The purpose of this article is to introduce a design-based research (DBR) approach developed in the field of vocational and continuing education, which is grounded in a pragmatic and phenomenologically inspired enactivist approach to activity. As a design-based methodology, our activity-centered and enactive DBR approach aims to generate knowledge…

The dominant method of providing formal knowledge to students in education in North America is through classroom training. The focus of this effort is on the delivery of a broad range of conceptual knowledge and skills in various liberal and professional fields of endeavor. Besides classroom instruction, the other predominant mode is through…

One of the most enduring images from Wilson's "The Social Conquest of Earth" (2012) is the campfire, the place of warmth and community around which gathered early humankind. It seems an ideal metaphor for teaching and learning, with mentors and learners gathered around an enterprise of mutual society: No one at the core, but all warmed and…

In a changing society there is considerable interest in developing and systematising people's lifelong learning and in relating this to workplace performance. In Brazil, there has been a growing emphasis on researching and developing basic education and vocational courses from the perspective of active citizenship. This point of view informs this…

As an area of research, instructional communication has struggled to map out the role of communication in the teaching process. More recently, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) movement has emphasized the importance of applying the same systematic, informed rigor in the teaching that educators do in their research pursuits. Both…

The main thrust of the research effort into workplace learning has been to identify the characteristics of workplace learning as experienced by the learner. The impact of the wider organisational process in which that learning is embedded have been played down. This paper, building on the work of Koike and Darrah, uses research conducted in a…

Policies and practices in the areas of identification, assessment, and recognition of nonformal learning in the European Union (EU) were reviewed. The review focused on national and EU-level experiences regarding the following areas and issues: recognition of the contextual nature of learning; identification of methodological requirements for…