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Developing a Framework for Innovation and Learning in the Workplace

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Practice-Based Innovation: Insights, Applications and Policy Implications

Abstract

In this chapter an analytical framework is developed for conceptualisation and analysis of the interplay between innovation and workplace learning. By introducing the concepts of preject and project as arenas for the innovation process and by pointing out some important differences in these arenas, this chapter mainly directs attention to the less developed and discussed concept of preject. Learning theory is examined from the perspective of the individual in his or her social setting, and the concepts of innovative learning, adaptive learning, and reproductive learning are introduced and discussed. By relating these concepts to a problem matrix developed by Darsø (2001), we are able to, firstly, differentiate between preject, problem solving, and project, and, secondly, associate innovative learning, adaptive learning, and reproductive learning with the above-mentioned corresponding arenas. The chapter concludes with a figure displaying the framework.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Named after Henry Gantt (1861–1919), who invented it.

  2. 2.

    In Figure 8.4 minus indicates: not knowing (the problem or solution). Plus indicates: knowing (the problem or the solution).

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Correspondence to Lotte Darsø .

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Darsø, L., Høyrup, S. (2012). Developing a Framework for Innovation and Learning in the Workplace. In: Melkas, H., Harmaakorpi, V. (eds) Practice-Based Innovation: Insights, Applications and Policy Implications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21723-4_8

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