Mandatory continuing professional education is accepted across many professions as a re-credentialing mechanism to maintain professional competency. Self-directed learning is a widely recognized type of learning to meet mandatory continuing professional education requirements. The nature and characteristics of self-directed learning has been…

In Canada, various studies investigating literacy learning have contributed to our understanding of the lives of the adult student. Through a consolidation of empirical evidence, a portrait of the adult learner is sketched, drawing upon pluralistic interpretations of the important life changes that have resulted from their participation in…

The purpose of this paper is to outline government online training practice. We searched individual research domains of the human-dimensions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), information and communications technologies (ICT) and instructional design for evidence of either corporate sector or government training practices. We overlapped these…

The study that informs this article investigated how online learners' participation in and perception of their sense of learning community contributed to or affected their relationship to their workplace environment and their workplace colleagues. The findings support contentions that, in the workplace, the work itself constitutes the most…

The role of professional and local-personal networks as a source of knowledge development in the new knowledge-based economy was examined in a 15-month study that focuses on people working in the multimedia industry in Montreal, Quebec. The study focused on the modes of exchange and learning, collaborative work, and management and development of…

A study to explore organizational conditions that facilitate workplace learning involved 35 resource development consultants in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and line staff from 22 organizations in a 9-hour participatory research workshop using Appreciative Inquiry--a technology emphasizing the positive or "life-giving" forces which…

The reciprocal process of engaging in and learning through work was examined. Reciprocity between how workplaces invite individuals to participate in and learn through work (its invitational qualities) and individuals' engagement in the workplace was proposed as a means of understanding how learning through work proceeds. Workplaces' invitational…

This article reports observations of teachers' collaboration within an inner city elementary school located in western Canada. The study traces the school's development as a learning organization, focusing on the interplay between individual--the level at which learning and action actually occur--and social learning--a conceptual tool for…

Researchers explored the relationships between the great working class communities and the industries they sustained and were sustained by in terms of production, storage, and transmission of skills. First, the ethnographic literature on industrial workplaces and the working class communities associated with them was reviewed. Next, lengthy…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2015-END 2015, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 27 to 29 of June. Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and…

The following papers are included: "Preface" (Huey B. Long); "Self-Directed Learning: Smoke and Mirrors?" (Huey B. Long); "From Self-Culture to Self-Direction: An Historical Analysis of Self-Directed Learning" (Amy D. Rose); "The Link between Self-Directed and Transformative Learning" (Jane Pilling-Cormick);…

The Human Resources in Government project examined the impact of extensive downsizing and restructuring in Canada's public service sector and sought innovative ways of making Canada's governments "employers of choice." The project focused on Canada's federal government and the governments of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.…