1.2 Definitions

(iN.LEARN 20201, 2019) as a way to enhance their access to learning and meet their dynamic learning needs.

Another reason for undertaking this study is that the plethora of literature on sensemaking offers little insight into learners’ sense-making in and across BL environments. Other relevant literature informs us how adults learn at and through work (Billett, 2001a; Boud & Molloy, 2013b; Bound, 2010; Bound & Lin, 2011; Fenwick, 2008a; Lantolf & Beckett, 2009; Nicolini, 2012; Wells, 2000). For example, observation, asking questions, talking about and solving problems with others, feedback, dialogue, inquiry and being reflexive are commonly used learning strategies. In online learning environments, we know that the opportunities the technology offers for collaborative sharing of documents, building communities of practice, coconstruction of knowledge, practising skills, and so on, offer potentially rich learning opportunities. What we know considerably less about is how learners make sense of and translate their learning in and across these different settings.

In summary, undertaking a study on learners’ sense-making in BL environments contributes to our understanding of how pedagogical practices are mediated in situated settings and discourses, in which adult educators and training providers develop and deliver their learning programmes. These insights will contribute to improving design and delivery of learning in and across blended environments and inform policies that seek to ensure quality learning outcomes.

Specifically, this study will investigate the following three research questions:

RQ1: How do adult learners make sense of and translate their learning across different blended environments and apply to their work?

RQ2: How do adult learners experience learning in and across different blended environments?

RQ3: What are the implications of the findings from RQ1 and RQ2 for pedagogical innovations in BL?

As indicated above, BL in this study is more than classroom and online learning; it also includes learning in work settings. The authors take their definition of BL from the IAL publication Blending Classroom with Work and Technology: How to Design a Blended Curriculum (2016). Blended learning is any combination of the following:  Classroom learning: face-to-face learning that takes place in a protected space and time;  Work-based learning: learning that is driven by an educational institution (e.g. internship) or Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) CET centres towards the attainment of a qualification that is work/occupation-centric;

1 http://www.skillsfuture.sg/inlearn