Jason L. Powell

Rethinking Risk and Ageing: Extending Working Lives

This article has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form, subsequent to peer review and/or editorial input by Cambridge University Press, in Social Policy and Society published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright Cambridge University Press.

Determined learning approach: Implications of heutagogy society based learning

Abstract Recently, within the higher education system in the United Kingdom, there has been close examination of the way institutions teach and assess students. This scrutiny has been intensified by central government with the proposed introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The anticipated TEF demands that higher education institutions evaluate their teaching and learning practices and think of new ways to develop excellent student experience. Self-determined learning has resurfaced as a popular approach in the higher education sector. At the centre of self-determined learning is the concept of heutagogy. This approach enables the student to apply what they have learned in an education setting and relate it to the workplace. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the theoretical framework behind the self-determined learning approach. The authors of this paper argue that, from a social science perspective, a determined learning approach is in the best place to provide a contemporary, exciting teaching and learning experience in a competitive higher education market.

Crafting Knowledge Exchange in the Social Science Agenda

To any social science researcher the term “Knowledge Exchange” is a key buzzword in the academic community and wider society. In an article by Contandriopoulos, Lemire, Denis, and Tremblay (2010, p. 456) it was pointed out that knowledge exchange “rests on an implicit commonsense notion that this ‘knowledge’ must be evidence based”. This evidence, based within a social science context, relies upon two strands: theoretical data and empirical data. When examining the notion of Knowledge Exchange it becomes apparent that the concept has deep and meaningful connotations. These connotations have been driven by the involvements of the public and private sectors. Moreover, work carried out by Benneworth and Cunha (2015, p. 509) concludes that higher education institutions’ involvement in knowledge exchange “remains dynamic and influenced by universities” own strategic choices and relationships’. Traditionally, universities have had two key missions: to teach undergraduate/postgraduate students and to undertake research. Striukova and Rayna (2015, p. 488) have recently observed that universities now have a third mission, “knowledge exchange”, and that knowledge exchange plays a vital “integral part of the mix, without which the other two missions cannot run successfully.” Knowledge exchange is also a fundamental feature of “sustainable communities” (Powell, 2013) through the partnerships between HEIs and communities by which they serve. This is a point we will return to.