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The purpose of this article is to explore why work-experienced students with up to 20 years of experience may not change their perception of professional practice when subsequently participating in practice-based learning programmes in higher education. We investigated the role of the degree of codification as operationalisation in how students choose theories to solve a practical management problem. When selecting a theory, work-experienced students may overlook the degree of codification in the theory that enables its use as an analytical tool. Previous research on novices or work-experienced students has not investigated their learning outcomes considering the features of theories students need to apply. Research findings indicate that students' understanding of theories affects their selection of theories and their problem-solving practice. This study extends previous research on work-experienced students' learning and contributes to the international discussion on why work-experienced students encounter difficulties in professional and practice-based learning in higher education.

The purpose of this phenomenographic study is to examine students' knowledge progression in a three-year Bachelor program in Business Administration. Theoretical sampling was used to select nine students from a group of 200 university students admitted to the program. The students were interviewed on three occasions: Year 1, after their Management Accounting course; Year 2, after their Financial Accounting course; and Year 3, after they had written their thesis. The interviews focused on the same financial concept presented in various ways, with increasing complexity, in each of the three years. This longitudinal study analyses the students' knowledge progress in terms of sustainable learning. The findings reveal that knowledge progression was very good by the end the program for one-half of the students; one-third of the students did not achieve satisfactory knowledge progression. The study's research methods and its findings contribute to education and international studies on students' sustainable learning in higher education. The study suggests a model for future research in ascertaining how higher education students learn as well as in examining issues and areas for further research and development.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the variation in methods used to analyse lessons in order to improve teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: It addresses the question of how observations of lessons can be analysed, and what approaches and methods are applicable in the analysis of collected data in lesson and learning studies. Findings: In lesson studies, the focus of research varies, the content and context of lessons vary and a variety of qualitative methods are applied in the analysis of lessons. Lesson study is proving to be a versatile research approach to the development of the quality of teaching and learning. Originality/value: This review provides an overview of some qualitative methods of content analysis used as analytic tools in the studies presented in this issue of the journal.

Purpose: The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based learning and how such occasions contribute to professional development. Design/methodology/approach: The paper introduces the cooperation project between Tibro Training Centre and Furniture Technology Centre Trust and its workshop context organized as practice-based learning. Participants' learning context consisted of a mixture of professional practices allowing different logics and different cultures make up an innovative working site. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data suggests that three phenomenographic hierarchical categories constitute the learning process: getting a recognized professional identity; perceiving new elements and expanding knowledge and seeing new aspects of design work and new steps of development in profession. Findings: Cooperative practice-based learning is understood as social practice in a community of practice, and as continuous changes of the learning object due to that new aspects are discerned by the learners. These categories illustrate how participants' meaning making and understanding of the learning object were expressed in cooperation as doings and sayings, as translation and as situated activities in a community of practice. Accordingly, it contributed to participants' professional development in spite of their different professional educations and professional experiences. Practical implications: More studies of practice-based learning environments in work places are needed that could help societies and companies to advance integrative efforts of new employees and new immigrants into an increasingly diverse globalized labour market. Originality/value: The results suggest that understanding as well as content structure and meaning making of the learning object are intertwined constituent aspects of practice-based learning.

This special issue includes 5 contributions of contemporary work based in the phenomenography and variation theory research tradition and also actualises theoretical and methodological discussions. This introduction consists of 3 main parts. First is a brief introduction to and framing for the contributions through pointing to some of the main points made and putting them in perspective in the tradition. Second, the use and meanings of 4 key terms in the tradition--phenomenon, object of learning, dimension of variation, and critical aspect--are analysed across the contributions. Third, and finally, possible emergent strands of future research based in phenomenography and variation theory are discussed, and how the contributions relate to and are reflective of such emergent strands.

The purpose of this article is to explore why work-experienced students with up to 20 years of experience may not change their perception of professional practice when subsequently participating in practice-based learning programmes in higher education. We investigated the role of the degree of codification as operationalisation in how students choose theories to solve a practical management problem. When selecting a theory, work-experienced students may overlook the degree of codification in the theory that enables its use as an analytical tool. Previous research on novices or work-experienced students has not investigated their learning outcomes considering the features of theories students need to apply. Research findings indicate that students' understanding of theories affects their selection of theories and their problem-solving practice. This study extends previous research on work-experienced students' learning and contributes to the international discussion on why work-experienced students encounter difficulties in professional and practice-based learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this phenomenographic study is to examine students' knowledge progression in a three-year Bachelor program in Business Administration. Theoretical sampling was used to select nine students from a group of 200 university students admitted to the program. The students were interviewed on three occasions: Year 1, after their Management Accounting course; Year 2, after their Financial Accounting course; and Year 3, after they had written their thesis. The interviews focused on the same financial concept presented in various ways, with increasing complexity, in each of the three years. This longitudinal study analyses the students' knowledge progress in terms of sustainable learning. The findings reveal that knowledge progression was very good by the end the program for one-half of the students; one-third of the students did not achieve satisfactory knowledge progression. The study's research methods and its findings contribute to education and international studies on students' sustainable learning in higher education. The study suggests a model for future research in ascertaining how higher education students learn as well as in examining issues and areas for further research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]