RSS Feed for the unit Working life and learning

Introduction

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

In writing this unit we have assumed that you have some experience of work, irrespective of whether you have a paid job or not and whether you work within an organisation or not. At times we will ask you to draw on that experience to undertake some learning activities aimed at comparing some of the ideas you’ll be reading about to your own experience of working life. We have also assumed that one of your reasons for studying this course is because you are interested in improving your working life in some way. You may be doing this in one or more of the following ways:

improving your work performance;
enhancing your promotion chances;
changing jobs;
returning to paid employment after a period outside it;
developing self-employment opportunities;
making the most of voluntary work.

Perhaps you are considering further study to support these improvements but are not yet sure about what to study nor feeling confident in your own abilities. We aim to provide you with an opportunity to build your confidence and to establish a basis for future study in business, leadership, management or a field of particular interest to you in which you are seeking a university qualification linked to your work.

This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course Working and learning: developing effective performance at work (BU130).

Original Copyright © 2007 The Open University. Now made available within the Creative Commons framework under the CC Attribution – Non-commercial licence (see http://creativecommons.org/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).

Learning outcomes

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

understand your own learning and chosen work-based learning topics;
have developed basic skills in reflective learning, including insights into experiences and making decisions upon future action;
have an ability to plan, manage and communicate your own learning within chosen work-based learning topics;
have an ability to use relevant knowledge and key skills to engage critically with a range of problems and issues in your workplace.

1.1 Your unit starts here!

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

We spend so much of our time working, sometimes it can seem like mere drudgery. We rarely think of working as an activity that can help us learn. For the course team, learning is the activity that changes books, computers, hobbies and work into exciting resources and activities that help us grow and do things better. The aim of this unit is just that, to help you do things better, particularly in your work. This isn't just about keeping your boss happy – we'll address the issue of whether ‘work’ is all about working in an organisation for a boss later in the unit. What we're interested in is any work and any activities which make a difference to our lives: anything that opens up opportunities, helps us feel pride in our achievements or makes our daily lives a place of exploration. We hope that you find this unit helpful in learning to change your day-to-day work practice into an experience of realised opportunity.

1.1.1Course aims

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

The primary purpose of this unit is to allow you to use your current and past experiences of work as a basis for further academic study. We see this as a good starting point for any further study in the area of business and management but it is particularly vital for those who are embarking on a foundation degree programme where it provides a first taste of work-based learning with the Open University. Having said this, we hope that the unit is useful for anyone who wishes to make changes or improvements in their working life.

The aims of this unit, therefore, are:

to enable you to reflect upon what you learn for work and how you learn in your work;
to support you in improving your learning, and exploring how this impacts on particular aspects of your work practice;
to enable you to critically evaluate work-based learning in relation to your own, and other, work contexts, and to review your own personal and professional knowledge and skills.

Practically, the objectives of this unit are:

to develop and enhance your work-based knowledge and your learning skills;
to prepare you to engage with academic inquiry in relation to your work-based practice.

1.2.1 What is a learning log/journal?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

A Learning Log/Journal is a notebook, loose-leaf file or a digital file in which you record and keep regular notes on what you have learnt from a particular work or study activity. You will be asked to create a Learning Log/Journal in Activity 1, where you can find a link to the Learning Journal available via this OpenLearn unit. A Learning Log/Journal acts as a support for your reflection on any learning you have undergone. Details of how to use the OpenLearn Learning Journal are included in Section 2 and Activity 1.

1.2.2 You! (and your fellow students on this unit)

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

An essential resource for this unit is you, and the knowledge, understanding and skills that you already have. This unit is designed to utilise your existing learning as a platform from which you will move off on a new and different personal development track. When we talk of learning, we don't want to limit this to academic learning. Rather, we include the learning that all of us do all of the time, such as learning how to ride a bicycle or drive a car, or how to deal with difficult people. Learning can include a very broad range of activities. You may find it helpful to post queries or enquiries to the topic forum (discussion board) attached to this unit during your study of this material.

2.1 Challenging assumptions

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

As you saw in the previous section, your work is central to the learning you will gain from studying this unit. In our view though, ‘work’ does not mean the same as ‘paid employment in an organisation’. The idea that these two things are the same is an assumption which is made in many areas of life, such as management courses, careers advice and newspaper reports. At least one Saturday broadsheet newspaper has a whole section headed ‘Work’ which is dominated by advertisements for paid employment opportunities, i.e. jobs of various types with various organisations. It is certainly true that very many of us earn our living by doing such work, but modern working life can be very varied and it is increasingly difficult to generalise about patterns of work. In this unit we would like to challenge some traditional assumptions about work in two ways.

Firstly, a proportion of any country's working population does not work in an organisation. You may know someone who is, or indeed you may yourself be, self-employed. This means you are not contracted to work for an organisation and your earnings are paid directly to you for a product or service you provide to others. Some people, for example a neighbourhood window cleaner, provide personal or household services, while others, for example a contract computer programmer, provide services to organisations even though they don't work for them as an employee. If you are in this position or if you are considering becoming self-employed, we hope this unit can help you think about some important aspects of this kind of work and support you in making decisions about your future circumstances.

Challenging the second assumption is slightly more difficult, but let us put it in the question: is work always paid? Volunteer work is probably the most obvious example of work which is not paid, but actually there is a more interesting point hidden here. The study of work by academics in the social sciences – subjects like sociology and economics – often reinforce the idea that there is a significant difference between work and ‘non-work’. For example, Tony Watson, an eminent professor of management, explored this distinction in his book Sociology, Work and Industry (Watson, 1995, pp. 152–67). He recognised that, traditionally, studies tend to draw distinctions which classify areas of our experience like family, home, leisure and unemployment as ‘non-work’. In other words they assume that there is no work involved in caring for a family, making and maintaining a home, leisure pursuits or seeking and gaining paid employment opportunities, to mention nothing of unpaid volunteering. Of course, those of us who experience these things will recognise that this isn't the case. Our view is that all of these aspects of life involve work just as much as a paid job or self-employment, and that the learning we gain from work in these contexts is just as valid as that from experience of paid employment.

Some different scenarios of ‘work’ contexts are now presented – these link to Activity 1.

Scenarios: what is work and what is non-work?

Sam

Sam is on the go as soon as he gets up in the morning. He starts the day by setting out the breakfast things for the family and making a pot of coffee for himself and his partner, Gill, who is already up and taking calls about her working day – she is a community health visitor. Then Sam gets the packed lunches ready for his three children, 3-year-old Lyddie, and the twins, Jake and Michael, who are 12. When everyone is washed, dressed and breakfasted, he checks the twins have everything for school while washing the breakfast dishes. After Gill and the boys leave, he drives Lyddie to her nursery in his van and drops her off there. He then goes off on his window-cleaning round for the day until it's time to pick up Lyddie again at 5 pm.

Jackie

Jackie gets home from the office and makes a quick snack for herself. Wednesday evenings are always a rush. While eating she organises the music sheets for that evening's band practice and checks her notes from last week. She rarely gets the chance for exercise in the week so she decides to take advantage of the good weather and cycle the two miles to the community hall. She gets out her bike and packs up her things in the pannier. When she gets there, she spends the next two-and-a-half hours conducting practice while playing her steel drum. Afterwards she makes sure everyone knows the arrangements for their carnival performance in three week's time. Then it's off home to study her OU course for an hour or so before sleepily getting into bed.

Ama

Ama sits on the train on the way home from her latest job interview with a notebook on her lap and some internet printouts of football training routines. It has been a busy week; doing some temping during the days and filling out application forms in the evenings, as well as attending three interviews. But now it is Friday and she has to think about what to work on with her son Luke's football team, which she coaches. She looks at her notes from the last two matches to see what she thinks they should work on and plans out the two-hour session. She gets a text on her mobile phone. It's the manager of next week's opponents just checking the kick-off time. She texts her reply quickly, when the phone rings. This time it is the club secretary, Barney. He reminds her that she needs to get her match report form to him from last week by tomorrow. Looks like another busy Saturday.

These examples are all meant to illustrate how what is called ‘non-work’ can actually involve quite a lot of effort, commitment and planning – just as much, in fact, as what we may consider to be our work. So the scenarios and examples of work you can use to reflect on as learning opportunities in this unit may be from a much broader set of experiences than the employment position you may currently hold.

In this unit then, our notion of work is one which is based around productive human activity. It offers a much broader sense of what work is than the label ‘in paid employment’. It can be anything we experience that causes us to consciously undertake an activity or series of activities that occupies our time. It will have some identifiable outcomes, at least some of which we will see as beneficial to ourselves and/or to others. A model which can be useful to developing our understanding of this view of work is the transformation model (sometimes called the input/output diagram). The basic transformation model is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The basic transformational model

Long description

Any job or work task can be seen as a transformation process requiring certain resources which must be input and producing certain outputs. Let us use the simple example, seen in Figure 2, of preparing a sandwich. You can clearly see the main inputs (food ingredients), equipment (a knife) and human effort and expertise. These all feed into the work (transformation process) of making the sandwich which produces the desired output of … a cheese salad sandwich on brown bread.

Figure 2 An example transformational model

Long description

There are three things to note here which relate to this unit's idea of work.

Firstly, as you can see, the seemingly simple job of making of the sandwich involves a range of other small tasks: spreading of butter, slicing or grating of the cheese, preparing the salad, assembling the sandwich, and slicing and presenting the sandwich to the eater. Each of these tasks involves a range of simple skills which, at some time or other, need to be learnt.

Secondly, these skills must also be carefully coordinated by the sandwich maker in order that the final output becomes what was intended at the beginning rather than a mess of ingredients. In order to do this, the maker must at some stage learn what a sandwich is.

Thirdly, and finally, as the job of making a sandwich is practised more and more, the maker inevitably learns both how to do the job more quickly and efficiently, and how to improve the sandwich for the eater – improving the flavour, for example, by using different or additional ingredients. The most important thing about work then is that, no matter how simple the job, it is packed with learning. Figure 2 shows us how learning of one form or another can be an input, part of the work itself and an output.

Before we move on to look at learning in more detail, try Activity 1, which asks you to analyse a small part of the work you do using the idea of the transformation process.

Activity 1 Seeing work as a transformational model

0 hours 20 minutes

Think of a simple job you do routinely, either at work or at home. Choose one which is not too complicated. Draw a transformation model diagram, like the one in Figure 2, to analyse the task. Label clearly:

(a) the inputs,
(b) the tasks and skills involved in transformation, and
(c) the outputs.

You can use paper to create the drawing, or you can use a software application that contains drawing tools, such as Word – whichever you feel most comfortable with.

3.1 Some thoughts on Activity 1

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Drawing diagrams like the transformation process model can be useful in a variety of ways. It is important to start quite simply, which is why we asked you to identify a small job rather than your whole work role. However, you can always come back to the diagram, add to it, change it or even start again. It is not meant to be a piece of artwork, just a way of clarifying your thinking about a subject. Did you learn anything new about the job you described in the diagram? About the skills you bring to it? About how you organise yourself for the task? About how it might be done better next time? About any common problems you encounter?

Don't worry if you cannot think of anything yet. We will come back to the diagram later in the unit and see if it is useful in helping your thinking about a variety of jobs.

So, one crucial outcome of any work is the opportunities it presents for learning, including recognising the previous learning we have done to reach the current level of skill with which we do the job. Whether we realise it or not, we can learn something from whatever we do. We on the course team see it as our role to help you identify the learning opportunities from your work activities. As the unit progresses, we will encourage you to actively seek new opportunities and to develop your learning from them to a level appropriate for your study.

3.2 Where is the learning?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

What we call ‘learning’ has three very important characteristics.

First, learning is an ongoing process and not simply a one-off experience. In this way, learning may be seen as a journey from one particular point in our lives to another. Perhaps it would be a good idea to see these journeys as connecting into a much longer process of lifelong learning. Of course what we learn changes with the different phases of our physical and mental development, and events which affect our lives. So, for example, as a baby we may learn to walk and talk as our physical development allows it. At particular stages in our childhood we learn to read, write and manipulate numbers and, as these skills develop, we learn about the things we are interested in from physics to pop music. And as we enter work we tend to learn things which will help us keep our jobs, perform them more effectively and hopefully gain us additional benefits like praise, promotion or (if we are self-employed) profits. The point is that learning of one form or another is part of all these phases and events.

Second, learning is closely connected with our everyday experience and in particular with our own decisions and actions – what we call practice. We learn things more readily because we can and because we either need to or want to, not because someone tells us we have to. Most of what we learn isn't formally taught or studied in school, college or university, but is drawn from our experience of life and our attempts to control or direct aspects of it. In our adult lives, work is the context of quite a significant amount of our experiences and practice, which is why we think it is the best starting point for the more formal learning undertaken through university study. As we grow older and gain more life-experience, we will become more aware of and seek new ideas to compare and test out against our own experiences and practices. These may change the way we view our experiences or the way we do things. However, we also need to become more aware not just of what we learn but of how we learn. We can begin this by becoming aware of how we prefer to learn, often called our preferred learning style. You might like to consider your own preferred learning style.

Third, learning can be improved through the development of skills and new approaches. While we may have a preferred way of learning we can still improve our learning skills such that we can learn more effectively in a variety of styles. Part of this unit focuses on your learning skills such as reading, communicating your ideas and information gathering, helping you to use those you already feel confident in more effectively and to develop those you don't feel so confident in. The particular approach to learning we will introduce you to is reflection. It is a powerful approach for drawing together the quite diverse elements of your work experience and ideas you will come across in studying this unit.

3.3 Learning as a journey

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Recently I watched a film called Touching the Void, which dramatises the true story of a mountaineer who had fallen and was left injured and stranded alone halfway down a mountain he had just climbed. As the story unfolded I became fascinated by his determination to survive and how he tackled the seemingly impossible obstacles in his path back to his base camp. Firstly he visualised his route down the mountain in his own mind, in terms of the different terrain he would have to cross – snowfield, glacier and boulders. He then sighted a path through the terrain which he would aim to follow. Finally, he broke down his journey into smaller tasks by identifying a particular landmark feature which he felt he could reach and, despite his badly broken leg, he set himself a time in which to reach the landmark. From time to time he would stop to rest, assess his progress and adjust his direction. As he moved from one terrain to another, he adjusted his equipment, improvising what he needed and discarding what he didn't. Four days after starting out he reached base camp and survived. Incredibly, he returned to climbing afterwards!

Of course, while getting a university-level qualification may be very important to you, study is nowhere near as frightening a journey as the mountaineer's. Nevertheless there may be several things about which you feel daunted. Questions like ‘How difficult is University study and am I up to it?’, ‘How long will it take me to get my qualification?’ and ‘How do I get started?’ may be troubling you. One of the reasons we have put this unit together is to show you that in fact university study is really only a stage in a much longer journey of learning we all undertake throughout our life, most of which doesn't get recognised in a qualification.

We want you to recognise the progress you have already made in your journey prior to this unit through the skills you have accumulated in your working life and the learning experiences you have had. This unit offers you an opportunity to assess that progress, confirm or re-establish your direction and re-equip yourself with new knowledge and skills for this next stage of the journey – much like the mountaineer did in his more perilous journey. However, just as he adopted a process of adjusting and repeating as he moved from one landmark to another, you may find that you repeat the process of learning from reflection on experience, new ideas and action as you move from topic to topic. This is called an iterative approach, which encourages you to view your learning (and your practice) as developing with each iteration.

The purpose of a Learning Contract – which you will meet for the first time in Section 4 – is to give you a sense of where you are now on your learning journey and what personal resources you have which will be useful to you in the next stages. At various times in this unit you will be asked to add to the Learning Contract you create. This is our way of telling you it is time to assess your progress and check your direction again.

3.4 New ideas: concepts, models and theories

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Later in this unit, we will be asking you to study some articles which contain new ideas about aspects of work, and then to evaluate them – that is, to reflect upon whether these ideas have any contribution to make to your understanding of your workplace.

There are three types of idea which are referred to quite regularly in academic study. These are ‘concept’, ‘model’ and ‘theory’.

Concept – a word or phrase commonly used by writers and analysts of a particular field to express an idea they may have about that field. The meanings of words and phrases used as concepts are often taken for granted if they have an everyday use. However, their use as concepts means that they have gained a very precise and specific meaning as a result of discussion and agreement among groups of people who study that field. This agreed meaning may be very different from most people's everyday interpretations.
Model – a simulation or image used or constructed by a writer or theorist to provide us with a simplified description of a ‘real world’ entity or idea – such as the transformation process model of work we showed you – which the writer/theorist is trying to explain. Models can be presented in the form of a verbal description, a diagram, or sometimes as a physical construction.
Theory – a proposed explanation of events and why they happen, developed by theorists and writers. Theories almost always involve the use of concepts and models. Academics, and those in academic study, often examine other people's theories, which they may support or contest, depending on their agreement with the logic of the argument, or on the evidence that they themselves have found in the situation under consideration.

Quite often it is not clear whether a new idea you have come across is a concept, a model or a theory, so this is another thing you may want to write about in your Learning Log/Journal. We hope these definitions prove useful in helping you reflect on any new ideas, whatever their source.

3.5 Experience, practice and reflection

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

As we have already said, a crucial feature of your learning will be the workplace (in the broad sense we referred to earlier). In this unit, you will be taking a fresh look at your workplace in order to make sense of it in the light of some of these new ideas that you will have incorporated into your thinking. The approach we have taken means that there won't be quite so much ‘book’ reading for you to do as in a normal university course at this level, but you must learn how best to learn from your workplace. Trying out, experimenting and practicing your reflective learning will take up a fairly large amount of your time on this course.

An important word that we use throughout the course is ‘practice’. This is a bit of a catch-all word. By it, we mean to draw your attention to the way you work. Our focus in this course is to take the process of learning to improve your practice and to change it from a mundane idea that'practice makes perfect’ into an arena of life that deserves thought and learning. There is a sense in which we want to help you take control of your working and professional practice, to ask informed questions about what is (or is not) ‘best’ practice and to use this as a basis for developing your learning and creativity!

We will be asking you to record your own reflections about the new ideas you encounter in this unit, which themselves began as the reflections of a researcher or writer, but then became so well evidenced by what happens in practice that they have now been accepted into the academic mainstream. That does not mean you cannot question these ideas – only that many people have found them useful to explain or predict what happens in their own workplaces. We will also ask you to act on your reflections – to change an aspect of your work practice – and then to reflect further on what happens.

3.5.1 What is ‘reflective learning'?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

I was talking to a friend yesterday and he asked me what I was planning to do over the weekend. ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I've got to write a booklet on reflective learning.’ Richard gave me a quizzical look and asked me what that was. I wonder if you asked the same question. For some people, the idea of reflecting upon what you have done and thinking about how you could do better next time will seem a natural activity. And yet there is more to reflective learning than that, so it is important to spend a short time thinking about what a regular, thoughtful practice of reflecting on how we do our jobs, live in a family or relate with others might include. To start this process, have a look now at Activity 2.

Activity 2

0 hours 5 minutes

Can you think of an occasion that had a major effect on you? Pause for a moment or two and then write down what happened and how you feel you changed as a result. Now read the discussion.

Discussion

Did you find that easy or difficult to do? I remembered an incident about a year ago. I had always enjoyed teaching undergraduate management classes but a project had taken me away for a couple of years to work with managers in a major engineering company. So, last September, I found myself back in a classroom again, teaching management theory to young undergraduates who did not have any work experience. This time I found it very difficult to work just with book theory; I wanted to work with managers who had particular issues that they had to deal with and use my knowledge of management theory to help them. You see, I had changed over the two years, and what once was interesting and enjoyable had palled. I also realised that I was more and more interested in research and reflective learning. It was time to change jobs.

One strange thing about that experience was that I didn't realise what was happening at the time. It took a few weeks for me to notice something was different and then I stopped and thought about it for a few minutes, trying to work out what was going on.

At its very simplest, reflective learning is a deliberate process of undertaking what we will call cycles of inquiry. The term ‘cycle’ is used to capture the way a reflective learner moves between action and reflection. As you can see from the diagram below, there is a sense in which taking action will result in our doing things differently and we can then reflect on what happened next. The reflection should lead to action and so we ‘cycle’ between action and reflection.

Figure 3 The action–reflection cycle

Long description

A key word here is ‘deliberate’. I'm sure that at some time or other we have thought about what we have just done and wondered how else we could have acted. It is a somewhat different process, however, to set about improving our work or life performance on purpose by actively considering how we should act, then designing and carrying out a new action before stepping back to consider if the new action has made a difference. This, then, is when everyday reflection becomes a serious practice of learning. This is when we can change the way we live and work.

To summarise then, the model of work-based learning is illustrated in Figure 4. Learning contains the following features:

Learning is an ongoing process and a journey rather than a one-off experience.
Learning is iterative rather than straightforward.
Learning comes from a mixture of experience, new ideas and action.
Reflection on all three elements is vital to developing your learning, which in turn develops your work practice.

Figure 4 This unit's model of work-based learning

Long description

3.6.1 The Learning Contract

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Your recorded reflections can be a key part of what may be assessed. One thing you may find helpful to do is complete your Learning Contract. The Learning Contract is an ‘organic’ document; it will change and develop as your studies progress.

3.6.2 Your Learning Log/Journal

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

The next stage in your learning is to do some reading around and possibly talk to people you know and respect. What you're doing here is trying to come up with some new ideas about how you could improve your practice. At the same time you will be getting used to examining and reflecting on your work and trying out the reflective learning ideas that we offer you. This is a process that will take several weeks. It's impossible to be completely certain about a schedule of when you do different things. There will be several factors that can have an impact.

Your work schedule will have an effect. For example, you might have to wait for a particular meeting before you can try out an idea or reflect on how you handle a tricky situation.
You will find yourself going through a cycle of reading, action in the workplace and reflective writing.
As we encourage you to either have a mentor or be part of a learning set (probably an online set), you will need to take the time to have conversations with these people as well.

So, you might find that some weeks are fairly light in the demands on your time and other weeks will be very full. You will need to make sure that you build some flexibility into your weekly schedule. During this time we encourage you to write in your learning log/Journal. As mentioned in Activity 1, there are many different formats that this can take. Also, we suggest that you keep any documents, emails or other pieces of evidence that demonstrate that you are changing and improving the way you work.

3.7.1 Learning is social

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Much of what we have said about learning seems to indicate that it is a solitary activity, but in our view this couldn't be further from the truth. In all aspects of our model of learning – your past and current experiences, your absorption of new ideas, and the actions you take to develop your practice – other people are involved. Identifying your key relationships – with your colleagues, your staff and/or your boss, your friends and your family – and the impacts and changes your learning will have on them is a vital part of your learning. You may also be forming new relationships with those who are studying this unit with you. Your reflections therefore need to take account of their experiences, ideas and actions, how their learning impacts on you and how your learning impacts on them. This is not a message we will repeat very much here, but as you progress through your programme of study beyond this unit, it is something that will become much clearer to you.

3.7.2 Finding a mentor

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

One relationship which can be especially important to you in pursuing work-based learning is the one you have with a mentor. We strongly advise you to seek a mentor who is close to your work and its context. Ideally this should be someone you work with, who is not directly connected with your studies but can help you by listening to your ideas and questioning them. As one of our colleagues puts it, ‘A doubtful friend can be a very wise assistant’. Your mentor should also be able to choose appropriate pieces of work-based evidence which you use to make a point about your practice. Of course, you will have to be careful about who you choose to confide in. It's quite possible to ‘pool ignorance’ with the wrong person, so look for a respected colleague who would be willing to help you. A wisely chosen mentor can be a very great help in bringing together the different strands of work and learning.

Mentoring is such a critical part of learning that you will find it emphasised in the readings and in the Learning Contract associated with this unit.

A mentor is someone who will support your learning by listening to problems and new ideas with which you are working. They will generally be more experienced than you, a senior colleague or someone in the same work area as you. Unless your employer requires it or you work in a particularly learning-focused organisation, by and large it's a good idea not to use your direct line manager as your mentor. Sometimes, it's not easy to speak openly about the uncertainties that are part of your learning, so it's often better to seek someone else who can give you an interesting, alternative perspective on your learning. You should look for a mentor with many of the following qualities or traits:

easy to approach
experience in the sort of work and learning that you wish to do
having good contacts and the ability to link you with other helpful people
an interest in the learning that you are doing
having enough time to meet with you
a willingness to talk and listen to you.

Frankly, if you look at some lists of mentors’ qualities you'd think only a ‘saint’ could do the job. Of course, you won't find anyone perfect and sometimes your choice can be very restricted, but the next brief in Activity 3 may prove useful in your search. This activity should take about 20 minutes.

Activity 3 Identifying a mentor

0 hours 20 minutes

Use the table attached below to give yourself some indication of who might be a helpful mentor. Identify three people who you think might make a good mentor. Score each possible mentor out of ten for each quality. You can compare possible mentors by the score you give them for each quality as well as their overall total.

To access the table and compare possible mentors click on the link below.

Click 'View document' below to open file (1 page 0.1 MB).

View document

Table 1 Chart to compare possible mentors

Discussion

Now you have completed the table, does anyone look like an obvious choice? It may be a good idea to keep a couple of people in mind in case your first choice isn't able to give you the necessary time.

4 Starting your learning contract

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

You might be wondering what we mean by a learning ‘contract’. The notion of a contract sounds quite formal, but don't be put off by it. Essentially, a learning contract is the process by which you decide what you want to learn about your work. For many of you, the idea of deciding what you want to learn might be a little unnerving. For most of your time at school or college, you were told what to learn; your job was just to get on with it! Many students, coming to a learning contract for the first time, find it quite difficult so the course team have developed the Learning Contract resource. The resource will guide you through the process of creating a learning contract.

In your learning contract you will study two work-based learning (WBL) topics. The first topic is about time management.

You should start by looking at the learning contract resource: Time management, which is reproduced in Section 5. As you get going, use the Unit Forum to ask for advice and comments. As the unit progresses we will ask you to revisit your learning contract quite regularly, and to update and amend it in the light of what you have learnt.

5.1 Introduction

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

This section is an introduction to time management. It uses a variety of articles to encourage you to consider a range of ideas about time management and whether any of these ideas can be applied in your own life.

Activity 4 Thinking about time

0 hours 30 minutes

The first reading in this topic is unusual because it is very nearly 100 years old. It was written in 1910, a fact which is reflected in its style. It is called ‘How to live on 24 hours a day’ and is attached below as a pdf for you to access. You are very welcome to read the whole book, which is available as a free PDF. However, at this point I would like you to read the first chapter: ‘The Daily Miracle’. The chapter takes quite a philosophical and literary approach. After you have read it, I would like you to answer these two questions with some brief notes in your Learning Log/Journal:

What is the main argument that Arnold Bennett makes about time in this chapter?
Do you think his argument is still relevant?

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First chapter: Daily miracle

Discussion

Bennett captures the central problem of time management when he points out that, ‘if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely.’ This highlights his argument that if time is not managed it has consequences in the real world and our lives may become a muddle. Interestingly, Bennett finishes this chapter by proposing the need for a ‘minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure.’

Bennett's comments seem to me to be still very relevant and the power of his language made me think again about the importance of time. Bennett's description of time is especially powerful in his statement that ‘the inexplicable raw material of everything… With it, all is possible; without it, nothing … It is the most precious of possessions.’

I hope that the Bennett chapter has got you thinking about the broader picture in relation to time. However, before continuing with the readings, I would like you to stop and think about what you currently know about time management from your own personal or work experience. The next two activities ask you to think about two contrasting aspects of time management. The first is the efficient use of time, and the second is when we waste time by procrastinating or putting things off. You need to consider both these aspects because, as you will see as you work through this section, they are both important ways to think about time management.

Activity 5 Personal starting points

0 hours 40 minutes

I'd like you to write down a short personal account of any aspects of time management that you have already come across. These could be quite simple – you may, for example, use a diary to keep track of meetings or appointments or perhaps you have a ‘to do’ list stuck to your fridge. Make a list of all the methods that you already use and add a few words about how effective they are in helping you to manage time.

Discussion

These written notes give you a record of your personal starting point in relation to your current strategies of time management. You will be able to compare this with other strategies that this section goes on to suggest – so keep them somewhere safe.

Before we go on to explore some of the strategies that other people have suggested to manage time, I want to consider what happens when time is managed badly – when procrastination occurs.

5.2 Procrastination

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

‘A Brief History of Procrastination’, was produced by The Procrastination Research Group (PRG) (there really is such a group!) at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. I think that this is an interesting article to consider in terms of the characteristics suggested in the Learning through Work materials. It comes from the PRG website which implies that it is aimed at people with an academic interest in this topic. As you read the article you will see that it also observes a number of academic conventions about writing. For example, it uses the Harvard system of referencing. This webpage develops an academic argument that there are different definitions of procrastination and that these have changed over time. However, it would also be possible to argue that this article does not observe some of characteristics of academic writing. The name of the author is not given and the tone is occasionally quite chatty, for example ‘At the risk of taking a very light-fingered approach to history here’.

Read the article now. You can choose between opening the attached pdf or using the weblink.

Pdf: Click 'View document' below to open file (2 pages 0.08 MB).

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A brief history of procrastination

Directly from the website: Click link to read A Brief History of Procrastination.

Activity 6 Practical implications

0 hours 15 minutes

I would like you to consider the following question in relation to the PRG article on procrastination: are there any ideas that you think may have practical implications for making it less likely that you would ‘put things off’

Discussion

You may have found this a difficult question to answer because of the historical and theoretical focus of the article. You may even have decided that this focus by itself means that it is of little or no use. There is some justification in this, but I would highlight the two short paragraphs that give information about modern definitions of procrastination. For example, I think the suggestion from Ferrari et al. (1995) that procrastination itself involves sophisticated decision making and can act as a counterbalance to impulsiveness is a useful idea. It suggests that if we can put things off then we may be using very similar skills to those required for more proactive use of time. Have another look at the Milgram (1991) definition that is mentioned – do any aspects of this definition offer ways of refining your ideas about procrastination?

Activity 7 Other people's time

0 hours 40 minutes

Before we move on, I would also like you to complete some exercises which encourage you to consider what Adair and Allen (1999) call a ‘personal sense of time’. Adair and Allen (1999, p. 9) suggest that a personal sense of time is the first of ten principles of time management. They argue that the only way to develop this is through reflection and offer two exercises to help with this reflection.

Exercise 1

The first exercise is to keep a time log. You could do this as a separate page in your Learning Log/Journal. Divide each day for the next week into 15-minute intervals. At the end of each hour, record how you spent the previous hour. Adair and Allen (1999, p. 12) point out, ‘There is often a gap between what we think we are doing and what we are actually doing’. Why not take an objective or experimental approach, like that of a scientist, to find out where your time is really going?

After keeping the log for three or fours days, see if you can begin to see ways in which you could improve your daily practice. You might decide that some tasks do not need to be done after all.

Exercise 2

I would also like you to have a go at the rating exercise that reflects on how you value other people's time. Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the following statements to reflect whether you agree or disagree with them.

I look on the time of those who work with me as an extension of my own.
I frequently interrupt meetings in colleagues’ offices.
I regard job descriptions – that each position has its own duties, responsibilities and authority – as a bureaucratic nonsense.
When telephoning anyone, I never check to see if my call is an unwanted interruption at that moment.
I enjoy the sound of my own voice and am rather longwinded at meetings.
In the last month, I have kept someone waiting needlessly without telling them why.
I am aware of the quantity of time other people put into their work, but not the quality of time they give.
I have never reflected on the fact that other people's time is as precious to them – or ought to be – as mine is to me.
I do not show other people that I value their time.
I frequently miss agreed deadlines. I say I will do things and then don't do them, and have to be chased by others.

(Adapted from Adair, 1999, pp. 13–14.)

Discussion

Doing these two activities will help you reflect on what sort of time manager you are. It may highlight the need to make some changes in this aspect of your life.

Mark yourself on this scale:

‘No’ answers

8–10 You are sensitive and thoughtful.

5–7 Your attitude is very good, but there is room for improvement.

2–4 Some feedback from friends and colleagues would be useful.

0–1 You need to have a good hard look at your attitudes

5.3 Effective time management

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

There is a lot of advice about possible ways to make changes to your time management skills. There are a lot of resources available on the internet, for example. If you have time, you can take a good look at both the sets of resources I suggest below. You might even find some other, more useful ones. However, if you have less time available, I would like you have a quick look at both resources and then choose one to work with.

The first resource is an article called ‘Time management’. (The document is also reproduced as a pdf below.) This article describes itself as ‘a number of tips and suggestions for improving time management in a person's workplace and home’.

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Time managment article

The second set of resources is a collection of time management articles.

Both sets of articles are written in a very similar style. You will find that they do not aim to meet academic conventions. They remind me of an instruction manual or a set of recipes, as they attempt to explain some basic points about time management in ways that are easy to follow and can be quickly read. This perhaps suggests that they are aimed at busy people who are trying to cope with time pressures.

Activity 8 Applying ideas

0 hours 30 minutes

Select one aspect of the first resource, for example the first section is titled ‘Delegate’. Read your chosen section carefully and then try and come up with two ways you could apply the ideas to your own work situation.

Alternatively you can choose one of the time management articles from the second set of resources, for example ‘How a clean desk will make you more productive’. Again, you will need to read the article carefully before working out two ways in which you could use the ideas that are presented in practice.

By applying a test of usefulness to these resources you are engaged in a critical reading based on their validity in the real world rather than tests which are based on the characteristics that you might apply to formal or academic writing.

Discussion

An important piece of advice to keep in mind when reading to glean ideas is not to be put off by ideas that you think are unhelpful or plain wrong-headed. Focus on ideas that might offer you potential. Ask questions such as

What will change if I put this idea into practice?
Who might be affected if I put this idea into practice?

Will putting this idea into practice make a difference to an important area of my life?

So, concentrate on finding new ideas that intrigue you or make you think about how you could do things differently. Perhaps take special notice of ideas which leave you feeling optimistic or which encourage you to imagine improvements in your work or social activity.

5.4 Impact on your working life

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

I have included this reading to show that the application of the sorts of ideas discussed in this section can have an impact on someone's working life. This reading is an article by a journalist writing for the Guardian, David McCandless. The article has aslo been attached in pdf form.

Click 'View document' below to open file (3 pages 0.02 MB).

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David McCandless' article

I am not going to ask you to do an activity related to this reading, but I would like you to be aware that this article is aimed at a general (newspaper) readership and uses the conventions of (quality) journalistic writing. Thus, it is a fairly lengthy article for a newspaper (over 1,200 words). It uses short paragraphs and uses direct quotes from David Allen, the author of the ‘cult time management credo’, Getting Things Done (2003). See if you can identify any other typical characteristics of this sort of writing.

5.5 Academic writing

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

I have suggested that where sources of information do not meet academic standards, it is even more important that you use them in a critically aware way and question whether they contain ideas that are helpful. This applies to all of the readings we have looked at so far in this section.

The last reading is an opportunity to read something that is clearly a piece of academic writing – an article by Steve Jex and Tina Elacqua, ‘Time management as a moderator of relations between stressors and employee strain’. This article is available on the Taylor & Francis Informaworld website. There is an abstract available there for reference, but to access the full article needed for completion of this section, a charge is levied.

Activity 9 Academic writing – is it useful?

0 hours 40 minutes

The Jex and Elacqua article is an opportunity to read a piece of academic writing about time management and to evaluate whether it is helpful (in a practical sense). This will enable you to reflect on whether ‘academic’ means that there is no connection with the real world. Please read it through carefully and then use the ideas from Section 8 to ‘test’ it as a text. You will remember that in order to see if a journal article is ‘fit for purpose’ there are a number of things that you can do. These suggestions are the basis for the questions about this article below.

What is the date of publication of the article? Is this recent enough to suggest its findings will still be current?
In which journal was it published? Does this sound and look like an authoritative source?
Now read the abstract at the start of the Jex and Elacqua article. What claims are being made?
Turn to the conclusion of the article. Unusually, this article does not have a separate conclusion but it does have a final paragraph that begins, ‘In summary …’ at the foot of page 189. What claims are made by the authors about the usefulness of time management behaviours and training? What is given as the context for these claims? What do the authors suggest should be done about this situation? Is there any evidence to support this conclusion?
Does the article use a consistent referencing system? Is it numeric or Harvard? Are there any sources that might be of further interest to you?

Discussion

I hope that working through these questions will have convinced you that this is potentially a useful article as it promises to give some insight into a debate about time management. It also seems to be using academic convention so should be able to serve as an example of this sort of writing. However, I noticed the lack of any reference to evidence in the abstract or conclusion. (This is not always the case in academic articles).

In order to find out whether evidence is used to support the claims and also whether the article develops an argument, please read the whole of the article. Do not worry too much about the detail of method or the results – it is an academic conventions that these sections are present in journal articles. Your reading needs to focus on Sections 1 (Introduction), 1.1 (The current study), 4 (Discussion) and 4.1 (Implications and limitations).

Activity 10 Analysing an academic article

0 hours 20 minutes

When you have finished reading ‘Time management as a moderator of relations between stressors and employee strain’ answer the following two questions:

Do you think that Jex and Elacqua provide evidence that time management behaviours (practices) can reduce stress?
1. Note any evidence they provide (including the other research they mention)
2. Are you persuaded?
Consider the three ‘stressors’ they write about. Are they relevant to life and work? What do you think that you could do about them?

Discussion

Okay, hands up anyone who got lost and confused as Jex and Elacqua started using complicated statistics! Well, don't worry you weren't alone! The point is, however, that you really didn't need to spend time ploughing through that. Remember what has been said before; you're looking for new ideas, you're looking for persuasive ideas but you're not looking to write an academic article that has been fully researched. So don't panic, skim through the technical statistics and look for their conclusions, dig out the useful phrases or ideas. Jex and Elacqua argue that their research adds to a limited range of research on the benefits of time management in handling workplace stress.

For Question 2, did you follow up an article they seemed to be using by Macan and her colleagues (1990)? The point we would want to make is that if you think that a writer is tackling an issue that might be helpful to you; then use the references they quote to see if you can find more or fuller ideas. There may well be more useful information or ideas there.

I did find the article and quickly found that they give a list of time management behaviours that helped me think about the topic. Doing that took me about 15 to 20 minutes, so it wasn't a particularly arduous task!

Of course, the question you were asked is very personal, but important as well. Every student's answer will have been slightly different, but I did wonder, as I read Jex and Elacqua's article, how often do I bring my home life to work with me? A common piece of advice is to leave your home troubles at the workplace door, but I'm really not convinced that this is possible.

The previous two activities should have given you a good understanding of the article. I would like you to draw on this understanding by answering one more important question: are there any ideas in the article that can inform your daily practice at work?

5.6 Summary

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

The Jex and Elacqua article was the last in this section. If you have read it and been able to adopt a critical approach, then you are in a good position to adopt this approach for a range of articles about your chosen topic. For the purposes of your topic this notion of a critical approach has been extended by encouraging you to assess whether the ideas that you encounter can be used to develop or improve your daily practice at work. These readings have only begun to scratch the surface of the topic – there are, of course, many other routes. I have suggested other sources in the Further Reading section but you may have found others which better add to your understanding and learning. I hope you will be able to use the unit forum to share your discoveries and how you have used them with other learners on this unit.

References

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Adair, J. and Allen, M. (1999) Time Management and Personal Development, London, Hawksmere.

Allen, D. (2003) Getting Things Done, London, Penguin.

Bennett, A. (1910) How to Live on 24 Hours a Day [online], www.web-books.com/Classics/AuthorsAD/Bennett/How/Home.htm [Accessed 18 October 2006].

Jex, S.M. and Elacqua, T.C. (1999) ‘Time management as a moderator of relations between stressors and employee strain’, Work and Stress, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 182–91. www.informaworld.com

McCandless, D. (2005) ‘Fitter, happier, more productive’, Guardian, 20 October 2005. technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1595 595,00.html#article_continue

Procrastination Research Group, A Brief History of Procrastination [online], ernest.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/ history.html [Accessed 18 October 2006].

Reference for Business, Time Management [online], www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Str-Ti/Time-Management.html [Accessed 18 October 2006].

6 Creating a learning contract

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Now go to Activity 11 (allow 2 hours at first for this activity, then more time to follow).

Activity 11 Establishing a learning objective

Allow 2 hours at first, then more time to follow. You should spend no more than two hours on this at the first attempt, but expect to spend more time on it later, including time for reflection and discussion with your tutor.

In this activity, you will be starting your Learning Contract.

The first stage of creating a learning contract has been presented in the next section.

Go to Stage 1 of the learning contract and work through the steps to think about the topic of time management. Then choose another topic that interests you and work through the steps to think about that topic.

Record the answers to the parts that you feel you can answer easily first. If you find any of the questions difficult, make a note of why and, when you can, contact fellow learners via the forum to discuss it. Your Learning Log/Journal might be a great place to write these notes.

7.1 Introduction

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

A key learning element of work-based learning (WBL) topics is your ability to plan and manage your own learning and this is done by use of a learning contract (LC). This may be the first time that you have encountered LCs, so we have a given you two opportunities to go through the process. You will need to prepare one LC for any one WBL topic. In the first WBL topic, time management will be your overall learning theme, a theme that will become very important as you develop your WBL skills. Although the overall theme for your first WBL topic has already been set, you will still need to set an objective. Perhaps you want to organise one particular part of your job or life better. Perhaps you want to make your weekends more relaxing as well as being more productive ? Can you manage to get the washing ironed and the house cleaned and also find time to see friends? So, in your first learning contract, you will need to work out how you will add your own, personal learning objective to the overall learning theme.

Use the first learning contract as learning in itself. We would suggest that you send it to the unit's forum for formative feedback from other learners to assess.

To help you construct your learning contract, we have created a linked series of questions. Answer the questions in the in your Learning Log/Journal or file. Then click to reveal some comments that may help you to think through what you really want to learn and what is – and isn't – feasible.

After reading these comments, checking your spelling and making any amendments in the light of the feedback, it is important to save your notes to draw together your LC.

Finally, you will come to a step called ‘Putting it all together’. Now is the time to reread your notes from the earlier sections and write between two and four paragraphs summarising your decisions. This will be the final submission to your learning contract.

7.2 Establishing your learning objectives

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

As you come to a work based learning (WBL) topics, the first thing you must do is decide your targets for the unit, your learning objectives. For the first WBL topic, we have given you an overall theme, time management. You must decide the second WBL topic. If we take the time management theme as an example, you need to work out which areas of time management you want to explore and which are the specific areas of your working life that would be significantly improved by better time management. For the most part, we want to encourage you to think about what you want to learn, what topic interests you or what skills you need to develop so as to progress your career.

Thinking through your own learning goals and objectives is not straightforward, so we will guide you through the important questions that you need to consider. As you work through these questions, type in your answers in the dialogue boxes provided. This will allow you to keep a record of your ideas. You can always go back and change things. This is important because you might find that, as you work through the questions, your answers contradict or obstruct one another. Because of this, it will probably take a number of attempts to finalise your learning contract. Therefore we would encourage you to start this process as early as possible in any learning you attempt.

So let's get started with the first question necessary to developing your learning objectives.

7.3 What interests you?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

This is a crucial question. If you are going to study a topic for several weeks it would be best to choose something that is of interest to you. For me, my fascination is with talk and language; I'm intrigued with what goes on when people in organisations talk with each other – I've made a career learning about it!

Step 1

Write a sentence or two about possible work related topics that you might like to study. The Discussion contains some additional notes about the kind of things you should be considering. Once you are happy with what you've written, you should save your work in your Learning Log/Journal or a separate file.

Discussion

The danger here is that you immediately go for what you think you should study or what you think your boss will want you to study! Of course, there will be constraints on what you can learn about but we will consider them later in this process. For now, reread what you have written and make sure that you have identified what really interests you!

7.4 Are there problems at work that you don't know how to address?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Amir's story

I find it so difficult planning my university study. There are so many commitments that I have, particularly to my family. Just last week, when I had an essay to write, my uncle was ill and I needed to help run his business. I don't begrudge the time I had to give up, after all, my uncle has always been really helpful to me, but somehow I have to find a way of balancing my commitments to family and study. It's a real challenge for me.

Step 2

Are there problems at work or a difficult situation that you need to manage? Perhaps you have already tried some solutions that haven't quite worked. Make a note of them in the text box below.

Discussion

Problems tend to fall into one of three areas: structure, policy or relationships. Often it seems that relational problems are rarely identified and structural or policy solutions are too frequently applied to relational problems.

One useful strategy that will help here is to see if you could write the problem down in a different way. So instead of writing ‘Bill just refuses to do his work properly’, you might write ‘Bill's struggling at the moment, he doesn't seem to be enjoying his work and it's really slowing him down.’ Rewording the problem description may offer you different insights into the situation.

7.5 Is there a career move that you would like to make?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Mary's Story

I wasn't sure how to take it but last year my boss gave me one of those time planning diaries. It's been really helpful but I now find myself in a dilemma. I'm trying to improve my time management but there are some jobs and meetings that I just can't do anything about. These are the meetings that are arranged far in advance to fit with a large committee structure. Yet these meetings and all the work I have to do in planning for them are just what seems to mess up my time planning. And whereas I can experiment with new ideas in many areas of my job, I can't get my head around this one – I just don't have the authority to make the necessary changes

Step 3

Sometimes it's easy to forget that learning is about you! We tend to make it about a subject, for example management. But WBL is about how you develop yourself. So one important question that you need to consider is what you want to be doing next in your career. Do you want to make a change of career? Maybe you're stuck in a rut or just want to try something new. Note down your ideas so that you take them into consideration when developing your learning contract.

Discussion

You might find the following questions helpful to direct your thoughts:

1. Is there a new job you want?
(For example, Anita has asked for a move from her office administration job to one in the commercial department.)
Are there new things that you'd like to start doing outside work?
(For example, Laurence wants to get his church more socially and politically involved in the village he lives in.)
Would you like to make a total career change?
(For example, Simone had been in sales all her career. At the end of her course, she realised that she really wanted to work in one of the caring professions.)

7.6 Have you got a project coming up that requires a new skill?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Dave's story

Huh, this is going to be my last free weekend for the next 6 months! OK, I'm pleased to be selected to the team for the Oxient project and I'm pretty certain that it will really help me build my skills working with computerised testing and evaluation but I just don't see when I will have the time to fit it in. It's not as if I can drop any of the other jobs I have to do – this baby's on top of my current work schedule.

Thinking about it, it's not even that I've got too much to do but that my workload is so unpredictable that it's impossible to plan ahead. I wonder if the Oxient project will be that erratic

Step 4

Another reason for choosing your learning objectives might be if you are about to start a new project or task. Ask yourself if you will need to develop a new skill or acquire new knowledge. Jot down the new job and the skill you think that you might need to develop.

Discussion

It might be worth your while talking about this to your boss or to a mentor. Sometimes new skill demands might not be obvious to us before we start a new job, task or project. But don't worry too much if you don't have very much to note down here yet. It's would be very unusual for anyone to have something to put in all the different sections. Remember, at this stage we are just trying to open up possibilities, to make sure that you are giving yourself as much choice as possible. In due course, we will start to consider what the restrictions to your learning might include, and so we'll gradually whittle your options down to the very best learning use of the next year.

7.7 Has your manager specified any particular area that they would like you study?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

For WBL to work to best effect, it is good to ensure that you have your manager on board, especially if your employer is funding your course as a part of your professional development. Although on this unit you drive your own study, your manager might well have preferences about where you need to develop.

Step 5

Jot down below any suggestions or instructions that your manager has made.

Discussion

Although your manager's requirements are not the only factor in deciding on your area of study, you do need to consider them. Sometimes it's possible to design a course of study that addresses both what you want to learn and what your manager wants you to learn.

Try to think this one through: can you design your learning into a project which accommodates all requirements? Sometimes this is a matter of careful wording to make sure that everyone is happy. On other occasions, it will be a case of adjusting your learning contract a little to add some reading or experience into your plans.

7.8 Thinking about your current work context, what levels of independence and authority do you have?

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Gemma's story

For a long time now I've wanted to get into the finance department but I only got an ‘E’ grade in my Maths GCSE and the finance department stipulates that you must have a ‘C’ grade or better. I'm sure that I could improve my GCSE grade but I'm not sure when I could fit in the time to go to college for an evening course – my evenings are busy enough as it is!

Step 6

Now, this is a tricky one. Two errors are very easy to make. First you can overestimate your authority and autonomy. Secondly, sometimes it is easy to slip into the ‘I can't do anything about it’ attitude! It might be a good idea to chat this through with a trusted friend, colleague or mentor. Think carefully about which areas of your work offer you the autonomy to decide upon your actions and where you are dependent upon others’ authority. Jot them down below.

Discussion

Now you need to start comparing some of your answers. For example, in step 2 of this stage you wrote about problem situations in your work context. Now, reconsider your answer here. Is that problem situation within your area of autonomy? Do you have the scope to either deal with the situation or at least affect it?

Another question that you need to consider is whether there might be opposition from your management to you doing any learning. It might be worth checking things out before you go too far. By and large, if you think that you will need to go beyond the normal scope of your job in order to achieve your learning objective, then you will need the support of your manager (or other relevant authority figure). If you don't have that support, then it would probably be wise to rethink your learning objective or explore other strategies for doing your learning.

7.9 Putting it all together

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Step 7

Now comes the difficult bit! Check back on your notes for the previous six steps and try to write down your learning objectives in a couple of sentences.

We hope that you have been able to find a topic of interest that matches a work opportunity. For some of you, it might be that the very process of answering the questions has clarified what would be the best topic for you to study.

Having set out your learning objectives, write a couple of paragraphs outlining why you have chosen these objectives, what you expect to get out of the learning and/ or how your work practice might be improved as a result.

Discussion

So, what if no clear learning objective comes to mind as you answer the questions on this site? What can you do?

Well, ask yourself if you're limiting what you would consider an appropriate learning objective. Have you found yourself dismissing ideas because you think

‘That's not real university-level learning.’
‘Oh, I don't think I could manage that.’
‘There's not enough time for me to learn that.’
‘Oh, that's just a day-to-day skill, there's no learning to be done there.’

It might be well worth re-examining your assumptions if you recognise any of these thoughts. Chat things through with an experienced colleague or use the forum to discuss it with your fellow learners.

Another reason that people have for struggling with defining a learning objective is that they are just not used to setting their own learning objectives. For many of us, it has always been the teacher who told us what to learn, how we should learn it and how we'd know if we had succeeded in learning it. It might just take time to get used to the idea that your objectives matter! Again, you might find talking about this on the discussion forum will help, but it might just be a case of getting on with it.

Finally, it's very easy to limit yourself because of problems with other people, doubts or difficulties. In a way, this whole learning contract process can cause problems as you might have found that some of your answers guide you in different directions. There will often be a need for compromise: the demands in one work area may well restrict your freedom to set particular learning objectives. Think through how you could compromise in your objectives without giving them up altogether.

At this stage, you should try to identify at least two possible learning objectives that might interest you and suit your circumstances.

To help you check you have thought your learning objective through, ask yourself the following questions:

Have you got a learning objective that interests you?
Have you got a learning objective that is achievable in terms of your work opportunities?
Will significant others (e.g. managers and your family) support you?
Will the learning objective further your career?
Are you at ease about any compromises that you have to make?

8 Improving your study reading skills

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

It is worth spending a moment examining in a little more detail how you might improve your study reading skills. Reading may appear a very straightforward activity, but how we read is not something we think about too often. Reading habits differ from person to person. Some people read a newspaper or magazine regularly, some occasionally, others not at all; some people have a pile of novels by their bedside, some may read a book on holiday, others only tend to use them for reference when they need them.

Whatever your reading habits before starting this unit, you will probably have noticed that reading for study purposes can be quite different. There are three key reasons for this.

The subject matter may not necessarily be something which makes you want to read on. We have tried to make this unit interesting and relevant but, even so, after a long day it may be difficult to ‘take it in’.
The subject matter may be more difficult or it may be expressed in ways with which you are not familiar.
You know that you have to try to absorb and remember what you have read in order to be able to use it in a piece of written work.

For study purposes it is useful to develop a more ‘active’ approach to reading. This simply means doing something with the material on the page in front of you, such as:

marking the page you are reading with a pen or highlighter
organising the page so that you write your notes in the gaps underneath subheadings
using a diagram or table to reorganise or summarise what you have read and draw out the most important information
noting down events from your personal experience or knowledge – perhaps in the margin or at the foot of the page – which you think illustrates what you are reading about.

All of these methods can help you to absorb new ideas which may be contained in the reading material and can provide a reminder when you come to use it in written work. They also support reflection, which is why many of the activities throughout the course encourage you to do this.

An increasingly popular method of organising your notes is with the diagramming method called ‘mind mapping’ (or sometimes ‘spidergrams’). Figure 5 gives you some idea of how this method works.

View larger image

Figure 5 A ‘mind map’ diagram of the key ideas from Reading within Higher Education

Long description

As you can see, this method of note taking highlights the key ideas and phrases in a reading and organises them into a diagram which shows them clearly and simply. You may be aware of visual learning styles, and as you can imagine, this is a method which appeals to visual learners.

An important point about this method is that it is only intended for your use and no one else's. It is not going to be displayed as an artwork and there really is no right or wrong way of doing it. It is intended as a way to help you remember and reflect upon a piece of reading you have undertaken. So it can be as sketchy as you like.

Activity 12 Creating your own mind map

0 hours 30 minutes

Using a piece of paper or a wordprocessing programme with drawing tools (such as Microsoft Word), or Compendium (Opensource mind mapping tool available form the OpenLearn website) draw a mind map diagram of the key ideas discussed in Section 5. When you are finished, keep a copy in your Learning Log/Journal. If you use Compendium (or another mind mapping tool) it should be possible to save the resulting mind map as an image. Images can be attached to your OpenLearn Learning Journal.

Remember to write a brief note in your Learning Log/Journal answering the following questions.

How did you feel about doing this activity? What has it told you about yourself as a learner?

Write a brief note answering these questions in your Learning Log/Journal and file the diagram alongside it.

9 Conclusion: moving on

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

You have now reached the end of your study of this unit Working Life and Learning , but is this the end of your learning journey? Of course, given what you have just read, we would argue that it isn't the end. Having completed this unit, you now have the choice of what to do next. We hope that you choose to continue your studies with the Open University, and that you seek out more opportunities in practice-based learning, such as some of the courses in the OU Business School's undergraduate and professional development programmes.

One thing we can say for certain is that, if you have reached this point and completed all the necessary assessments, you are well on the way to becoming a self-directed learner. The skills you have started to develop can serve you in two ways. Firstly, they can help you in making more informed choices about your future study pathways. If you have committed to a programme of study linked to work-based learning, like a foundation degree or a vocational degree like the OU BA in Business Studies, it means you are well-equipped to identify work-based learning opportunities and to use them in your course assessments. If you are still undecided about your overall study programme, this unit has given you some sense of the way in which it can be ‘negotiated’ – and we mean this in two senses: negotiating your path through this stage of your learning journey and negotiating with those who advise you.

However, even if you don't want to continue university study right away, we hope that studying this unit has begun to make a difference in the way you view your work practice, how you learn and the connections between the two. We are sure that having undertaken all the course activities you are becoming a more reflective practitioner, and that you will find these skills useful in both your work and your life.

Whatever your chosen path from here, thank you for sharing this stage in your learning journey with us and we wish you all the best in your future learning.

Next steps

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit or find out more about this topic. Here are some suggestions:

If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area:

Or find out about studying and developing your skills with The Open University:

Or you might like to:

Post a message to the Unit Forum, to share your thoughts about the unit or talk to other OpenLearners
Review or add to your Learning Journal
Rate this unit

References

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Adair, J. and Allen, M. (1999) Time Management and Personal Development, London, Hawksmere.

Allen, D. (2003) Getting Things Done, London, Penguin.

Bennett, A. (1910) How to Live on 24 Hours a Day [online], www.web-books.com/Classics/AuthorsAD/Bennett/How/Home.htm [Accessed 18 October 2006].

Jex, S.M. and Elacqua, T.C. (1999) ‘Time management as a moderator of relations between stressors and employee strain’, Work and Stress, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 182–91. www.informaworld.com.

Marshall, J. (2001) ‘Self-Reflective Inquiry Practices’ in Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (eds) Handbook of Action Research, London, Sage.

McCandless, D. (2005) ‘Fitter, happier, more productive’, Guardian, 20 October 2005. technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1595 595,00.html#article_continue

Moore, M.G. and Kearsley, G. (1996) Distance Education: A Systems View (2nd edn), Belmont, CA, Wadsworth.

Pedlar, M., Burgoyne, J. and Boydell, T. (2001) A Manager's Guide to Self-Development (4th edn), Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill.

Procrastination Research Group, A Brief History of Procrastination [online], ernest.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/ history.html [Accessed 18 October 2006].

Reference for Business, Time Management [online], www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Str-Ti/Time-Management.html [Accessed 18 October 2006].

Touching the Void, film, directed by Kevin Macdonald. UK: FilmFour/Darlow Smithson, 2003.

Watson, A.J. (1995) Sociology, Work and Industry (3rd edn), London, Routledge.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:18:51 GMT

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Text

Pychyl, T (1997) 'A brief hisory of procrastination'. With the permission of Tim Pychyl.

McCandless, D (2005), 'Fitter, Happier, More Productive', The Guardian 10 October 2005. With the permission of David McCandless.

'Effectively Manage Your Personal Time', 'How Taking a Break Can Increase Your Productivity', 'Manage Your Time Better By Making Your Goals Specific', and 'How A Clean Desk Will Make You More Productive' © 2005 EffectiveTimeManagement.com, www.effectivetimemanagement.com

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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Introduction

Learning outcomes

1.1 Your unit starts here!

1.1.1Course aims

1.2.1 What is a learning log/journal?

1.2.2 You! (and your fellow students on this unit)

2.1 Challenging assumptions

Scenarios: what is work and what is non-work?

Sam

Jackie

Ama

Activity 1 Seeing work as a transformational model

3.1 Some thoughts on Activity 1

3.2 Where is the learning?

3.3 Learning as a journey

3.4 New ideas: concepts, models and theories

3.5 Experience, practice and reflection

3.5.1 What is ‘reflective learning'?

Activity 2

Discussion

3.6.1 The Learning Contract

3.6.2 Your Learning Log/Journal

3.7.1 Learning is social

3.7.2 Finding a mentor

Activity 3 Identifying a mentor

Discussion

4 Starting your learning contract

5.1 Introduction

Activity 4 Thinking about time

Discussion

Activity 5 Personal starting points

Discussion

5.2 Procrastination

Activity 6 Practical implications

Discussion

Activity 7 Other people's time

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Discussion

5.3 Effective time management

Activity 8 Applying ideas

Discussion

5.4 Impact on your working life

5.5 Academic writing

Activity 9 Academic writing – is it useful?

Discussion

Activity 10 Analysing an academic article

Discussion

5.6 Summary

References

Further reading

6 Creating a learning contract

Activity 11 Establishing a learning objective

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Establishing your learning objectives

7.3 What interests you?

Step 1

Discussion

7.4 Are there problems at work that you don't know how to address?

Amir's story

Step 2

Discussion

7.5 Is there a career move that you would like to make?

Mary's Story

Step 3

Discussion

7.6 Have you got a project coming up that requires a new skill?

Dave's story

Step 4

Discussion

7.7 Has your manager specified any particular area that they would like you study?

Step 5

Discussion

7.8 Thinking about your current work context, what levels of independence and authority do you have?

Gemma's story

Step 6

Discussion

7.9 Putting it all together

Step 7