Studying manual work activity: a framework for analysis and training

This paper presents the methodological framework that we developed for collecting, studying and passing on tacit and explicit know-how embodied in professional gestures of expert workers. This framework is based upon the combination of an adaptation of a range of psychological theories and techniques: Activity Theory, the ‘perceived quality’ approach, subjective evidence-based ethnography, and verbal protocols. The application of the method, primarily based on the perspective of the expert, enables the building of a cognitive model of the professional gesture to be transmitted, by highlighting its key points. It leads to designing multimedia training products called MAP (Multimedia Platform for Apprenticeship) intended to “represent” and convey knowledge involved in the real-time performance of the expert’s gesture. The methodology was developed and applied to manual operators, in actual work and training settings of the biggest power French company. The practical aim of the study was to address an organizational issue of knowledge management, for professional training purposes, in order to bridge the gap of learning by mentoring between retiring experts and novices. The method has been recently industrialised by the company in which