Search Results for
"Vocational education"

The current research sought to identify the types of informal learning behaviours speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working in healthcare settings engage in as well as SLPs' motivations for engaging in informal learning. Twenty-four American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)-certified SLPs participated in this qualitative study. Data collection consisted of computer-mediated interviews, online journaling, and a virtual focus group. These textual data were coded and collapsed into themes. All participant SLPs reported that they learned through collaboration (inter-and intra-disciplinary), worked with patients to learn through trial-and-error, and consulted non-peer-reviewed material on the internet as well as peer-reviewed research in order to learn informally in the workplace. Eighteen of the 24 participants reported being motivated to learn at work to meet a patient's need to meet therapy goals. Five of the 24 participants reported meeting their own personal learning needs was a motivating factor and 10 of the 24 participants reported learning informally to meet the needs of the healthcare organization/SLP profession. Results were compared to past research on SLPs' information retrieval behaviours. It was concluded that SLPs acknowledge their personal work-related gaps in knowledge and skills and actively seek to develop their knowledge and skill base through informal means. © 2011 The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited.

This paper aims to identify methods of guidance and supervision used in air traffic control training. It also aims to show how these methods facilitate trainee participation in core work activities. The paper applies the tools of conversation analysis and ethnomethodology to explore the ways in which trainers and trainees act and interact in training situations. The data consist of the video recordings (total 38 hours) and ethnographic material gathered at a vocational institute for aviation and in two aerodrome control tower units. The trainers used five different instructional strategies with which they guided and controlled the trainees' actions. In simulator training, learning was structured as a process through which the procedural knowledge possessed by the expert controllers was transferred to the trainees through interventions such as orders, test questions and additions. As the trainees progressed to the on-the-job training phase, interaction evolved from being trainer-driven to trainer-guided. The trainees' performance was fine-tuned and guided towards local practices of particular work position by means of instructions and information deliveries. The simulator training and on-the-job training appear as two distinctive forms of vocational training with their own aims. In order to improve the quality of the training, it is suggested that greater attention should be given to the ways in which these two separate areas of learning could be better reconciled. This ethnomethodological study on training interaction complements the understanding of instructional strategies used at different stages of air traffic control training. It is proposed that research into the local and social production of training interaction can shed useful light on the complexities of workplace learning and training interaction, providing a novel perspective for those engaged in practice of vocational education. © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

For students attending vocational education courses, career exploration might be considered an important facilitator of the subjective organization of their training experience. For this reason, we implemented a career intervention program, aiming at improving the vocational exploratory activities by a group of high school students. In order to evaluate the impact of that program on the different dimensions of career exploration, a study with a quasi-experimental (pre-test/post-test) design was conducted, with non equivalent groups. Overall, the results seem relevant, since the career intervention had a positive and significant impact relating the two major dimensions of career exploration: environment exploration and self exploration.

The purposes of this study include the following: (1) establishing professional development criteria for hospitality teachers in vocational schools; (2) developing a self-rating scale for hospitality teacher professional development; and (3) constructing a combined teaching observation checklist. Through analysis of the related literature, a draft of the criteria was established and approved by 6 scholars and experts and 117 teachers from food and beverage or tourism departments. Furthermore, the teacher evaluation criteria were developed into the standards and indicators of the self-rating and teaching observation checklists. Implications are made for improving hospitality teachers' performance and developing professional teacher evaluations. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper examines the Coalition Government's plans for vocational education and training for 14- to 19-year-olds in England. It argues that new types of educational institutions will enable the emergence of new forms of segmentation in which the vocational track is likely to become split into 'technical education' and lower level 'practical learning'. Whilst the new government has increased funding for apprenticeship, it has so far failed to address the systemic problems which have kept this as a minority track for 16- to 18- year-olds. The paper argues that the government-commissioned Wolf Review of 14-19 vocational education in England provides support for segmentation. © 2011 Institute of education, University of London.

Purpose: This paper aims to identify methods of guidance and supervision used in air traffic control training. It also aims to show how these methods facilitate trainee participation in core work activities. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies the tools of conversation analysis and ethnomethodology to explore the ways in which trainers and trainees act and interact in training situations. The data consist of the video recordings (total 38 hours) and ethnographic material gathered at a vocational institute for aviation and in two aerodrome control tower units. Findings: The trainers used five different instructional strategies with which they guided and controlled the trainees' actions. In simulator training, learning was structured as a process through which the procedural knowledge possessed by the expert controllers was transferred to the trainees through interventions such as orders, test questions and additions. As the trainees progressed to the on-the-job training phase, interaction evolved from being trainer-driven to trainer-guided. The trainees' performance was fine-tuned and guided towards local practices of particular work position by means of instructions and information deliveries. Practical implications: The simulator training and on-the-job training appear as two distinctive forms of vocational training with their own aims. In order to improve the quality of the training, it is suggested that greater attention should be given to the ways in which these two separate areas of learning could be better reconciled. Originality/value: This ethnomethodological study on training interaction complements the understanding of instructional strategies used at different stages of air traffic control training. It is proposed that research into the local and social production of training interaction can shed useful light on the complexities of workplace learning and training interaction, providing a novel perspective for those engaged in practice of vocational education. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Planning and implementing teacher professional development is a process of engaging in organisational learning and change. Yet our planning and implementation of professional development is at times a series of one-off sessions and can be quite ad hoc. This paper argues that teacher learning takes place not only through formal sessions but also through everyday activity in the workplace. In this paper, a small, exploratory case study of a team of vocational education and training teachers in an Australian regional training institution provides an illustration of the ways in which workplace structures, cultures and histories create possibilities and constraints for teacher professional learning and development. The introduction of new pedagogical models, tools and/or directions sets up tensions between the new and the old. This paper analyses tensions between espoused and current pedagogical practices in a team of trade teachers as they adopt information communications technological (ICT) tools. It is argued that planning for teacher professional development needs to be highly contextualised. In order to undertake this planning, three layers of analysis are required: identification of the learning needs of the teachers themselves, analysis of the tensions within the activity of the teachers along with the ways in which, social, political and economic contextual conditions influence and are influenced by the activity of the teachers. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

This article studies the relationship between students' perceived competence - operationalised in self-efficacy beliefs - and their competence as assessed by the educational institute. Contrary to previous studies, the current study focuses on competence instead of on isolated knowledge and skills. Students (N = 169) in four subsequent years of a social work bachelor programme filled out a questionnaire. Perceived competence appears to increase during the four-year programme, with a dip in Year 3. This might be due to internships starting in Year 3, offering students a more realistic picture of the complexity of the work. Students appear to overestimate their competence at the start of the course, and underestimate it when leaving school. Because a slight overestimation of one's competence is favourable to tackle complex tasks and persist during setbacks, curricula could pay more attention to realistic student perceptions of their competence. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

In the 'dual' system of vocational training, working in company represents the major part of training. At the workplace, apprentices are expected to acquire the typical skills of their profession but, at the same time, to contribute to the production of the company. For this reason apprentices are expected to carry out activities on their own from early on in their training and to ask for help only when they need it. Learning to ask questions and to seek help appropriately is, therefore, an important competence for learners to acquire during vocational training, just as it is important for the company to offer the learner every opportunity to ask for help when needed. In this study, we used mobile phones to follow at a distance 19 apprentices in car mechanics at the workplace. We then analyzed a corpus of approximately 77 hours of work, in search of all questions and requests they addressed during this time. Data show that requests for information are twice as frequent as requests for assistance (i.e. intervention or physical help) and that all together, requests are introduced more often by more advanced apprentices than by those in the early stages of their training. These findings are linked with the facts that: a) bringing apprentices to be autonomous early in their work is a deciding factor of the philosophy of work in many of the enterprises training apprentices, b) more advanced apprentices are given more complex tasks to work on, c) more advanced apprentices work more is often undertaken in collaboration with an expert car mechanics and d) questions and requests for help are more likely to be addressed when working collaboratively than when working alone. These findings are interpreted as evidences of a natural regulation which takes place at the workplace between the learner's engagement and the workplace affordances. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.