A Three–Dimensional Conceptual Framework of Workplace Learning: Integrating Supervisor Support, Peer Support, and Reflective Practice

Workplace learning is an important part of vocational education, yet its conceptualization remains varied across studies. Such variation makes it difficult to compare findings and explain how learning develops across workplace contexts. This paper therefore develops a three-dimensional framework of workplace learning centered on supervisor support, peer support, and reflective practice. Drawing on workplace learning theory and relevant empirical and theoretical literature, the framework brings together two social dimensions of learning and a reflective dimension through which students interpret and learn from workplace experience. Supervisor support provides guidance and developmental feedback, peer support facilitates informal interaction and collaborative learning, and reflective practice enables students to review experience and inform subsequent action. Bringing these three components together provides a clearer basis for examining student learning in authentic work settings and for designing workplace learning in technical and vocational education and training. The framework also provides a basis for future empirical testing across different educational and workplace contexts.