Practice-Based Education Outside the Workplace

Abstract

Practice-based education (PBE) prepares and develops learners for professional practice. It is usually associated with situated workplace learning undertaken in placements but also includes practice-based learning, facilitated through strategies including simulations, role plays and case-based learning, which can take place outside the workplace. Hence we argue that PBE is not synonymous with workplace learning. PBE strategies outside the workplace offer students opportunities to engage actively, holistically and collaboratively in a variety of immersive experiences mirroring the kinds of encounters they will experience in their professional practice. PBE strategies are situated within the broader domain of experiential learning theory (Dewey, 1933; Kolb, 1984; Jarvis, Holford, & Griffin, 2003) and contrast with teaching approaches that are more “conventional” content-driven, and propositional-technical knowledge focused. For example, one particularly popular form of case-based learning, problem-based learning (PBL), was introduced in medical education in response to student and staff dissatisfaction with conventional didactic teaching approaches (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). More recently, simulations have become an important aspect of clinical education. They can be a complement to workplace learning by providing opportunities for practice in structured, safe and supportive learning environments (Bligh & Bleakley, 2006; Ricketts, 2011)