Students' personal professional theories in competence‐based vocational education: the construction of personal knowledge through internalisation and socialisation (original) (raw)
Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 2004
The notion of competence has received sustained and ongoing critical attention. Despite this, many important matters remain unclear. This article argues that much of the confusion can be traced to both proponents and opponents of competence variously sharing highly questionable assumptions about learning that revolve around viewing it as a product. An examination of various writings demonstrates the pervasive influence of these assumptions on both proponents and opponents. The result is ambiguity and equivocation as both camps run together items that are logically and conceptually distinct. It is argued that to advance these matters we need to distinguish clearly between three items-performance and its outcomes, the underpinning constituents of competence (capabilities, abilities, skills) and the education, training or development of people to be competent performers. This article identifies five pervasive errors that stem from a failure to recognise this threefold distinction. These distinctions are wholly consistent with an alternative conception that views learning as a process. When the three distinctions are maintained in an account of competence, it turns out that many common criticisms fail. It also turns out, however, that the notion of competence lacks many of the superficially attractive features that appealed in the first place to policy makers, politicians and industrialists.
Constructing Vocational Knowledge: situations and other social sources
Journal of Education and Work, 1998
This article examines how social sources influence individuals’ thinking, acting and construction of knowledge. Reconciling both cognitive and sociocultural constructivist perspectives, it proposes that the particular situations in which individuals engage in vocational activities should be included in frameworks which seek to explain the social genesis of knowledge and its construction by individuals. Engagement in these activities is held to
Práxis Educacional, 2020
O artigo analisa o desenvolvimento da competência profissional de futuros especialistas em educação profissional. O chamado currículo como componente do programa de treinamento educacional, uma espécie de itinerário para os alunos estudarem a disciplina, é oferecido aos futuros profissionais do ensino profissional para futuros desafios no mercado de trabalho. Com base no princípio da centralização no aluno, os professores compartilham a responsabilidade de obter competências profissionais com os alunos que atuam como clientes na escolha de disciplinas. A sequência das etapas educacionais propostas nos conteúdos programáticos envolve a interação do professor com os alunos, as ações do professor como tutor, análise reflexiva dos alunos na preparação e execução independentes de tarefas criativas. O artigo apresenta o plano de estudos com a lista de literatura recomendada, questões para o controle final do conhecimento de futuros especialistas em forma de conversação, tópicos de tarefas...
Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, 2009
This chapter identifies contributions to the learning of vocational practice from experiences in both educational institutions and workplaces. It proposes that each of these setting potentially provides particular contributions to learning vocational practice. When each set of contributions is usefully exercised and integrated they stand to purposefully support rich and robust vocational learning. Yet, this integration is not possible in all circumstances. Therefore, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the contributions from both kinds of settings, and how best their learning potential can be maximised and their weaknesses limited. This paper is structured to achieve these purposes. Consideration is given first to the kinds of knowledge required to be learnt for effective vocational practice. Next, the contributions to learning vocational practices from both workplace and educational settings are discussed through a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of their respective contributions. Consideration is then given to how best to integrate the contributions of both environments to provide optimum learning experiences.
Vocations and Learning, 2012
Learning in vocational schools and workplaces are the two main components of vocational education. Students have to develop professional competences by building meaningful relations between knowledge, skills and attitudes. There are, however, some major concerns about the combination of learning in these two learning environments, since vocational schools are primarily based on the rationales of learning and theory, while workplaces are based on the rationales of working and practice. This study therefore aims to structure empirical insights into students' learning processes during the combination of school-based learning and workplace learning in vocational education. A review-study has been conducted in which ultimately 24 articles were analyzed thoroughly. The review shows that students' learning processes in vocational schools and workplaces are related to six main themes: students' expertise development, students' learning styles, students' integration of knowledge acquired in school and workplace, processes of knowledge development, students' motivations for learning and students' professional identity development. Our results show that students are novices who use specific and different learning styles and learning activities in vocational schools and workplaces. It is concluded that the enhancement of students' learning processes needs to be adaptive and differentiated in nature. Recommendations for further research are elaborated and suggestions for the enhancement of students' learning processes are discussed using insights from hybrid learning environments and boundary crossing via boundary objects. Vocations and Learning (
Working Knowledge in Vocational Education; Hands-on Activities as the Rotation Point for Learning
2016
The conceptions of Vocational pedagogy and Vocational didactics are new concepts in educational theory. They have developed in relation to an understanding of teaching/learning processes where workshop learning in schools and learning in working life is at the core. Vocational education contains a variety of different traditions and educational roads, but they are all based on learning through practical activities. Vocational pedagogy is a learner-centred approach to teaching and learning, where the relation between the student and the task is at the core. The central aspect of Vocational Pedagogy is that the work activity itself is the rotation point for learning. In this work I start to explore ways of seeing the unity and variations in curriculum development in vocational didactics brought about by the changes in technology and the development on the manual labour market and in vocational education during the last decades. I also discuss the central problematic of moving from "learning in praxis" to "general knowledge" in a variety of vocational fields in the point of tensions between learning in schools and learning in work life. .
Insights into Vocational Learning from an Applied Learning Perspective
Vocations and Learning, 2012
A theoretical framework for understanding applied learning processes is now warranted given the frequency with which these processes are now being utilised. Drawing in part from the literature on applied education in schools as well as theories of vocational learning such a framework is offered here that seeks to explain these learning processes in terms of the interplay of multiple accounts of influences at micro, meso and macro levels. This framework integrates current and emerging theories around practical learning, and provides insights into vocational and workplace education processes. We clarify how features of our framework complement broader current debates and concepts in the literature on vocational and work-related learning, particularly focusing on influences for that learning at the micro level of individuals' experiences and understandings entailed in embodied cognition, or knowing through practice. Moreover, the value of this framework is demonstrated through its application to two very different case studies of learning processes in workplace settings. In conclusion, some implications for further theoretical and practical work in this area are advanced.
The competence-based didactic approach in initial vocational education
Zbornik Instituta za pedagoska istrazivanja, 2014
This article examines a didactic and curricular model that was developed to support the implementation of a competence-based approach, today prevailing in the European (initial) vocational education and training (VET). It starts by presenting contemporary developments in the Slovenian VET, and then continues with a study of some of the underlying pedagogical concepts influencing the contemporary educational practice. The concept of competence, as it relates to the Slovenian VET, is discussed, and the new didactic model is presented in terms of its conceptualisation, realisation and evaluation. The model is built around the concepts of the competence- based didactic unit, and has been produced to help teachers support students in developing the ability to integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes, so that they are able to solve complex and unpredictable professional tasks and challenges. The article concludes with a discussion on the methodological limitations of the evaluation, and ...