what it leads to.” Another learner commented, “That, initially, it’s very confusing in the beginning, I can’t learn anything at all, except that I have to go back and read.” (Olivia). Confusion is sometimes considered due to a lack of structure and direction – “there’s no clear structure so there’s no clear direction” (Ursula). Multiple occurrences of dialogue are important, allowing learners to progress their discourse so that they propose, explore and evaluate alternative ideas, explanations and problem solutions and, together, to construct the most satisfactory outcome of which they are capable (Wells, 2002). The struggle for learners is not surprising given the very different pedagogical approaches they had experienced in previous courses of the programme and in previous formal learning experiences. This suggests a need to scaffold the different experiences for learners and gradually hand over the responsibility for learning to them.
3.3. Changes in roles and responsibilities Part of the process of scaffolding the handing over of responsibility for learning to learner is to understand their different roles and the different role of the educator. In other words, the division of labour is different from more traditional approaches. Olivia points out the difference between the role of the educator and learners: Okay, previously, I had previous courses with [names of 3 lecturers in previous courses in the Masters’ programme]. So their style is they try a lot of social constructivism, but then it kind of fail, because my classmates are always waiting to be spoon fed. And they’ll always email for things in that. And at the end of the day, the lecturer will give in. [laugh] Yeah, so [lecturer of WPL&P course] don’t give in. So she actually emphasise a lot on the reading, the importance of it, and we’ll actually does a lot of group work. The previous sessions, all the questions, all the things that she actually raised, in the end it’s a group discussion. It’s never a one to one thing, till you really have problem, then she will see you one to one. It’s always answered there and then at the table with your group members… It is a lot more on self-directed. Is this person did not really read, he’s not going to learn anything, yeah. He can learn things, from the friends, from the group members, which don’t know whether they read or not. If you trust them, then so be it. [laugh] (Olivia) Odell compares his experiences in WPL and Performance with previous courses in the programme. You can see more information coming from the peers, I find. Even more than the…I would say, than the usual courses [in the Masters programme]. Although there are, because the [programme] structure, from the way I see it, is I teach you, I tell you, A is, this is…this is what…direct instruction is about, this is how it is, who does it, okay let’s have a case study, let’s have group discussion to talk about this case study. Whereas over here [WPL and Performance course], is about you share between your peers, and try to come to a consensus. Sometimes you are actually gathering in groups, you…you get groups that are…tuned towards your workplace learning issue, which helps quite a bit. (Odell) Odell highlights the different role expected of learners in the WPL and Performance course – “is about you share between your peers, and try to come to a consensus.” The need for learners to take charge of their own learning is inherent in the dialogical teaching and learning process. This difference in the division of labour of both learners and educators was a recurring theme in the interviews. Xavier, for example, notes that, I think there’s tons of activities that’s going on, not that the previous [courses in the Master’s programme] doesn’t. But this [WPL&P course] you can see that there’s a lot of ownership from the students to actually run the activities themselves. You can see it, based on observation
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