Wednesday 29 September 2010

Learning Contract – A tool for Learning

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.


Learning contracts are formal agreements between the learner and the teacher or supervisor relating to what the learner is going to learn; how the learner will go about learning; what checks will be made to monitor progress and how the learner will provide evidence that learning has taken place. Learning contracts have become popular both as a learning and assessment tool over the years. It allows for individualised approach to learning activities. Boak (1998) provides a easy to read guide to learning contracts. The chapter 1 gives a good understanding of the basics relating to learning contracts.

Roger Hiemstra has provided a nice link between the learning style and learning contract with steps to developing a learning contract. While this is an old site the information is written clearly and simply. 

Anderson, G., Boud, D. & Sampson, J., 2003, Learning contracts: a practical guide, Kogan Page, London. This book gives a detailed guide to the concept of learning contracts and how they can be used within education to provided individualised approach to learning. 

Stephenson, J. & Laycock, M., 2002, Using learning contracts in higher education, Kogan Page, London. This book starts with providing an understanding of learning contracts and goes on to discuss in detail how the learning contracts can be used within higher education to enhance individualised approach to learning. It also discusses how the learning contracts can be used within the work environment by employers and employees to support continuing professional development.

The website developed by Hesketh & Laldlaw for the Education Development Unit, Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education shows how the use of learning contracts can be embedded within continuing professional development for the medical profession.

Richardson, S. 2006, Implementing contract learning in a senior nursing practicum, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 12 (2): 201 – 206.

Bailey, M., E. & Tuohy, D. 2009, Student nurses’ experience of using a learning contract as a method of assessment, Nurse Education Today, 29 (7): 758 – 762. 

The Effectiveness of The Learning Contract – Education Essay explains how the learning contract was used within the mentoring of a qualified nurse into a specialist nursing practice area. While the essay was found via Google search, the author or the year of publication has not been identified.

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