Vocational and professional education need to deliver reflective practitioners,  who possess an adequate knowledge base, including relevant domain-specific and general knowledge (cf., Griffiths & Guile, 2003), who are able to solve complex problems and who have the ability to acquire and develop new knowledge during their further professional career (Brockmann, Clarke, Méhaut, & Winch, 2008). It is expected that competence-based education stimulates learning that prepares students sufficiently for working in today’s society. Learning in vocational and professional education encompasses integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes, via conceptualization and contextualization during and between school-based learning and workplace learning (Baartman & De Bruijn, submitted). These issues are national questions in different countries in Europe, such as the Netherlands, Germany, France and Great-Britain (cf., Weigel, Mulder, & Collins, 2007).

However, education that enhances conceptualization and contextualization and the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes is scarce (cf., De Bruijn & Leeman, in press). This is due to the differences between learning in vocational schools and learning at workplaces and the fact that vocational educators lack guiding methods to go beyond the specificity of learning environments. Aarkrog (2005) postulates that learning in vocational schools is mainly characterized by general and guided learning, while learning in workplaces is specific and authentic in nature. Sfard (1998) refers to this difference as the distinction between participation (e.g., workplace learning) and acquisition (e.g., learning in the school).

A hybrid learning environment can be used to overcome such differences between learning in vocational schools and in workplaces. A hybrid learning environment is a specific and unique learning environment which combines relevant components of learning environments in both vocational schools and workplaces. It is assumed that in a hybrid learning environment acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes simultaneously take place with socialization in a specific vocational community, and also that constructed or manipulated tasks are combined with realistic tasks (cf., Zitter, De Bruijn, Simons, & Ten Cate, in press). A hybrid learning environment is characterized by 1) students who integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes during professional performances in realistic contexts, 2) collaborative learning between peers or students from different vocational courses, 3) no physical distinction between vocational schools (i.e., learning) and professional organizations (i.e., working), 4) a production process which forms a main component and which offers sufficient opportunities for learning and 5) vocational educators (i.e., teachers from vocational schools or practical coaches) who guide students appropriately via specific coaching and modelling strategies (Huisman, De Bruijn, Baartman, Zitter, Aalsma, 2010, Zitter et. al, in press).

Because of the innovative character of hybrid learning environments, little empirical evidence is available concerning students learning processes and effects that can be expected to occur in hybrid learning environments. The main aim of this review is therefore to gather empirical evidence for intended learning processes and effects of hybrid learning environments in vocational and professional education. The main research question is: How do learning processes in hybrid learning environments look like?

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