In this article the idea of contextualising vocational knowledge is theorised to understand the nature of vocational knowledge and this process of contextualising is illustrated with empirical examples from culinary education.
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The focus of the thesis is an exploration into students’ vocational knowledge in the context of Dutch vocational education and training (VET). The reason students’ vocational knowledge requires exploration is because there is no consensus among scholars in the field of VET about how to theorise the nature of students’ vocational knowledge; most (not all) scholars rely on dichotomous conceptualisations, such as theory versus practice, general versus specific or explicit versus implicit. However, such commonly used dichotomies are not very helpful to understand the complex nature of vocational knowledge. Vocational knowledge is more than putting bits of theoretical and practical knowledge together, it is characterised by sometimes-intimate relationships between knowledge and actions. As a result of the above-mentioned gap in the VET literature, there is little empirical research on how VET students develop vocational knowledge and the extent to which this is occupation-specific knowledge. To understand students’ vocational knowledge, four different aims are formulated and carried out in four studies. The aim of the first study is to identify powerful vocational learning environments to enable the selection of a case that represents high quality vocational learning and teaching. With an eye on analysing students’ vocational knowledge, the second study aims to conceptualise the nature of vocational knowledge that avoids dichotomies. Therefore, two conceptual frameworks are integrated; the idea of contextualising is introduced which is based on cultural-historical theory to highlight the crucial role activity plays in knowledge development and to understand the relationships between the mind (i.e., what people think (and feel)), and action (i.e., what people do). Secondly, the theory is supplemented with ideas from inferentialism, a philosophical semantic theory of meaning to provide a useful way to focus on students’ processes of knowing and to reveal students’ vocational knowledge in terms of ongoing reasoning processes. The third study uses the conceptualisation of vocational knowledge to explore how students develop vocational knowledge in occupational practice, and to illustrate the process of contextualising. The forth study aims to describe what characterises students’ vocational knowledge using an analytic framework that distinguishes between occupation-specific knowledge components and qualities. This thesis contributes to research scholarship in the field of VET and an understanding of students’ vocational knowledge in practice. The theoretical framework of contextualising supplemented with inferentialism provides an alternative way to focus on students’ processes of knowing and helps to reveal students’ vocational knowledge in terms of reasoning processes. The empirical explorations and illustrations of students’ vocational knowledge contribute to the scholarly literature and practice on understanding the nature of vocational knowledge, how students develop vocational knowledge and what characterises their vocational knowledge. The intention to introduce the idea of contextualising is not about reinventing the wheel but rather an attempt to understand how it turns and how it functions. The intention of this thesis is to encourage dialogue and move the debate about the nature of vocational knowledge further, and hence, to provide some “food for thought”.
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How students develop vocational knowledge is a rather under-researched topic in the context of vocational education and training. Vocational knowledge is perceived as the kind of knowledge required to perform in occupational practice. From an activity-theoretical approach to learning, supplemented with ideas borrowed from inferentialism, this article explores how students develop vocational knowledge in terms of a cognitive activity of contextualising. A qualitative in-depth study is presented, which explores students’ cognitive processes during professional performance. Hospitality students and culinary students were interviewed and asked to articulate the process of contextualising during their work in a sandwich bar. A detailed description of the characteristics of contextualising is presented, and the process is illustrated with examples from the data.
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The central aim of this thesis was to increase understanding of designing vocational learning environments at the school–work boundary. Four studies were conducted, focusing on learning environment designs at the school–work boundary and on design considerations of the actors involved in their construction, both from the world of school and the world of work.
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This study aims to map VE teachers’ perceived importance of assessment competence. The study was conducted in the Netherlands among teachers of professional studies in Universities of Applied Sciences. A large-scale study was conducted to represent a broad population of teachers, including various vocational fields, roles, and situations, allowing for the exploration of differences across these contextual variables.
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In vocational education, students learn in different school-based and workplace-based learning environments and engage with different types of knowledge in these environments. Students are expected to integrate these experiences and make meaning of them in relation to their own professional knowledge base. This study focuses both on what types of knowledge students learn in these environments and how they integrate these different types of knowledge. Individual and group interviews were conducted with students, teachers and workplace supervisors in a vocational programme in the Netherlands. Results show that students recognise the importance of vocational knowledge learned in school-based learning environments while they are in the workplace and vice versa, and continuously contextualise knowledge to make it applicable for new circumstances. Also, students learn differently at school due to their experiences in the workplace.
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This literature review explores ways older workers might continue to make waves and impact their work organization. The topic of the paper is grounded in the problem of an ageing organizational population looming in the near future. The work presented here is a start to helping management in knowledge-intensive organizations to understand how to effectively utilize the capacities of older knowledge workers by stimulating intergenerational learning as a means to retain critical organizational knowledge, encourage innovation and promote organizational learning through knowledge building. First, the concept of intergenerational learning is developed followed by a discussion of the organizational factors important for it to take place. The last section presents ideas on how to design and implement intergenerational learning as an organizational development program.
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PCK is seen as the transformation of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge into a different type of knowledge that is used to develop and carry out teaching strategies. To gain more insight into the extent to which PCK is content specific, the PCK about more topics or concepts should be compared. However, researchers have rarely compared teachers’ concrete PCK about more than one topic. To examine the content dependency of PCK, we captured the PCK of sixteen experienced Dutch history teachers about two historical contexts (i.e. topics) using interviews and Content Representation questionnaires. Analysis reveals that all history teachers’ PCK about the two contexts overlaps, although the degree of overlap differs. Teachers with relatively more overlap are driven by their overarching subject related goals and less by the historical context they teach. We discuss the significance of these outcomes for the role of teaching orientation as a part of PCK.
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This study investigates the knowledge that experienced teachers draw on when fostering students’ reflections. Reflective skills are crucial for advancing students’ learning. In order to promote students’ reflection productively, extensive support and scaffolding from teachers is indispensible. However, teachers are in need of more guidance in this area. To inspire pedagogies for teacher training, this study provides insight into the knowledge that teachers employ when they are engaged with promoting their students to reflect. Video vignette interviews were administered to 36 teachers in secondary vocational education for nursing to elicit their knowledge. Interview transcripts were coded using categories for assessing teachers’ curricular, pedagogical and instructional knowledge. To investigate relations between the elements of teachers’ knowledge, we performed a lag-sequential analysis that enables statistical testing of observed sequences of categorised events. Four salient relations between elements of teacher knowledge emerged: (1) instructional knowledge as instrumental to construing pedagogical knowledge; (2) instructional knowledge contingent on pedagogical knowledge; (3) instructional knowledge and curricular knowledge related to fostering critical reflection; and (4) instructional knowledge and curricular knowledge related to fostering planning. Implications for teacher training are discussed. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2016.1225790
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Ontwikkelingen in de maatschappij, in het bijzonder de ontwikkeling richting een kennismaatschappij, vereisen voor het onderwijs de ontwikkeling van een praktijkgericht en vraaggestuurd onderwijsmodel (Meijers, 2006). Studieloopbaanbegeleiding (slb), gericht op het realiseren van een loopbaangerichte leeromgeving waarin zelfsturing centraal staat, is in het hoger beroepsonderwijs (hbo) sectorbreed ontwikkeld en ingezet als een belangrijk middel hierbij. Landelijk, kwantitatief onderzoek (Kuijpers & Meijers, 2009) heeft laten zien dat het realiseren een dergelijke leeromgeving geen sinecure is. Middels nader kwalitatief onderzoek is inzicht verkregen in de manier waarop drie best practice academies invulling hebben gegeven aan slb. Uit de resultaten, samengevat in dit artikel, blijkt het belang van continu leren door studenten én docenten. In vervolg hierop hebben we literatuuronderzoek verricht naar het begrip 'collectief leren' als een belangrijke vorm van het leren van docenten. Met behulp van vragenlijstonderzoek zijn we nagegaan in welke mate hbo-docenten deze vorm van leren herkennen in hun dagelijkse praktijk. ABSTRACT Developments in society, in particular the development towards a knowledge economy, require educational institutes to develop an educational model that is both practice- and inquiry-based (Meijers, 2006). In order to support this process, Career Guidance, aimed at creating a career-oriented learning environment where students have a say in their own learning processes, is widely introduced in the higher vocational education sector. However, results from national, quantitative research (Kuijpers & Meijers, 2009) have shown that it is difficult to realize such learning environment. In a follow-up qualitative study we gained insight in the way three 'best practice' academies, as identified in the study by Kuijpers and Meijers (2009), have successfully developed and organized their Career Guidance program. Results, summarized in the current article, point to the importance of continuous learning by both students and teachers. Sequel to this study we have performed a review of relevant literature in order to explore the concept 'collective learning' as an important form of teacher learning. By means of a questionnaire we have verified the extent to which teachers in higher vocational education teacher teams recognize this type of learning in their daily work practice.
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