ACDEVEG - day 2 notes

 The day begins with reflections on the last ten years of ACDEVEG conferences with Darryl South and Erica Smith. Shared the conference themes across the decade and data on number of presentations, panels etc. An overview of each conference then presented. A summary of similar conferences before the 2015 ACDEVEG from the 1990s. Convassed the participants for ideas for themes and venues for future conferences. 

A panel session chaired by Annette Foley follows. The panelists are John Tucker (CE of TAFE QLD), Angela Dean (AEU Federation TAFE secretary), Evelyne Goodwin (Manager Policy and Projects for Community Colleges Australia) and Andrew Shea (Director, ITECA). The panel works through a series of topical questions. First question is on the importance of teachers /trainers in VET, followed by the challenges posed to TAFE teachers to meet inclusive/equity directions, what is done to promote the career of VET teachers and the knowledge/skills required of VET educators. Questions then opened to the floor with robust conversation undertaken!

After morning tea, presentations collated into 2 streams commence.

I attend the following:

'Diploma of VET at William Angliss Institute: Four ways to make a difference' with Melissa Jennings. Reported on the projects used to support teachers to complete the Diploma. Projects included project-based learning, then application of training and assessment practice; professional practice, and instructional designer to work on resources for teaching (f2f and online). All the projects require portfolios and demonstration/observation. Porfolios include professional development plan, trainer and assessor competency evidence, annotated bibliography, sample learning activities, supervised teaching practice, peer partnership, training log, elearning strategy and session plans. Projects go for 12 to 18 months. The process helps develop cognitive and technical competencies with contemporary teaching and learning processes. 21st century skills rubric used to map their competencies attained. 

Shared challenges around the the progress of these projects. May be better next time to run projects consecutively rather than concurrently. Workshop ensued to work through personas and their experiences on a project.

'what makes VET teachers want to stay in the job?' with Erica Smith, Darryl South and Annette Foley. Overviewed the context and background which was presented at last year's conference. There is almost no literature on VET teacher retention, so this project seeks to develop a robust evidence base to inform policies going forward. In the presention covered the motivations for entry and factors affecting decisions to remain. Received 146 valid responses to a survey with 47 questions. 

Most respondents over 50, slightly more females, 1/3 new, 1/3 5-9 years and 1/2 over ten years in teaching. 2/3 employed full time. 73+ % have diploma qualification or higher. Routes in teaching included 28% directly into full-time, 20% started part-time. 

58.6% identified as VET teacher, 3.4% to discipline and 37.9% as both. Mostly committed to staying and teaching. if likely to leave, 2/3 said they would return to industry and 1/3 to a difference industry. Those who identified as VET teacher less likely to leave. 

Participants value seeing learners develop, enjoy engaging learners and making a difference. Factors encouraging people to leave include workload, dissatification with management, too much compliance, poor workplace culture, pay, on-going change. 

Pay mentioned but not actually a major issue. Conditions of work more important, with management and compliance seen to be major challenges. Recommendations on balancing compliance and to help increase status of VET teachers. From the data, more likely to leave if they identify with occupation,, have another position outside of teaching, under 30, males, regional areas and those who have been managers before. 

Shared future work including on how to attract people to the VET workforce, providing better early career support and reducing administration and compliance.

The conference continues but I leave to catch a train to the airport :) All in, good presentations on issues which are similar to NZ. 

Australian Council for Deans of Education - Vocational Education Group - 10th annual conference - notes DAY 1

 At the annual ACDEVEG conference today and tomorrow where I have been invited to give a keynote. This is the first time I have attended this conference but many who are attending, would be familiar faces from the NCVER no-frills and AVETRA conferences.

The ACDEVEG is an inportant lobbying and support group for educators who work towards educatiing VET teachers. As such, these VET educators, are the teachers that ensure good teaching is a key part of the Australian VET system. 

The conference begins with Darryl South, the convenor for the conference welcomes all the conference delegates.

My keynote 'the importance of VET teacher education at a time of rapid change: some learnings from Aotearoa New Zealand' is based on the book chapter, recently published - Chan, S. (2024). Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) in Aotearoa New Zealand: Implication on educators of VET teachers. In T. Deißinger & O. Melnyk (Eds.). Partnership-based Governance and Standardization of Vocational Teacher Education in Ukraine pp.79-94). Germany: wbv Publikation. 

The book chapter argued for the importance of VET teacher education and the need for VET teacher educators to keep up with the play and to especially model bicultural practices, which are foundational in moving into Te Pūkenga. However, even as Te Pūkenga is being disestablishes, the principles and need for continual professional knowledge and skill development, are still important. The presentation covered a brief overview of the reasons for the strong bicultural focus in Aotearoa and the ways the intended, enacted and experienced curriculum have transformed or have to adapt to keep up and move with the current and future national and social aspirations of Aotearoa. 

Then, Annette Foley presents a preview of the second editions of the ACDEVEG text book on 'teaching in the vocational sector in Australia'. The first edition 2014 was edited by Roz Kemmis and Liz Atkins. A second edition is now being published with updated chapters and the addtion of 2 more chapters with chapters on contemporary VET pedagogy and VET the economy and society. Publication date planned for June 2025. 

After afternoon tea, two steams of presentations are provided. Sessions are 45 minutes long so the participants are able to drill deeper into the topic being discussed. Notes below:

First up, a workshop on 'teaching VET teachers academic writing and integrity through Gen AI with Anthony Pearce from Federation University. The workshop helped participants explore academic integrity; connect AI to academic integrity; and assessment design considerations/frameworks. Shared a worked example ( course on writing and analysis for study and work - using AI to help teachers write resources. Shift from detection to integration of AI into assessment strategies to enhance student learning. Introduced the AI assessment scale (leonfurze.com). No AI, AI planning, AI collaboration, full AI, AI exploration. Design assessments which are diffcult for AI to reolicate, focus on higher order thinking skills, solve problems and create. Assessment tasks that require students to work at the higher levels in Blooms taxonomy. 

3 assessment tasks for from the example - compare and contrast sources (choose a topic, find academic sources, generate AI essay, find quality source and compare); reference and plagirism (use citations in text, write a reference list, discuss the academic and ethical issues in adding citations to AI); academic essay (submit academic essay, own work, focus on argument and critical thinking). Shared feedback from learners on the course. 

Note, there is nothing out there on using AI in competency based learning. 

Then, presentation with Sweta Singh and Michael Cowling on the work by Ke (Kelly) Xu, their PhD student, on 'upskilling and reskilling vocational educators for VR--based training environments. Shared the background, research question and methodology. Literature review shows VR used mainly in medical, military and workforce training. Digital literacies are essential for using VR but not all VET teachers have the right levels. Therefore, important to find out how to equip VET educators with the  knowledge, skills, and attributes to be able to confidently leverage VR. Shared the research methodology and next steps. The context will be on VR training on tunnelling units of competency.

Last up for the day, a round table with Wendy de Luca and Marg Malloch on 'learning and teaching: Vocational educators for the twenty-first century'. Shared the plans for an up and coming book. Sought feedback on the proposed content to see if there are other possibilities. 

Australian Council of Deans of Education Vocational Education Group - ACDEVEG - 7th conference

Presenting and attending at the ACDEVEG  - a subgroup of the Australian Council of Deans in Education - for the first time. Due to COVID, online presentations have provided more opportunities to attend various VET research events.

The convenor, Professor Erica Smith, invited me to present at this conference.The theme is 'people, place and time: developing the adaptive VET teacher'. Andrew Shaw convenes the conference and provides welcome and usual update and housekeeping.

A short conference running across an afternoon (early evening in Aotearoa NZ).

Professor Smith welcomed participants,thanked the planning committee and conference conveners  and the VDC for sponsoring the conference and provided an overview of the ACEDVEG activities across the year. 

Five 30 minute presentations follow:

1) Sheila Hume and Tabitha Griffin from the NCVER present on 'the online delivery of VET in Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic'. Provided brief overview of the project (3 stages including survey of RTOs with over 1000 respondents conducted feb and march 2021; interviews also conducted - findings of these to be published next year) and summary.Covered the extent and magnitude of the shift online by training organisationa, and the challenges, opportunities, impacts of quality and future intentions of the experiences of shifting online. 

There was an increase in online only +23.9%), blended and combined online/workplace based. Reduction in workplace based only, internal only and combined internal and workplace-based. Shift online was varied across the country - high shift in the ACT followed by Queensland and NSW. Compared public and fee for service programmes, types of training packages and subject results. Delivery pre-pandemic 49.3% were 100% f2f; 43.9% blended and 6.8% totally online.3/4 of RTOS shifted some content online - parts 34.3%, all f2f - 17.9%, all f2f and assessments 15.7%. Top 2 barriers were unsuitability of subject matter for online deliver 47.5% or online delivery not suitable for students (44.4%). One year later, 35.5% change back to pre-pandemic. Future intentions include high 61.8 intentions to utilise more blended learning. 

2) Professor Smith and Darryl South (Charles Sturt University and Megan Short (University of Tasmania) summarise 'the findings of an ACDEVEG survey on VET teachers' work during Covid in 2020. Provided a range of references on the topic. Some literature now appearning but none from Australia as yet. Generally tended to be in HR/medical training, systems/organisation level. So important to understand the VET teacher experience. The study looked into how their work changed in 2020 and what did they learn from the experience and how might practice change in the future. Participants (mostly over 40 and female across a good range of industries) were VET teacher education students at 3 uiversitities (Charles Sturt, Federation, University of Tasmania). 80 responses on 53 questions. Data showed significant shift to online with many respondents affected for either 3 - 6 months or 6 - 12 months. Students' digital equity was a challenge. LMS used with extensive use of webcams (92%). In general, 40% no experience and somewhat confident they could do it. Students were generally positive.Teachers view of online delivery and eassessments was positive (less so for assessments). Positive responses revolved around own mastery of new approaches, an opportunity to concentrate on and reflect on teaching practice. negative responses centred around well-being challenges and moderate responses were around how the transition had been better than expected.

3) I present on 'supporting learning by doing when access to authentic learning becomes disrupted' Main points being how practice-based or 'learning by doing' occur through mimesis and the importance of feedback from more knowing others and from the sociomaterial. Then introducing the push-connect the dots-pull model to plan online sessions for practice-based learning along with examples. Main challenges and some solutions offered. 

4) Andrew Shaw, Head of Education Standards, TAFE NSW on ' unpacking vocational competency and currency to support quality VET teaching'. Summarised aspects of project. Literature review, online survey (490+), focus groups (25 groups), benchmarking at 8 TAFEs and One TAFE implementation. Posed that quality teaching is a key to quality VET. Defined in Australia as 'trainers and assessors are skilled VET practitioners with current industry skills and knowledge'. Presentation focuses on the aspect of vocational currency. Shared results of benchmarking (8 TAFES across 7 states). In all, vocational competency of teachers mapped at unit level. Generally 2 activities a year to ensure currency. Recorded using paper rather than digital and often part of annual review. Discussed myths and misunderstandings on the challenges, barriers and their solutions. Offered a framework to provide for a more expansive, holistic and practical definition of 'vocational competency' and industry currency. Activities should be broad, based on industry guidelines. Provided a range of examples and the sharing of these through the development of guides. more information from TAFE NSW podcast site.

5) Katerina Lawler from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment on 'VET workforce quality strategy'. Began with some background and context. Summarised the strategy, data from consultations with stakeholders ( survey and workshops then feedback on drafts with 156 sumissions) and provided overview of way forward. Quality reforms to revise the standards for teaching organisations, build capability and develop VET workforce quality strategy. Includes capability frameworks and professional standards, profesisonal development, induction support, qualifications and entry pathways and maintaining industry currency. Provided details. 

Keynote speech is with Dr. Joy Papier, Director of post-school studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town. 'Taking their rightful place in South Africa: towards the development of professional TVET teachers. Began with introduction to the South African TVET context. Presented on TVET education and educators as being on the margins and the journey from ad hoc capacity building and poorly recognised certifcates to formal, nationally recognised qualificaitons and professionalisation of vocational education. Provided an historical summary of the evolution of technical colleges and their journey towards providing more equitable access to training for all, not just those privileged by race. In early 1990s, new further education and training Act 1998 restructured the 152 colleges into 50 multi-campus and diversified institutions. Curriculum etc. overhulled along with the restructure. Summarised challenges for vocational education teachers - most have industry expertise but little preparation for teaching. Existing teacher education for school children not as relevant. Development of specific programmes for VET teachers challenging due to smaller number of TVET teachers, lack of career pathway, perceptions of VET as inferior, uneven appointment of qualified teachers, lack of coherent system and the VET teacher education being outside of the mainstream university based teacher education. Since 2012, a national standard and enhancement of VET teachers status undertaken. College lecturers of the future should have obtained a first degree and be conversant in subject matter, pedagogy. Recognised the 'dual' nature of being industry expert and expert educator identities.    Stressed the importance of both and proposed some ways to support the development of vocational teachers. Encouraged checking out the Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training (JOVACET).

Q & A session followed.