Context Of Vocational Education Research Articles

Interactions and miscommunication in the Swiss vocational education context

This paper identifies and discusses various challenges met by apprentices when joining the workplace at the very beginning of their training programme. These challenges have become of interest to policy makers and vocational researchers in a context where transitions from school to work are often seen as problematic experiences with growing numbers of young people dropping out of apprenticeship programmes. In a case study drawn from empirical data referring to the Swiss vocational education system, difficulties in sharing meaning at various levels and in (re)negotiating participation at work are described as typical patterns of interactions between apprentices and expert coworkers who train them. These challenges, it is proposed, are not external to language use, but are deeply mediated by discourse practices, including a variety of semiotic resources. From that standpoint, concepts and methods developed in the field of applied linguistics can be seen as relevant tools for illuminating the complexities associated with workplace learning. The paper explores possible continuities and complementarities between vocational education research and discourse studies and argues for an increased research effort in this field of applied linguistics.

Revealing personal professional theories

This article introduces the concept of Personal Professional Theories to refer to knowledge development within the context of vocational education. They are personal interpretations of formal theories, work process knowledge and notions about professional attitude in a specific occupational domain, and are assumed to be frames of reference for professional experiences and guides in action simultaneously. To make detecting development in personal professional theories possible, strategies need to be validated for revealing them. Two strategies [i.e., concept mapping (CM) and a combination of CM with stimulated recall (SR)] are compared, by grading them on three aspects of adequacy (i.e., richness, coherence and content), to see which one reveals personal professional theories better. The sample consisted of 16 students of two training courses. Both strategies succeeded in revealing personal professional theories: The constructed maps displayed personal interpretations of formal theories, work process knowledge and notions about professional attitude. However, the concept maps of the combined strategy did worse on all aspects of adequacy. The CM strategy appeared better for revealing personal professional theories. Several explanations are offered, which deserve further investigation. Hence, despite the project’s small scale, the outcomes provide in interesting clues to reveal personal professional theories.

Leseverstehen als Basiskompetenz: Entwicklung und Förderung im Kontext beruflicher Bildung

The paper deals with the theoretical framework and empirical findings of a research-cycle which was conducted several years. The first part focuses on the development and the influence of reading competence on the development of domain specific vocational competences. The second part describes the implementation and findings of different intervention studies which were designed to improve reading competence by “Reciprocal Teaching”. After summarizing the whole research-cycle, the paper will end with a discussion of open questions and some point out perspectives for the development of a support framework that could be implemented and adapted to the context of vocational education.

Conceptions of assessment of Mainland China college lecturers: A technical paper analyzing the Chinese version of COA-III

Assessment has a salient influence on student learning. With the introduction of the principle of "assessment for learning," assessment practice in different education sectors, and professional and vocational education in particular, is about to change, to adopt a more formative and authentic type of assessment. However, the change is still foreign to most of the Mainland China educators who place much emphasis on getting students to achieve good examination results. Grading and selection are two of the major functions of assessment, and those of diagnosis and guidance are developing. Therefore, before offering any concrete ideas of how assessment for learning could work in a Chinese context with its examination-oriented culture, exploring teachers' conceptions regarding assessment is meaningful. Results of a survey of 97 college lecturers of a vocational and technical institute in Hangzhou, Mainland China (Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic, 杭州萬向職業技術學院) suggested their agreement that assessment improves quality of teaching and student learning and also makes schools more accountable. In contrast, the lecturers doubted whether assessment could provide valid information concerning deep learning in contrast to passing examinations. The more they agreed that assessment improves quality of teaching and student learning, the more they found it makes schools accountable; and the more they agreed that assessment provides valid information and describes student learning, the more they found it makes students accountable. The backwash effect of examination was apparent to them. Second-order factor analysis further suggested that whether they thought assessment improves quality of teaching and student learning was a different construct from whether they found that assessment provides valid information, describes student learning, and makes students and schools accountable. The paper will contribute to gaining an understanding of how effective learning and assessment can be facilitated in the professional and vocational education context in Mainland China.

Profesinis konsultavimas ir orientavimas šiuolaikinio profesinio rengimo kontekste

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos profesinio konsultavimo ir orientavimo problemos Lietuvoje transformacijų laikotarpiu. Šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje akivaizdus valstybės ir visuomenės suartėjimas. Švietimo pokyčiai įpareigoja kokybiškai spręsti ateities problemas. Teisingas profesinis apsisprendimas ir kokybiškas rengimasis profesijai gali sudaryti konkurencinį pranašumą globalioje erdvėje. Todėl laiku ir kokybiškas profesinis konsultavimas- vienas iš svarbiausių garantų siekiant asmens ir visuomenės poreikių tenkinimo.

Connecting work and learning: design engineers' learning at work

PurposeThe paper seeks to investigate design engineers' and product developers' learning through their work. The aim was to approach designers' work practice and their learning in the course of it as perceived by the designers themselves. The aim is also to examine their learning through the various individual and social processes, which take place in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachThe ethnographic approach in this paper, with its use of combined and qualitative data gathering and analytical methods, was selected to approach the aim described above. Observations in two Finnish high‐tech companies and interviews with 18 designers were conducted. The observations and interviews were analysed with help of combined methods of analysis, such as phenomenographic, narrative and ethnographic analysis.FindingsThe findings in this paper suggest that in redefining designers' work and learning, four central themes are important: design practice is learning in itself; there is a close relationship between formal and practical knowledge in designers' learning at work; previous work experience plays an essential role in learning; and design practices and learning should be seen as shared, situated and contextualized.Practical implicationsIn the paper general suggestions concerning the guidance of workplace learning are given, and the challenges of guiding and assessing workplace learning in the vocational education context are examined. There is a clear need for more effective integration between education and working life.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates that individual and social practice and learning in the workplace should be analysed as interdependent and intertwined.

‘Doing the business’: paradox and irony in vocational education – GNVQ business studies as a case in point

Drawing on a single case study in the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC-FE) project, discussed in the introduction to this volume, this article explores contrasting perspectives of tutors' and students' experiences of a General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ). The ‘case in point’ is an Intermediate level GNVQ in Business Studies. The study juxtaposes the official discourse of GNVQ as a high skill qualification, offering parity of esteem and access to higher education and employment, with the reality as tutors and students experience it. The article explores the often contradictory ways in which these experiences interrelate with one another in shaping the teaching and learning culture of the GNVQ site. The term ‘site’ is used here to denote the context and situation that frames the teaching and learning experiences of tutors and students. As the title suggests, the article identifies ambiguities in the way tutors and students make sense of GNVQ Business Studies, in the wider context of vocational education and training (VET) policy. A number of overlapping themes are identified that connect the contrasting biographies and identities of tutors and students with the development of learning cultures in the site. The article deals with each of these in turn to illuminate the complex ways in which the ‘empty shell’ of GNVQ is given meaning in the often paradoxical conditions of further education (FE) practice. It is pertinent to examine this site in such depth at a time when Intermediate GNVQs are being transformed into Vocational General Certificates in Secondary Education (VGCSEs), which form part of the wider reform of 14-19 education and training in England.

The training gospel and the commodification of skill: some critical reflections on the politics of skills training in Aotearoa/New Zealand

In the last two decades the policy context of vocational education and training (VET) has undergone radical change and transformation. This has not been unique nor has it been particular to New Zealand, as can be witnessed by similar reforms in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and the USA. Despite national and regional variations, and emphasis on the approach adopted by each of these countries, a common agenda has emerged over the aims, content and desired outcomes of VET policy. With reference to recent policy developments in New Zealand, this paper takes issue with some of the implicit assumptions and purposes of the contemporary training agenda. In particular, it will question the highskill/high value-added orthodoxy that underpins the training policies of the New Zealand state of the last decade.

Vocationally Speaking: (Further) Educational Construction of 'Workplace Identities'

This paper deals with how 'workplace culture' and 'workplace identities' are (not) constructed in and through the Further Education (FE) curriculum. More specifically, it examines the ways in which two competing identities - one educational and the other, workplace - are negotiated by FE students and sustained through the FE provision in the British setting. Drawing upon Bourdieu's and Bernstein's models of 'cultural reproduction' associated with mainstream schooling, in the first part of the paper I reassess this conflict model of stratified 'culture' and 'codes' in the overall context of vocational education. This is followed by an appeal to the Gramscian notion of 'hegemony' to suggest a shift towards a consensual form of 'workplace identity' negotiation. With the help of data taken from the various stages of the further education process (e.g. course objectives, teacher perceptions, patterns of classroom interaction, students' work experience narratives), I argue that the competing educational and workplace identities are constituted in the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in further education.

Current Themes in VOCATIONAL EDUCATION and TRAINING POLICIES: Part 2

Part I treated the context of vocational education and training and discussed the major causes influencing national Governments to change their role in vocational education and training. This article discusses the consequences of this changing role, particularly as it concerns the devolution of responsibility for vocational education and training to local authorities — and the ways in which these local authorities are reacting to this increased responsibility. The issue of devolving funding is, however, generally unresolved by most Governments.

Current Themes in VOCATIONAL EDUCATION and TRAINING POLICIES:

This overview of current themes in vocational education and training policies and systems is presented in three parts. PART 1 treats the context of vocational education and training and discusses the major issues influencing national Governments to change their role in vocational education and training. PART 2 discusses the common themes in how central Governments are changing their role in vocational education and training, particularly concerning the devolution of training responsibility to local bodies. The ways in which vocational education and training systems controlled by these local bodies are reacting to this increased responsibility are pursued in detail. PART 3 discusses the growing realization by central Governments that their responsibility for economic development and productivity can be discharged by a closer focus on vocational education and training, not at the delivery level, but at a policy level which includes both policies for vocational preparation of all citizens — particularly youth — and policies which promote new and existing enterprises which show high returns on investment and productivity.

The Technological Context of Vocational Education

The Technological Context of Vocational Education