I was entertained today by the interaction between "academic" and "operational" professionals in an emerging profession. There were two discourses going on:

The first discourse was of (high) theory.

The second was of related to the (low) application of theory in complex contexts.

It brought back memories of Donald Schon/Schön:

In the varied topography of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground overlooking a swamp.  On the high ground, manageable problems lend themselves to solution through the use of research-based theory and technique.  In the swampy lowlands, problems are messy and confusing and incapable of technical solution.  The irony of this situation is that the problems of the high ground tend to be relatively unimportant to individuals or society at large, however great their technical interest may be, while in the swamp lie the problems of greatest human concern.  The practitioner is confronted with a choice.  Shall he remain on the high ground where he can solve relatively unimportant problems according to his standards of rigor, or shall he descend to the swamp of important problems where he cannot be rigorous in any way he knows how to describe.  source (an excerpt)

The workshop process then ended up with the cliff dwellers throwing stones (models, taxonomies etc) down on the swamp dwellers who couldn't argue their point because the stones didn't really have any impact in their realities. They were, however, intimidated by the big plops that the stones made in the swamp,

The "operational" viewed these inputs as a threat to their practice.

But if the stones had been characterised as findings from research or as possible approaches, methods, tools or techniques a totally different dialogue/discussion would have emerged.

Published - Occupational Sub-Framework Policy from the QCTO

On Wednesday 30 July the QCTO published their policy for the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework. This closes a gap that has been outstanding for a while.
The published framework is a simple, clear document in contrast to some of the earlier drafts. You can download it from the Government Printer www.gponline.co.za. You will have to register first if you haven't already done so. Search for Government Gazette 37879.
If you're considering writing a thesis on the the OQSF this document will form the starting point for any defininitional and underlying concepts, principles and related issues.
If you're a provider or assessor read page 24 f. It deals with the implementation of the policy and transitional arrangements.

Tips for post-grad students

As you may have noticed, when I uploaded a set of primary resources items names included author/s, year and title.

For a long time I struggled to manage all the resources that I downloaded from the internet or where I bought books and made notes. Whenever I wrote a paper it became a chore to track down  the actual papers.
Often when you download an article or on-line book has an odd title, eg agx4532b.pdf. I use folders to sort into content into themes. But even then I don't know what the article or book is about. And sometimes I forget how I have saved that particular article and have a hard time finding it.

Eventually I started renaming  the files as I down loaded them, loosely using the Harvard citation style of Author/s. Year. Title.pdf or whatever. This has increased my success rate for finding these papers.  So you save it. When you try to find it again it's easy if you can remember either the author or one or more words in the title. If you copy a sentence or paragraph I add the name of the file and the page number.

When I use it in a paper I just adjust it to meet the citation requirements of the journal or conference.

Of course that's not enough for you thesis. I suggest you start to use a biliographic tool as soon as possible. Fiona, a researcher I work with who is doing her PhD swears by Endnote. It is expensive but you may be able to access it through your university.

I'm trying out an open-source web-based tool called Zotero. You be web-based only using the Firefox browser or download a standalone version, which also synchronises with the web. There also also plug-ins for Microsoft Word or LibreOffice.

Links page - updated

I've added more  resources to the Links page

This purpose of this post is to re-ignite the workplace learning up as a learning community.
It will depend on your comments, responses and questions.

I've been asked by a couple of potential/actual post-grads aiming for a PhD "What should I read to get started in  skills development?"

This is a complex issue. Skills development includes a number of processes including formal education and training. There's enough literature on that.

So I will concentrate on the "hidden" part of skills development - the translation of knowledge into action in a real-life situation. If we describe this as workplace learning we miss the point that this learning modality also exists in situations outside of work. This kind of learning happens in our homes, in our community interactions, in our cars, banks, SARS offices and so on. It is part and parcel of our daily activities. This greater field of learning is termed "informal learning" ie a form of learning without a curriculum, without a plan and even a formal intention until we are faced with the actual challenge.

So here are four texts which I consider as good starting points for understanding the dynamics of this kind of learning.

CODE KEITH. 1991 Twist of the Wrist – The Motorcycle Road Racers Handbook. Los Angeles: Acrobat

DREYFUS HUBERT. L. 1996 The Current Relevance of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Embodiment. 
http://ejap.louisiana.edu/EJAP/1996.spring/dreyfus.1996.spring.html
Original link: <http://www.phil.indiana.edu/ejap/1996.spring/dreyfus.1996.spring.html>  [Retrieved 1999-05-16]

BILLET, STEPHEN. 2001. Participation and continuity at work: A critique of current workplace learning discourses, paper given at the conference Context, Power and Perspective: Confronting the Challenges to Improving Attainment in Learning at Work, Sunley Management Centre, University College Northampton, 8th –10th November. http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/billett_workplace_learning.htm [Retrieved 2006-07-28]

HENSCHEL, PETER. 1999 The Manager's Core Work in the New Economy. http://www.newmango.com/01iftf/henschel.html [Retrieved 2002-07-02]

I will discuss their relevance in later posts.

Please make comments or ask questions to get the dialogue going