BWP - German journal on vocational training in research and practice

 I have been following this journal, off and on, for a couple of years. The journal is published by BIBB, the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. 

Journals from 1972 are archived and provide a good range of articles. Of note is the 'special issue' nature of the journal. For example this year, the topics have been on 'migration of skilled workers', digital learning' and 'flexibilisation'. 

Articles are 'open access', providing ready availability to the range and breadth of the German system. As most of the articles are written from the German context, a little familiarity with the system is useful but not a requirement.

Kick off sessions #8 - Students' and student advisors' perspectives

 

I assist with the facilitation of two sessions today at the Ara Institute of Canterbury Kick-off series of professional development workshops.

Firstly, session #8 with Marion Hale revisiting students perspectives on ‘distance learning’ and then session #9 with Alan Hoskin to introduce the concept of flexible learning - see later blog.

#8 ran from noon to 1 pm. We began with reiterating the importance of the student voice as it is part of Ara strategic focus to have the learner at the heart of learning.

3 vignettes from the session we ran in May were replayed. These were recorded statements from students on how their courses went. In the main, the students appreciated the pastoral support provided from their lecturers and the wider Ara team. They were happy with the many ways lecturers restructured their courses, the use of zoom to run synchronous sessions and access to zoom recordings and resources via Moodle. Challenges were individualised to the contexts of students. Finding resources for learning was difficult for trades student; students with young family found it very difficult to carve out time and space for their own study over the lockdown; most found there was too much communication from Ara coming their way – a balance would have been good.

Statements from student advisors were then played. Our student advisor team support students with outside of course pastoral care. Their perspectives were enlightening with respect to two important items. The first is the issue of digital equity. Many students did not own a laptop or have access to a PC. Mobile phones were not sufficient for distance learning structured around using a laptop or PC. Access to WiFi/mobile data was also difficult for some students. The other issue was the implication of withdrawal/deferment. Lecturers advised some students to defer or withdrawal last semester and these now impact on students’ eligibility for student allowance and entry back into programmes. These implication need to be better understood.

We then went through the common themes and discussed how Ara has responded and what needs to be still done to address the themes.

The themes indicate the need to be prepared by ensuring learners and Ara knew the types of digital devices learners had with them to access learning. Lecturers need to introduce the tools likely to be used if distance learning is required. Resources (videos, online quizzes, learning activities etc.) require preparation or finding before distance learning needs to be started up. 

Therefore prepareness are keys to ensuring the next time around (hopefully not!) the online learning experience is less stressful and more enriching for all. 

Alternatives to Blooms taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy was developed in the 1950s and is still widely used today to assist with the writing of learning outcomes.

Over the years, there have been many critiques of the taxonomy but it has stood the test of time mainly due to its ease of use and understanding amongst educators and instructional designers.

Several alternatives are proposed in this blog including Fink's and another by Sugrue - based on 'learning science'.

Another alternative is offered by Wilson who calls it - the second principle with the revised taxonomy available via this link.

All tend to priviledge school and higher education sectors and traditional f2f teaching. Maybe it is time to think about a taxonomy more appropriate for vocatonal education and which fits better with blended and distance learning approaches.

Vocational and Professional Education and Training econference -

The Vocational and Professional Education and Training sector  (VPET) in Hong Kong, held an e-conference on the 15th of May. 

Video of the keynote and panel presentations, along with accompaning presentation slides are now availed via this link.

Of note - Olli-Pekka Heinonen's (Finnish National Agency for Education) presentation on 'Six seismic shifts in VPET'. These are:

- Shifting the education system to a Learning system

- Focus on mass education to personalised learning

- Individual professionalism towards shared and dynamic professionalism

- Instead of recruitment based HR to supporting learning organisations

- Shift from fixed mindset to growth mindset 

- Instead of providing a map, ensure the skills required to be able to use a compass

Good overview on how to meet the challenges posed by the future of work.

On a similar vein, Professor Chris Hubbard (Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University in the UK) on 'Making vocational education work in a changing world'. Stressed how work was changing faster than education change. Detailed the 4 steps to gear up education systems to cope with the rapid change in work:

- Put the individual learner at the centre

- Create multiple 'pathways' to prosperity

- Buld connections between government, employers and educational institutions

- Ensure accountability measures drive flexibilities

There were plenary/thematic sessions on:

- applied education and future skills in the digital era

- why workplace learning counts?

- Skills change lives

- AI, data analytics, cybersecurity: Are digital skills enough for workplace?

In these, a selection of presentations were made with some accompanied by presentation slides.

A reflection session closed the econference.

Good to see the layout of an e-conference. I particularly liked the reflection session at the end but may also be useful to have small reflective sessions after each keynote/thematic session. 

The body in professional practice, learning and education - book overview

This is a broad overview of the book - The body in professional practice, learning and education, published in 2015 and edited by B.Green and N. Hopwood. It is volume 11 of the professional and practice-based learning series published by Springer.

There are 4 parts across 15 chapters.

Part one – introduction -  has two chapters.

The main introduction by the editors provides rationale for the book and summaries of each chapter. The origins of the book are from a research programme developed over the last decade at Charles Sturt University through the Research Institute of Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE). Networking opportunities afforded the extension of the original group to include researchers from Canada and the University of Technology, Sydney. This book continues on from work published from 2008 onwards and is the fifth in the series.

Then a deeper introduction to the concepts, also by the editors is in the second chapter. The chapter re-introduces the concept of ‘the body in practice’ and in particular, the influence of the work of Schatzki on understanding the holistic intermingling of the body, mind and movement. The three dimensions of ‘bodyness’ as outlined by Schatzki are: being a body; having a body; and the ‘presence  of’ the instrumental body. There is a critique of how Schatzki sees the body as part of the material ‘lived’ world and discussion on how the body is represented, and how practice, when the contribution of the body is accounted for, takes on different connotations.

Part 2 has 6 chapters on ‘thinking with the body in professional practice’.

Chapter 3 by M. Somerville and K. Vella on ‘sustaining the change agent: bringing the body into language in professional practice’. Here, the authors apply feminist philosophies to understand how people develop and cope with organisationally imposed change. The relationships between the body and language are explored as there is a challenge in articulating bodily sensations when there is a lack of precision in language to allow for the nuances to be described.

Fourth chapter by N. Hopwood on ‘relational geometries in the body: doing ethnographic fieldwork. This chapter follows on well from the previous as it presents on how humans can better notice and understand the role of bodies in professional practice. He uses an auto-ethnographical approach to study his own movements (body geometries / bodily positioning) and those of the participants / spaces of his study.

Next chapter by M. C. Johnsson with ‘terroir and timespace’: body rhythms in winemaking. In this chapter, the context of a wine yard is used to understand practice patterns and body rhythms. How these impinge on practice is unravelled.

Chapter 6 with J-A. Reid and D. M. Mitchell writing on ‘inhabiting a teaching body: portraits of teaching’. Here the ‘habitus’ of being a teacher is explored. In particular, how the social practices, expectations, space/time etc. are learnt as they are influence the ways teachers’ attitudes, gestures, vocalisations and dispositions are ‘displayed’. A comparison is made between a highly effective ‘expert’ teacher and a novice to unpack the many ‘undescribed’ and ‘undefined’ characteristics that contribute to the ‘habitus’ of teacher.

Followed by D. Mulcahy on ‘body matters: the critical contribution of affect in school classroom and beyond’. Here, passions, emotions and desires are the focus. The study is undertaken in a school context using video case-studies. Actor-network and post-structuralist theories are used to analyse the data. Teaching and learning practices impinge strongly on the embodied and affective areas of ‘being a teacher’.

Last chapter in this section by B. Green titled ‘thinking bodies: practice theory, Deleuze, and professional education’. A philosophical discussion on the precepts proposed by Deleuze – affect, virtuality, multiplicity etc. on ‘thinking the body’.

Part 3 has 6 chapters focused on the body in the contexts of health professional education and practice.

Chapter 9 by S. Loftus is on ‘embodiment in the practice and education of health professionals’. Uses the concepts of ‘embodied narrative knowing’ or Todres’ ‘embodied relational understanding’ to better understand how health professional come to know and act.

The tenth chapter is by E. E. Katzman presenting on the topic ‘embodied reflexivity: knowledge and the body in professional practice’. Here feminist and post-structural literature, inform the study of ‘embodied reflexivity’ in the context of being an attendant health-care worker. There is a focus on the power relations and the ‘lived’ politics of knowledge, through the article.

Chapter 11 is by L. L. Ellingson on ‘embodied practices in dialysis care: on (para) professional work’. This chapter follows through from the previous, with a focus on vulnerability of patients and health professionals within the context of an out-patient dialysis treatment unit. The communicative aspects of embodied practice are analysed to understand the many facets of relationships and communication required.

Next chapter on ‘(per)forming the practice body: Gynecological teaching associates in medical education’ by J. Hall. The aspect of intimacy is the main focus of this chapter. How does the body react to and act, in the teaching of a specialised aspect of health studies.

S. DeLuca, P. Bethune-Davies and J. Elliot write on ‘the (de)fragmented body in nursing education’. Continuing on from the previous chapter, the ‘body work’ required to learning how to nurse are presented. How ‘phronetic practice and ‘practical wisdom’ are learnt and applied is the main focus of this chapter.

Last chapter in this part is by S. Denshire on ‘looking like an occupational therapist: (re)presentations of her comportment within auto-ethnographic tales’. Here, the ways in which the body is represented are unpacked through auto-ethnographic work. A personalised account is made of practice and how this constant interaction between what the body brings into practice, influences and must be continually reflected on to ensure the relevance and efficacy of practice.

The last part concludes with a reflective chapter by E. A. Kinsella with ‘embodied knowledge: towards a corporeal turn in professional practice, research and education’. This closing chapter, brings  together and summarises the many threads presented through the book.

Overall, a good introduction to the precepts of 'embodiment' and the implications of bringing in the myriad senses / feelings / perceptions from human activity. The continual work towards better 'knowing' is not only cerebral, but also bodily. One cannot be separted from the other. Yet, to date, there has been little emphasis on trying to understand the contribution of the body to learning. The book is therefore, a good introduction to considering the importance of understanding how humans live, through more holistic and integrated study.

Exploring Virtual expeditions

The introduction of VR into classrooms is now possible through the lowering of the cost of hardware and a building range of open resources to support VR field trips / virtual expeditions. Here in NZ, we are not short on natural landscapes but visits to culltural and historical sites are more challenging. Therefore, there is a need, in some discipline areas, to explore the possibilities of applying VR to enabling access to physical resources which are more engaging when learners are able to 'be there'.

Here are some resources to inform the processes of introducing and supporting virtual expeditions.

For a start, teachhub provides a good overview of virtual field trips possible with the use of Google. There is a link to a spreadsheet of shared virtual trips, mostly geographical but several historical as well.

Hardware for VR is summarised by techradar, although a bit dated from 2016. There is also a good list of alternatives to Google cardboard from vrlife.

Pros and Cons are discussed by pcarstensen.

Mike Rose's blog

While away just after Easter to support my aged parents, I managed to catch up on several blogs pertinent to my work. These will form the basis for the next few postings as it is important to match my perceptions with those of others who are also working in similar fields.

To begin:

It has been sometime since I checked out the blog of Professor Mike Rose - author of the book 'the mind at work - summarised here.

Professor Rose's work advocates for the recognition of vocational education as a valid pathway and his blog provides rationale for the adoption of 'pathways' and better funding and support for American community college. Also for schools to provide better alternatives to the academic track.

His blogs are usually long but well thought through and structured. Most are therefore 'essays', bringing together his thoughts on each topic rather than short bursts of commentary and links. In a way, the blogs summarise his viewpoints, albeit from an American perspective, of the state of play with vocational education.

His latest blog, posted mid- April, provides a good overview of the effects of the recent election of President Trump and its effects on the American psyche.

Of note is the blog of  21/3, on re-reading vocational education and the new world of work, which fits in well with my recent readings and blog posts on 'the future of work'. From Professor Roses' point of view, there is a need to raise profile and esteem of vocational education and ensure vocational education is widened beyond occupational focuses to prepare people for the 'gig economy - see examples from Channel Asia News on 'the sharing / collaborative economy'. Trades work, would I think, be the original 'gig; economy as historically, 'journeyman' craftspeople would obtain work as they travelled to learn more about their trade before attaining 'master' status. Many trades occupation require 'in-situ' work and are less threatened by 'outsourcing'. Although 'pre-fabrication' as per Dr. Philip Alviano from Master Builders Association Victoria from presentation at recent AVETRA  examples may well change the nature of even more trade occupations. So, as with all occupations, there is still a need to ensure workers attain skills to continually retrain, re-skill or up-skill to meet the challenges represented by AI, automation, robotics and technology-enhanced everything.

Future of work - labour party (NZ) final report

As signalled at last year's NZ Vocational Education and Training research forum and through posts last year - changing nature of work and through the presentations at the tertiary education symposium - the Labour Party in NZ (currently in opposition as the National Party is governing) has had a 'think-tank' on 'the future of work'.

The full report is now available, with the contentious 'universal basic income' given a small bit of space. The BBC provides a global viewpoint on the UBI and there will no doubt be more debate on this issue into the future.

Back to the report. The main rationale of the report is the forecasted changing nature of work, In particular, how technology will change the demographics, objectives, content of work. In NZ, prediction is for 45% of current jobs to be shifted by technology in the next 10 - 15 years through 'computerisation' aka as automation, globalisation and collaboration. The main risk to NZ is growing inequality between people who have the 'right' skills to shift with the times and people who are unable to re-train, up-skill etc. to move into the 'new economy'.

The recommendations are tempered by the Labour Party's 'social responsibility' mandate and it will be interesting to find out the National party stance on the issue. This year being election year in NZ, there will be opportunity to gauge each party's vision and strategy for the future of work.

There are 19 recommendations on education and training including important initiatives at the school level to improve careers advise at the secondary school level, introduce 3 years of free post-school education and training and create gateways back into education for older Nzers.

Security of work and income garners 19 recommendation including the support of 'self-employment, investigation of alternative income support models and providing training and support for workers who lose their jobs due to technological change.

There are recommendations specific to equity for Maori and Pasifika as NZ demographics indicate increase in population to come from this sector.

Specific recommendations are proposed for working with the impacts and opportunities for technology and balancing economic development with sustainability.

Many recommendations have been brewing for sometime through the public sector in NZ. As both National and Labour are basically centrist - National is centre right (slightly) and Labour is centre left (more pronounced), I would think that many of the initiatives in this report, will, at some time in the new future, become policy. Which ones will depend on the party governing after the elections later this year.

Innovating Pedagogy 2016 report

Via ignatia web, report on Innovating pedagogy for 2016 from a report by Open University and the Learning Sciences Lab, National Institute of Technology in Singapore.

A short (40+pages) report with following (out of 10 proposed) of relevance to eassessment project.
 - Learning through social media
- productive failure (i.e. learning thorough experience and from making mistakes)
- teachback (learning by teaching others)
- Learning from the crowd
- Learning through video games
- Formative analytics (developing analytics to help students improve)

The 2015 report is more traditional, advocating
- crossover learning (formal connected to informal),
- learning through argumentation,
- harnessing incidental learning
- context-based learning
- embodied learning

The 2014 report covered pedagogies now taken for granted e.g.
- massive open social learning
- learning design informed by analytics
- flipped classroom
- learning to learn
- BYOD
- dynamic assessments
- learning through storytelling
- threshold concepts

The older two reports advocate similar recommendations to the annual US of A Horizon reports. Trawling through the innovative pedagogy reports provide a good historical record of how pedagogy has shifted over the last 5 to 6 years.

We will need to mesh some of the above with the work on vocational education pedagogy. There are good synergies across the above and the work of Lucas, Claxton and Spencer. Summaries of the three pieces of work on this blog:

-vocational pedagogy
- remaking apprenticeships and
- practical guide to craftsmanship.

Plus also work from recent 'Learning a trade' project - learning as becoming by learning to do, think, feel and be within the NZ context of biculturalism for example with Maori trades training.

Each of the sub-projects in the eassessment project will integrate at least one if not more of the 'innovative pedagogies' and apply the recommendations from the various international and NZ vocational pedagogy studies.

NZ VET research forum day 2

NZ VET 2016 day 2

Wednesday dawns with rain clearing to blustery conditions with 20+km northerly wind. 

The day opens with MP Grant Robertson providing an opposition party viewpoint on the future of work commission. The Labour Party has convened a future of work commission with final report due first weekend of November at the Annual Labour Party conference. Provided rationale for the report and its links to the values and principles of the party. Summarised the value of work as per findings from a survey of union members , it is more than earning a wage, work provides challenge and satisfaction. Need for employer, unions, workers and government to face the challenge. How to move away from the trickle down to providing support on ground up innovations to work through technological changes to work composition. Recommends 3 years free training / education for every NZer along revamp of career advise at school and funding for young entrepreneurs. Need to adopt active labour market policies to ensure evidence based data available to populace for making ongoing career decisions.

Keynote from Professor Alison Fuller who speaks on her work with Professor Lorna Unwin on 'creating expansive apprenticeships: what are the challenges and benefits?' Provided a background (policy and historical) to place of apprenticeship in England and other countries. Context include uneven skill distribution, pipeline and productivity gap; concerns on prospects for youth and social mobility; young people's changing aspirations; and a growing international interests in apprenticeship. (See book contemporary apprenticeship edited by Fuller and Unwin). Need to shift from traditional paradigms of apprenticeship to newer solutions. Begin with studying how apprenticeships aligned or not to labour market. Relationship of apprenticeship to occupation still under developed and requires addressing. Overview of how occupation is conceptualised - skilled trade? Job vs occupation (Clarke, 2011) and Beruf which carries the image of occupation for life long learning and development. Post - occupational societies because of shifts fro long term employment and strong occupational identity to more generic attributes e.g. (Reich, 1991) - routine production, in person service, symbolic analytical services etc. need to broaden how a apprenticeship is constituted. Post occupation societies may be premature but provide an anchor for thinking bout how occupations may develop into the future. 

Provided contemporary UK initiatives on government supported apprenticeship. Rationale for adoption along with introduction to higher apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships. Over 53% of apprentices are female as many service occupations offer apprenticeship. Summarised the expansive - restrictive continuum and how it can be applied across workplace based learning. Now applied across many support structures for apprenticeship and workplace learning in NZ. Provided examples in the U.K health care sector of how continuum informs. Introduced the terms of high/low use and high/low exchange value. Use refers to clear occupational definition, exchange value to possibilities for moving beyond apprenticeship to higher skilled work and qualifications. Emphasised the importance of workplace as a learning and teaching in providing an expansive learning environment. Need to get learning right through apprenticeship as it will then shift policy. Important to involve all players contributing to expansive apprenticeships. 

After morning tea, a session with Heather McDonald, Anne Alkema and Adrienne Dawson on 'encouraging completion: Why do trainees drop out an what can we do about it; the principles of on-job assessment in ITOs. 2014 stats indicate completion over 5 years of trainees at 42% and apprentices at 51%. Overviewed the research approach. Shared interview fragments which example the restrictive workplace learning experienced by many non-completers. Learning at work sometimes unavailable, training and support variable, time to complete 'book work' found to be a challenge. Reasons for non completion tends to be cumulative with 'life getting into the way' and a tipping point occurring to push trainee or apprentice out of contract. Identified some as regretting and others as being relieved about completion. Regretters tended to move on to another form of work or restart. Does with a filling of relief tended not to re-engage. Presented roles of employer, ITOs and trainee in working towards completion. Experiences of trainees etc. we're very similar despite differences in support within industries. 

Principles for on job assessment connects well with helping to inform how to support all trainees and apprentices. Tapped into the work of Vaughan and Cameron (2010) with the principles are: partnership and collaborative approaches; assessments that support learning and skill development; qualified staff; and moderation systems. Advocates (Hipkins et al, 2016) to regard NZeA as diversity is n important feature of a responsive, resilient, complex system. Provided examples of learning conversations as a way to assess in the workplace. 

Next up, with Joanna Rhodes from Southern Institute of Technology who offers a summary of an inter-professional education project with medical interns and nurses in 'breaking down the silos'. Started with rationale and an activity to illustrate the need to work outside of silos. Described the inter professional education (IPE) between SIT and University of Otago with Southland Health Board, to bring 3 interns, 3 dietitians and 6 nursing students together. Shared    lunch to lubricate the process. Introductory activities to build teams. Then a simulated activity with 'patients' role played by tutors who don a rubber 'mask' transforming them to an elderly person. (Mask ed). The patient presents with an emergency and team have to work out treatment plans. Discussed advantages of using the approach. Detailed future work to continually evaluate and improve the process. 

After lunch, a digital keynote via Skype with Professor John Buchanan who is chair of business analytics at the University of Sydney. The presentation is centred around 'real world' progressions and their implications for VET' an NCVER funded project. He argues for a shift from mechanistic notions of skill to building 'tacit Vocational streams' and nurturing 'communities of trust'. Covered the why, how, what was found, was it worth it  and where next. Current policy to increase number of people complete qualifications but does this lead to success for individuals and nations? Reasons are actual connections between work and qualifications remain weak; complaints of skill utilisation continue and TAFE space being taken over by universities. 3 strands identified to research, VET to school pathways, VET to higher education pathways, and pathways connecting education to work.  Invested these in 7 strands. Found mainstream analysis and policy start at the wrong point, have to focus instead to human capital, Vocational streams and communities of trust. Summarised findings from each of the strands. Used example to unravel one of the strands - how pathways from trades move beyond. In agriculture, tracked how people move through qualifications over 10 years. Farm managers tend to have more predictable patterns. Manual farm workers tend to have very mixed horizontal movement across to other industries. Propose there are high skill, low skill and marginal trejectories through working life. Using 'braided rivers' as a visual analogy, the concept of Vocational streams is constructed. Developed categories of Vocational streams. Then an example on how to apply the framework. Also suggest trimming down number of qualifications from 197 occupational category qualifications to 27. Discussed ways to accomplish the rationalisation of qualifications. Detailed the pluses and minuses of the project outcomes. Proposed keys to fostering the Vocational streams approach by building the relationships and communities of trust. 

Back to concurrent streams. Dr. Alistair Shaw from NZ Union of Students' Associations. He presents on strengthening student representation in short and lower level courses. An Ako Aoteoroa funded project with Waiariki Polytechnic. Covered background, rationale and project approaches and findings. Need to ensure all students have a voice in how their learning experience is enacted. Tried out various methods to obtain feedback from students who do not usually engage with contributing to course or programme representation or with institutional evaluations (paper, survey, focus groups). Provided suggestions as to how to meet the needs of students. 

Last session of the day is with Dr. Averil Coxhead from Victoria University who reports on an outcome of the 'language in the trades - LATTE' project with 'thermostat, propane and OSH: a technical and pedagogical word list for plumbing '. Presented the methods used to develop a pedagogical word list for plumbing developed from written plumbing text for level 3 and 4 courses. The study informs course and resource design and also the construct of pre and post course assessments of plumbing knowledge. Project also has carpentry, automotive engineering and fabrication. Provided examples of the complex vocabulary for first languages students. Development of specialised corpus includes comparing with most common 20,000 words. Created new word lists for each of 4 trades from words appearing more than 10 times. Ran the lists through with trades tutors to find out commonality of words as technical term. An interesting presentation providing insight into complexities of linguistic analysis. 

Dr. Stanley Frieleck, new Ako Aoteoroa director and Josh Williams closed a successful conference with some reflections on the contributions from presentations. All in, a very good conference with pertinent papers of use to my own research and good overview for other participants who tend to pop in and out of the NZVET forums. 

NZ Vocational And Training research forum 2016 day 1

At the annual NZ Vocational Education and Training Conference on Tuesday 18/10 and Wednesday 19/10. 

Conference opens with mihi and welcome / haere mia from Ako Aoteoroa Kaihautu Matauranga Maori (Deputy Director Maori), Dr. Joe Te Rito and Josh Williams, Industry Training Federation - joint sponsors / conveners of the conference. Minister Louise Upton, Associate Minister for tertiary education, skills and employment, provides opening presentation to reiterate government's emphasis on supporting skill based learning. Challenge of keeping up with accelerating change in workforce composition due to technology. Summarised NZ context relevant challenges, engaging NEETs, encouraging women into trades, upskilling the older workforce, assist learners to make knowledgable career choices. 

Professors Ewart Keep from the SkOPE at Oxford university sets the scene with the first keynote on 'the role of employers, employer ownership of skills, be collective organisation and representation in vocational education and training'. Shared UK government's initiative with the Employer Ownership of Skill scheme, evaluating different models of collective employer action in skills. An action research project. 3 players in skills market, state, employers and employees. Employers are critical as they determine type, number and some direction on skills. Education and training sector tend to concentrate on supply no delivery rather than skill type. Roles of employers include forecasting, specification and design of qualifications, involvement in assessment and provision of work integrated learning. Not all roles leveraged. Discussed pros and cons of employer participation with caveat that various sectors come in with different motivations and perspectives. Shared UK responses via various projects to engage employers. Evaluate of these reveal a mixed picture. Prevented further decline in training volumes. No impact on employer investment, recruitment patterns, productivity or profitability. Slightly reduced apprenticeship take up and employee turnover. Short time frame of 2-3 years too short especially for scheme which is to provide long term impact. Covered why these findings occurred, providing examples of 'what not to do' to NZ.

My presentation comes up after morning tea when concurrent sessions begin I discuss the ramifications of 'capturing the invisible: the role of graduate profile outcomes in assessing the 'becoming' process'. In summary, I built on previous work connecting graduate profiles to occupational identity formation. Concrete examples and clarification are presented along with options for ways forward. Graduate profiles provide a tool for visualising occupational identity but there are nuances as individuals are graduates. Different organisations emphasis different skill needs to meet the demands of their market. Therefore challenges with ensuring aspects of craftsmanship maintained and how it can be recognised. The presentation focused on application of principles argued in two articles on graduate profiles published recently - the first setting the scene and linking graduate profiles to occupational identity formation and the second providing an example on how graduate profiles may be linked to occupational identity being conferred by others before self-inference.

Next up, catch up in David Earle's work on 'school to work: what matters? Education no employment of young people born in 1991'. From statistics of NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure. Shared the work undertaken which contributes to definition of NEET as no employment or training for 6 months, might be on benefit. 

Presented a series of snapshots on what happens to young people after school. Data of people born 1991 between 2006 to 2014. Gauged if they had gone overseas, continued on to tertiary, in work and NEET. Tried to find out what disengagement at school may lead to. Around 13% of the 60,000 have gone overseas by age 23 with some correlation between disengagement at school and going overseas. Disengaged students with low performance have very few going on to complete bachelor qualifications. Higher likelihood of those who are disengaged at school and who did not complete any school qualifications to be NEET although about 20% of NEETs have level 3 NCEA. 

After lunch, an introduction from Scarletti, one of the major sponsors of the conference. Specialising in return on investment, market research etc.

Then Jodieann Dawe National manager for research and engagement, from the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research. She provided a well-received overview of the various NCVER objectives and how NCVER supports VET research. Also introduction to politics, funding and federalism and responsibilities at federal and state levels. Covered the change to workforce through technology and the growing skills for  flexible future. VET needs to work in digital platforms, changing learner and employer needs, increased demand from mature aged reskillers. 2016 paper future VET. 

Attend session with Perrin Rowland and Dr. Helen Anderson from the Intueri Education Group on ' learning and technology: using technology to build the evidence base in Vocational Education and Training'. They presented on a project in the hospitality context on using mobile technology to support the feedback process on teaching and learning. Narrated the evolution of a e-feedback process for teachers and how this feeds into continuous improvement of students' learning. The result will inform learning design, create more effective learning experiences and gather and apply the feedback. My checkin101 developed to be a quick check in solution. https://my.checkin101.com/PXRBP9/latest/0

The thing explainer used to select appropriate words to use as site provides most common 100 words in each language. Checkin100 would email once a week for feedback but in first interaction, poor completion. Second round, tutor also reminded and tutor was able to obtain results and work on feedback after each round. Currently used across institute with all classes and students, tutors encouraged to work on feedback to improve learning experiences for student.

Then a presentation with Massey University's Jennifer Green with 'online learning professional development of registered nurses'. Based on action research project over 16 months to support professional development via on-line for nurses working in busy hospitals. Heutogogical and adult learning principles frame the work. Recommended the need to rework entirely, the learning design, when moving delivery to on-line. A one size fits all is also not the way to go either. What would then work? Need for quiet learning space at work; to fit into a busy workplace and home responsibilities ; transformation of content to suit adult learner with greater learner choice; help desk and video tutorials to assist with digital competence and confidence; 24/7 access; matched to learners' needs and awareness of organisational system, challenges and realities. 

Following afternoon tea, another session with David Earle  and Paul Satherley on Skills and Education, and work: insights from the survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), a shared output between Ministry of Education (Matt) and Ministry of Business, innovation and Employment (Kelsey Whyte) Covered data of relevance to NZ vocational education research community. Firstly provided an overview of what PIAAC measures, how it measures along a continuum and sorted into levels 1 - 5 or 6, participant countries and NZ contexts. Results from Literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology rich environments. Historically NZ does well on Literacy (4th) and problem solving but less so in numeracy (13/33). Between 1996 and 2006, large increase in Literacy at lower level and a bit less between 2006 and 2014.  Comparative data fro Maori and Pacifica show increased Literacy, small improvement in numeracy and lower in problem solving. Relationships to skills and work also presented. Qualifications mismatch was high. People with higher quals have access or undertake more learning activities.  

Last plenary session with Murray Sherwin, chair of the Productivity Commission summarising the relevant draft recommendations from the inquiry into new models of tertiary education. The report was commissioned by government to explore new models for tertiary education. Covered the overall rationale for report and parameters of the recommendations. There is a need to meet challenges wrought by technology, demographical changes, international competition and changing job market. Submissions now sought for the draft which has 71 findings and 33 recommendations with 10 questions seeking more input. Emphasised the concept of education as being 'co-produced' with students and others - institutions, teachers, employers etc. important need to shift present system is than there is still poor match between qualifications and work and does not cater to all the population, especially those with limited capital to begin with. Focus on finding ways to untangle present system to allow for innovation in pedagogy rather than present efforts on working around the current rigid system. Encouraged submissions by end of November. 

Busy but productive day ends with usual opportunity to network with the traditional project launches and drinks with nibbles. Three Ako Aoteoroa projects launched. Good practice in assessment for on-job assessment, understanding non-completion of industry qualifications and a mentoring model for ITOs and employers. 

Virtual Reality - vocational education applications

With my background in baking and patisserie, I have been a sceptic of virtual reality. Although visual input is important in learning baking, the whole baking process largely multi-sensory. Smell and feel are extremely important contributors to gauging various stages during baking. The real socio-materiality aspect about baking is tactile / textual. I often use the example of ‘being able to read the dough’ as it is mixed or handled. I encourage novice bakers to use their hands as in so doing, the feel the various physical changes cake batters or dough go through as they are mixed and processed.

However, VR is useful in many other trades. For example in construction, VR provides the ideal learning tool to learn socio-materiality aspects like spatial alignment and the ‘hidden’ utilities found in buildings (wiring, plumbing, heat / ventilation etc.). VR provides for access to parts of equipment or machinery which are usually difficult to get to e.g. in automotive trades. 

VR field trips to places difficult to get to (e.g. Mars) and VR games are also useful. Examples are more common in the schools as per this link and here.   Wired provided some higher education examples and hypergrid business looks into five ways VR could change education.

Hardware for VR is becoming affordable, examples are the OcculusVR goggles  (around the US$100 mark) and there is always the ‘maker’ option with Google cardboard which also requires a smart phone.

So as always, important to keep options open and to evaluate each opportunity to incorporate technology into education with the focus on learning. Does bringing VR in improve learning for the topic. If yes, is it a cost effective option, allowing for issues of ease of access to specialist equipment etc.

update 4/8 with link to bbc article on the problems and promise of VR. 

e-assessments

A collation of resources on e-assessments in preparation for a project of 'formative eassessments'.

There is an eassessment association in the UK with page with case studies and relevant journals including the international journal of eassessment - open access once you register.

Also a series of future of assessment conferences based in the UK with a vocational education focused series of conference with archives. The eassessment conference for education as a whole was in January 2016.

Australian resources include ebook by Crisp 2011 and an ncver report 2003 on online assessments for vocational education. Resources also from University of Melbourne site.

In NZ, Hazel Owen's blog and slideshare provides an overview of vocational education assessments. Ako Aotearoa has links in their resource guide to assessments and there is information from an etools project from Massey.

Overall, a good deal of information. Many discuss the pros and cons, especially related to summative assessments via digital methods. All also advocate the advantages of 'assessment for learning' via online, virtual / digital methods. So I think we are on the right track. To update the work from the past 25 years, current tools provide for even better possibilities to support the gathering of naturally occurring evidence / assessment for learning, especially to shift away from a predominantly text-based artifacts to multimodal / multimedia evidencing.

A practical guide to craftsmanship

Disclaimer, I am cited in this report.

From the prolific pens of Professor Bill Lucas and Dr. Ellen Spenser comes another piece of work commissioned by City and Guilds. This piece of work, focuses on craftsmanship. The website provides a link to the short (33 pages) final report. This report follows on from previous work on how to teach vocational education  which I summarised on this blog a couple of years ago and a more recent report on 'remaking apprenticeship' also commissioned by City and Guilds.

The report begins with an overview of the historical connotations of 'craftsmanship', arguing for whether it is appropriate in contemporary times and whether aspects of being a craftsman springs from expertise or attitude. In short, craftsmanship need not be limited to trade or manual occupations. As per Sennett, (see this blog for summary of the book 'the craftsman'), craftsmanship is an innate human desire to 'do things well'. So craftmanship aspects are desirable in the creative arts, computer programming (notice how many books there are out there on the craft of coding), teaching, health care etc. (see my article on how workplace culture impinges on how apprentices attain craftsmanship traits for discussion on craftsmanship and another on the learning of judgment)

The report is written chiefly for a UK audience - as per the sub-title - creating the craftsmen and women that Britain needs - so the two case studies used may resonate more with an anglo audiences.

The real gem within the report is the section on the pedagogy of craftsmanship - starting on page 11. Here the philosophies (signature dispositions, visible learning), the 3 strands of craftsmanship (learnability, becoming and culture) and challenges and presented and discussed.

Signature dispositions are a slant on signature disciplines - something perhaps still difficult to quantify due to the diversity of contexts in which craftsmanship traits are valued and promoted. An example I often use is from 2011 my study with apprentices in NZ. Glazing apprentices complete their apprenticeship in three distinct work organisations. Domestic glaziers install and fix windows in small buildings, commercial glaziers work with construction companies to install large windows in large buildings often using cranes and abseiling skills, and auto glaziers install vehicle windows. Each is a glazier but with a diverse range of skills pertinent to their work. 

Visible learning is based on the work of Hattie (see this blog for summaries on visible learning for teachers and visible learning and the science of how we learn) - for me, an extension of some of the precepts of cognitive apprenticeship.(see post applying to mobile learning) and aspects of deliberate practice (see summaries from this blog of books 2006, 2009 and critiques).

The table on page 15 provides a good overview of the report's direction, linking the desirable outcome of craftsmanship with the two philosophies of teaching (signature dispositions and visible learning) to dispositions (developing the techniques of persisting, envisioning, expressing, observing, reflecting, risk-taking, and understanding the domain). In turn, connected to the three strands (learnable, becoming and culture) to techniques for teachers. Each of the items in the three strands then discussed with examples and some guidelines.

Page 28 provides recommendations to vocational education teachers on how to go about 'changing your own approach'.

The report than concludes by returning to the discussion on the term 'craftsman' - should it be retained or an alternative sought?

Two pages of pertinent references provide a source for further exploration,

In all, a readable report pitched at practitioners that does not shy away from providing citations to support the concept. The synergy of approaches shown to work in the compulsory school sector and the requirements of industry is one of the strengths of the report. 

The Conversation - Australian forum for academics

While at the AVETRA conference a month ago, one of the websites that came up in a workshop session at use of social media by researchers / academics, was ‘The Conversation’. This website provides a academics to put up op-ed type articles on a range of topics including Arts and culture, business and economy, education, environment and energy, health and medicine, politics and society, science and technology etc.

There are version so of "The conversation for Australia, Africa, France, UK and the US of A. Becoming an author requires registration.

A browse of the education section reveals a few nuggets, including this article by Megan O'Connell and Bill Lucas on 'young people designing their own learning'. Generally, most articles appeal to a wide audience, hence articles relevant to the compulsory education sector and around Australian funding / policies.

A few vocational education focused articles usually on topical issues, sometimes in ‘reply’ to try to shift perspectives reported in the popular media. Examples include:

Gavin Moodie on vocational education being too complex, job specific and underfunded; 

Mary Leahy on reform of voc. ed. and time to end its exploitation of vulnerable people; and

Damien Oliver and Serena Yu summary of a recent NCVER report on relevancy of voc. ed.

So, another site to add to my 'favourites' / alerts as it provides commentary on socio-political forces which shape voc. ed. 

Maker Culture - some thoughts

Compulsory sector education has been promoting the adoption of 'maker culture' in schools. In NZ, one of the top ten trends noted is the rise of maker culture. The trend has come about through the advent of cheaper and more user friendly 3D printers - see inventables for examples.

Currently extends also to:

-  learning through 'mechatronics' (e.g. lego robotics), 

- the rise of learning coding at primary school - see UK example and theatlantic for a discussion on relevance or non-relevance to school 

However, as lamentated relatively recently by Matthew Crawford in his book - Shop class as Soulcraft - the work of the 'trades' already epitomises the 'maker culture'! See good overview / review by the new atlantis and my book summary  Ditto from the work of Mike Rose - with his book - the mind at work - book summary on blog.

Some acknowledgement within the educational sector of the need for academic learning to be extended through 'working with our hands' is better than none at all. So in a way, the maker culture, albeit with a 'tech' slant, is still a good thing. However, as with all 'trends', important to weigh up the pros and cons and work out what the overall learning objective.

The rise of maker culture, arose outside of the educational sector - see time for overview. In many parts of the world, 'maker culture' has always existed. In the post-industrial West, there is a revival in an appreciation of the skills required in manufacturing. retired tradesmen and hobbyist set up shared machine shops to craft machinery parts of trains, cars, planes etc. being restored as the parts are no longer manufactured. With baby boomers retiring, there is also an increase in 'men's sheds' and the female equivalents in the crafts. My' elderly' friends who belong to craft groups - knitting, crochet, quilting etc. tell me of younger women in their twenties, attracted to the crafts to fulfill the needs of 'being able to make things'. Many of these youngsters have not had the opportunity to learn crafts at school - concentrated on academic objectives. 

Making is therefore something innate in us humans. How to bring the many ways to 'make' into a cohesive objective, usefully integrated into the already crammed school curriculum, will always be a challenge. Trades still need greater visibility, not just as an alternative to academic learning, but as an integral part of being human. To be able to not only conceptualise but to also make.

GPS Doodling - uses in Vocational Education

This article came up on the Stuff website tweaked my techy muse. The cyclist, Stephen Lund, has been using his bike rides and his GPS to create GPS doodles. Stephen presented at Tedx and archives his doodles on strava. In the course of a year (20150, he has accomplished 70 doodles!! All completed through cycling around his home city of Vancouver.

There is a creative aspect to GPS doodling, but also a great deal of planning to plot the route before executing the ride. The uses of similar technology in education are numerous. Students, on field trips' could undertake similar trips, either as plotted on the GPS by their tutor, or to create their own 'piece of art'. Learning outcomes include important practicing of spacial skills and learning is made all the more powerful when authentic examples are availed through GPS guided field trips.

Will now have a chat with tutors who may find the idea useful :)

What' trades learning' and pedagogy can learn from music pedagogy

Came across this via the facebook page I follow intermittently. The page is looked after by the current band master of my school band. 40 plus years since I left school, the band continues it's strong tradition of excellence set by the first band mistress, playing a leading role in nurturing young people through learning  music and the discipline and camaraderie fostered through long hours of practice required to attain excellence.

Thestrad webpage focuses on supporting string players, with good resources on practice, technique, teaching music and collation of articles on repetitive practice and the need for effective practice. All in, a good resource of pragmatic responses to assist the learning of complex skills.

I had a look at other resources for learning music and came across some books including one on piano pedagogy.

At the CPIT library, there is a scholarly book on teaching piano – Teaching performance: a philosophy of piano pedagogy by Swinkin and published by Springer in 2015.

The book provides background (some historical) on approaches to teaching piano. The aims of the book are detailed in the introduction. Chiefly the book undertakes to try to resolve 2 dilemmas. One is to bring to the fore, the difficulty in studying music as language, the other is to push teaching of music beyond the technical, to instill greater intellectual depth, emotional sensitivity and interpretative skill in musicians. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an equivalent for trades pedagogy. So, there is a gap in the literature to be further investigated :)

coaches' eye - use in improving vocational education

We have been using coaches eye successfully (the Ipad App) for several years with hospitality students. Mainly for the improvement of skills and dispositional learning as students learn how to check in and check out guests.

This semester, we are trying coaches' eye app on surface pro tablets, with nursing students and office systems students. Nursing students to learn how to communicate with patients and other health staff using 'health' discipline protocols and office systems students learning how to chair meetings.

We have found coaches' eye to be better for skills learning rather than to improve communication skills requiring ongoing conversation.

Coaches' eye works best when there is not too much talking, and feedback is mainly on 'action'. In hospitality, the check-in / check-out process includes 'in-built' pauses in the conversational flow between receptionist and guests, allowing for aural feedback to be provided between students' activity. However, when there is a constant stream of conversation, it is much more difficult to provide oral feedback, as the oral feedback voices over the conversation between student and role play conversationalist. The pause button can be used to stop the video and offer feedback. However, there is a break in continuity in the learners' conversation and this lowers impact. Additionally, the role plays in nursing and office systems are quite long. Again, it becomes difficult to sustain attention when there are too many pauses in the feedback on a role play.

We are now working on focusing on key aspects of the role play. i e. what is the skill being practiced for each role play. Tutors then hone in on the key aspects and offer feedback only on key aspects. Meanwhile, I return to evaluating other possible video annotation tools, starting by a refreshment of work from several years back from two blogs in 2009, one on video analysis vs video annotation, the other on video analysis for multimodal discourse analysis.

Readings for reflective teaching in further, adult and vocational education - book overview

Readings for reflective teaching in further, adult and vocational education
Edited by M. Gregson, L. Nixon, A. Pollard and T. Spedding (2015) published by Bloomsberry

Website supporting textbook (in its fourth edition) and this book (first edition) along with a similar series through the educational sector – early childhood teaching through to higher education. The theoretical framework draws from the work undertaken in the UK in the early 2000s through their teaching and learning research programme (TLRP)

A collection of pertinent and some seminal readings relevant to vocational education. Five parts further divided into 17 sections covering a range of issues, topics and information in one book.

Part one – becoming a reflective practitioner has parts on 'identity' (defining who we are and what we stand for); overview of ‘learning’; summary of the concepts of reflection; and provides ‘principles’ of effective teaching and learning.

Part two – creating conditions of learning covers a definition, relationships, engagement and ‘spaces’ which includes the physical and the virtual.

Part three is on ‘teaching for learning’ with readings on curriculum, planning, pedagogy, communication and assessment.

Part four covers reflecting on consequences with sections on outcomes (monitoring student learning) and inclusion.

Part five – deepening understanding has sections on vocational educators own development of expertise and professionalism.

Generally a UK slant with most readings from UK researchers / educators although there is a sprinkling of authors from other countries. The book is recommended as an accompaniment to a textbook for vocational educator programmes in the UK, so contexts etc. pitched to that audience. Readings are generally short (2 – 3 pages) and are summaries or collations (a couple are of books) rather than the whole article. Reference is provided to the main source for follow up if required. Most still retain their academic style of writing. To provide focus there is a list of suggested questions at the beginning of each reading. 

Overall, the book is pitched at vocational educator / further education tutor course work within the UK context. The book is a one-stop shop for those interested in a general background on vocational education, including the latest thinking on curriculum design and pedagogy. A good reference book.