Rethinking knowledgeable practice in education - book overview

This book by Professor Jim Horden summarises the author's many years of scholarship on educational knowledge, practice and curriculum studies.

The book draws on studies in the sociology of education and across philosophical studies. It introduces and discusses how practices in education can be better understood and defined and what is required to better understand and generate educational knowledge, expertise and sound educational judgement. 

The book's website, provides access to the first  and part of the second chapters of the book. Chapter one summarises the main argument and the various sections of the book and provides the rationale for the book. Chapter two undertakes the introduction to the topic, providing, discussing and critiquing concepts of practice.

Although the book focuses on educational knowledge and practice, to inform the ongoing scholarship on teacher education curriculum, the discussions also draw on the large and diverse corpus on practice, practice-based learning, learning through practice etc. 

Skill Standards - ConCOVE webinar introducing the Good Practice Guides for Skill Standards

 Skills Standards are an evolutionary next step in describing and assessing skills. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has mandated that skills standards are to be used in all qualifications, replacing unit standards. Their guidelines for listing skills standards provide a definition of a skill standard and the criteria required to list them on to the directory of assessment and skill standards (DASS).

Last week, I participated in a webinar organised by ConCOve Tūhura to introduce the good practice guides for skill standards.  The webinar was hosted by Eve Price from ConCOVE and included Dr. Karen Vaughan (Hummingbird Effect) who developed the guides with Andrew Kear, Michelle Tiatia from Waihanga Ara Rau and myself, representing 'providers'. 

The recording of the webinar can be viewed here.

The good practice guides themselves is made up of six guides. The first, provides a background. The second, an overview of the system for skill standards - these two also detail the evidence-base for the move towards skills standards. The next three guides are for practitioners. One on assessment and consistency issues, one for industry stakeholders and one for programme development and delivery. The last guide goes through the project itself, the method for developing the guides. 

It is important to understand skills standards as they will be the way in which all qualifications will be enacted. It will be important to workshop and have conversations with our teachers, as each qualification moves from unit to skill standards. Assessments (especially in the AI world) will need to be thought through and the introduction of skills standards represent a good opportunity to open and continue the important  ongoing work on understanding the role of assessment of akills (along with the knowledge, attributes and contributions to occupational identity formation). 

AVETRA day 2

 A shorter day today, beginning with a welcome and recap of yesterday's programmed activities. Kira Clarke welcomes everyone back to the second day of the conference and Natasha Arthars introduced today's keynote. 

The keynote is with Claire Field who presents on AI. Claire is in Dubai and the presentation was recorded. Spoke on how Gen AI is changing the world of work so that what VET teachers and how VET is taught must also change. AI is changing work for many occupations, examples were provided, drawn from the literature and from her work. Also provided examples of tools used in business administration to automate workflows, coaching, construction management, consulting, creative industries (writing music), healthcare (medical imaging), law, marketing, meat processing, retail.

Future of jobs is being impacted as companies adopt AI across their business and there is a critical need for professional development is key. Jobs and skills Australia is undertaking a capacity study of Gen AI for the labour market and the education and training systems. The pervasive and speed of change as Gen AI develops requires shifts of how VET updates curriculums and pedagogy. ASQA has undertaken work on the risk and priorities of AI (2024-2025) on academic integrity! However, there are no resources or guides for the VET sector. 

Used the work of Professor Rose Luckin (University College London) who has worked with AI for 30 years on concerns with AI - not to use AI to provide answers only; the inequality on AI's being a consumer product; the majority of young people think AI will solve a lot of problems; and the capability gap in education between teachers and their learners (as there is a focus on assessment integrity). Ai 'detection' is inherently biased! False positive is a problem. Surmised that checking for whether students use AI is therefore challenging.

Shared a diagram of how AI can be used across the learning journey. Also a summary of personalised learning to improve student outcomes. Paper on AI in personalised learning - systemic review by authors from Hong Kong (Li & Wong, 2023). Deakin CRADLE provides guidelines for assessments in the worlds of AI. Digital Education Council has a good overview on 'best practice' on the dimensions for using AI - understanding AI, critical thinking and judgement, ethical and responsible use, human centricity, emotional intelligence and creativity and domain expertise.

Provided examples of best practice from Aotearoa NZ including Ako Aotearoa project to support foundation learners, UK (policy paper), EU (European strategy on AI) and CEDEFOP's focus on the impact of skill demands in the workplace); European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training - policy camp on applying AI for real-world impact; and European EdTech companies well-advanced with personalised learning (especially Ireland and Scandinavian countries). 

Identified research gaps:

- what are the experiences of Australia's dual sector providers in adapting to Gen AI?

- could Australian VET researchers partner with TAFE Directors Australia to examine difference approaches?

- what support do community based providers need in an era of Gen AI?

- what insights specialist private providers offering ICT/digital courses have on AI skills?

- How can RTOs best balance requirements of outdated training packages with the increased pace of change in the workplace?

- What assistance do RTOs need to be more nimble in the face of change?

I then participate in a panel session on AI and VET chaired by Natasha Arthars. The panel members are Don Zoellner, Thomas Corbin, Patrick Kidd and myself. We extend on some of the ideas from Claire Field's keynote and discuss the issues of keeping up with how quickly AI has developed and the strategies required by VET to keep up with the pace of change. 

After morning tea, the three streams of presentations/workshops begin.

First up, .Future-Ready Educators: Redefining PD for Behavioural Transformation in VET'  with Michele Tocci. Discussed how behaviours need to be changed to enable the outcomes of professional development workshops (or similar) to have impact. In many cases, attending PD is a requirement and a 'tick box' exercise. How can we do better, to bring into our practice, the learnings attained from PD? We lose much of new learning over time. To progress change, we need to engage with new information to ensure that the new information and ways of doing are more anchored. Long term potentiation (LTP) is more effective if there are more frequent touch points are undertaken. Rick Hanson 'encoding of lasting change' model involves encoding, consolidation, activation, installation, state and trait. We tend to not move from activation into installation. Learning is difficult and new learning, if brought back and washed over by a busy work life, does not have the opportunity to be 'installed'. 

Stressed the importance of educators to role-model the skills of learning and to action learning that is picked up through PD. The design of PD needs to be about transformational change and not just about content. PD with impact (behavioral change framework) need to know, understand, do, reinforce. Shorter sessions to allow for spacing and repetition, coaching-based delivery, learner-centred methods, and post-training support and reinforcement. As an example, a PD structured as 90 minutes once a week over 6 weeks, had know (workshops, resources, exposure), understand ( peer discussions, reflective activities), do (practice, implementation, coaching), reinforce (nudges, follow-ups, feedback) and sustain (community of practice, mentoring, review).  

Then, a presentation on 'From blind spots to bright spots: Filling the intelligence gap for VET recognition of prior learning (RPL) excellence' with  Deb Carr. Summarised the 5 blind spots with regard to RPL. 

RPL data not always easy to find and not always collected. A change in how data was collected and presently data collections are not capturing all RPL activity n Australia. Some types of RPL are also not recorded due to the many ways RPL is structured/delivered. Data collections do not capture demand as RPL candidates are turned away, dissuaded, diverted or ignored. There is also low awareness of ROL by individuals and employers. We don't know who pays for RPL Data on student outcomes is not available. Summarised a systematic review of the impact of RPL on individuals - high psychological impact and improved ability, good economic impact and some social impact. In Australia, there is limited visibility of RPL RPL data needs are different to that of training. Argues that RPL is an important part of any skills agenda. Data collection is an essential process to better understand how RPL is used, how can it be improved for people seeking RPL and to ensure that RPL is a viable and supported. Suggested the data needs to help inform RPL processes and systems. Shared a list of research required to address the challenges faced by RPL

After lunch, I facilitate the annual workshop on 'publishing your article in the International Journal of Training Research. As per usual an overview of the journal is provided, along with processes to get an article published. Also workshopped how to build an effective abstract.

A panel on 'Lessons from the AVETRA/VSA partnership (moderated by Andrew Williamson) is the last session for the conference. The project commissions work that can be useful to inform policy makers in Australia. 

The panel participants were Craig Robertson, Kira Clarke, Deb Carr adn Seth Brown. Craig provided the background for the importance of VET research through the VSA projects and their contribution to policy development and other decision making withing the sector. Kira discussed the rationale for the partnership, to raise awareness of what is VET, how the system works and what are its challenges. The partnership also draws on the expertise available. Seth was the researcher in the first project - the student voice - which was on the student experience from the macro and meso levels (see the report). Deb is at the start of her project and provided a background on progress on the project and why the partnership approach/process is important and of relevance. 

Discussion ensued as each shared their experiences, learnings and progress. Craig provided good background on the relevance and importance of the process, to bring the right people to create/develop current 'state of the play' records that can be drawn on to inform policy development. Craig updated on potential projects and updated on current projects outside the AVETRA/VSA partnership. Deb noted that the current economic climate, with flux in the employment supports her project's profile, so timing is important in what topics are selected. Andrew thanked all the supporters of the project from AVETRA and from VSA and welcomed questions. 

Overall, a busy but effective conference. A smaller number of conference participants, but this made it easier to touch base with both established and new AVETRA members. 

AVETRA - Day 1 afternoon

 After lunch, I attend a session with Steven Hodge and Reshman Tabassum on 'provider practices to enhance curriculum relevance in dynamic industries. Reshman set the scene with a scenario. The project was to explore RTO methods of interporeting and translating training packages. Conruses were in vet nurising, agriculture and rural operations. Did the RTOs approach qualifications with different intended outcomes and purposes? Posited that learning qualifications lead to a specific occupation, is for multiples occupations and have cross or multi-sectional interest. Process on interpretation goes from pre-translation, to translation and then mobilisation. Pre-translation requires understanding VET system, provider organisation, students, industry, training context. Translation involves interpreting, organising, elaborating, framing and structuring (through the quality assurance processes). Mobilisation is a continuum between educator and resource 'delivery'. Used a series of interview vignettes to unpack the processes of interpretation. What is important here is that no matter how detailed or prescriptive a standard is, currency of the standards and how they may align with diverse contexts are not guaranteed. Educators will use agency to work with, around and outside of standards, as required, to bring about learning. 

Following is Karl Hartley from Epic Learning reporting on the ConCOVE funded project 'AI-generated assessments in vocational education: enhancing quality and accessibility through cognitive design'. Customisation of assessments is one way to meet individual learners' needs. Assessment writing is complex work and manual assessment development is slow, consistent and inequitable. How can AI be used with safety and integrity to assist. Use a case study of developing assessments for a 'trades essentials' micro-credentials. applied cognitive science, ethical AI and educator validation. Began by selection of GPT-based model. Prompt engineering informed the working memory theory. 3-rounds of subject matter expert review process, and stakeholder consultation. Gen AI can generate multiple-choice and short answer quesitons, adapt the tone and language complexity, contextualise questions by trade/experience and enable personalised based learner profile. Personalisation features include literacy-adjusted versions, industry-specific variants, support for neurodiverse learners (format, language). A robust AI workflow to develop generic base assessment, then use base assessment and use AI to apply customisation. Prompt engineering strategy included the use of chain of thought prompting, using variables around writing style. providing example questions, assessment guides and for Gen AI to produce in batches of 5 assessments. Development loop was taking too long and involved too much time. Now development 5 assessment in batches. Seek rapid initial feedback for a 'go or no go' call to do a full review. Flip the feedback from 'what is wrong' to 'what is good'. Provided example of how the process looked, prompts and outputs. 

Challenges include AI constantly evolving, AI have been heavily trained with US of A assessments and are biased and AI will make mistakes. Risk and mitigations of Ai hallucinations by using structured prompt design and ensuring a human view is added. Cultural bias with ethics review and co-design with Māori and Pasifica advisors. Need to be wary of over-reliance on AI and issues of privacy. Benefits include the ability to have more inclusive and relevant assessments for learners; reduced workload to get to a quality product for teachers; and an opportunity for greater consistency and innovation. Plans for the next steps are to seek learner feedback and validation; finalise an ethical framework, expand to writing assessments for other microcredentials and disseminate findings and guidance.

The project demonstrates viable use of AI in assesment design; establishes moderation alignment proof of concept; builds foundation for personalised learning, and aligns to system transformation. 

Then a session on 'Planning and Actioning VET Research Studies: issues to consider' with  Llandis Barratt-Pugh. Shared 10 'critical incidents' that have informed his research practice, each supported with the narrative of how these came about. Used autoethnography, critical incident technique, reconstructive memory theory and the experiential learning cycle. 

The pointers include: tell industry what you can do for them then listen to what they want doing; start with the end in mind and plan toward it with frequent monitoring; seek out lions in the field and engage them as mentors; gain top commitment or the project may be swept away; publicise research studies to gain collaborators; collaboration is the key to multiple publications; a research proposal should be developed by serendipity as we don not know what lies ahead; when confronted with data collection dilemmas the options are to change the plan, call for support and the wisdom to know which is best; the research plan should include resources and action to use the finding constructively; taking a framework from a close discipline may shed unique light on the data in a wat that has not be done before; and the only certainty about a research project is that it will not progress as planned!

After afternoon tea, Craig Butler presents on 'Uncovering the Complexity of VET Teacher Identity' which is part of his PhD study. Summarised his background and his interest in the topic. Provided a overview of the study, with a theoretic framework of 'funds of identity', the research methodology, participants (25 VET teachers) and analysis method. Shared some of the findings around practical funds of identity resources (experiences, across many specialised contexts within and without a field) of vocation focus, VET practitioner, learner (life-long learning), expert performer, mentor, non-vocation (hobby , community work etc.) and institutional funds of identity through organisation role, employment type, and employment status. 

Shared framework to visualise how participants, across their life-course, had at a point of time (the interviews) had a particular role identity. Implications include a need to better understand the integration of vocational and VET identities; and recommendations for further study. Shared how study could inform VET support of teacher identity and limitations of the study.

I offer the last session of the day, providing an update on our Gen AI projects with ' AI in Vocational Education and Training: Progressive learnings on the integration of Gen AI into vocational programmes'. The primary purpose was to provide an overview of the projects to date, the challenges and learnings and propose a way forward as to how VET can use AI to support learning and teaching.

AVETRA AGM is conducted and the conference reception and awards round of a busy day.

AVETRA - DAY one - morning

 At the annual AVETRA conference in Melbourne which runs for 3 days. Workshops focused on specific topics were head yesterday afternoon.

Today, there is a full programme of activities.

The conference is opened with a welcome to country and the conference with the AVETRA president Kira Clarke. Kira thanked the conference sponsors, the conference committee, and the conference abstract reviewers. New membership directory was launched to help people find VET research experts. Niall Smith provided a demonstration of how the site works. 

The first keynote is with Craig Robertson, presented his thoughts on 'when robots replace VET, what's next?' Discussed the springboard into the digital, the challenges of competency in Australia, the new potential for VET and the research challenge. Used the example o Kodak and their rejection of moving across to the digital and how that ended up in their demise in 2012. VET needs to meet the challenge now, as the implications for its future role and direction, need to be considered now, at the cusp of great change through the rapid changes which will impact not only on work but also across society.

Suggested looking at the special issue in 2016 of the International Journal of Training Research on competency education to review the challenges through the system. Summarised the way in which so much of our lives of being changed by the digital economy. Use Frey & Osborne (2013) - 47% of the jobs in the US at risk of automation over the nes 10 - 20 years. Australian Computer Society 2021 report that proposed that by 2034, automation would displace 2.7 workers, 56% who are male. David Autor proposed the hollowing out of the labour market and the delayering of the middle-management layer, in assessing the impact of digitisation, there is the move from skills substitution to task substitution. 

The OECD - do adults have the skills they need to thrive in a changing world, summarises the types of skills needed to move into the future. Challenges of the current competency regime for VET in Australia include 'designing down', constrained learning and unitised standards. The 'outcomes' education model is too focused on 'education's contribution to the economy' and that they contribute to 'increasing efficiency'. Therefore, there are to many 'products', too many unclimbed qualification ladders, outcomes for the labour market are too near-term, and inputs are proxy for quality.

So are 'robots' here yet? There are over 200 data centres in Victoria with plans to build another 3 +. Although some skills will become obsolete, there is still a need to be able to work with non-routine tasks and the demand for new workers is still high post-CoVID. Therefore VET needs to re-orientate towards thinking more about the types of application, skills and knowledge (ASK) that enable workers to move to work tasks that are not always clear cut. A progressive VET qualifications system needs to uncouple from division of labour, transferability, tertiary harmonisation, and manageable product set.  Research needs to shift towards an educational focus, have a cultural component, capability needs to be rebuild and collaboration is required. We need to bring the best aspects of capability and competency together. 

Following is a panel discussion on - the rise of applied research in TAFE - 2017 to 2025. The panel was chaired by Karen O'Reilly-Briggs. Karen opened with a overview of the nature of applied research and its journey across the TAFE contexts. 

Panel consisted of  Teressa Schmidt, Melissa Williams, Katrina Jojkity and Sam Duncan. Sam began with an overview of the work undertaken at Holmsglen. Provided an overview on TAFE's role in the research and innovation ecosystem. TAFE provided a point of difference as it is often hands-on, industry integrated and solution orientated. The objective is to use applied research to solve real-world industry problems. Often conducted by educators with industry expertise rather than traditional academic researchers. Often with SMEs and community organisations. The doing-using-interacting (DUI) model ensures applied research translates into practice. Investment and recognition needed to support along with clear role and strategy and the need to build capability among educators.

Summarised the evolution of the Centre of Applied Research and Innovation at Holmsglen. The centre raises the profile of applied research and innovation and develop a culture of applied research. Shared the outcomes and outputs over the last decade.

Katrina presented on the International Specialised Skills Institute (ISS )institute international practitioner fellowship programme, funded by the Victorian Skills Authority over the last 23 years. 196 fellowship programmes awarded leading to continuing improvement and innovation across the VET sector. Provided details of the fellowships, their foci and the role of applied research fellowships. Presented several examples, their work and the impact and the repository of the fellowship reports. 

Melanie shared the work undertaken at William Angliss Institute to encourage practitioner research. Melanie completed an ISSI fellowship in 2019 to bring the Basque County's EHAZI model of collaborative challenge-based learning. Then piloted the pedagogy in 2024, ongoing evaluation to inform the review of the Diploma qualification in 2026. Presented on the challenges and lessons learnt towards supporting practitioner research. 

Teressa on 'what is needed to elevate the potential of applied research in TAFE'. TAFE is already doing applied research, mostly unfunded or underfunded, not always well supported and has limited promotion. There are many benefits including innovation, building capability, future proofing, and opportunities for industry partnerships. Challenges are the need for resources, the precieved value, capability development and the 'cloak of invisibility'. New opportunities include TAFE Centres if Excellence, recognition of TAFE's expanded capability, Government initiatives to build and increase R & and engage more stakeholders in research with impact. Used Canada as an example where by the Canadian colleges and institutes are valued as critical Canadian R & D. Specific funding is available to colleges for R & D. Encouraged the connections with SMEs which make up 98% of businesses in Australia. Shared the TDA recommendations to encourage applied research. 

After morning tea, presentations begin. The sessions are organised into three streams.

First up, Don Zoellner on 'theorising the elusiveness of an integrated tertiary education system: mirage, chimera or talisman?' Presented his 'plausible probe' into the unrealisation of the integration of tertiary education. There is a need to test the theoretical constructs to advance policy development and implementation. He applied Foucauldian post-structualist discousres to analyse policy artefacts and used institutional logics to explore VET and HE governance through the plausiblity probe. Caveats include that there is no absolute truth but to identify knowledge/power types and who gets to say it. Who and what knowledge/power are made visible. Introduced institutional logics debates with origins in North America which is unrelated to European logics - but which were applied to Australian VET analysis by Wheelahan. Shared the orders - state, profession, market, corporation, family, religion, community and elemental categories - basis of norms, source of legitimacy, source of authority, sources of identity; basis of attention, basis of strategy, informal control mechanisms and economic system.   Explained the differences between theories, frames, narratives and entrenched practices as building blocks of institutional logics and ideologies (which guide political norms and actions). 

Summarised the historical background that make VET different from HE. Until the late 1990s, integration of VET and HE was not a problem! After that, VET training packages were built on a very restrictive interpretation of competency-based training and assessment. VET reform arose from industrial relations rather than education and training! unitised VET knowledge that fit with industrial awards could be monetised and sold in a competitive market. HE knowledge also monetised but at the course level, Introduction of the hierarchical Australian Qualifications Framework created further VET/HE integration as a problem.

Compared the governance of VET and HE with HE being bureaucratic, hierarchical, managerial capitalism. Fundamentally, VET and HE is conducted through different perspectives which have little in common, Harmonisation is difficult as each is structured differently and the social actors have deeply held feelings and perceptions of who they are, how they are constituted, their objectives and purpose etc. However, harmonisation may not be a good thing as each contributes in a different way.

Then 'Action research as professional development for VET teachers with Suzanne Francisco from Charles Sturt University. Detailed the study based on four action research teams. Today, focused on two - in beauty therapy and nursing. Focused on what enables and constrains middle-leaders in supporting the development of quality VET pedagogy. In the presentation discussed, how, what and why action research was used. Data analysis using inductive/deductive approaches including the practice architectures framework. Summarised the advantages of learning in and through action research. Presented the enablers and constraints of action research. 

A good range of learning this morning :) 

Future orientated learning and skills development for employability - book overview

 This book ' Future-oriented learning and skills development for employability: Insights from Singapore and some Asia-Pacific contexts', is edited by A.N. Lee and Y. Nie. The book is open access (via UTS) and published by Springer in 2024.

Most of the chapters report on work undertaken in Singapore, to enact the government's support of continuing skills development to ensure the populace is kept current in the face of rapid change.

The book has 21 chapters, organised into three sections -

- Future oriented learning and the development of graduates' work competencies

- enhancing adult workers' employability through ocntinuing education and training

- supporting workplace learning and skills development for individual and organisational growth

with an opening and closing chapter by the editors.

Some chapters of relevance to my own work:

- Innovative curriculum and instructional approaches for work and learning: Practical pathways and research perspectives by S. Chue, S. Billette, R. Tan, W. Goh, A. Leow and A. S-H. Chen. Postulates, through gathering on the work of the authors, the need to integrate the curriculum which prepares people for work, with career guidance to help them envisage their goals, post higher education. There is also importance in ensuring that the connections between the world of education/school and the world of work are kept current, accessible and effective.

-  Developing adaptibility for workplace preformance by S. Billett and A H. Le discusses the need to ensure that adaptive practices remain central to individual's future employability. Draws on the PIAAC data to argue that all workers need to maintain opportunities and skills to problem solve. In doing, individual workers' are able to maintain agency and continually hone, adapt, and innovate. Cultural and social factors create or limit affordances.

- Knowing in practice in situational sensemaking by R. Mazlan. Argues that sensemaking arises from experiences encountered within context.

All in, a good collection of contemporary chapters on the state of the play, mainly in Singapore, but also across to Australia. 

Guides from Deakin University - Gen AI in work-integrated learning

The Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University has published a series of guides on Gen AI in work-integrated learning.

The resources are for Higher Education/University staff, students and workplace industry partners. There are four sets of guides:

- for ensuring academic integrity and assessment security with online delivery

- assessing work-integrated learning programmes - a guide to effective assessment design

- inclusive assessments

- reimaging exams - workshop resources.

All in there are good recommendations. Although pitched at the higher education sector, the work-integrated and inclusive assessment sections are easily generalisable to other contexts.

Webinar notes - Trade Routes: Charting new pathways from secondary school to industry

 Attended the webinar organised by the NZ Initiative. 

The event provides an overview of a report on 'Trade routes: charting new pathways from school to industry training'. 

The webinar's description - Drawing inspiration from Germany's successful dual-training model, Josh Williams and Dr Michael Johnston will discuss initiatives in secondary and tertiary education to enhance the status and quality of trades and industry training.

Notes taken:

Oliver Hartwich provided overview, introductions to Dr. Michael Johnston and Josh Williams and chaired the webinar.

Sli.do hosts the Q & A -

Observed that 65,000 Students leave school each year and about 1/3 go to university. Only 6% take up apprenticeship and 7% are NEETs (sigh).

Cultural aspects in NZ mean most take the university as there is lack of visibility of alternatives and much lower esteem for trades work.

Education is not cohesive. The pathways from work into alternatives to university are not easy. Vocational pathways need to attain parity of esteem with higher education. Proposed several ways to bring this to fruition.

It will take time but there is a need to start the pathway at school, rather than post school.

For apprentices, starting on lower pay and moving to full pay will encourage employers to take on apprentices. A bonding system may be useful for apprentices to stay a few years with employer, post completion of the apprenticeship contract.

Also suggested the fee free for degree students be diverted to apprenticeships, which will cover most of the training costs for the 6% of school leavers moving into apprenticeship.

Work Development Councils need to be given wider scope. Instead of appointment by government, they should be appointed by industry and not only be responsible for standards setting but also approval for programmes/ and supporting providers (secondary schools) to set up themselves.

Need to be a progression from school on to tertiary / apprenticeship rather than a abrupt shift.

Josh contributed the Forward for the report. Important to not just 'drag and drop' the German dual system across but to think through the things that will work for us in Aotearoa.

Provided a background on how a decade ago, Youth Pathways was launched, along with Arthur Graves. There are initiatives - STAR, Gateway etc. but they not always well coordinated. Specialising at high school may be difficult later on, but they provide a good start.

Provided some examples of schools that are doing good work in this area. Important that all the ones who are successful have good connections and networks with their local communities, employers and industries.

The ecosystem to support change in this area needs to be undertaken but requires multiple connections and a holistic understanding to work out what will work.

Q & A ensured of the 30+ questions collected on sli.do.

Interesting presentation and some recommendations make good sense. Had to leave to be at another meeting so missed the bulk of the Q & A.

AI in education: The intersection of pedagogy and technology

 This book published 2024 by Springer is edited by P. Ilic, I. Casbourne and R. Wegerif.

It is an open access book which brings together educators, engineers and experts to explore the implications and affordances provisioned through the arrival of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI).

There are 13 chapters, detailing studies in the higher education context.

The first introductory chapter, by the editors, calls for 'a constructive dialogue' between technology and pedagogy. In doing, the two may contribute more towards enhancing human potential. 

Following on, an interesting selection of chapters:

- AI enhanced ecological learning spaces by P. Ilic, and M. Sato-Ilic.

- reimagining learning experiences with the use of AI with D. Guralnick

- Gen AI integration in education: challenges and approaches by S. Watson and S. Shi.

- Navigating AI in education - towards a system approach for design of educational changes by L. Yuan, T. Hoel, and S. Powell.

-AI in the assessment ecosystem: A human-centered AI perspective by A. A. von Davier and J. Burnstein.

- The role of AI language assistants in dialogic education for collective intelligence by I. Casebourne and R. Wegerif.

- AI powered adaptive formative assessment: validity and reliability evaluation by Y. Bimpeh.

- Decimal point: a decade of learning science findings with a digital learning game with B. M. McLaren.

- Leveraging AI to advance science and computing education across Africa: challenges, progress and opportunities with G. Boateng

- Educating manufacturing operators by extending reality with AI by  P-D. Zuercher, M. Schimpf, S. Tadeja and T. Bohne.

- Pedagogical restructuring of business communication courses: AI-enhanced prompt engineering in an EFL teaching context by D. Roy.

- AI in language education: The impact of machine translation and ChatGPT by L. Ohashi.

Overall a good collection of case studies, providing some good examples of integrating AI into specific disciplines. The discussions are congruent to our current work, in that although Gen AI is a tool for all, there is still a need to match Gen tools to the learning outcomes to be achieved. Most importantly to maintain the human element and contribution towards AI responses and to remember that AI is a tool and it is the tool user who much always take responsibility for the outputs. 

AI NZ AI blueprint

 The AI forum in New Zealand - has published a blueprint for charting NZ's AI powered future. 

It is a follow up from a blueprint published in 2024. The blueprint is a high level strategic document providing rationale and recommendations.

The main items are:

- supporting and encouraging adoption of an AI strategy for Aotearoa by government

- making good governance possible for responsible, accessible and affordable AI for all.

- Encouraging upskills across the existing workforce.

- providing Māori with voice and guidance for the intersection of Te Tiriti, Te Ao Māori and AI.

- telling stories that bring life to how AI is used across Aotearoa.

The blueprint then shares the frameworks , recommendations and guidelines to action the main items. 

Developing curriculum for deep learning - overview of open access Springer brief

 In tandem with the recent blogs with overviews of recent scholarly books on embodiment and being and becoming through higher education, this book 'developing curriculum for deep learning: the knowledge revival' brings a school-based context. 

The book is open access and written by a range of authors from Europe (T, More - Belgium; N. Crato, Portugal, D. Muijs, UK; D. Wiliam, UK; P.A. Kirschner, Netherlands), Australia (J. Hattie) and New Zealand (E. Rata), many with scholarly contributions to the educational literature across many years. 

There are five chapters, beginning with a summary and ending with a chapter of concluding remarks.

The second chapter argues for the need to ensure that the pursuit of knowledge is not left out in a curriculum crowded with many needs. The third chapter sets out the relationships between knowledge and the school curriculum. The fourth chapter has concluding remarks to close the argument.

The last executive summary lays out the reasons knowledge matters from the perspectives of learning (developing our minds as humans); sociology (knowledge contribution to society); democracy (to bring about better lives for all). The importance of the curriculum in ensuring knowledge is included is then discussed with the need to establish a knowledge rich curriculum through the school years. 

Overall, good background on the aspect of knowledge in education. Its importance, role in learner's formative years, contribution to societal function. and the future of the human race. 

Being and becoming through higher education - brief overview

 This blog follows on from the previous which summarised a book on embodiment and professional learning.

The book - Being and becoming through higher education: Expanding possibilities was published 2024 by Springer. It is edited by G. Dall'Alba and is another timely book as we wrestle with our humanness in the age of AI. 

The book is Open Access via UTS and has 15 chapters, beginning with the introductory chapter by the editor - Embodied being in Higher Education. The main message is the importance of keeping to the main purpose of higher education i.e. to develop students' learning and enable them to become part of professional communities and to contribute to society at large. 

Four chapters in the first part, introduce the concepts and perspectives informing the focus of the book.

Firstly, a chapter on the 'ontological turn in HE' by the editor and R. Barnacle. Challenges the 'knowledge acquisition approach' towards determining who they become. 

Then a chapter by the editor on 'learning professional ways of being: Ambiguities of becoming. Rationalises the need to not only teach skills and knowledge, but to enable the types of learning which lead to students 'becoming'. 

Following on is another chapter by the editor 'towards a pedagogy of responsive attunement for HE' sets out the practical applications and implications. Here, the chapter focuses on how students can be directed towards the salient issues, principles and practices of their field or profession. The role of pedagogy and curricula is achieving these goals is also presented.

The last chapter in Part 1 by T. T. Vu and the editor is 'becoming authentic professionals: learning for authenticity'. Redefines authentic learning as not only involving real-life applications of knowledge but to ensure learners engage with tasks, learning environments etc. that help them become more fully human.

Part Two has three chapters around embodied learning

Begins with 'bodily grounds of learning: Embodying professional practice in biotechnology' with the editor and J. Sandberg. Foregrounds the need to be cognisant of the role of the body in learning, becoming and being. Embodied skilful performance and how it is attained is not often researched. Yet, there is importance in understanding how we perceive and feel in a sensual and tactile world.

Then a chapter on 'embodied learning in online environments' by the editor and R. Barnacle. Uses phenomenological perspectives to understand the use of ICTs in programmes to shift these from the predominant Western epistomology where knowledge and skills are often decontextualised from the practices they belong.

The third chapter in Part 2 is on 'international education and (dis)embodied cosmopolitanisms. Critique of international education which have not met their promise. International students are regarded as disembodied learners with littler regard for their cultures they bring with them.

The third in the book revolves around pedagogy and learner focus

First up is a chapter by the editor and S. Bengtsen on 're-imagining active learning: delving into darkness'. A discussion on what is active learning and its purposes in HE. Active learning is often invisible, unfocused, unsettling and may leave learners being more confused. Suggests the use of 'dark learning' to help improve and alleviate some of the disadvantages of active learning.

Then R. Barnacle and the author contribute the chapter 'committed to learn: student engagement and care in HE'. Advocates for the need to help students attain a capacity to care about others and things, rather than the focus on neoliberal directions on economic benefit to individuals.

'Authentic assessment for student learning: an ontological conceptualisation' is presented by T. T. VU and the editor. Instead of 'authentic assessments', the focus should be on the quality of educational processes which engage learners to become more fully human.

The last chapter in Part three is with the editor on 'evaluative judgement for learning to be in a digital world'. Argues that an important aspect of education is to develop the capability to judge the quality of one's work and the work of others. 

The last part has three chapters on enacting the concepts and principles presented and discussed in the previous chapters. They are written by the editor.

First up, 'improving teaching: enhancing ways of being university teachers'. Proposes the need to ensure that university teachers integrate their knowing, acting and being into their teaching and to make these visible to learners.

Following on is a chapter on 'making the familiar unfamiliar: re-thinking teaching in HE'. Explores the ontological turn required to bring meaning back into university teaching. Draws on the work on Heidegger and Irigaray to inform the conceptual underpinnings for the proposal.

The book ends with a chapter on 're-imaging the university: developing a capacity to care. Reiterates the need to understand the purposes on HR towards helping students to 'interrogate possibilities of being' in ways that help themselves thrive and also to contribute to the society they live in. 

Overall, the book sets out to encourage a rethink of the objectives of university education as not just to provision knowledge and skills to learners and meet the economic direction of nations. Instead, the importance of developing learners sense of being and to deploy pedagogy towards supporting learners to become, are required as we move into a future where by humanness is being challenged by digital agents.

On blogging - twenty years and still going!!

At the beginning of 2015, I posted my reflections on a decade of blogging. The precepts I discussed, still hold as I come up to the end of my 20th year of blogging!

One would think that in this age of AI and short communication forms (Snapchat, TikTok, X etc.), that blogging would have faded. However, SEO's article, written at the beginning of 2024, indicates that blogging is not dead! Readership of blogs is still high and seem to be a mainstay of marketers, influencers and commentators. 

However, for me, the purposes for continuing with this blog remains very similar to what was summarised 10 years ago. The blog becomes a 'one stop shop' for archiving notes and reflections from readings, found resources/websites, conference musings, and occasional rants. Having somewhere to park items one comes across in a busy work and scholarly life means that it becomes easier to organise thoughts and ideas as they consolidate. With the increase in open access articles and books, links to these resources can be archived, along with brief notes to trigger relevant searches when topics being worked on are required. 

So continuing on with blogging is more to meet my individual cognitive needs, rather than to provide a forum for others to read. If nothing else, this blog is a record of a mostly productive academic life and long may it continue :) 

Embodiment and professional learning - open access book - brief overview

 This 2021 book - Embodiment and Professional Education : Body Practice and Pedagogy is published by Springer and edited by S. Loftus and E.A. Kinsella.

Through learning, humans attain not only knowledge, but also appropriates practice. With the current discussions on AI and its impact on teaching and learning, one of the impacts is that AI replaces some of the 'doing'. It is in actual practice that we consolidate knowledge through application. Deliberate practice is required to bring mind and body into active enactment of what has been learnt. Therefore, in the current circumstances, discussions on embodiment and how this makes us human have great relevance.

The book is is open access (via UTS) and has 17 chapters.

The first chapter by the editors, summarises the main themes of the book. It calls for promoting the significance of the body in our lives as to date, it has been much neglected. 

Chapter two by B. Green introduces practice theory and concepts of corporeality and its role in professional education. The practice turn recommends bringing the body back into professional learning.

E. Swartz contributes the next chapter on 'To act as one body? collective and embodied judgement within professional action and education'. Through professional practice, which includes human relations within a social sphere, collaboration amongst professionals contribute to practical wisdom or phronesis. The chapter introduces and discusses the concepts.

S. Loftus then writes on how embodied knowledge and thinking should be the hallmark of professional education.

Two chapters on 'embodiment and professional practice' follow. T. Chemi with 'the genealogy of the actor's laboratory: making kin as embodied pedagogy' and S. DeLuca on 'theatre of carnival: a classroom for the vigilant embodied healer'.

The three chapters on 'embodiment and reflection'. E.A. Kinsella and K. S. Smith with 'I listen to my body more': embodied mindfulness in professional education; 'Body mapping to facilitate embodied reflection in professional education programmes' by H. F. Harrison and 'Ethics and embodiment in health professions education' by A. M. DeBaets.

Following on are three chapter on 'Embodiment and professional knowledge'. S. Loftus with 'Goethe and embodiment in professional education and practice'; B. Roberts with 'Neurophenomology and Professional education'; and 'Embodied learning and two-eyed seeing: indigenous and feminist perspectives in professional education' by E. Cupchik and M. Schnarr.

The last section has four chapters on the theme of 'embodiment and technology. First up, W. Kupers with ' (Re-)embodied digital education practices: Empirical vignettes about teaching and learning in 'tele-co-presence'; B. Delgarno with 'Technological affordances for embodied learning in authentic contexts'; K. Mahon on 'neoliberalised (human) bodies and implications for professional education' and R. A. Gardiner and J. Chisholm on 'Its not just one bad actor: Tracing the embodied effects of institutional sexism in the implementation of gender-based violence policies and practices.

The editors close with the last chapter to present 'implications for practice'. Overall, the book makes important contributions to better understand the processes of human learning. With the advent of AI, it is important to evaluate what makes us humans and to appreciate that processes of learning, involving holistic experiences, to prepare us to live and be in the world. Without doing and by abrogating our responsibilities to AI agents, we become less able to grapple with the complexities of life. Given the VUCA world we now live in, it is to our detriment if we place all of our reliance on using AI rather than take up the work required, to be proficient and skilled at cognitive, evaluative, tasks and critical thinking which are the hallmarks of being human.

 

NZ Government framework for AI - Public Service guidelines

The NZ Government has launched its public service AI framework. It is part of the overall NZ Government work on establishing guidelines for its National AI Strategy. The public service guidelines draw on the OECD AI principles of:

- inclusive, sustainable development

- human centred values

- transparency and explainability

- safety and security 

- accountability.

The NZ framework layers in the important concepts of the nation's biculturism. Commentary on this aspect along with the ways the principles above require much more work internationally provide material for critical reflection. Guidelines and frameworks may set the scene but it is how they are supported, adopted and persistently worked on to actually make a difference which is the important ongoing effect.

Developing curriculum for deep thinking - book overview

In this 'age of AI ascendence'  more than anytime perhaps in human history, the importance of how we learn knowledge and what is required to learn it, is more important than ever.

This Open Access Springer brief - Developing curriculum for deep learning:The knowledge revival has chapters written by authors from Europe (T, Surma, C. Vanhees, M, Wils, J, Nijlunsing, N. Crato, D, Muijs, D. Wiliam, P. A. Kirschner) Australia (J. Hattie) and New Zealand. (E. Rata).

Although the chapters have the school context at the forefront, the many concepts introduced and discussed has relevance across the all educational sectors. The books main premise is that it is important to ensure curriculum is 'knowledge-rich'. In doing, the attainment of knowledge helps to drive the learning (acquisition and practice) of crucial cognitive or thinking skills. 

There are five chapters.

After a short introductory chapter the following chapters discuss:

- How knowledge matters

- knowledge and the curriulum

Then two chapter - concluding remarks and an executive summary close the book.

Therefore the book is a short treatise (less than 100 pages) presenting the argument for the importance of ensuring that knowledge is made visible across the curriculum, and the need for content richness, coherence across the curriculum, and clarity of purpose for learning knowledge. 

Future of work report 2025 - World Economic Forum

 This year's future of work report from the World Economic Forum, provides some good information as the world of work moves into the AI age. Summaries are provided for many countries by Aotearoa New Zealand is not included.

The forces contributing to the shifts are summarised as:

- increased digital access and advances across technologies (AI, information processing, robotics and automation, energy generation, storage and distribution), all influence the ways work is carried out and how work is structured.

- cost of living and other economic impacts of inflation, economic slowdown etc. will affect job creation.

- climate change mitigation leads to the need for new skills and generates new types of work and occupations.

- demographic shifts including worldwide aging of the workforce and increasing numbers of older people, living longer puts strain on economies.

-geoeconomics and geopolitical tensions make for an unpredictable future.

Jobs predicted to grow in volume include farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers, sales people and food processing workers, Care economy jobs in nursing, social work, counselling etc. also to grow significantly. Technology related roles including one related to data management and green energy transition roles also set to grow.

In contrast, clerical and secretarial work is set to decline along with jobs in the postal service, banks and data entry roles.

There is a great need to ensure that analytical thinking as a core skill is attained. Other skills include workers being resilient, flexible and agile. Understanding AI and big data are also important to leverage off the potential of these technologies. 

All in, a good overview  and reference source on the current state of work and what may come in the near future.

Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education - emerging practice

 The Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TESQA) published a practice toolkit for Gen AI in November 2023. 

The guide covers three dimensions of tertiary education - Process, People and Practice. Each dimension is introduced and the implications of Gen AI are detailed, discussed and evaluated. Examples from Australian tertiary institutions are provided to provide case studies. These provide good templates from which individual institutional processes, policies and procedures can be contextualised and synthesised. 

All in a good resource to mine for relevant concepts as Gen AI takes hold across the tertiary landscape. 

Plans for 2025

 It looks like another busy year coming up.

Details of what post Te Pūkenga looks like will help clarify what is likely to occur at an organisational level and some of these may affect the composition of my current work team, our lines of management, and our objectives. Whatever happens, there is still a great deal of work to do!

Firstly, we have many programmes in review. In Aotearoa, all programmes of study are reviewed every five years. The responsibility for these, devolved to Te Pūkenga 2 years ago, but only a small number of programmes were 'unified'. Hence, we now have a substantial backlog of programmes, several over 3 years beyond their review timelines, to work on and have presented to NZQA by July. Therefore, my  educational development team (down to 5 from 8) are fully occupied with working through all the programme reviews.

Secondly, AI is not going away. Capability and professional development for our teaching colleagues, has been patchy, as lines of responsibility for who does what, have been unclear since Te Pūkenga disestablishment was announced late in 2023. Te Pūkenga was at the beginning of bringing together a consolidated approach to capability and development but this all came to a halt and individual institutions have been working on financial stability, maintaining quality etc. before looking at capability.

Thirdly, I am now about half way through scoping another group of scholarship of teaching and learning projects for this year. The focus will be on integrating AI into programmes with strong practice-based learning as currently, AI has text/writing focus. Multimodality of AI is not as common as integrating AI through text. Also, it is important to have AI available in practice-based learning environments - i.e. workshops, training kitchens / salons / studios etc. plus the need to have customised / bespoke or 'wall-garden' AI tools as the generalised AI (e.g. ChatGPT, CoPilot) often do not use specialised occupational vocabulary, with information drawn on being very North American-centric.

Therefore, it looks like there is quite a bit to do, making it difficult to even think about retiring for the moment!!