Identity, pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning: supporting the processes of becoming a tradesperson -- previews access

Apart from the short previews of each chapter on my book's publisher's website, other means of access include:

• Amazon - hardcopy of book - has preview of parts of the Foreword written by Professor Stephen Billett and the preface which has summaries of chapters.
• Google books - has portions of chapter 1 and 2.

Happy reading :)

Remaking apprenticeships - report by Lucas & Spencer (2015)

A new report from Lucas and Spencer - funded by City and Guilds Alliance for Vocational Education with an overview video available on the reports official website.

Although long – a very pertinent and cogent update on apprenticeship. Where it has been, where it now is and how to improve into the future.

The report brings together work accomplished in the previous few years and incorporates work reported in other publications including the 'vocational pedagogy' report summarised last year. 

A shorter summary is available but the longer report is worth the time to read through as it details, succinctly, all the various aspects impinging on apprenticeship.

The report provides a 'one stop shop' with regards to updating the historical evolution of apprenticeships into the current times (albeit with a UK perspective); discusses the various theories and practices and pedagogy of apprenticeship and offers recommendations on how to proceed.

Of importance is the distilling of the many outcomes of apprenticeship into SIX - routine expertise, resourcefulness, craftsmanship, functional literacies, business like attitudes and wider skills for growth. The recommendations are generalisable across to many apprenticeship systems but are most pertinent to the UK context.

15 pages of references bringing together the pertinent literature on apprenticeship learning.

The evolved apprentice - book summary

Sterelny, K. (2012). The evolved apprentice: How evolutionmade humans unique. Cambridge, MA; London, UK: MIT Press.

This was the first book I explored in the area of evolutionary psychology. Mainly because my various digital alert systems search for ‘apprentic*’ and this book came up a few times via various alerts. I parked the book for summer reading and am happy I did finally make time to study it in greater detail. This book is easier reading than Sterelny’s previous book ‘Thought in a hostile world’ as briefly over viewed in last week's blog. “Evolved apprentice’ concentrates on the ‘social intelligence hypothesis'. Examples from primate studies, archaeology and ethnography are used through the book to illustrate the thesis. In summary, the book explores how the human brain evolved due to the need to learn quickly to cope with a challenging environment. Living together in family groups provided proto-humans with the opportunity to learn from each other. This ensured ‘technology’ was not lost from one generation to the next and small incremental improvements or flashes of inspiration could be actioned.

The book has 8 chapters. Short summaries of each chapter follow:

1)      Challenge of novelty – the social intelligence hypothesis is summarised and discussed. The need for increased learning in early hominids was premised on the increasing complexity of tasks required to sustain the hunter-gatherer life. Humans have many needs requiring reciprocity in group relationships. Division of labour within human groupings both horizontally and vertically required specialised communication skills. Humans also are comparatively long lived, with good memories leading to options for inter-generational verbal transmission of cultural skills. Learning of social skills also involve learning both the good and bad about human nature.

2)      Accumulating cognitive capital – precepts of the apprentice leaning model are discussed in this chapter. The 4 virtues of apprentice learning are identified and discussed. Virtues are: apprenticeship learning can be structured incrementally; complex tasks and high-fidelity / high band-with knowledge can be learnt; skill transmission may occur ‘informally’ without adult teaching or formal explicit instruction; and ethnographic studies have shown that learning through apprenticeship works – due to reciprocal balance between productivity and returns from learner.  

3)      Adapted individuals, adapted environments – here the understandings of Sapiens and Neanderthal evolution are unravelled to explain why one species carried on and the other became extinct. One explanation is the ability of sapiens to think symbolically and this allowed concepts to be carried from one generation to the next. At various stages, abrupt ‘technological leaps’ occurred, pushing development of sapiens ahead. These innovations were not lost from one generation to the next but were then further refined, leading to sufficient knowledge accumulation to allow for the next progressive leap.

4)      Human cooperation syndrome – co-evolution of “cooperation, information-guided foraging and niche construction” of context specific knowledge are premised to have been the difference between hominins and other apes. The ‘grandmother hypothesis’ is put forward as one advantage hominins could use to advance. Grandmothers provided a source for intergenerational knowledge. They also were able to mind young children while parents hunted / foraged, increasing the group’s ability to maintain a sustainable life. Activities like foraging and hunting required more complex communication techniques. Laying down the ground work for evolution to select for a species which had brains to handle the needs of cooperation and group living.

5)      Costs and commitments -  this chapter tidies up loose ends in the social intelligence hypothesis. For example why ‘freeloaders’, bullies etc. and their opposites of altruism have evolved. The cost of cooperation is weight up with the advantages afforded. Costs may be investments for the future and honesty creates long-term advantages perhaps not for the individual but for the larger group.

6)      Signals, cooperation and learning – here the discussion expands on the role of signals and communication and the role of honesty. Cultural learning’s advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

7)      From skills to norms – the ethical connotations to the social intelligence hypothesis are introduced and discussed in this chapter. Why and how morals have developed and how they are learnt, transmitted through cultural norms and the implications are introduced and extended.

8)      Cooperation and conflict – this last chapter, brings the various contributions to the social intelligence hypothesis to a close. The need for how humans have evolved to  acknowledge ‘give and take’ and how individuals, societies etc, balance ‘strong reciprocity’ brings the book to a close.

The book has notes for each chapter, 25 pages of references and index. References provide good overview of the relevant literature from anthropology, archaeology, ethnographical studies and evolutionary psychology. All in, the book provides good background leavened with many pertinent examples from contemporary work on understanding how evolutionary pressures of our pre-history contributed to how we now communicate, learn and live.

Shop class as soul craft - book summary

Crawford, M. (2009). Shop class as soul craft: An inquiry into the value of work. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Worked through this book in greater detail over the last few days. Second hand book in pristine condition purchased through Amazon, taking about a month to arrive in NZ, just in time for summer weekend when it was too hot to do much gardening or walk in the hills.

I had borrowed the book from the library and browsed through the book when it was first released. This time a good opportunity to read the book in greater depth.  Here are notes taken, summarising each chapter of book.

Introduction provides background on the decline of ‘shop class’ in the U S of A and Crawford’s thesis that the manual occupations are still important in contemporary life due to our reliance on large numbers of material goods. People who make, maintain and repair things are now more important than ever (as per $$ we pay plumber to unblock drains) and yet the education system puts its main emphasis into preparing ‘knowledge workers’.

1.       A brief case for the useful arts. Here the discussion revolves around how manual work can be fulfilling and requiring use of both bodily and cognitive skills. Plus an argument on how some forms of work in the trades, cannot be ‘outsourced’. So American workers in occupations that can be accomplished remotely (accounting, IT, call centres etc. ) may be more at risk to job restructure than builders / carpenters and joiners who build houses.

2.       The separation of thinking from doing. An overview of how thinking and doing has been seen to be either white or blue collar. Some white collar work is now similar to ‘assembly line’ work and some blue collar requires high levels of adaptability and innovation.

3.       To be a master of one’s own stuff. In this chapter, the argument for work to allow individual agency is presented. Plus some history on the development of motorcycles (and cars) from being fixable by the ‘amateur’ to being difficult for even mechanics to get into.  How society has moved from individuals being able to rectify their own tools / appliances / vehicles to machinery becoming so complex (and relatively cheap to replace) has removed individual’s choice to fix and re-use. Yet, it is more satisfying for humans to have input (using cake mix example – all in product does not sell as well as a product that requires the addition of an egg).

4.       The education of a gearhead. The chapter traces Crawford’s development as a mechanic His first experiences as an apprentice in an automotive workshop where he did the boss’s housekeeping before being allowed to clean engine parts. And reflections on learning the complexities of automotive engineering from mentors, mistakes, dwelling on problems, development of individual understanding and knowledge base.

5.       The further education of a gearhead: from amateur to professional. Here Crawford describes his on-going learning as a motor cycle mechanic and self-employed business owner. How he learns on the job by undertaking difficult work on obscure, older models of motor cycles. How he undercharges as some of the jobs take effort to work through beyond what would seem to be commercially viable charge out rates.

6.       The contradictions of the cubicle. Provides examples of some of his ‘knowledge worker’ jobs and how some have become production line orientated, as per his work indexing and abstracting articles, or without clear outputs that lead to job satisfaction (work in a ‘think tank’).

7.       Thinking as doing. Provides arguments and examples of how manual work involves many aspects of having to also use large amounts of brain power. How practical know how is difficult to pin down. Examples include fire fighters’ ‘sixth sense’, common sense and tacit knowledge in automotive trouble shooting (lubricant or air to clean spark plug based on recent weather  activity or if sand is found around the vehicle), the role of being able to ‘ask the right question’ in problem solving, deciphering archaic and poorly translated vehicle repair manuals.

8.       Work, leisure and full engagement. How leisure and work may be complementary. Also how many people now work to earn $$ to indulge in activities that feed their soul. Perhaps some forms of manual work may both earns $$ and be fulfilling.

Concluding remarks on solidarity and self reliance: Summarises the argument – to have a trade skill means having solidarity with other trade workers in the same field (understanding a common language / ethos and practising skills), being attuned to learning from mistakes / failure and yet taking individual responsibility for one’s on-going learning and improvement.

The notes themselves make interesting reading, some revealing Crawford’s personal history, others filling in on the specialist knowledge of motor cycle repair and overviews of various philosophical approaches. The style of writing is readable without being condescending to the reader.

Development of professional expertise – book summary

Title of the book is ‘Development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments’ (2009) - Cambridge University Press, and it has 21 chapters organised into 4 sections. With a summary/discussion chapter at the end of each section. The book is edited by K. Anders Ericsson, who has completed a body of work on expert performance and deliberate practice using research methods centred around protocol analysis and verbal reports on thinking.

The Kindle version costs US$18.70 which is a real bargain compared to the hardback version at $109! Have ordered the hardcopy for the library. As yet, there is no preview available in google books. Book review / summary also simplified as I could read on Ipad, take notes on PC and save on blogger. The summary was completed across a series of months, from initial reading while travelling in July. The bookmarking and highlighting function on the Kindle app comes into good use to mark initial points of interest and themes. At work, it was a matter of following up on the bookmarks and notes to complete the summaries of each chapter. 

The book has a focus on studying measurable situated expertise and the unravelling of factors that promote the acquisition, maintenance and on-going development of expertise. The myth that expertise is a result of accumulated experience is debunked. Instead, the need for conscientious deliberate practice is required for both novices and recognized experts to attain, maintain and continually hone skills is required.

      1) A brief history of the study of expertise is provided in chapter one. The chapter also provides background to the rationale, origins (a conference on expertise) and structure / approaches of the book.  The book as a whole, has a focus on measurable performance of expertise in a range of real world work (many within a military training / leadership context) and learning activities with the aim of understanding better, how individuals and teams acquire and develop superior performance. Brief summaries of each of the chapters is also provided.

Section 1 – historical overview covering challenges in the past and contemporary efforts.

2)   20^th century revolution in military training (R. E. Chapman).

This interesting chapter, describes the evolution of training within the United States military. In particular, the move in the 1970s towards using forms of experiential /active learning supported with feedback structures, to improve outcomes of military training. Of interest is the description of the navy’s ‘top gun’ programme for combat pilots, which improved the odds of survival of fighter pilots. The norm of two planes shot down to one enemy plane shot down, improved in the navy’s favour to 12.5 planes for each enemy plan shot down, after the ‘top gun’ programme became the training approach. Top gun training involved pilots training in a simulated environment against ‘enemy planes’ that flew like and used enemy strategies.  A ‘after-action review was then used to evaluate each pilot’s performance, confronting pilots with their errors and forcing them to reflect on their performance.

The ‘top gun’ training programme was then adapted to infantry training and has been adapted over the years. Findings from the many cohorts trained through this programme include that there is a levelling off of the learning curve after initial rapid improvement.  Learning curves can be cumulative. Part task initial learning is followed by simplified whole-task training. Then realistic whole task training is undertaken before actual mission training is undertaken.  Skills also atrophy if they are not being used within 2 – 3 months of training programme.

 3) Developing professional expertise with a cognitive apprenticeship (S. P. Lajoie)

Has a good overview of the cognitive apprenticeship model as it applies to avionics troubleshooting and medical diagnosis. Describes the use of Sherlock – a task- or job specific computer assisted training programme / intelligent tutoring system to help avionics technicians work through troubleshooting airplane component faults. Following on, the concepts used have been developed further to assist medical students and doctors to learn or revise medical diagnostics.

4) Leaderships development and assessment: describing and rethinking the state of the art (M.D., Mumford, T.L. Friedrich, J.J. Caughron and A.L. Antes)

Presents a model of leader cognition as an alternative to mainly business / corporate approaches to understanding leadership.  In particular, that leadership skills are difficult to pin down, highly contextualised and leadership training does not guarantee performance at time of stress / greatest need (as when things ‘turn to custard’ on the battlefield).

      5)  Revolutions, leaders and diagnosticians: reflections on themes in chapters 2-4 (E.B. Hunt)

Not just a summary but a readable critique of the preceding three chapters.  Some historical overview also provided to help situate each chapter into time/place so that findings are taken with caution.

Section 2 – continues with past and contemporary efforts to design instruction, train and maintain professional performance has 4 chapters.

      6) Research on past and current training in professional domains: the emerging need for a paradigm shift (J.J.G. VanMerrienboer and E.W. Boot). The chapter summarises the challenges presented in present day training of professionals and discusses the role of instructional systems design (ISD) in conjunction with technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs) and presents implications for future practice.  The context is training in the military. Provides a good overview of ISD including social constructivist and whole-task design models and how these no longer cope with the challenges of present day military training demands. Also overviews of TELEs including computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, dynamic visual presentations and animations, hypertext and hypermedia, and computer simulations and virtual reality. Argues for the need to abandon atomistic ISD and optimise TELEs towards whole-task approaches.

 7) Designing training for professionals based on subject matter experts and cognitive task analysis (J.M. Schraagen). This chapter provides a good overview of the actual task analysis process as applied in instructional design (ID).  Provides discussion on both the advantages and disadvantages of task analysis approaches. Offers the cognitive task analysis approach, using subject matter experts as a foundation and provides a thorough explanation via case study of how to bring about a change and convert from original ID programme to cognitive task analysis. The example uses training in structured troubleshooting in the training of weapons engineers in the Royal Netherlands Navy.

      8) How to help professional maintain and improve their knowledge and skills: triangulating best practises in medicine (D.A. Davis). This chapter is based on a study of medical practitioners need to maintain currency in practice. In the past, the main models have been the update, competence and performance models. The Currency of Credit currently used is critiqued. A new model based on professional self-assessment, competency assessment and performance assessment is proposed.

 9) Advances in specifying what is to be learned: reflections on themes in chapters 6-8 (R.E. Mayer) – A couple of good tables in this chapter (9.1 and 9.2) summarise approaches to specifying what is to be learnt and kinds of knowledge. Need to assist specification of compartmentalised behaviours, compartmentalised knowledge, integrated knowledge, individualised knowledge to determine what the learner needs to know and then determine what the learner already knows and how to teach (what the learner does not yet know).

Section 3 has 5 chapters covering assessment and training of skilled and expert performers in the military

      10) Toward a second training revolution: promise and pitfalls of digital experiential training (R.E. Chatham). A long but useful chapter.  The chapter is a continuation from Chapter 2, adding in the TELE type approaches now used by the US of A military to cope with the challenges of training personnel for modern warfare. As Chatham writes, “everything short of war is similuation” . The chapter provides many examples of using TEL including simulations and games. The advantages and disadvantages of simulations and games are discussed and examples provided. Development of simulations and games is not cheap, so it is important to ensure the $$ lead to learning outcomes, in this case, life and death outcomes for military personnel. Future work on ‘distributed experiential training’ is proposed to end the chapter.

11) Evaluating pilot performance (B.T. Schreiber,W. Bennett, Jr., C.M. Colegrove, A.M. Portrey, D.A. Greschke and H.H. Bell). Here, there is an interesting historical overview of flight simulators. Learning to fly, under combat conditions, provides a good example of the holistic task analysis approach now used to ensure training is situated, experiential and authentic. Of note is that even though flight simulators are able to gather a range of assessment information from learner pilots, there is still a need for an experienced instructor pilot to complete the final instructional evaluation and make the final decision on competence / capability.

 12) Contrasting submarine specialty training: sonar and fire control (S.S. Kirshenbaum, S.L. McInnis, K.P. Correll). Two specialities requiring different forms of skill are studied to determine the efficacy of changes to the training approaches. The descriptions of the specialist skills in each occupation provides examples of detailed task analysis. The chapter details the application of the Kirkpatrick levels of assessment framework, using four levels to assess students’ skill acquisition – reaction, learning, behaviour, results.

      13) Training complex cognitive skills: a theme based approach to the development of battlefield skills (S.B. Shadrick and J.W. Lussier). An interesting chapter on the importance of ensuring soldiers are taught to think is as important as teaching them how to fight.  There is good overview and discussion on the various approaches to teaching people how to be more adaptable, flexible and versatile – the need to attain adaptive performance and adaptive thinking. Example is used of how the Soviets used to train chess players, not only to learn the mechanics of chess but to be able learn the thinking  strategies to ‘think like a grandmaster’. Interesting table 13.1 on the themes of battlefield thinking adaptable to other contexts. Also good summary of principles of deliberate practice in table 13.2. Uses the think like a commander (TLAC) TEL simulation as an example.

      14) Structuring the conditions of training to achieve elite training programs and related themes – chapters 10-13 (R.A. Bjork). This chapter unpacks the many concepts and ideas in the chapters in section 3 and reports on commonalities of the approaches. Summaries of each chapter also included.

Section 4 focuses on development of expertise and expert conference with 7 chapters.

15)  The influence of learning research on design and use of assessment (E.L. Baker).  As the title implies, this chapter covers the implications of learning design on assessment . The chapter begins with recognising that assessments will never be able to capture the inherent complexity of learning. There is also a brief overview of the history of testing including various models of learning  that inform the process of testing – table 15.4. A model based assessment of learning to encompass content understanding, problem solving, metacognition, communication and teamwork / collaboration is proposed through learning design techniques like knowledge maps and ontologies. All in a good overview of assessment.

 16) Acquiring conceptual expertise through modelling: the case of elementary physics (K.Vanlehn and B. Van De Sande). Uses physics as the context for understanding how concepts are learnt and how novices might attain misconceptions. The model assumes that conceptual expertise includes mastery of descriptive based knowledge, applying the knowledge to known conditions and confluences (equations learnt through superficial understanding followed by constructing a semantic version of the equation and eventually understanding through producing a qualitative version.

17) Teaching for expertise: problem-based methods in medicine and other professional domains (H.P.A. Boshuizen). An important chapter bringing the application of some of the ideas through the book, towards ideas of how to better teach so that students are able to learn.  Advocates for the need of horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge required to attain occupational skills and how problem based learning (PBL) may be one approach. Uses examples to explain the advantages of PBL

18)  Enhancing the development of professional performance: implications from the study of deliberate practice (K.A. Ericsson). This chapter provides a thorough overview of the studies from which the deliberate practice (DP) model was derived. There is a good summary of the rationale for the development of DP.  Application of DP to professional training and practice is also covered. Superior performance requires the learning and integration of a range of skills, knowledge and attributes. DP involves the selection of actions, the monitoring of learning as the activity is practiced and control of how the ongoing learning is progressing. All of these lead to incremental improvements in performance.

19) It takes expertise to make expertise: some thoughts about why and how – reflections on the themes chapter 15-18. (J.D.Bransford and D.L. Schwartz). The four chapters on expertise are summarised, critiqued and discussed including the both the learning and the teaching of expert performance.

20) The value of expertise and expert performance: a review of evidence from the military (J.D. Fletcher). In this chapter, the various themes throughout the book are contextualised overtly to the military learning and training context. Themes include self-assessment and self-directed learning; deliberate practice to develop expertise; agility in expertise and professional performance; assessment of professional growth towards attaining expertise; the centrality of cognition in expertise; and the importance of designing learning environments to promote expertise.  Will have a go in another blog to see how similar concept can be applied to vocational education setting.

 21)  Expertise in the management of people: a new frontier for research on expert performance (S.E.F. Chapman). This chapter explores the use of case-based instruction.  Also proposes research agenda for the future.

     Overall, a book that bring together the theoretical frameworks of expertise and reports on application of various studies to range of occupations. The situated and contextual nature of learning is affirmed as is the need for novices to have guided, structured learning experiences to attain expertise in occupations requiring the deployment of a complex range of skills. Well worth the time to work through all the chapters as each brings applicable recommendations towards the improvement of vocational education curriculum development (through ID processes), structuring learning activities to maximise learning and alignment of authentic assessment activities to what is expected in real-world practice.

Evangelising etechnology to the NZ polytechnic community

I presented a couple of papers to the union of staff in tertiary institutions (ASTE) conference last week. A well attended conference with participants from throughout the ITP sector. It was great to be able to meet committed educators, all passionate about teaching and learning. It made for a very friendly and convivial conference.

I presented keynote on using cognitive apprenticeship principles to teach baking – really to encourage tutors to be more reflective about their practice plus to explore what sort of teaching philosophy underpins their teaching. Also to delve more deeply into how good teaching is about constant refining and commitment towards meeting the needs of learners and the context the subject has to be applied to. Plus links with my teaching practice and my Phd research on how apprentices are learning via belonging, becoming and being bakers.

The other paper was to encourage the use of e-technology into tertiary teaching. I took the approach of using e-technology for tutor professional development as a starting point. If people become comfortable with writing on their own blog, using an mp3 player to store their favourite music and use RSS feeds for their own research, then these skills and knowledge percolate eventually into their teaching practice. I have found that it is important for digital immigrants to be comfortable with the technology before they start to use it in their teaching. I think that this stems from the role of teachers and their need to be ‘in control’. It is a big step for many teachers to take a sideward step and allow their students to lead the way. Personally, I learn a lot from young people about the way in which they use technology to enrich their lives. I also have learnt that it is up to us teachers to take the lead into guiding students in to how to also use technology to enhance their learning experiences.

I used several clips from youtube as part of the presentation. These include the one on the rise of Web2.0, the use of technology in teaching and a mlearn2007 promotional clip. Also links to the various blogging, wiki, personal portal and aggregator sites that I continually use as part of my day to day work (teaching, research, learning) and the mlearning project. Including these links & working through the presentation was a way of modelling how to use etechnology not only in teaching but in one’s professional development.

I was conscious that many teachers resist the use of technology in their teaching. The concept of ‘bridging the chasm’ by Moore is something that I relate to. I am not sure whether the chasm is continually deepening, or if more user friendly hardware & software creates a ford across the chasm. The ubiquitous use of mobile phones must help bring more digital immigrants into greater contact with technology. The mobile phone is already helping to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing nations. Maybe the mobile phone is also helping in a small way to bridge the early adopter to early / late majority to laggard (Alan Atkisson calls them renunciate curmudgeons!) chasm.

Evangelising mLearning or use of technology in learning

My work over the last couple of years as a elearning facilitator plus several opportunities for me to present my findings about mlearning to staff has taught me a couple of things. Caryl Oliver, from William Angliss TAFE has brought up some salient points about bringing mlearning into the culture of a training college.

From my perspective, people will only make the time and effort to engage with the use of technology if:-

• They have to or have been told they have to. In this case, some people do the minimum to keep their heads above water. A few grasp the opportunity with open arms and thrive but many do the minimum to keep their managers happy.
• They have some external motivating force that makes them look outside the square and using technology brings with it opportunities that do not exist if they just stick with the status quo. External motivating forces could be a decline in student numbers due to more competition in the market for students or an increase in international students who need more counselling and support.
• They have an internal motivation to keep up with the play and to try out new ideas to improve learning for their students.
• They are inherently geeky / techy and enjoy exploring new methods for delivery content .
  

Without at least one of the above happening, the teaching and learning process would continue the way in which it has always taken place. The teacher shows and tells & the student imitates, practices and perhaps learns. For me, external forces pushed me into looking into alternative modes of delivery as CPIT was geographically removed from where most bakery apprentices in NZ are employed. The journey first into elearning and then into mlearning triggered my internal motivation to try to find something that would work well for my students and also help CPIT retain student numbers. So, first there was a push, & then the pull into the challenge of working out how to make things work better.

Some of the above is resonating with my Phd research as well. The first year apprentices I interviewed in 2005 had all fallen into the trade. None of them had any inclination to take up baking before they found themselves signing up into an apprenticeship. Through the end of 2006 and into 2007, I have been working through another series of interviews. The year two apprentices are progressing well but what has been enlightening is that several have found a passion for the trade. It is making a noticeable difference to their performance at work and onblock course. They have become self motivated in their learning and practice. All of them have had sort of an epiphany, a realisation that there is something in baking that likes them. This ‘fit’ into the trade is powering their work ethics, encouraging them to make the most of learning opportunities at work and outside of work and bringing into their lives, whole new fields to look into. I feel very privileged to be witnessing this as part of my research project.

One way in which we can make use of mlearning is to make use of the opportunity to 'catch' the learner in the process of workplace learning. These 'support' session could be used to help motivate the learner further in their skill learning. This can be done by using the situated learning opportunities presented when contacting the learning while they are immersed in their practice and making use of these to enhance learning.

moving mportfolios forward

I am still working through the basic setup of our eportfolios. I am working on principles provided by Love, McKean & Gathercool (2004). In particular, I am not keen to see the eportfolios being put together by apprentices as being only level 1 portfolios – just a repository of products they make, along with a few recipes and comments. I would like to move the eportfolios that our apprentices will be producing up to at least a level 3. This means that the portfolio is open to both the tutor and the student. The tutor will then take steps to help the student reflect more on their evidence to work out which images, recipes or descriptions are most relevant to particular competencies that the student is working through. Basically making use of cognitive apprenticeship principles to help apprentices work how how to go about constructing evidence of their journey from apprentice to baker.

If we take one product line as an example, I would not want to just see a photo of the final product, but some photos, videos or aural descriptions of some of the steps taken to produce the product. The recipe should not just be a list of ingredients, but also a detailed description of the method along with the nuances the apprentice has picked up as to how the product will be produced. So the instruction – mix the dough until it is clear and well-developed – might be accompanied by a photo of a well developed dough plus a description (text or aural) as to why the dough in the picture is actually well – developed. Something along the lines of, “the dough is smooth & silky. It is easy to stretch it out to form a thin sheet of dough. The consistency and the temperature of the dough is suitable for making “xyz product” because ……”

I suppose that I am trying to capture the essence of what it is that differentiates a good baker from a competent baker. A good baker uses all their senses to produce high quality products (often in large volume) to a consistently high standard each time. When I talk to third year apprentices, I am often trying to work out if they are good or just competent. My decision is often based on an a build up of my observations of the apprentice’s work methods, the products they make and the way in which they respond to questions I ask them. My decision is then based on my intuitive judgement. The difference between good & competent is often difficult to pin down but I believe that eportfolios, assembled with guidance and care, will help showcase skills, knowledge, attitudes and the convergence of these characteristics.

Therefore, my long term goal is to move the eportfolios into a level 5 scenario. So that the eportfolio becomes “an authentic / authoritative evidence that links the contents of the folio to standards, programmes and other descriptors, including higher order taxonomies.”