Theories of workplace learning in relation to teacher professional learning in UK primary schools

In this paper I examine theories of workplace learning in terms of factors that inhibit or support the learning of employees. This will include an examination of the relative influences on workplace learning at three distinct levels: government, institution and the individual. I detail how the possibilities for learning at work depend upon the interrelationship between individual worker dispositions, the affordance of the workplace to provide a restrictive or expansive learning environment, and the influence and direction of government policy. I have demonstrated the importance of the interrelationship of these three tiers of influence and how they cannot be considered in isolation when planning opportunities for teacher learning. I have also argued how there will need to be progression at each of these three stages if teacher learning is to be embedded as part of the fabric and culture of education in the United Kingdom.