Search Results for
"learning"

In Germany, VET is mainly organised according to the 'Dual System', meshing theoretical education at school and practical instruction at the workplace. Dual apprenticeships in Germany exist in nearly all branches of the economy including the professions and parts of the civil service. Every year, about 600,000 adolescents enter the dual system (for figures see Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung 2007: 11). All in all, more than 1.8 million young people - with a female share of 41.5% - are learning their trades through the Dual System. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.

We investigated the effects of a long-term, continuous professional development (CPD) model, designed to support teachers to enact Project-Based learning (PBLSAT). How do novice PBLSAT teachers view their acquisition of PBLSAT skills and how do expert PBLSAT teachers, who enacted the program 5-7 years, perceive the program? Novice teachers evaluated that they acquired the relevant skills but also expressed worries about enacting the program, due to potential difficulties for teachers. Nonetheless, the teachers enacted the program and identified unforeseen benefits for themselves and their students. We suggest that the CPD model helps teachers develop a sense of personal ownership and customization for the program, through multi-staged support to integrate student free-choice PBL into the formal science curriculum. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, B.V.

In The Means to Grow Up, Robert Halpern describes the pedagogical importance of "apprenticeship"-a growing movement based in schools, youth-serving organizations, and arts, civic, and other cultural institutions. This movement aims to re-engage youth through in-depth learning and unique experiences under the guidance of skilled professionals. Employing a "pedagogy of apprenticeship," these experiences combine specific, visceral, and sometimes messy work with opportunity for self-expression, increasing responsibility, and exposure to the adult world. Grounded in ethnographic studies, The Means to Grow Up illustrates how students work in unique ways around these meaningful activities and projects across a range of disciplines. Participation in these efforts strengthens skills, dispositions, and self-knowledge that is critical to future schooling and work, renews young peoples' sense of vitality, and fosters a grounded sense of accomplishment. In unearthing the complexities of apprenticeship learning, Halpern challenges the education system that is increasingly geared towards the acquisition of de-contextualized skills. Instead, he reveals how learning alongside experienced adults can be a profoundly challenging and complex endeavor for adolescents and offers readers an exciting vision of what education can and should be about. © 2009 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

The articulation of practice and theory is a central problematic in a dual apprenticeship system that combines working in a company and attending courses at school. Design problems are proposed by teachers as a way to address theoretical concepts in a practical context. The difficulties encountered by apprentices while creating paper based sketches motivated the development of a tabletop warehouse simulation providing apprentices with a Tangible User Interface in the form of a small-scale model. We compare drawings and tangible representational modalities with regards to three phases of design problem solving. Tinkering with tangibles is described as an easy way to engage into the problem. The physical properties of tangibles facilitate the extraction of features relevant for verification. The limited expressiveness of tangibles allows apprentices to focus on the search for a solution rather than on the representation of the problem space. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

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This article is based on an innovative research project with academics, software developers, and organizational pilot sites to design and develop elearning software for an emergency response simulation with supporting collaborative tools. In particular, this article focuses on the research that the author has conducted to provide the theoretical foundations for the project. After discussing the unique characteristics of the SIMergency project, the author provides a critical applied analysis of learning principles directly related to simulation and gaming; stresses the importance of balancing virtual methods with face-to-face interaction; and examines design principles that place learning before technology in an emergency response organizational context. This research, although concentrating on paramedics and firefighters, is transferable to other organizations, and it highlights the importance of collaborative learning. It also emphasizes the crucial use of simulations based on real life for preparing people to deal with stressful and challenging situations in their work. © 2008 Sage Publications.

This paper analyses a work placement scheme established to create the conditions to: (i) incubate new designs in the jewellery sector in Birmingham; (ii) support a jewellery company compete more effectively in the global market; (iii) assist a newly qualified graduate jeweller to enter the jewellery sector. It introduces a new theoretical framework based on concepts from: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory-'project-object'; Workplace learning-'vocational practice'; Philosophy of Mind-'space of reasons'; to analyse individual and organisational contributions to workplace learning in this scheme. It identifies the strategies and tactics used by: (i) the organisations involved with the scheme to facilitate the incubation of the new designs, and (ii) an aspiring jewellery designer to create a new product range. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this conceptual framework for debates in workplace learning about: (i) the 'front-loaded' versus 'practice-based' conceptions of vocational education and (ii) the role of epistemic objects and practices in the development of vocational practice. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the nature of learning discovered by recent graduates participating in a symphony orchestra-initiated development program that is designed to nurture them through the transition to becoming professional orchestral musicians. Design/methodology/approach - Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors interviewed developing musicians and professional musician mentors individually and in small groups using a semi-structured protocol. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The authors also observed musicians working together in rehearsal and in concert performance and reviewed documents on the development program, the organisation and the Australian performing arts industry. Findings - The findings suggest that learning is better conceptualised as an embodied constructed experience with others in context. What the authors call "guided contextualising" differs from conventional discussions of skill-based novice learning and mentorship. For musicians, the competency that is being developed is one of learning how to become, forming a sense of identity as broader musical citizens as well as becoming members of more instrumental communities. Practicalimplications - The design and structure of the program (and alternatives emerging overseas) suggest possibilities for new collaborations towards "a living curriculum" between higher education and industry. Originality/value - Rather than "employability", the concept of "graduateness" for young adults is formative and transformative, a process that involves the seeking of various forms of identity and contextualised learning that transcends self. "Becoming" practitioners together in generative ways enhances fitness for professional practice and develops a commitment to lifelong learning.

This article focuses first on fundamental trends weakening the European—specifically, the Slovenian—economy and social structure, which are creating a two-class system consisting of an undereducated/uneducated population unable to compete for employment in an economy increasingly requiring more education to update employees’ skills. learning and education have become an imperative for people wishing to upgrade their employability to counter increasing unemployment and the impact of an aging society. The study next addresses its purpose—to discover higher educators’ and folk high school educators’ perceptions of an initiative developed to address this social and economic problem, namely, by creating a lifelong learning approach to accredit informal and experiential learning experienced outside the formal higher education system. A national Slovenian conference was organized to focus on these issues. A convenience sample of participants attending this conference were asked to what extent they perceive and expect Slovenian higher education institutions and other educational organizations to accredit nonformal and experiential learning and what criteria and conditions are necessary for a successful initiative. The study explores the European social model, which aims to improve employability to avoid increasing the two-class social system of uneducated and undereducated citizens as the economy increasingly requires more highly educated employees. Although a third of the respondents were unaware of the issues of such an approach to lifelong learning, participants overall perceived that creating a flexible education system, including procedures for validating previous education and other forms of knowledge, should be one of the objectives of higher education institutions, as well as other institutions engaged in adult education. To be effective, the system must be developed and implemented in partnership with employers, individuals, and educational institutions. This article describes the situation with respect to recognizing prior learning in European Union countries and the Slovenian reactions to them. Moreover, it presents results of empirical survey research into the motivation of participants in educational institutions to cooperate in the system established to validate nonformal and informal learning. Respondents recognized a need for and supported developing a system of accrediting lifelong learning experiences. A lifelong learning policy appears to include the three dimensions of innovation, social inclusion, and active citizen participation. The concepts of the learning society, the knowledge society, and lifelong learning have been relatively slow to emerge to become significant influences in Slovenian higher educational attendees’ perceptions as national goals for higher education. A huge discussion among participants manifested support for such an enterprise as a social good, and they recommended forming a commission of higher education institutions to develop a system consisting of a common framework within which accreditation could be implemented to meet increasing social employment needs affecting Slovenian society, with one major criterion: that it be fair and just. Another recommendation was to include employers, individuals, and higher education reference groups in developing the system. © 2008 SAGE Publications.

Policy debates on employability, lifelong learning and competence-based approaches suggest a convergence of VET approaches across European countries. Against the background of the creation of a European Qualifications Framework, this paper compares the VET systems of England, Germany and The Netherlands. The analysis reveals the distinct understandings and meanings of outwardly similar terms. These meanings are deeply rooted in the countries' institutional structures and labour processes and still inform national debates and policies today. The paper identifies a major distinction between a 'knowledge-based' VET model in Germany and The Netherlands and a 'skills-based' model in England. There is a need to develop trans-national categories that take into account the social construction of terms such as 'skills' and 'qualifications'.