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This book is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Language and Literacies: Contexts and Challenges in the Workplace, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. It contains five essays about literacies in the workplace. The "Introduction" (Mike Brown) discusses the following topics: literacies in the workplace: competing discourses in TAFE curriculum; the competency agenda; planning and competency-based training (CBT); reviewing a self-paced professional development package on CBT; flexible learning; and discourses for a democratic curriculum. The essay "Literacies, Workplaces and the Demands of New Times" (Allan Levett, Colin Lankshear) develops the case that workplace literacy is a distinctive facet of adult literacy which in turn is part of lifelong education. The following topics are examined in "Fears, Fantasies and Futures in Workers' Literacy" (Peter O'Connor): developing a critical theory of workers' education, the context for workers' literacy, individual skills for individual problems, neo-Fordism and the Shamrock theory, economic rationalism, and a critical workers literacy. "Language Learning and the New Industry Context: Issues of Language and Power" (Crina Virgona) addresses the following: English language teaching practice, language theory as a corollary to teaching practice, Fairclough's approach and the relationship between language and power, and industrial cultures and their training implications. The following topics are discussed in "'Just Like Farmland and Goldmines': Workplace Literacies in an Era of Long-Term Unemployment" (Rosie Wickert, Mike Baynham): the context for workplace literacies in new times, the theoretical underpinnings of the "new literacy studies," and investigations of literacy practices in context. All five essays contain bibliographies. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Language and Literacies: Contexts and Challenges in the Workplace, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The document traces the historical development of Australia's Workplace Basic Education Project (WBEP) model for taking literacy provision into the workplace, examines selected integral aspects of the model, and considers selected issues in developing and delivering workplace literacy programs. The introduction provides an overview of key moments in the WBEP's development since its establishment in 1984. Among the topics discussed in the five sections are the following: origins of the WBEP (developments in the adult literacy field, the political and industrial context, and other programs); challenges encountered during development of the WBEP (advisory committees, field work, identification of target audiences, and project goals); the WBEP delivery model (needs surveys; the planning group; program evaluation; and provision related issues such as voluntary participation, open access, confidentiality, negotiated work time, and assessment and formal testing); curriculum (curriculum development, a writing class in action, and literacy in the workplace); and taking stock (participation rates among women; reading, writing, and mathematics in workplace training; the growth of training expertise; and program strengths). Appended is an excerpt from "Principles of Workplace Basic Education." Contains a 25-item reference list and a 20-item bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Curriculum and Competencies, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. It contains 39 papers on the nature, historical development, and delivery of competency-based training (CBT) and on the Australian and international debates surrounding CBT. The following papers are included: "Introduction to the Discourse on Competency-Based Training (CBT)" (Brown); "Competency-Based Education" (Spady); "Competency-Based Approach to Education and Training" (Blank); "Competency-Based Training Programs" (Foyster); "Aspects of the Framework for the Implementation of a Competency-Based Vocational Education and Training System" (VEETAC [Vocational Education, Employment, and Training Advisory Council]);"History of the Objectives Movement in Education" (Davies); "Educational Responses to the Concern for Proficiency" (Neumann); "Competence-Based Education and Training" (Tuxworth); "From Novice to Expert" (Benner); "Concept of Competence" (Jessup); "Competency-Based Training" (Thomson); "Standards and Training" (National Training Board, Rumsey, Cooper, Haines); "Statewide System for Competency-Based Instruction" (Blank); "Developing a Coherent National Framework of Qualifications" (Jessup); "Developing New Competencies for Workplace Education" (Mawer); "National Training Reform Agenda and Enterprise Bargaining" (Mansfield); "Critical Analysis of Competency-Based Systems in Adult Education" (Collins); "In Search of a Real Analysis" (Parker); "Rebuttal to: A Critical Analysis of Competency-Based Systems in Adult Education" (Ratcliff); "Competency-Based Adult Education and Variations on the Theme" (Collins); "Case against 'Competence'" (Jackson); "On 'Competence'" (Ashworth, Saxton); "Rise of Competency-Based Education" (Magnusson, Osborne); "Competency-Based Skills Training" (Gossett, Kane, Tesolowski); "Competency and the Pedagogy of Labour" (Field); "Trouble with Competence" (Norris); "NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications)" (Marshall); "Alternative Models of Competence in Vocational Education and Training" (Hodkinson); "Modularisation" (Ker); "Competency-Based Programs" (Harris, Barnes, Haines); "Implementing Competency-Based Vocational Education" (Candy, Harris); "Competency-Based Vocational Education" (Watson); "How Clever Are We...in the Way We Train Our Workers?" (Scott); "Qualified for the Job" (Cooper); "Ford Factory Learning" (Brown); "Vocational Education and Training Curriculum Policy" (Winning); "Skills, Self-Paced Learning and Work" (Davison, Smith); "Competency-Based Learning at Richmond College of TAFE (Technical and Further Education)" (Fahey); "From Concept to Practice" (Bryson, Edgar, McAleavy); and "Applications at the NAB (National Australia Bank)" (McKinnon, Cherry). Many papers contain substantial bibliographies. (MN)

This study demonstrated the use of self-recorded audiotape to collect data on students' perceptions, attitudes, and use of learning activities in written teaching texts. The process of asking students to respond to questions within the teaching text was straightforward and presented few problems in subsequent analysis. On several indicators considered, such as length of audio recording, comparison of closed-ended responses and identification of constructs, the data collected by self-recorded tape compared favorably with that collected by other methods. Further consideration of this form of data collection acknowledged the limitations imposed by self-recorded tape but recognized attractive features worthy of exploitation. Three forms of learning benefits to the students were identified through this method of collecting data: (1) those related to students' learning from the course; (2) those related to students' learning and development as a person; and (3) those that contributed directly to answering an assignment. The study also found that students' attitudes towards learning activities were often based on the amount of time necessary to satisfy the requirements of the activities, their reaction to the intellectual demands embodied in the activities, their desire to comprehend the material and to understand the author's arguments, and their perception of their learning capabilities. Examples of students' self-recorded audiotape responses are provided throughout. (15 references) (DB)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, The Changing Workplace: Part B, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document constructs a framework for exploring the concept of the workplace as a learning environment that is in fact the primary school for adult learning and development. The following topics are discussed: the educative function of work and the work environment; work as curricular structure (the rise of the Taylorist curriculum for work, Braverman and the deskilling controversy, and three approaches to work in postindustrial society); and work as a context for adult development and learning (work and personality formation and creating the educative workplace). The bibliography contains 108 references. The following papers constitute approximately 50% of the document: "Scientific Management" (H. Braverman); "On the Degradation of Skills" (W. Form); "Dilemmas of Transformation in the Age of the Smart Machine" (S. Zuboff); and "Learning, Empowerment and Participative Work Processes: The Educative Work Environment" (H. Kornbluh, R. Greene). The document contains a 10-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace B, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document analyzes the relationship between technology, skill, and work within the context of the debates concerning deskilling and managerial control strategies and the significance of technology and the organization of work. The following topics are discussed: technology and the organization of work; the deskilling debate (the upgrading, deskilling, and social construction theses; the Touraine and mixed-effects hypotheses; and the agnostic position); the origins of technology; and the flexible specialization thesis (the relationship between the flexible specialization thesis and skills and the limits of flexibility). Contains 56 references. The following papers constitute approximately 85% of the document: "New Technologies, New Skills" (P. Adler); "Technology and Deskilling: The Case of Five Principal Trade Areas in New South Wales" (D. J. Davis); "Intersphere Automation--The 'Factory of the Future'" (R. Kaplinsky); "Information Technologies, the Service Sector and the Restructuring of Consumption" (P. Blackburn, R. Coombs, K. Green); and "The End of Mass Production?" (K. Williams, T. Cutler, J. Williams, C. Haslam). Concluding the document is a 79-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace A, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document examines the relationship between technological change and skills development. The following topics are discussed: the new technological revolution and its effects on public institutions; the positive potential and negative aspects of new technology and necessary choices; defining technology (the significance of the labor process and technological determinism); social transformations of technology (the examples of telephone companies and IBM and exposing the myth that technology is always progressive); the systems life cycle (criticisms of the traditional design method and worker involvement in systems development); the social mediation of skills (stages in an administrative revolution and the progression from the mechanical office to the paperless office); and the cycle of labor transforming technology transforming labor. The first section contains seven references. The following papers constitute approximately 80% of the document: "Educational Implications of High Technology" (H. M. Levin, R. W. Rumberger); "Office Technology as Exile and Integration" (S. Zuboff); "Social Choice in Machine Design" (D. F. Noble); and "The Material of Male Power" (C. Cockburn). Concluding the document is a 12-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace B, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. Section 1 looks mostly at male-dominated trades work and at some historical modes of the flexing of political muscle in struggles over the definition of work and skill. It examines ideas about the male body as an integral part of skill, the way bodies are related to machine and work design and how 'difference' becomes 'male advantage' at work. Section 2 looks primarily at female-dominated work in the public service and also at contemporary bureaucratic modes of 'flexing political muscle' through highly rationalized methods of defining work and skill. It examines the lessons of a major pay equity project that failed, and shows how women's skills are systematically understated by the gendered nature of hierarchical work organization. The third section looks briefly at how training becomes the battleground for many of these conflicting interests in the design of working life. Contains 29 references at the end of these three sections. The following papers constitute approximately 70% of the document: "The Talents of Women, the Skills of Men: Flexible Specialisation and Women" (J. Jenson); "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organisations" (J. Acker); "Technology and the Redesign of Work in the Insurance Industry" (E. Appelbaum); and "New Technology, Training and Union Strategies" (H. Rainbird). Concluding the document is a 10-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, The Changing Workplace: Part B, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document examines current thinking regarding knowledge and control in workplaces emphasizing flexible production systems, flexible technology, and a flexible work force. The following topics are discussed: the rhetoric of public and private sector reports; mass production technologies and the rise of Fordism (alienation and the transformation of work); organization of work in Japan (dual labor markets, gender and the labor market, and just-in-time production systems); and educating flexible workers (education and training in the national interest and the resurgence of human capital theory, high technology and education, and skills in the workplace). The first part of the document contains 159 references. The following papers constitute approximately two-thirds of the document: "Flexible Production Systems and Regional Development" (A. J. Scott); "Fordism's Unknown Successor: A Comment on Scott's Theory of Flexible Accumulation and the Re-emergence of Regional Economies" (J. Lovering); "Towards Flexible Skill Formation and Technological Literacy: Challenges Facing the Education System" (J. Mathews, G. Hall, H. Smith); "The Australian Trade Union Movement and Post-Fordism" (I. Campbell); "Circuits of Capital and Industrial Restructuring: Adjustment in the Australian Clothing Industry" (J. A. Peck); and "The Limits to 'Japanisation': Just-in-Time, Labour Relations and the UK Automotive Industry" (P. Turnbull). Each paper contains references. The document also contains an eight-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning in the Workplace: Part A, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document examines the process of learning from experience within the context of on-the-job-training and learning in the workplace. The following topics are discussed: the learner and the learning milieu (personal foundation of experience, intent, and the learning milieu); the learning experience (the reflective process, noticing, and intervening); preparation for the experience (focus on the personal, the context, and learning strategies); and reflection after the experience (strategies for returning to the experience, attending to feelings, and reevaluating the experience). The bibliography contains 50 references. The following papers constitute approximately 60% of the document: "Theories of Action that Inhibit Individual Learning" (C. Argyris); "A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education" (J. Mezirow); "Learning in the Workplace: The Case for Reflectivity and Critical Reflectivity" (V. J. Marsick); and "Beyond the Anecdotal: Adult Learning and the Use of Experience" (R. Usher). Each paper contains references. Concluding the document is a 13-item annotated bibliography. (MN)

This publication is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Adults Learning: The Changing Workplace A, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. The first part of the document examines the roles, skills, and methods used by facilitators of workplace learning in light of a social action view of learning. The following topics are discussed: the nature of learning (the sociological and other perspectives); learning in the workplace and a new model for learning in the workplace: learning in and out of school); human resource development (the changing workplace context, current status of human resource development in the workplace, and human capital theory); and strategies for facilitating learning in the workplace (facilitation methods, facilitator skills, interpersonal helping skills, action science, and steps in the action science process). The bibliography contains 45 references. The following papers constitute approximately 60% of the document: "Learning in the Workplace: The Case for Reflectivity and Critical Reflectivity" (V. J. Marsick); "Human Resource Developers: Producing Unintended Consequences" (K. Watkins); "A Critical Definition of Adult Education" (S. D. Brookfield); and "The Facilitator's Role in Adult Learning" (S. D. Brookfield). Concluding the document is a nine-item annotated bibliography. (MN)