Practice-Based Pedagogy

Our approach in xDelia to learning is motivated by a practice-based pedagogy, based on recognition that learning applications which seek to improve practice performance need to explicitly address the interplay of formal and non-formal/informal workplace learning, the social and community based elements of learning and the non-trivial problems of transfer between formal learning and the context of practice.

Practice-based pedagogies seek to integrate formal academic learning processes with informal workplace learning. An important distinction is that the formal learning processes are less a goal in themselves, than scaffolding for informal learning and one means of subjecting professional practice to critique and improvement.

What does this mean for xDelia? First, there is a need to ensure that learning activities expose participants to contexts which mimic important aspects of real-world situations. This will improve the chances that salient elements of acquired competences in training actually transfer into practice. Games, including simulations provide an important route to achieving this goal. Second, it is clearly important for practice-based learning approaches that they provide a scaffolding for informal learning in real world contexts. Gaming and sensor technologies such as wearable sensors for emotion-state monitoring and eye tracking to monitor locus of attention can be used to support and enhance decision-makers’ self monitoring. This data, if properly processed and structured provides a valuable input into learning processes. Such process include shaping perceptions during the decision-making process to enhance performance and learning; individual structured critical reflection using data on performance; emotion and attention; social reflection process together with peers or experienced mentors.