ACQUISITION OF PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE: HOW DO TODAY´S POSTGRADUATES LEARN?

Abstract

The subject of our paper is professional knowledge and experience acquisition by young medical doctors and university instructors with two to five years of work experience. There are many theories that can be applied to knowledge acquisition and also a large body of literature both on developmental psychology and adult learning. Our research followed our previous research conducted in 2012 in the Czech Republic with 200 professionals and was originally motivated by research done by Cheetham and Chivers (2001), who identified non-formal factors essential for acquiring professional knowledge. We identified the most effective learning methods that enable professional learning, in these two groups of postgraduates.