Informal learning activities of older trainers at work

1. Informal learning activities of older trainers at work

2. Background and Research questions Demographic development • Population ageing • Growing demand for qualified workers • Participation in formal training decreases with increasing age • Demand for lifelong learning Research questions • What learning activities are carried out by older trainers? (2) What are the differences in the answers concerning learning activities of older and younger trainers?

3. Oldertrainers • Chronological age (Kooij et al., 2008) • Health, motivation, work experience • People in their second half of working life (OECD, 2006) • till 39, younger trainers • between 40 and 44 medium group • over 45, older trainers

4. Theoretical Background: Informal learning • Four components of informal learning (Mulder, Harteis &Gruber, 2009) • Intention, deliberative or reactive • Type, cognitive or physical • Setting, individual or social learning • Context of learning • Learning activities are carried out to solve a cognitive conflict (Piaget, 1965), cognitive processes or observable behavior.

5. Definition of informal learning (atwork) Informal learningis a process, thatcanbedeliberate, reactiveorimplicit, thatleadstocompetencies (and not to formal qualifications). Ithappensindividuallyorsocially, outside organizedlearningsettings. Itisinfluencedby individual characteristicsandcharacteristicsofthecontext (jobandorganization).

6. Instrument Semi-structured interviews • Context: Questions concerning their workplace 2. Learning activities: “Please imagine that a client shows up after he joined your training/ workshop/ course. He criticizes the content and structure of the course” “How would you act?” “Why did you act that way?” • Individual factors: Questions concerning career, future development, age

7. Sample • 22 trainer • Younger (N=10) and older (N=12) trainers • In-company (N=11) and freelanced (N=11) trainers • 12 of them female, 10 male Data collection - Transcription of the recorded interviews - Length: between 19.01 and 93.37 minutes - Qualitative content analysis - Category system as basis

8. Categorysystem

9. Analyses 1.Reported answer: “…well one can say that you get more perspectives then and that one can compare the perspectives afterwards and what is important of course to come to a common opinion within the group”. 2. Paraphrase: “asking colleagues to get to a socially shared opinion”. 3. Cluster: “Asking colleagues and supervisors”.

10. Results: Cognitivelearningactivitiesofoldertrainers(N=12)

11. Results: Physicallearningactivitiesofoldertrainers(N=12)

12. Learning activitiesofoldertrainers Summarizing • 23 different learning activities were reported • 7 different cognitive and 16 different physical learning activities • not mentioned: cognitive, reactive, social activity • hardly mentioned: cognitive, reactive, individual activities • Focus of answers directly on critical situation and possible solutions

13. Results: Age differences in reported activities

14. Differences in the answers of older and younger trainers Older trainers Talking to the criticizing person, directly initiate a solution Younger trainers: Discussing with others (colleagues or supervisors) Quotes (younger trainer): “Therefore I meet with my supervisor, in order to get feedback from her. She told me, that I would be able to manage the upcoming tasks. So she supported me that way” “After that one would discuss the situation in the team, so one could see how colleagues think about it.”

15. Reasonsforreportedactivities Older trainers • Former experiences with similar situations • Authority • Knowledge about their own abilities Examples: “Now, I can assess a situation quite well. I know what to do to be successful.” “Ähm, I have to be the authority at my workplace.” Younger trainers • Need to communicate and share their decisions with colleagues and supervisors • Feel insecure • Rely on experience of authorities Examples: “Usually it is a little bit of insecurity. This will be clarified by my supervisor.” “Then I rely on the opinion of my supervisor to see what`s possible.”

16. Implicationsandfurtherresearch • Differences in reportedactivitiesand different reasonsforactivities: Support oflearningatworkshouldbe different • Importantfactorsforoldertrainers: experience, self-efficacy • Resultsofthisstudyasbasisfordevelopmentofquestionnaireandtogeneratehypotheses

17. Thank you for listening! Contact: birgit.luger@uni-r.de

18. Sample

19. Cluster of reported learning activities of older and younger trainers (N=22)

20. Frequencies - cognitive (58) and physical activities (181) • reactive (77) and deliberative activities (162) • individual (152) and social (87) activities Cognitive activities “ reflecting about possible solutions” (21), reflecting about critical situations or problems” (12) and “reflecting about information or prior knowledge” (7) Physical activities “direct discussion with the criticizing person” (40), “discussion with colleagues and supervisors” (40) and “research on the critical situation” (18).