AVETRA day two

AVETRA 2016 day 2

Day begins with keynote from Associate Professor Ruth Schubert who is associate director from LH Martin Institute, with presents on quality teaching in VET. Contents teaching as a skill / craft needs to be taught. Quality teaching is therefore requires support and should be founded on good teacher development. Provided Australian background and summarised June 2015 report on investigating quality teaching in the Victoria VET sector. Evaluated a range of national and international frameworks and decided to develop customised framework focused on teaching and assessments. John Hatties' visible learning principles also integrated. Draft report with Department of Education and a preview of 12 capabilities contributing to the framework. 

Two concurrent sessions follow.

I select to attend one on achieving agreement on competence: collaboration in assessment of apprentice performance with Berwyn Clayton from Victoria University. Reported on work undertaken in 2 NCVER funded projects in competency progression and completion : how is apprenticeship in three trades ( 2015) and industry currency and professional obsolescence : and what can industry tell us (2013). Found connects and disconnects between teachers, workplace supervisors and apprentices with each having different views on what is required, what roles each plays, the language of training and assessment and expectations. Recommendations include developing shared understanding and maintaining open and ongoing communication about training, assessment and decisions. 

Then with Susanne Francisco from University of Technology Sydney on work based learning of novice VET teachers : creating a trellis of learning practices one of the outcomes from her PhD. Provided rationale of topic and covered the theory underpinning model. How, what they learn. Used Kemmis et al (2014) practice architectures on cultural discursive arrangements, material economic arrangements and social political arrangements. Studied relations around the practice that supports learning (PSL).  Connections or divergences can be drawn up to form trellis of practice to reveal which areas require greater support. Nodes include using well prepared resources, interacting with colleagues, informal mentoring, interacting over smoko, team teaching, co-teaching, collaboratively developing assessments or materials, etc. visual of the trellis useful in unravelling the complex nature of learning how to teach by teaching. 

Following are three workshops on research to select from. I attend one presented by Chris Corbel, Leo Gregorc and Kira Clarke on research into multichannel outputs. The workshop focused on how to disseminate research in scholarly, opinion and social media platforms. Need to establish where you want your work to have impact? Channels are scholarly, practice based, public and social media. Work shopped how can social media support dissemination, op-Eds and pitching and scholarly outputs for your thesis. 

Leo presented on Using social media to develop a personal learning network. Design a PLN to suit your needs. Many tools but which one to select? Check out using social media to share research. Hoot suite as a social media dashboard allows syndication of news across your social media platforms. 

Kira workshopped commentary and translating your research into op-ed. (the conversation) to reach practitioners and policy makers. Perhaps target publication you currently read and learn how genre written to prepare. Try to have one page and one idea per paragraph with one concept across entire article. Workshopped In pairs to write a pitch for an article. Encouraged to write proactively and bear in mind you are writing for a lay audience. Use op-ed to promote forthcoming publication or to curate available data. Final statement must reinforce your message and if online, put strong statement just above social media button. 

Chris covered scholarly outlets for disseminating post thesis research. 

After lunch I present on using video to assist with the learning of the sociomaterial aspects of trades work. Covered learning a trade through individual constructivist learning, sociocultural relationships and interaction with the materials, tools, machines etc. AND how videos may assist and their pros and cons. 

A panel convened to discuss putting Vet research to work: motive means and opportunity. panel convened by Hugh Guthrie and panel of Megan Lilly, Peter Hurley, Michelle Circelli, Michele Simons, Peter Noonan, George Mykonos and Robin Shreeve. Began with establishing definition of VET research and meandered through perspectives on what Putting research to work, means. 

Conference closes late afternoon with possibility of next conference being hosted in Melbourne.