"The complexity of the context and guidance in vocational training." Presentation B01- Educators’ Professional Development

We would like to take you on a journey through the structure and complexity of teaching in vocational education.

Vocational education is characterized by the integration of education and work, with students learning in various places and ways. To elucidate the differences in learning among students, teachers, and teacher trainers, we utilize ?Zitter and Hoeve's model. Maybe it's known, but we will explain and expand upon it with our findings. The model identifies four quadrants.

?

We will represent the complexity in three levels. Student, Teacher and teacher-trainer

Level of students

The top-left quadrant is Constructed-Acquisition, often associated with classroom lessons. Activities in this quadrant may include reading from a book or teacher presentations.

The bottom-left quadrant is Constructed-Participation, where practical skills take center stage. Think of activities like labs or student presentations.

In the bottom-right quadrant, we find the student's work or internship, focusing on work processes such as repairing a tire or measuring a circuit. This quadrant is referred to as Realistic-Participation.

The top-right quadrant is called Acquisition-Realistic, with a focus on development and reflection. Think of activities like peer coaching or transferring learned behaviors, with the goal of ?atomizing that process, trough reflecting on their actions, and providing feedback to improve themselves.

However, we have two types of students. Firstly, we have full-time students, and then we have students who combine their studies with work. This difference has implications.

What does this means,

For full-time students, they need to transform concrete knowledge into practical experiments (concretization).

Part-time students who combine their studies with work in the current workfield ?already have a lot of practical experience. They require something more abstract to connect their experiences with new theories, allowing them to enhance their skills (conceptualization).

Level of teachers

So what's important for me as a teacher in vocational education?

We'll delve into this on the second level, which is the teacher's level. These concepts hold true for the teacher within the context of knowledge and practice.

First and foremost, this means that as a teacher. Two concepts are the same. I need to be well-informed about the work processes that students need to engage in and understand what's happening in the workplace.

Then, I need to integrate this knowledge into the study program. This means I would like to stimulate the student's learning process at a particular point in the process (contextualization).

Where should I begin? The preference of the teacher makes the difference. Teachers with a theoretical background tend to start from the knowledge side. While those with a practical background prefer to begin from the workplace. But what does the student need? This means that as a teacher, I need to cross boundaries. Depending on whether the student is studying full-time or part-time.

?

Level of teacher trainer.

If you think this is complex. I am a teacher trainer. ?What does this means this for me???

?

Most are the same, but

?

???????? I need to know what the work processes are for the students who will be educated by the pre-service teachers.

???????? I need to activate the pre-service teachers in the development of the study program.

???????? I need to educate the pre-service teachers to be reflective participants.

?

Maybe it is confusing, we understand VET is very complex. Hopefully these three levels helps you to understand that there are boundaries. But a boundary is not the end of the line. So every teacher has to be prepared for diversity of their students and connecting the initial situation.

Do you realize this en do you recognize this. Please free to ask or interact with one of use.

Kind regards,

?

?

Presenters

Anne-Margreet Pol & Michel Greven

?

?

·????????

Lecturers Technical Vocational Education & research group – Human Movement and Education Centre

Herma Jonker , Rick Damhuis , Frank de Kimpe , Suzanne Pinkster-Schalken

European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning (EAPRIL) Windesheim Lectoraat Onderwijsinnovatie en ICT

?