ABSTRACT
Why should students and teachers bother with work-based learning? It is difficult to organize; it requires the collaboration of sometimes reluctant employers, who are not trained educators; and it potentially takes time that could be devoted to classroom studies or homework. Advocates have several answers to this question: through work-based learning, academic skills are reinforced; students learn what it means to work in particular occupations and what they need to do to prepare themselves for those occupations; young people learn both specific and general skills that they will need on the job; and youth mature and develop psychologically. We add an argument of our own: Work-based learning develops what we refer to as “new modes of thought” in students. We explore each of these claims in Chapters 3-8. In each chapter, our strategy is first to clearly identify the implicit and explicit features of the arguments in favor of work-based learning, and then to test the claim against the data from our firsthand observations and interviews with participants in some programs.
