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Quasi-communities: rethinking learning in formal adult and vocational education

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Abstract

Situated learning theories such as communities of practice provide a rich conceptual framework for analyzing the processes by which newcomers become full participants in the communities they enter. However, some research shows that these concepts have shortcomings for theorizing learning in formal educational settings especially when it comes to adult academic and career preparation. To redress these problems, we propose the conceptual framework of quasi-communities, which retains some of the dimensions of the original concept while abandoning others. We use a case study of the continuing training of mariners as evidence to show how this framework is developed to identify and eventually improve learning in formal adult and vocational education. Our analysis illustrates the variable learning opportunities in these settings that are available or might be developed within this framework.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, 7248, Australia

    Gholam Reza Emad

  2. University of Victoria, Applied Cognitive Science, MacLaurin Building A567, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada

    Wolff-Michael Roth

Authors
  1. Gholam Reza Emad
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  2. Wolff-Michael Roth
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Correspondence to Gholam Reza Emad.

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Emad, G.R., Roth, WM. Quasi-communities: rethinking learning in formal adult and vocational education. Instr Sci 44, 583–600 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-016-9386-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-016-9386-9

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