Abstract

This study set out to explore the use of the Internet in peer-to-peer learning environments within vocational education and training and to investigate whether this approach could replace traditional teaching and learning. A mixed methods design, including classroom observations, design experiments, interviews and questionnaires was adopted. Although this study represents a mid-term report on work in progress only, a number of observations can nevertheless be made about the process of conducting research within Further Education (FE) colleges. Whilst, traditionally, the pursuit of research is not a priority within FE colleges, this study has encouraged lecturers in Highbury College, Portsmouth, United Kingdom to trial a research-based approach to curriculum development. They have worked as co-researchers in the study from the conceptual phase to implementation. This paper outlines the process of conducting research in partnership with Business lecturers at Highbury College. It presents preliminary findings based on the researcher and lecturers’ reflections on the research methodology and process followed over a period of 9 months.Keywords: Emergent learning; FE Colleges; SOLE; vocational education and training(Published: 28 August 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 24614 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.24614

Highlights

  • Further Education Colleges form the backbone of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in the United Kingdom

  • It would seem that colleges, if they are to remain relevant to students, employers and the wider economy, need to rethink the curriculum in terms of content and pedagogy so that it better reflects the demands of an increasingly digital and networked society (Castells 2009)

  • From the fieldwork undertaken to date, questions have been raised about the spectrum of pedagogical approaches which can be adopted in the VET curriculum

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Summary

Introduction

Further Education Colleges form the backbone of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in the United Kingdom It is a sector ‘where the tectonic plates of the education system and the labour market meet’ (Keep 2012), and, in its simplest terms, the purpose of the VET system is to prepare young people explicitly for work. Given that this is a sector intended to mirror prevailing and emerging industrial needs, it is regularly criticised for lagging behind the workplace in its adoption of digital technologies (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2009; Ufi Charitable Trust 2012). The workplace increasingly demands inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary competencies and, to reflect this, recruitment is becoming geared much more to college leavers’ aptitudes for work rather than to qualifications obtained (CBI/Pearson 2014)

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