Understanding VET teacher attitudes to student support in a major public VET provider

Abstract

In the ever-changing environment of vocational education and training (VET), an individual teacher can create a learning environment which can inhibit or promote the success of a student. Their encouragement of small successes, acknowledgement of study challenges and practical guidance can assist students to push forward to achieve their goal. Conversely, an unsupportive teacher’s actions can diminish a student’s significance and build barriers to success, causing distress which can influence not only current study direction but undermine any possible notions of future learning. This study aims to investigate the attitudes and practices of teachers across two schools within a large Australian VET organisation. These responses have been collated and examined to describe and understand the practices and attitudes as well as the challenges and limitations to practice, with the intention of investigating attributes which are critical for teachers to display in order to motivate student retention and engagement in vocational education.