Self-regulated Learning and Knowledge Sharing in the Workplace: Differences and Similarities between Experts and Novices

This study explores how experts and novices in a global multinational company self-regulate their learning in the workplace. The study analyses similarities and differences in experts’ and novices’ patterns of learning and the ways in which they network with others, draw upon and contribute to the collective knowledge in the process of learning. Early findings indicate that self-regulated learning in the workplace is a highly social process that is structured by and deeply integrated with work tasks. Both experts and novices appear to draw heavily upon the collective in the process of learning. Unlike experts, novices largely do not appear to engage in deliberate and systematic self-reflection, although this may be because their reflection is tacit and bound to action therefore it might be difficult for them to explicate their strategies.