Dynamic Integrated Learning: Managing Knowledge Development in Road Transport

Abstract

This investigation seeks to understand and elaborate how learners who work in circumstances that might be described as being relatively socially isolated come to further develop their working knowledge. The focus here is on road transport workers (i.e. truck drivers) who often work alone, yet are faced with learning to accommodate and respond to new work challenges and ways of working. Increasingly, these workers are required to engage with and understand work knowledge that is represented symbolically through computerised display systems and that requires capacities distinct from those required by earlier generations of road transport workers. In particular, how road transport operators learn new types of knowledge, in view of the recent introduction to heavy road transport of technologies such as computerised engine management systems, automatic gearboxes, and computerised displays (also known as Driver Information Systems or DIS), is considered within this study. Moreover, given the relative social isolation that comprises their work, it is important to understand how the personal and social (i.e. internal and external) contributions to learning development interact in this process of learning. The road transport sector has been quick to introduce new technology into its operations, which is changing the way information and knowledge is presented to drivers, from the “old” technology where it was explicit, to the “new” technology where the knowledge required for performance is abstract, remote, and “hidden”. Subsequently, these drivers' ways of thinking and learning must change to make the transition from the old technology to the new. So, while technologies have been introduced to manage emissions, reduce maintenance costs, increase safety, and make road transport more economically competitive, they sit alongside increased demands associated with vehicle utilisation. Also, integrated electronic systems have changed how information is presented to the driver through abstract computerised symbols. Additionally, these systems have replaced the earlier methods of driving, which previously relied on sensory inputs such as vibrations, sound, and even smell, and instead require a new set of cognitive skills that are reliant on a higher order of conceptual knowledge. The ability to learn these new types of knowledge, therefore, has implications for developing and maintaining professional competence in a rapidly changing society.