commonalities between them. From this, through a reduction process, coherent and relevant themes representative of the codes and data sets were established. A theme in this analysis is referred to as a collection of “patterned responses”, which captures something relevant and important in relation to the research question (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 19). In addition to this process, we constantly returned to the data in its original form as questions and contradictions became evident. For example, in conceptualising sense-making, we found that our understanding from the review of the literature was somewhat different from the themes we developed from our data. We looked for further quotes that may have been missed in our original coding frame against sense-making nodes and interrogated this data in further detail, constantly asking what is happening for learners in each instance. The thematic analysis in relation to the mediation of sense-making was important in contributing to the conceptualisation of this process, as discussed in Chapter Four.
1.4 Structure of the report Following the introduction of this research study in Chapter One, Chapter Two will present the literature review for the project from different theoretical perspectives of sensemaking. The literature review establishes that both cognitive and sociocultural theory should be adopted to understand adult learners’ sense-making in BL in the project. Chapter Three will unpack how adult learners make sense of their learning from different cases studies of BL. Following the unpacking of their sense-making process, Chapter Four will discuss how industry context, TAE context, and curriculum design and pedagogical practices are influencing learners’ sense-making process individually and collectively. Drawing on the findings from Chapter Three and Chapter Four, Chapter Five will present some recommendations for TAE practitioners on how to design and implement BL more effectively to facilitate learners’ sense-making and translation of learning. In addition, it will propose some recommendations for accreditation bodies on how to assess the quality of BL courses on the market.
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