Abstract
The current digitalisation taking place in the industry, often referred to as Industry 4.0, alters the traditional job functions. Industrial employees, therefore, need to update their
skills and competence to fit the future need of the industry. However, to fully exploit the
new possibilities embedded in digitalisation, industrial employees require skills and competencies beyond the technical domain, e.g., collaboration, communication, creativity,
and critical thinking, also known as 21st century contextual skills. Due to this, the educational practice within the technical fields need to adapt to a broader learning output beyond traditionally technical skills and competences (core skills). One way to increase and
broaden the learning output, emphasising the contextual 21st century skills, is to adopt
reflective practice-based learning (RPL).
This study investigates the adoption of RPL in further education, focusing on the upskilling of employees in the industry. The study is empirically based on the analysis of two
educational designs (pilots) for further education, and for future implementation. The two
pilots are developed as a proposal for industrial upskilling at respectively UCN and UCL,
as part of a joined research and development project. The development of the pilots
takes a point of departure in a setting inspired by the Learning Factory approach. Building
on the concept of Learning Factory enables the learning activities to have a strong link to
the industry workplace practice, creating a setting for practice-based reflection. This study
reports the opportunities, integrating the principles of RPL into a setting inspired by
the Learning Factory approach, developing educational design aimed at a further education.
The results of the study indicate that the adoption of RPL in a Learning Factory setting
improve the maturity level of a Learning Factory, hence strengthens the students’ learning. Thus, RPL can be regarded as a tool to further operationalise the didactics of the
Learning Factory concept. On the other side, a Learning Factory setting creates a good
industry workplace example for practice-based reflection.
skills and competence to fit the future need of the industry. However, to fully exploit the
new possibilities embedded in digitalisation, industrial employees require skills and competencies beyond the technical domain, e.g., collaboration, communication, creativity,
and critical thinking, also known as 21st century contextual skills. Due to this, the educational practice within the technical fields need to adapt to a broader learning output beyond traditionally technical skills and competences (core skills). One way to increase and
broaden the learning output, emphasising the contextual 21st century skills, is to adopt
reflective practice-based learning (RPL).
This study investigates the adoption of RPL in further education, focusing on the upskilling of employees in the industry. The study is empirically based on the analysis of two
educational designs (pilots) for further education, and for future implementation. The two
pilots are developed as a proposal for industrial upskilling at respectively UCN and UCL,
as part of a joined research and development project. The development of the pilots
takes a point of departure in a setting inspired by the Learning Factory approach. Building
on the concept of Learning Factory enables the learning activities to have a strong link to
the industry workplace practice, creating a setting for practice-based reflection. This study
reports the opportunities, integrating the principles of RPL into a setting inspired by
the Learning Factory approach, developing educational design aimed at a further education.
The results of the study indicate that the adoption of RPL in a Learning Factory setting
improve the maturity level of a Learning Factory, hence strengthens the students’ learning. Thus, RPL can be regarded as a tool to further operationalise the didactics of the
Learning Factory concept. On the other side, a Learning Factory setting creates a good
industry workplace example for practice-based reflection.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | European conference of reflective practice based learning |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Publisher | University College of Northern Denmark |
| Publication date | Nov 2021 |
| Pages | 145-154 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-87-971643-5-8 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
| Event | European Conference on Reflective Practice-based Learning 2021 - University College of Northern Denmark (UCN), Aalborg, Denmark Duration: 1 Nov 2021 → 3 Nov 2021 Conference number: 1 |
Conference
| Conference | European Conference on Reflective Practice-based Learning 2021 |
|---|---|
| Number | 1 |
| Location | University College of Northern Denmark (UCN) |
| Country/Territory | Denmark |
| City | Aalborg |
| Period | 01/11/2021 → 03/11/2021 |