Experience and shared practice : design engineers' learning at work

Abstract

Kaija Collin tarkastelee, miten ja mitä suunnittelu- ja kehitysinsinöörit oppivat työssään. Millaisia käsityksiä suunnittelijoilla on työstään ja siinä oppimisestaan, millainen rooli aikaisemmilla työkokemuksilla on heidän työssä oppimisessaan ja miten oppimista tapahtuu työn alati muuttuvissa käytännöissä?- Suunnittelutyössä oppiminen on moni-ilmeistä. Työ itsessään opettaa paljon, mutta erityisen tärkeiksi oppimisen tavoiksi koettiin omasta työkokemuksesta ja yhdessä työskentelystä oppiminen, Collin havaitsi.- Työtä ja oppimista on vaikea erottaa toistaan työtä tehdessä. Koulutuksen kautta saatua ja työssä omaksuttua oppia ei ole tarpeen erottaa toisistaan. Aikaisemmilla työkokemuksilla on keskeinen rooli suunnittelutyössä oppimisessa. Suunnittelutyön käytännöt ovat jaettuja, verkottuneita ja tilannesidonnaisia. Työtehtäviä ei voi irrottaa siitä kontekstista, jossa ne tapahtuvat, luettelee Collin keskeisiä havaintojaan.

The study investigates design engineers’ and product developers’ learning through their work. The aim was to approach designers’ work practice and their learning in the course of it as perceived by the designers themselves. The aim was also to examine their learning through the various individual and social processes which take place in the workplace. The study thus addressed three major questions: 1) What conceptions do engineers have of learning at work? 2) What role do previous work experiences have in on-the-job learning in the domain of design work? and 3) How do engineers learn through shared practices of design and development work? The report is based on five articles published in 2002–2005.The ethnographic approach with its use of combined and qualitative data gathering and analytical methods was selected to answer the above questions. Observations in two Finnish high-tech companies and interviews with 18 designers were conducted within an ethnographic framework. The observations and interviews were analysed with help of combined methods of analysis, such as phenomenographic, narrative and ethnographic analysis. The findings suggest that in redefining designers’ work and learning, four central themes are important: 1) design practice is learning in itself; 2) there is a close relationship between formal and practical knowledge in designers’ learning at work; 3) previous work experience plays an essential role in learning; and 4) design practices and learning should be seen as shared, situated and contextualized. It was concluded, on the more general level, that the learning which takes place at work cannot be approached with the help of vocabulary borrowed from formal education. Neither can this phenomenon be described solely as informal. Moreover, individual and social practice and learning in the workplace should be seen as interdependent and intertwined. Various further ideas for researching designers’ learning in their practice and how the formal education of designers could be developed in connection with these ideas are offered. In addition, more general suggestions concerning the guidance of workplace learning are given, and the challenges of guiding and assessing workplace learning in the vocational education context are examined. There is a clear need for more effective integration between education and working life