It is important to distinguish between two types of re-situation. The first involves
assisting young people to carry out a known activity in new context. In work
experience an example would be when a young person undertakes a task that they have
already carried out previously, for example using a computer. The second type of re-
situation occurs when individuals and groups use the problems that arise while
undertaking a task as the basis for developing a new pattern of activity in a new
context. An example might be when a student nurse recognises that ‘taking a patient’s
temperature’ is not just a task on it own; knowledge of a patient’s temperature can help
a nurse to diagnose the state of his/her health. With appropriate pedagogic support and
access to new knowledge, a nurse can develop her/his knowledge of diagnosis out of
the activity of measurement. They argue that this second type of resituation can lead
people to develop new goals, new actions and new strategies in order to grasp the
connection between different activities.
The process of grasping connections in workplaces, which Guile and Griffiths
(forthcoming) have referred to as the ‘practice of learning through work experience’,
may take one of two forms. One form entails new patterns of activity and new
meanings emerging from the original context which constitute a modification of the
original activity rather than an alternative realisation of that activity. The other form
occurs when it is not possible to resolve an original problem unless there is contact
with ideas that lie outside of the immediate situation. Acquiring the ‘practice of
learning through work experience’ involves supporting young people to develop a
more iterative relationship between ‘codified’ and ‘everyday’ knowledge. This can
occur in the following ways. First, supporting young people to use the potential of
subjects as conceptual tools for linking their workplace experience to their
programmes of study as well as using work experiences to transfrom their
understanding of the relationship between theory and practice. Second, ensuring
learners develop the intellectual basis to criticise existing work practices in school and
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