TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Life Based Learning: Designing Professional Development for the Knowledge Era Maret Staron Robby Weatherley Ph  Fax  Level 4, 1 Oxford Street, DARLINGHURST NSW 2010

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Knowledge Era – the environment

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Learning Ecology – the metaphor From MACHINE To ECOLOGY

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Strength based philosophy – the mindset Positive Psychology Celebrating what’s right with people and building on that The positive aspects of human experience – what makes us thrive? Enabling individuals and organisations to be the best they can be Flow Theory Matching skills and challenge for optimal performance - to go beyond Martin Seligman Authentic happiness Signature strengths Six universal virtues Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Strength based philosophy – the mindset Focusing on what is working well and investing in that Enabling individuals and organisations to be the best they can be From an ecological perspective, does not displace what works

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Business wisdom – the actions Strength based – contributes to wellbeing & the common good Contributes to synthesis – pulls components together Achievement oriented – guides thinking and actions. Wise thinking and actions The glue that connects the elements of a learning organisation Contributes to organisations achieving their goals Helps to link and leverage knowledge, intelligence and experience within an organisation

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning  CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT is the new emphasis for working and learning in VTE  A STRENGTH BASED ORIENTATION to capability development is the most effective for change  LIFE BASED LEARNING is a contemporary model for capability development Key findings

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT  Moves beyond professional development  Reclaims the importance of people  It’s about people’s confidence in applying their skills  Integrates a range of strength based strategies Key findings

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Personalised: whatever is needed for the task

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Adults learn from multiple sources

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning All learning impacts on working life

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Integrating and progressing familiar models

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning  LIFE BASED = Learning from life  The source of learning and recognition of a person’s learning contribution to capability development in a work context  LIFE LONG = Learning forever  The learning continuum and ongoing acquisition of knowledge and skills Life based and lifelong learning

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Life based learning - three distinguishing features An emphasis on a strength based orientation rather than strategy Explicit recognition of underpinning foundation truths and values – eg trust, mindfulness, generosity, consideration and tolerance Acknowledgement of the learner as a whole person who accesses many sources of learning.

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Key benefits of life based learning 1.It expands the perspective of learning and opens up opportunities 2.It legitimises life experiences as a key source of learning and reinforces the transferable nature of learning – it can be harvested from one context and sown in another. 3.It acknowledges the whole person which has potential for utilising individual talents in better and smarter ways. This could benefit both the individual and the organisation.

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Life based learning: key characteristics

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Key challenge of life based learning How we recognise, capture, support and utilise this more open-ended approach for the benefit of both the individual and the organisation. This will require a diverse and personalised range of “design-it-yourself” strategies.

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning The life based learning model

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning The person: passive, active, whole

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Local dynamics but interconnected

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Emerging strategies Conversations Talent Management Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Positive Deviance Disruptive Technology Evaluation Processes Appreciative Inquiry Most Significant Change

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Conversations A process to facilitate communication, build relationships and generate knowledge. Pask, G (theory of conversation) Zeldin, T (art and history of conversation) Laurillards, D (conversational model for learning online) Jensen and Kolb (conversational learning as an experiential approach to knowledge creation)

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Conversations World Café – a well documented process for applying conversation as a learning process. Generate input, share knowledge, stimulate innovative thinking. Engage people and groups in authentic conversation. Conduct in depth exploration of key strategic challenges. Deepen relationships and mutual ownership of outcomes. Create meaningful interaction between speaker and audience.

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Talent Management ‘Businesses rise and fall on the strength of its people. Harnessing these strengths for the benefit of the individual and the business is the goal of talent management.’ Build a winning environment that people want to belong to. Establish a talent management mindset. Create tangible means to identify, select and deploy talented people. Fully engage talent, use it and manage it intellegently. (Duttagupta 2005)

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Positive Deviance Solutions before our very eyes! Context matters: look local and invest there The Premise: In every community there are certain individuals whose uncommon practices/behaviors enable them to find better solutions to problems than their neighbors who have access to the same resources Pascale and Jerry Sternin

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Appreciative Inquiry Searching for solutions that already exist: –What gives life to an organisation –Amplify what is working so it becomes more common –Collaborative conversation with the whole organisation APPRECIATE Affirming past and present strengths, successes, and potentials; INQUIRY The act of exploration and discovery. To ask questions; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities. David Cooperrider

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Companion document A starter kit for implementation

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning Seven steps to action

TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.” Albert Einstein