Professional learning throughout the career
Kitty Kwakman
International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2003, vol. 3, issue 2, 180-190
Abstract:
This paper provides a theoretical review of the concept of "professional learning", and presents the contention that the very nature of professional work has a profound impact on the learning process of professionals who perform such work. As professionals are expected to learn continuously throughout their career, the main focus in this paper will be on the learning that takes place within the professional practice itself, since this learning is seen as central to the process of lifelong continuous professional development. Taking several different theories concerning professional practice as a starting point, it will be shown that professional learning serves three different types of goals innovative, professional and individual goals. As professional learning directed at these goals preferably takes place through reflection and interaction, the workplace is proposed to be the most appropriate setting for this learning. Consequently, if we consider professional learning to be a joint responsibility between professionals and the organisations that employ them, organisations would be well advised to enhance professional learning by taking measures to promote opportunities for reflection and interaction within the workplace.
Keywords: professionals; professional learning; professional development; professional work; workplace learning; learning conditions; learning opportunities. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=2419 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijhrdm:v:3:y:2003:i:2:p:180-190
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().