Evaluating Learning as Social Practice

Abstract

This article advances an approach to evaluating learning as social practice through an examination of learning in workplaces. The current interest in learning situated in social practice and the utilisation of workplaces as sites for the acquisition of vocational knowledge provides an opportunity to examine how best to evaluate environmental contributions to learning. Adopting a constructivist perspective, the paper draws upon formative studies of understanding learning in workplaces to develop an approach to evaluate learning as engagement in social practice, such as workplaces. These studies are used to appraise theoretical principles and in doing so provide a basis for the evaluation of this view of learning. The article concludes by advocating an approach which accommodates ongoing contributions from the social and physical environment in the development of knowledge and in doing so advocates the evaluation of approaches to learning which are often dismissed as being informal and, hence, adhoc and concrete.