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Keep Calm and Credential on: Linking Learning, Life and Work Practices in a Complex World

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Book cover Foundation of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the ideas and aims of higher education and the needs of the sector to continually innovate to meet workforce changes and labour market demands. The place of micro-credentials and open badges as approaches to locate, measure and validate learning within the academy are discussed. The affordances of technologies to map learning intentions and graduate outcomes of bodies of knowledge, skills-based tasks, and values acquisition at various levels of granularity are raised. The imperative to link learning, life and work practices for continued professional development and growth are highlighted. However, we raise cautionary tales about the use of competency-based approaches within the complexity of developing higher-order professional capabilities that require knowledge synthesis, abstract and novel ways of being, and the crafting of professional dispositions and identities through ongoing reflexive processes. Our key principle suggests that curriculum designs aimed to link ways of knowing, being, doing and valuing with ways of being practical in the world are important for life and professional practices. Finally, we suggest hopeful ways to keep calm and reflect on current approaches to digital badges and micro-credentialing acknowledging the many complexities of preparing professionals for practice.

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Acknowledgements

The Australian Research Council contributed funding towards this work as part of a Special Research Initiative for the ARC-SRI Science of Learning Research Centre (project number SRI20300015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Melinda J. Lewis

  2. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Jason M. Lodge

Authors
  1. Melinda J. Lewis
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  2. Jason M. Lodge
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Correspondence to Melinda J. Lewis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Mannheim, Deakin University Melbourne, Australia, Mannheim, Germany

    Dirk Ifenthaler

  2. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Nicole Bellin-Mularski

  3. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Dana-Kristin Mah

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Lewis, M.J., Lodge, J.M. (2016). Keep Calm and Credential on: Linking Learning, Life and Work Practices in a Complex World. In: Ifenthaler, D., Bellin-Mularski, N., Mah, DK. (eds) Foundation of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15425-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15425-1_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15424-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15425-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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