PEDAGOGY
collaborative learning. When it comes to leadership, it imbues participants with habits and attitudes that extend well beyond the characterisation of leadership as residing in one individual. It develops in participants a peripheral awareness of one another, as they become comfortable relying on their peers for coaching and support and see value in sharing leadership. In both the project and learning team features of action learning, for example, team members begin to make use of the team’s resources and recognise the strengths (and shortcomings) of their teammates, such as who provides support to those in need, who fosters team spirit, who knows where to find answers to the most intractable of problems and who explores and reports on opportunities outside the team. All these issues are learning issues. Work-based learning does not insist that they be lodged within any one person; rather, they become the knowledge responsibilities of the entire team. Over time, these practices may come to influence the surrounding organisational culture as new cohorts and sponsors disseminate their collective insights, challenge existing mindsets and produce more co-operative collaboration between universities and industry. In summary, the integration of work-based and action learning into business education can add a significant experiential dimension to classroom- based instruction. By emphasising collective and spontaneous learning as a process in service of effective practice, work-based learning can make a considerable contribution to the business school curriculum. In particular, it equips learners with a higher degree of valid social knowledge and the means for more effective social action. Joe Raelin is an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of collective learning, leadership and practice. He is a visiting professor of social sciences at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) in Finland and holds the Asa S Knowles Chair Emeritus at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in the US. Raelin is also a former visiting scholar of professional and executive management learning (PEML) at Lancaster University Management School in the UK
It becomes essential, therefore, to cultivate collaborative work cultures that allow individuals to thrive in partnership with like-minded peers. The skills needed in this context are often non-routine and must be developed quickly to address unforeseen challenges, utilising available resources. Accordingly, these skills will emerge from hands-on experience, requiring that students learn to improvise in real- time through adaptive learning within the work itself. Experiential learning & leadership In US higher education, work-based learning is often referred to as “experiential education”, but the complement of work is usually introduced through simulations, exercises or case studies. Those schools that deploy work-based learning rely on programmes such as co-operative education, internships, service learning and the like, or apply action learning to part‑time or continuing education courses. Each of these approaches has its administrative distinctions, but what is common is that the parties mutually plan for successful experiences through placements that seek to maximise learning. In addition, collective reflection on the students’ experience is intended to expand and even create knowledge, while at the same time serving to improve the practice. The students’ participation is actively monitored and assessed both by the school authorities and through supervision within the worksite. Each format has its own focus and quality standards, such as ensuring safety and compliance with labour laws, as well as opportunities for reflection. It should be noted, however, that simply placing students in the workplace is not sufficient to bring about work-based learning. There needs to be dedicated attention to students’ reflection on their work activities as close as possible to the activities undertaken. It is unfortunately often too late to begin the process of reflection after the experience is over. Any learning cannot otherwise be tested against real-world practice. The reflection also needs to be collective as well as concurrent. Participants can learn as much from sharing their incidents and stories with their peers as from their own introspection. To this end, work-based learning fosters an environment where knowledge is freely exchanged and everyone contributes to its creation and expansion. In such a setting, there is less reliance on individual expertise and more emphasis on
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Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2025
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