upon in educational programs seeking to prepare individuals for professional occupations and then sustaining their employability across lengthening professional lives. Associated with these educational goals are a range of scientific challenges and important focuses within the field of professional learning that warrant being further understood. These include understanding and making explicit the complex and massive knowledge that is required for professional practice and identifying ways in which this knowledge can best be initially learnt and developed further across xvii xviii Introduction professional lives. For instance, conceptually, major issues for a handbook on research in professional and practice-based learning are analytical explications of those processes that support learning at an individual and an organisational level. Associated procedural issues include understanding how learning experiences and educational processes might best be aligned or integrated to support this professional learning, again at the individual workers’ level as well as on organisational level of enterprises. However, the increase in numbers and concentration of professional workers, and their need for ongoing development, demands a comprehensive handbook comprising contributions that speak directly to theoretical and empirical research on professional learning issues, and that can be considered as key reference for international scientific and educational community. Therefore, given these growing needs and sets of important educational challenges, it is only now necessary and timely to bring together what is currently known about professional work, processes for initial and ongoing development of the capacities required for effective professional practice and a specific consideration on practice-based learning in the form of a comprehensive handbook. This handbook aims to fill this gap, and, thereby, augment the existing Springer series (i.e. International Handbooks of Education). The intention with this handbook is to establish a strong research-based platform for informed discussion of the variety of concepts and practices associated with professional education and professionals’ learning that focus on both the individual development of professionals and the organisation of professional life and educational experiences to support and sustain that learning, and with a particular emphasis on that learning arising through practice-based experiences. The key premise of this handbook is that during both initial and ongoing professional development, individual learning processes are influenced and shaped through their professional environment and practices. Moreover, in turn, the practice and processes of learning through practice are shaped by their development, all of which are required to be understood through a range of research orientations, methods and findings. All of this means this handbook necessarily engages a wide range of scholars whose research orientations, disciplines and perspectives are quite diverse. Contributions reporting research on the individual development in professional contexts are incorporated into the handbook as is research on the social embedding of practice in professional domains. The need to engage with this range of distinct contributions as well as being comprehensive required careful scoping and selection of contributors who are able to provide chapters that comprehensively inform the particular area or issue they address and which in turn have informed the development of the structure and organisation of the handbook’s content. Moreover, there are no restrictions in the area of relevant occupations or conceptual or procedural approaches to conform to those of the editors. Instead, an inclusive approach towards the project of research in professional learning is necessary and is adopted in selecting appropriate contributors and secure comprehensive and well-developed responses from them. In these ways, the handbook brings together the contributions of key international researchers across its two volumes of consolidated work. For this purpose, researchers from a range of disciplines make Introduction xix contributions that are integrated into the text. The contributors include those from education, studies of the professions, anthropologies sociology, cognitive and social psychology, amongst others. Moreover, the book seeks to be inclusive in its scope. In this way, the handbook also aims at addressing professional learning in institutions of higher and vocational education as well as the practice settings where professionals work and learn, focussing on both initial and ongoing development. In all, the handbook provides a platform for between almost 50 contributions from selected and invited researchers in associated fields to present and discuss research highly focused and detailed analyses through their chapters. The handbook comprises two volumes, with six sections each with distinct themes, three each per volume, with a total of 48 chapters. Each of these two volumes has an overarching purpose and the parts within them are directed towards describing, elaborating and articulating key aspects of that purpose. The contributors to this Handbook are drawn from across a range of countries and continents, languages, disciplines and fields of study. These volumes and the contributing sectors are now briefly introduced. Volume 1 – Scientific and Institutional Framework The first volume sets out the scientific institutional framework through which professions can be understood, their purposes identified and investigated, the kinds of practices that are organised and enacted to develop the capacities required to practice them. Central to these practices are the provision of practice-based experiences which are central to developing the kinds of capacities required for effective professional practice. The three parts comprising this volume are entitled: (i) Professions and professional practice; (ii) Research paradigms; and (iii) Educational institutions and systems. The focuses for those parts are briefly outlined below. Professions and professional practice: This part comprises contributions that advance accounts of what constitutes the professions, professional practice and how the practice of professions is enacted in the workplace. These contributions explicitly address what constitutes professions and professional practice, including its ethical dimensions. Considerations are also given here to the formation of professions and the way professional associations and professionals serve and sustain the standing of the professions. In doing so, this part sets out something of the concepts, thematic issues and premises for considering what constitutes the professions and their formation. Research paradigms: This part comprises contributions outlining the diverse theoretical and conceptual accounts of understanding both professions and professional learning, and that indicate the scope of methodological approaches to investigating both the professions and professional learning. These approaches are represented by accounts of methods and paradigms which are used to engage in scientific enquiry associated with what constitutes professional work and its learning. Key and contrasting methods are included, illustrated and discussed in this part. xx Introduction Educational institutions and systems: This part comprises contributions identifying the educational purposes and processes (i.e. curriculum and pedagogy) used by educational institutions to prepare professionals and then maintain their competence across their working lives. Featured here are selected accounts of the way educational systems have been organised and enacted to secure professional learning outcomes and what kinds of conceptions of curriculum and curriculum practices are utilised in securing effective professional capacities through educational institutions and systems. Volume 2 – Learning, Education and Assessment in and for the Professions This second volume focuses on procedural issues associated with learning for and through professional practice. This includes a necessary but central consideration of the role which practice-based learning experiences play in the formation of national capacities. Moreover, attention is given to the design and implementation of experiences that support professional learning both through initial preparation and ongoing development across professional lives. Concluding here is also a set of considerations about the assessment of learning experiences and the evaluation of professional education provisions. The three parts comprising this volume are entitled: (i) Practice-based learning activities; (ii) Implementing and supporting professional learning; and (iii) Assessing professional learning. Practice-based learning activities: This part comprises reviews and analyses of the current state of research on work related learning activities occurring outside educational institutions – e.g. workplaces, everyday life, private environments – covering intentional as well as incidental learning. Central to this part is understanding, illustrating and elaborating the roles which practice-based learning activities play in the development of occupational identity and capacities as well as being utilised as sites for ongoing professional learning across lengthening working lives. Included here are contributions that utilise the educational lexicon and discourse to understand, legitimate and illustrate the ways which practice-based activities and experiences are central to professional formation. Implementing and supporting professional learning: This part comprises research reporting on processes of and practices for the ongoing development of professional competence, with a particular emphasis on how this kind of learning arises through practice-based strategies. The strategies comprise a range of curriculum and pedagogies practices which can be used to secure professional capacities and identities. These include considerations of the goals and purposes for professional education and further development, and the way in which practices such as mentoring, the use of teams and the actions of professionals themselves are central to securing initial and ongoing professional competence. Introduction xxi Assessing professional learning: This part addresses research on issues of judging, evaluating, monitoring, and assessing professional learning. The chapters address evaluation processes on the micro-, meso-, and macro level of analysis by exploring methodological and normative issues of work related judgement processes. Research which reports the ways in which professional learning can be assessed and the means by which the assessment progresses feature within this final part. This featuring largely focuses on making judgements about what constitutes professional competence, means for validly and reliably assessing that learning, and extends through to considerations and practices associated with the evaluation of education programs, provisions of educational institutions and other kinds of experiences that seek to secure, certify and order professional knowledge. Through the focus of these volumes and the structuring of these contributions, what is provided within this International Handbook of Research into professional and Practice Based Learning is an attempt to provide a comprehensive, albeit not exhaustive, resource which provides an informed account of the field which builds upon a scientific and institutional heritage and seeks to use that heritage to inform how provisions for the initial and ongoing learning professionals can be ordered, enacted, supported and assessed. Brisbane, QLD, Australia Paderborn, Germany Regensburg, Germany December 2013 Stephen Billett Christian Harteis Hans Gruber