ABSTRACT
An intention of work-integrated learning (WIL) is to use placement experiences to support students to develop domain-specific dispositions and capabilities. However, to maximize student learning outcomes, it is important to understand and appropriately apply educational thinking to learning within WIL contexts. This chapter explores how researchers have understood the process of learning over the last seven decades, and how a significant driver that influenced changes in thinking about learning came from appreciating the complexity of functioning in real-world environments. Assuming that multiple aspects of learning theories would be relevant to WIL, the authors analyzed a range of tasks that students are asked to complete while on placement in different domains and identified nine generic common tasks. The thinking and learning associated with these tasks was used to identify pertinent pieces of educational thinking that can inform WIL experiences as well as pedagogical practices that will stimulate and support effective student learning.
