Developing a trellis of practices that support learning in the workplace

Abstract

ABSTRACTVocational Education and Training (VET) teachers often begin teaching without teaching qualifications, and much of their learning necessarily takes place in the workplace. VET teaching is recognised as complex and requiring a broad range of skills and capabilities. At the same time, support for VET teacher learning in the workplace has been limited and ad hoc, with little focus on what workbased arrangements might better support teacher learning. Drawing on a study of novice VET teachers, this paper highlights the importance of VET teacher learning in the workplace and considers the site-based arrangements that enable and constrain novice teacher learning. The paper argues that when practices that support learning are interconnected to form a trellis, teacher learning is better supported than when practices that support learning are isolated and do not interconnect with each other. The paper concludes that novice teacher learning in the workplace needs to be supported through a range of site-based arrangements, and that these will be most effective if they form a strong trellis of inter-related practices that support learning in the workplace.