Analyzing The Impact Of Practice Related Teaching In VET

Author(s):

Vibe Aarkrog(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 06 B, Teachers and Teaching in VET

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

15:30-17:00

Room:

B027 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Marja-Leena Stenström

Contribution

This paper deals about curriculum planning of practice related teaching.

The motivation for focusing on practice related teaching are the current challenges in European VET, the most important being that too few students enroll in VET and too many students drop out alongside a repeatedly formulated need for skilles qualifications in the labour market.

The force of VET is the close connection between education and training on the one hand and practice within the skilled professions other hand, particularly evident in the dual organisation of the programs.

Transfer of knowledge and skills from school to practice is the central aim in VET and consequently a pedagogical challenge. According to research into transfer, transfer is enhanced by identical elements between the context of learning and the context of transfer. The more identical elements between the two context the better transfer (Thorndike & Woodworth, 1901). Furthermore transfer depends on the learner's motivation for transfer, and the learner is motivated for transfer, if (s)he experience a needsto transfer the obtained knowledge or skills in order to perform in practice. Thus the more the learner perceive the course matter to be relevant the greater the opportunity for transfer (Haskell, 2001).

Practice related teaching is perceived as a central pedagogical tool, being a means of creating near transfer, i.e. relatively many identical elements between the learning and the transfer contexts (Yamnill & McLean,(2001); Barnett, 2002; author, 2011)

Practice related teaching means that the school based teaching connects to the practice within the particular vocations.Practice related teaching connects the horizontal discourse and the vertical discourse (Bernstein, 199) the challenge being to keep both in mind at the same time. the students should be able to use examples from verious practices to understand and illustrate the use of theoretical knowledge. This is difficult for the students, in praticular for those who are concrete thinkers.

Research shows that the teachers' perceptions of practice related teaching differ from that of the students. The teachers' perception of practice-related teaching is routed in their particular subject. The English teacher will say: It is important to learn English, and in order to motivate the students for that subject I will have to include examples from their practice. The teacher's perception of practice-related teaching is "theory-based "

The students's perception of practice related teaching is practice-based; the students' main wish is to be qualified skilled workers; they will think: What do we need to learn in order to be skilled workers? They do not focus on specific subjects; rather they focus on developing competences that they experience they need in order to perform in the job. Therefore they perceive part of the so called practice related teaching as a pseudo practice relation (author, 2007)..

However based on current empirical studies the assumption is that the students' perceptions of practice related teaching is complex, being influenced by a number of factors, e.g. the vocation, the kind of knowledge: instrumental or communicative, the student's cognitive abilities and the student's practical experiences.

Accordingly based on emprical data from different vocations, subjects and students, the aim of the paper is to systematize the impact of different forms of practice-related teaching on the students' perceptions of - and their outcome of practice related teaching.

The reseach question is: How do students in VET perceive practice related teaching and how do various forms of practice related teaching influence the students' learning?

The theoretical framework includes model for curriculum planning (Him & Hippe, 2005) elaborated by including the distinction between instrumental and communicative learning (Mezirow, 1991) and surface and structural elements (Holyak & Koh, 1987).

Method

The paper is based on results from two empirical studies. The one study was completed in 2013 and deals about learner-centered methods and is part of a Cedefop project that includes a number EU member states. Part of the Danish contribution to the project are two cases about a commercial VET-program, respectively an agricultural program. The studied courses in these programs educate and train young students to become skilled workers The emprical data in each case comprises observation of a 3 hour's session, interviews with three teachers, interviews with a group of six students and a study of the curricula and other central documents. Learner-centredness and practice related teaching are connected in the sense that the prevaling notion in Danish VET pedagogy is that learner-centredness is realised through experienced based and practice related teaching. The other ongoing study deals about adult unskilled workers who train for a skilled qualification. The study includes a number of VET-programs two of which are included as data in this paper: the commercial and the social and health care VET programs. The empirical data includes observation of classes in both general and voctional subjects, interviews with the teachers and interviews with a students. The data collection has not yet been completed so the number of informatants cannot yet be specified. The data will be analysed with the purpose of categorizing various forms of practice related teaching and their impact on the students' perception of practice related teaching and their learning outcome.

Expected Outcomes

The expectation is that the results of the analysis show that a number of factors influence the students' perception and outcome of practice related teaching, e.g that the academically weak students will only perceive course contents that train them for performance in practice as a practice related course content, whereas the academic students will be motivated for and able to perceive practice related teaching as a connection between general theory and examples from various practice within and outside the specific vocation. The adult students are expected to be able to include their experiences from practise in the classroom; however many of them will be interested in learning theory without bothering about the practice relation as they are "hungry" for learning theory. The results should contribute to develop theory about practice-related teaching in VET, e.g in relation to using examples from practise (Chi & bassok, 1989)

References

Author (2007). Kan man lære teori i praksis? En teoretisk og empirisk analyse af praksisrelateret undervisning i erhvervsuddannelserne. DPU. Eng: Can you learn theory through practice? A theoretical and empirical analysis of practice related teaching in VET. Author. (2011). A Taxonomy for Teaching Transfer Skills in the Danish VET System. NORDYRK - Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training. Barnett,S.M. & Ceci, S.J. (2002) When and Where Do We Apply What We Learn? A Taxonomi for Far Transfer. Psychological Bulletin, 128(4), 612-637. Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and Horizontal Discourse: an essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20: 2, 157-173. Chi, M. T. H., & Bassok, M. (1989). Learning From Examples via Self-Explanations. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, Learning and Instruction. Essays in Honor of Robert Glaser. New Jersey: LEA. Haskell, R.E. (2001) Transfer of Learning - Cognition, Instruction, and Reasoning. SanDiego: Academic Press Hiim, H. & Hippe, E. (2005) Didaktik for fag- og professionslærere. Eng: Didactics for teachers in VET and the professions. København: Gyldendal. Holyak, K.J. & Koh, K. (1987) Surface and structural similarity in analogical transfer. Memory and Cognition, 15 (4) 332-340) Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative Dimensions in Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Thorndike, E.L. & Woodworth, R.S. (1901) The influence of improvement in one mental function upon the efficiency of other functions. The psychological Review VIII(3), 247-261). Yamnill, S. & McLean, G.N. (2001) Theories Supporting Transfer of training. Human Ressource Development Quarterly, 12(2), 195-208.

Author Information

Vibe Aarkrog (presenting / submitting)

The Danish School og Education Aarhus University

Curriculum

Copenhagen NV

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