Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in preparing young people for work, developing adequate skills and responding to the labour-market needs of the economy.

The transition learners are required to make from education to the workplace is a complex,  and often problematic, process (Tynjälä, Välimaa, & Sarja, 2003). Studies show a gap between what is learned and what is required of competent professionals in an ever more complex world (Baartman & De Bruijn, 2011). The integration of students’ learning experiences across academic and practice settings is currently of considerable interest within the educational sectors in a number of countries (Billett, 2011), among which the Netherlands. The last decade Dutch VET institutes haven been experimenting  to design learning environments that cross the traditional school boundaries into working life. Zitter (2010) introduced the term hybrid learning environments . "A learning environment can be considered as a ‘hybrid learning environment‘ when ‘different formal and informal elements are woven together into coherent programmes of learning and into single learning environments, rather than a programme that combines different components with the aim of offering a more enticing menu of learning for the students" (Zitter & Hoeve, 2012 in OECD, 2013, pp. 138). 

These experiments ran parallel to the trend that school-based learning has become more informal with forms introduced such as authentic assignments, project-based learning, and in-school mini-enterprises. At the same time, informal learning was formalised by means of recognition of prior learning and the use of portfolios (Tynjälä, 2008). This has led to a process of cross-fertilization leading to new forms of learning that interweave aspects of both formal and informal learning. In a hybrid learning environment learning and working processes are interwoven to benefit from the strengths of both formal, school-based learning and real-life experience. Such an environment facilitates the  integration of knowledge and skills into personal professional theory or PPT (Schaap, De Bruijn, Van der Schaaf and Kirschner,2009). A PPT serves as a reference frame  through which shared knowledge and collective norms, values and beliefs of a particular domain can be internalised. By developing a PPT students grow into a professional/ vocational domain.

Designing a hybrid learning environment is not an easy endeavour (Zitter and Hoeve, 2012). It requires long term commitment of both parties, i.e. VET-institutes and business partners, to develop new forms of integrating learning and working processes. An exploratory field study (Huisman, De Bruijn, Baartman, Zitter & Aalsma, 2010) uncovered a variety of forms of hybrid learning environments already present in Dutch vocational education. On the basis of this exploratory study, the collaborative partners of a
multi-stakeholder, multiannual educational innovation and research project were found. The project ran from May 2009 until the December 2013. It can be characterized as a design-oriented, applied research project from the Centre for Expertise in Vocational Education (ecbo-project) and an educational innovation/practitioner-research project (hpbo-project). A PhD-research project is closely related. These different partners of the joined projects participated because they embrace the dual goals of the projects: educational innovation combined with practice-based research. The research part is aimed at revealing the underlying design principles of a hybrid learning environment.  The focus in design-oriented  research is to show how the concept of hybrid learning environments is translated into practice in a certain context, whether the outcomes in that context are realised and, if possible, due to which mechanisms that are presupposed by the designers (Van Aken en Andriessen, 2011).

The main research question is; What are the design principles of a hybrid learning environment in VET?

Baartman, L.K.J., & de Bruijn, E. (2011). Integrating knowledge, skills and attitudes: Conceptualizing learning processes towards vocational competence. Educational Research Review, 6, 125-134. Billett, S. (2011) Curriculum and pedagogic bases for effectively integrating practice-based experiences – final report Strawberry Hills NSW, Australian learning and teaching council Ferreira, B. (n.d.). Critical Moments Reflection Methodology. Mit.edu. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://mit.edu/cil/web_scripts/www/Critical%20Moments%20Methodology%20Brief%20CoLab.pdf OECD (2013). Innovative Learning Environments, Educational Research and Innovation. OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/9789264203488-en Tynjälä, P., Välimaa, J. & Sarja, A. (2003) Pedagogical perspectives on the relationships between higher education and working life, Higher Education,46(2)pp147-166 Schaap, H., E. de Bruijn, M.F. Van der Schaaf L.K.J., Baartman. P.A. Kirschner (2011). Explicating Students’ Personal Professional Theories in Vocational Education through Multi-method Triangulation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 55(6), 567-586. Van Aken, J. & Andriessen, D. (2011). Handboek ontwerpgericht wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Den Haag: Boom|Lemma Zitter, I. (2010) Designing for Designing for Learning. Studying learning environments in higher professional education from a design perspective. Published dissertation, Utrecht University Zitter, I. & Hoeve, A. (2012). Hybrid Learning Environments: Merging Learning and Work Processes to Facilitate Knowledge Integration and Transitions. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 81, OECD Publishing.