classroom observation software

Two comments (1 recent) on video analysis software, a post for end of 2009, recommend the use of ‘classroom walk through’ software to collect, archive and complete interim analysis of class room based observations. The two are ecove and observe4success. Both require download of specialised software to assist with the archiving and analysis of classroom observations.

I had a look through itunes apps on my ipad and find there are quite a few software tools out there for classroom observations, with ipad app options to link data collected on the ipad with PC resident main archive. Examples include classroom mosaic, ecove – general, special ed., administrator, esl.,  assessa+/ faculty tools,  reflect live,  lessonnote and tower mobile / randa tower. Most ipad apps are free but will only really work if they are synched to the PC or Mac based central repository. Therefore, the apps are for ease of data collection.

In the main, the tools revolve around checklists and collation methods for later discussions with indvidual teachers or for comparisons of teachers' classroom teaching across subject or year levels. I can work out that the tools will provide for consistency of data gathering. However, in professional development for teaching, it is the 'conversation' and reflection on the data that are important rather than the actual quantitative findings from how software collects and collates the data. The tools can also be useful for research data collection. But again with proviso to ensure it augments qualitative data, for example videos of class activities.

Seeing these tools are being now used in a 'mobile learning' way does provide some good ideas on how to use similar approaches to help students learn. They provide for a means for students to gather data from field trips, labs, practical workshops etc. and have the data collated for later followup, discussion, analysis etc.

Using video to help students' reflective learning process

As a follow up from our net tablet project, I have just started on another Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub funded project with Hospitality tutors Debbie Taylor and Heather McEwan. Two sub-projects using tablets (ipad2s and Toshiba Thrives) will be worked through. The first one is for students to use the ipad2s to video each other as they role play front office customer interactions. The second is to explore the concept of virtual field trips to replace hotel visits (as all the high end hotels in Christchurch are not inaccessible due to the 2011 earthquakes).


The first project, using the ipads to video student role plays has just started. Debbie and I are piloting this with a group of 1st year Diploma in Hospitality students. Our first hurdle was a technical one. How to attach ipads to a datashow so that Debbie could use the student videos as examples to encourage better/improved customer service practices. At present, we are trying out several cabling variations.

A literature search found several articles, mainly in the teacher education sector, on using videos to help enhance reflective practice. One article I have tapped for ideas is by Williams, G. Farmer, L. and Manwaring, M. (2008) on ‘new technology meets an old teaching challenge: Using digital video recordings, annotation software, and deliberate practice techniques to improve student negotiation skills’. The study was conducted with law students and although our project will not be going down the annotation route, I will follow up on the software mentioned in the article – Medianotes.

For the moment, we will concentrate on the ‘deliberate practice’ aspect, in particular, to identify the main skills students will need to develop, provide appropriate and timely feedback and assist the reflective learning cycle. For the feedback cycle, we will be providing students (as with previous projects) the guidelines to be able to feed up, feedback and feed forward (from  Hattie and Timperley's - power of feedback).

Tacit knowledge, Haptics and Embodied Knowledge - resources

Following up on several previous posts relating to studying how students learn a trade, three useful resources to explore further in tacit knowledge, haptics and embodied knowledge.


Professor Alice Lam from the University of London presents an overview of tacit knowledge, from a organisational management perspective. Table 2 summarises the individual/organisational differences for standardised and non-standardised work. So for individuals – standardardised work involves ‘embrained knowledge, non-standardised involves ‘embodied knowledge. On the organisational level, standardised work needs ‘encoded knowledge’ and non-standardised uses ‘embedded knowledge’. 

David Prytherch and Bob Jerrard from Birmingham University present an interesting paper ‘Haptics, the Secret Senses: the covert nature of the haptic senses in creative tacit skills’ through findings from a study of skilled artists and propose that skilled manual work (sculpting, glass blowing, glass engraving and blacksmithing) requires engagement of all senses. Visual sense plays role as a monitor while other senses are important in completing skilled work.

Lastly, a blog on embodied knowledge, featuring the work of Merleu-Ponty. An overview of another aspect of embodiment.

Engaging with organisational management literature on knowledge transfer

This week, I am undertaking a literature review for a new CPIT project, funded by Innovation New Zealand. This project is to evaluate the processes that work well for bringing CPIT staff expertise and industry knowledge through the sharing of the use of a 3D printer. My role is to be the ‘observer’ and to find out through survey/brief interviews, what works well and how knowledge transfer between CPIT and industry can be improved.
The field of knowledge transfer has several synergies with my current work investigating how novices learn a trade. For one, all the literature I have accessed thus far, acknowledges the social dimension of knowledge and how knowledge is created in companies through the interactions ‘workers’ have with each other, the products they manufacture, the processes and systems they are organised to work with and their on-going relationships with their stakeholders (customers, other companies, suppliers etc.). The recent book - 'making work visible' detailing the ethnographic research approaches at Xerox (previewed in recent blog) and the book 'the social life of information' being good resources.

So diving into the organisational management focused literature on knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and exchange and how companies innovate is re-visiting a familiar place, just with slightly different players/actors. Several articles advocate the need to support ‘communities of practice’ and the approaches are very socio-cultural. Of note are the discussions on tacit knowledge and how these can be nurtured, ‘captured’/harnessed to improve innovation. As all in, a fruitful week engaging with literature that is slightly different but also similar :)

NZ vocational research forum -- day 2

Day two opens with welcome from Dr. Peter Coolbear, CE of Ako Aotearoa. Provided a short overview of yesterday and connection to the contributions from today. Important to think about what the priorities are for VET research into the short and long term.

Keynote 3 is on 'Maori Learners in workplace settings' with Cain Kerehoma from Kahui Tautoko Consulting. An Ako Aoteoroa National project with MITO, BCITO, ETITO and the ITF that commenced in 2011. Other projects conducted in formal training so important to undertake this project on workplace learning. 40 plus learners in 3 regions (Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Wellington) from motor and building trades. Investigate how Maori workers learn in the workplace, what works and what are the barriers to sucess. Used focus groups and interviews to talk with (not about) Maori learners. From stakeholders, points to note include: learner attitude a key; ethnicity not a key factor in outcomes; failure attributed to family backgrounds and wider social/economic factors; some distinctive characteristics of Maori learners; and positive relationships a key. Feedback from learners include: learners come from multiple backgrounds; focused on 'getting the 'ticket'; importance of whanau support and expectations; relationships with employer; apprenticeship model works well; barriers occurred for accessing off job training; and some distinct learning approaches used (learning styles, shyness, wait for others to ask rather than approach supporters for assistance).

Attended session with Helen McPhun (McZoom) and Andy Graves (IAG training manager) on 'the proof's in the pudding: evaluation of a winning partnership. Looks into changes made to IAG induction programme - 4 weeks induction plus option to complete ANZIIF qualification over 2 years. Pilot run to provide four weeks induction, integrating modules of the NC in Finance (level 4) and rest of qualification completed over first year at work. Programme developed by determining parameters (cause), business needs, performance needs, learning needs, preference needs towards 'delivered solution'. -- engage learners reaction, stimulate learning, improve performance application and produce results on business impact. Evaluation of the pilot reveal high learner engagement, assessment activities stimulated learning, ability to apply learning, competency achieved between 2 - 4 weeks instead of at least 8 weeks.

Then 'lessons from ITO embedded literacy and numeracy' with Rose Ryan and Heather McDonald from plus Alison Doyle and Rosemary Sutton who also contributed to the project. reports on Department of Labour commissioned evaluation. Pilot projects fund between 2006 - 2008 and 2009 saw funding for capability building and trainee learning. In 2011, embedding became business as usual. Embedding supported by ITO PD activities, ITF good practice project and establishment of ITF literacy/numeracy network. Project was formative to look at range of models used by ITOs to embed; whether some models more effective than others; and what value is placed in improving lit/num for learners. Interviews conducted with 23 ITOs and case studies conducted (3 ITOs in 2010, 2 in 2011). Findings include ongoing strategic development in IT0S; awareness raising and capability building along with processes of assessment and diagnosis. Lessons learnt include: support from industry employers; need to build capability internally and with on and off job trainers; and sustainability of on-going change.

Keynote 4 is with Francesca Beddie, general manager, research, at the National Centre for Voc Ed Research (NCVER) in Australia. She presented on 'a common vision for VET research in Australia'. Outlined aspiration of NCVER to ensure public funding is spent wisely on research to inform tertiary ed and training. Every 3 years, NCVER undertakes by consulting with researchers, policy makers, training practitioners etc. leading to recommendations for VET research priorities. Important to set 'generic' priorities rather than specific recommendations due to fluid and dynamic nature contributed by social/political contexts. Included is need to continue building the evidence base; have high level evaluation aimed at assessing the impact of policy interventions; and continued efforts to build researcher capability. impact of research also important - four domains involved - knowledge production, capacity building, informing policy and informing practice.

A workshop on 'working together towards a common vision for NZ VET research' then took place. Session led by Mark Oldershaw and a list of questions to consider included topics for research; how to communicate research findings; and how to assist new researchers and build communities of practice.

After lunch, 3 more concurrent sessions. I attended the following
Siobhan Murray presented the Ministry of Education work on the Industry training review: Employer perspectives on VET. Part of review of industry training. Survey with interviews with employers. Survey gathered information on respondents (960 employers), types of training, decisions about training, access to training and opinions about VET system. 300 + employers had between 1 - 5 employees. employers more likely to invest in training for specific rather than all staff; regulartory compliance and upgrading staff skills in current job main training types; apprenticeship most common with training accessed via ITOs; qualification completion rated as very impt; and costs of having staff away from workplace and training cost main barriers to further training. Most common method was in-house followed by ITO organised. Employers value training and feedback also gained on ITO and training provider supports. areas for ITO improvement include type of training, better support for training and better communication.For tertiary providers type of training, better quality courses/tutors and communication/consultation.

Then a session with Sarah Crichton from the Department of Labour on 'Industry trainees and their pay rates. analysis of data from 2003-2008 for adults 20-64 of benefits from participation (120,000 with 95,000 trainees in employment before and after) in workplace based training. Generally, trainees completing level 1 qual. did not show gains. completing level 2 provided small gain in earnings. Level 3 a bit more and level 4 gained 7% increase in earnings. important gain in that trainees completing quals. tended to be still in employment after 3 years.

Lastly, Fiona Stokes from BERL reported on the work of measuring the economic costs and benefits of industry training. in general, economic benefits are gained from training and especially important in certain sectors (export). Presentation centred around key figures and on methodology used to derive the costs. Data gathered from usual sources -stats from Ministry of Education, Dept. of Labour and also interviews with trainees, ITOs, employers etc. Economic costs include cash funding from TEC to ITOs ($1550 - $2300) but NOT in kind costs (staff away on courses etc.). Also employer and employee costs. Role productivity training generally have low training costs ($2450-$8400) but significant and immediate impact. Occupational and trades training have higher costs ($60-70000 over several years), margin increases once trained but life long skills and on-going benefits to individual and industry.

Final plenary session discussed 'a way forward for VET research in NZ' through collation of the discussions at the workshop just before lunch. Topics to research - incentives/motivations/aspirations, what leads to success/completions, pathways, ROI, Skill utilisation, generic skills. Communication - website for VET research, forums, be more proactive - promote use of media, versions of publications for different audiences, common language/no jargon, more cross agency collaboration. New researchers - community of practice, mentors, networking opportunities, better cross tertiary communication and funding/seed money.
Panel of Peter Davies, Francesca Beddie, Peter Coolbear and Mark Oldershaw presented briefly on the collations.

Overall, a good conference with many focused and relevant papers reflecting the current political climate.

ITF NZ vocational education research forum

itf nz vocational research forum

welcome from ITF with Mark Oldershaw

Keynote one from Peter Davies, from the Policy Consortium in the UK on ' researching VET in a cold climate'. Provided an overview of the UK situation where research funding has been recently reduced and a recent report (Wolf, 2011) that recommended that young people should be discouraged from taking voc ed quals to the detriment of core academic study! Need for research to offer practical solutions, so although less research, they may have more influence where it matters.Provided an overview of various recent research pertinent to VET including low skills, older workers, apprenticeships, NEETs etc. Presentation also included developments in evidence-based approaches and lessons learnt in the UK. encouraged to check out Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) as a major evidence base on FE and training in England through the LSIS excellence gateway on-line portal with e-LMI tool also made available to support training provision to employers. VET pedagogy on effective teaching and learning in VET includes 5 inter-related components - teaching models, teaching content, teaching skills an strategies, teaching relationships and teacher reflection. Evidence based approaches include evidence producers, gatherers, synthesisers, tranformers and engagers - Coalition for evidence based education via Education Media Centre (EMC) - provides one point of contact, enhance research credibility and make findings more relevant and user friendly. www.policyconsortium.co.uk

After morning tea, two streams of concurrent sessions running, so attending ones with most relevance to my work.

"Getting to know the workforce in the tourism sector' with Joy Saunders from the ATTTO presenting work with Cristine Angus (Angus & Associates). Work done to help inform targeted review of quals (Troq), workplace development into the future. Industry survey to measure no. of staff, wage rates, seasonality of staff, staff characteristics etc. Major challenge to track down tourism based organisations due to diversity of industry and very large number of small businesses. On-line survey used with reminders via email and a prize draw.

A unified system for engineering diplomas - addressing the shortage of engineering technicians in NZ with Bill Cope from Competenz reporting on the process for developing two level 6 qualifications NZ Dip in Engineering and NZ Dip in Engineering Practice. One reason was the large number of NZ and local ITP Dips. Need to find out what students and industry think about the Dips?? revealing confused messages and lack of national consistency, not knowing actually what the qualification prepared them to do! NEEP project funded by TEC formed to develop a coherent national education plan for engineering. Started with development of a graduate progression map. Then define tasks undertaken by various technicians in civil, mechanical, electrical and process disciplines. Plus establish supply and demand.

High-viz partnerships: transforming on-job assessment with Karen Vaughan/Ben Gardiner (NZCER) and Andrew Kear from the BCITO. Find out processes involved in new assessment system and learning outcomes and contribute to evidence about effective assessment. New assessment system set up by BCITO to improve consistency between assessors, better quality assurance outcomes for the assessment process, involve effective partnership and learning resources focused on the learner. Moved from using 5000 workplace assessors to 75 roving assessors. Set up community of practice based on f2f internal moderation system. developing the Assessment team. Revising learning resources. Project studies the 'assessment space' where assessments include formal events, personal reflections, work evidence etc.

My keynote on first year apprentices of work place learning follows lunch. The occasion being the opportunity to officially launch the project with Ako Aotearoa. Audience receptive to findings and the brochure produced for apprentices to help them make a more studied decision about commencing and then beginning an indenture.
Then support for Flip from CPIT for his presentation on 'effectiveness of peer learning in a vocational education setting'. This project studied how students learn from each other in pre-trade training courses. four trades - electrical, painting/decorating, welding and carpentry. Proposes strategies useful to introduce peer learning to pre-trade training.

Followed by support for another CPIT colleague, Emma Meijer on Canterbury Tertiary College Trades Academy Success - 'the best of school and beyond'. provided background on what makes CTC work and future direction. Stressed importance of regional context and the need to consult and meet needs of educational (schools, ITOs, providers, industry) and social (family aspirations, local skill needs) stakeholders as a form of partnership. School work, plus trade/tertiary skills and includes full-time pastoral care co-ordinators.

To close the day, a plenary session called 'looking forward' consisted of presentation of projects that are in progress.
Diana Sharma from Unitec on a project called 'turning good trades people into great business people'. Presented on the work of the Unitec business development unit to assist SMEs become more effective/efficient businesses. Through collaborative venture between francise operation (Laser), University of Ballarat and Unitec. a three step process - capability assessment, receive customised learning recommendation and undergo intensive, flexible self-development programme.
Next, Doug Powhare from ESITO spoke on 'diversity: an industry collaboration' on project to increase representation of Maori, Pacific Peoples, Migrants and women in the electrical supply industry. Funding used to provide coordination support, develop aspirational pathways and mentors and establish a research framework.
Ian Elliot, CEO of plumbing, gas fitting and roofing ITO presented a project on evaluating ITO offerings to support educational judgements. Small project carried out 3 focus groups of plumbing/gasfitting apprentices at final block course (Dr. Lex McDonald & Dr. Anne Hynds from Victoria University). Apprentices perceptions of learning opportunities for industry-based training. Findings include: motivation was the key influence on whether participants perceived they were able to learn new skills and knowledge that could be applied in the workplace. Further research could include apprenticeship supervisors' understandings of how to motivate apprentices to learn and apply new knowledge and skills in workplace settings; and changes to effectiveness of learning through varying the ratio of on and off-job learning.

AVETRA - day 2 - 13th April

Keynote from Tom Karmel, managing director,NCVER, on the topic of research for industry. Discussed role of industry in education, with a need to define 'what is industry' as there is great diversity and made up of many parties, each with different perspectives and focuses. Chose examples from NCVER research to illustrate - value of completing apprenticeship, role of wages in completion rates, value of completing VET qual., match between training and labour market, role of VET in innovation, and VET and workforce development.

Professor Erica Smith from University of Ballarat on - managing apprentices and managing PhD students: Current concerns and transferable tips. There are similarities although both are at different levels and have different objective.

'Practice based research and critical pedagogy - rethinking teaching training for vocational educators' with Lisa Maurice-Takerei and Dr.Helen Anderson from Manukau Institute of Technology. Project on developing a qualification and a model constructed to move beyond technicist competencies towards development of professional knowledge. Literature from Leach (2011) on theory building, identity development (Seddon, 2009) and reflection on practice (Boud, 1993). need for voc. ed teachers to become reflective practitioners. Us of video to enhance critical reflection. Model includes pedagogy, content and transformation feeding into collaboration/theory building, reflection, discourse contributing towards identity, autonomy and theory. video useful for tutors to observe and then reflect on and then analyse towards their own substantiation of practice.

Stephen Billett on ' vocational education: standing and clarification of objectives' summarises one of the arguments that forms his book ' vocations education: purposes, traditions and prospects'. Low standing of some occupations leads to erroneous assumption that teaching and learning for these occupations will be less complex. Begins with overview of worth of vocational education but that it has suffered from low status, negative societal sentiments and unhelpful regulation and inadequate educational provision. Need to redress to secure a better balance amongst factors shaping voc. ed's purposes and practices. occupations arise through social need but vocations from personal direction. to proceed, occupation requirements are not uniform, so national prescriptions alone not sufficient. too much emphasis on the intended curriculum and not enough attention to the enacted and experiences, need to accommodate local decisions about occupational requirements, student readiness, available resources and experiences. those who teach and support learners often best place to make decisions about what should be emphasised. individuals decide how they engage with and learn from what is provided.

'Explicating forms of negotiating through personal work and learning practice'with Ray Smith from Griffith University. Presentation on personal work and learning practices - four forms of negotiation. Negotiation as a means of learning is under theorised and under specified. work and learning is purposeful and goal directed, along a continuum of purpose (deliberate to accidental) and a continuum of goal realisation (resolved to unresolved). Four contingent forms of negotiation can therefore have purposes and goals on vertical and horizonal axis, dividing negotiation into four quadrants. Realised (resolved/deliberate), discovered(resolved/accidental), concealed (unresolved/accidental) and protracted (unresolved /deliberate). provides for ways of categorising workers' work and learning practices as types of negotiations that differentiate processes and outcomes involved; bring a simultaneous focus to what and why workers do their work the way they do it - personalising and illuminating 'how' negotiated practice is enaced. Reduce the generice and taken for granted meanings of the concept and so enable a more expliciit conceptualisation of work and learning practices as negotiation - which is always more than a synonnym for interaction or co-participation.

Keynote 4 with Professor Anne Marie Bathmaker, University of West England (Bristol) presenting 'bringing practice back in: How practice shapes constructions of knowledge in vocational education. stems from a project on knowledge in general vocational education. Using 2 examples from further education in England. connections to work by staff and students was tenuous. In a example from science, the BTEC was seen to be a progression programme from FE to HE. Knowledge seemed to be mainly identifying and listing content and not going further by applying to practice. in contrast, performing arts example had strong linkages with industry, facilities were authentic (used by amateur companies as well as FE). Knowledge was things and skillls needed to practice in the real world, linking theory to practice. Young (2008) on shaping the knowledge in GVE and bringing knowledge back in.

Panel discussion closed the conference with next year's conference in early April in Perth. Panel of Tom Karmel, Berwyn Clayton, Craig Robson, Stephen Billett and Erica Smith, chaired by Llandis Barrett Pugh, discussed the quality of VET research in Australia.

AVETRA day 1 - 12th April

At the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) conference late last week. A good opportunity to network with mainly Australian VET researchers. A large number of presentations taking place with 6 concurrent papers presented at each time slot. I have selected the papers that are accompanied by refereed papers and which are related to apprenticeship, trades learning or trades teacher training.

Conference opens with welcome to country providing a good overview of the Indigenous perspective.
and official welcome from Dr. Llandis Barratt-Pugh - current avetra president - summarising the Australian context and current political landscape. Andrew Leigh, representing the Minister of Tertiary Education then provided overview of current federal government policy to provide opportunities for all Australians to contribute to the economy with VET playing a key role in preparing people for ongoing challenges presented by social, technological and political changes.

Keynote 1 from Robin Shreeve, CEO of Skills Australia,on 'aligning tertiary ed. with the demand for skills and qualifications in a changing world'. Firstly provided an overview of Skills Australia (which will be transformed with added remits in July). Then the challenges faced by Australia in the short and long term and how skills training may contribute. Three conceptual pillars used : apply concept of specialised occupations, develop, test and model multiple scenarios to achieve flexible policy reponses and fund users rather than providers. Described the 4 scenarios developed for the Australian context to replace pervious one based on work by Royal Dutch Shell. Models are - long boom, smart recovery, terms of trade stock and ring of fire. Proposes an integrated VET/HE sector to be more responsive to various challenges and meeting projected skills requirements from various scenarios.

Concurrent session 1 with Dr. Hilary Timma, Charles Sturt University, on 'eclectic approaches by worker-learners to authentic work based learning and assessment. summarised a project, following 13 mature-aged learners who had completed vet-based studies by distance ed. Mainly examined how people learn (and are assessed) in workplace, especially as developed through processes of social interactions in the workplace and through significant others who contribute to assist, encourage or comment on what is taking place. occupations included police, hospitality education, client services, business management and horticulture. framed by sociality of learning (Boud), communities of practice (Lave & Wenger) and workplace learning (Billett).

My session on findings from the 'first year apprentices project' then took place. good attendance and a broad range of questions at the end.

Session 3 on 'apprenticeship pedagogies in a Tasmanian RTO: What teachers say? with Rod Mason, Skills institute, hobart, Tasmania. investigates the approaches to traditional trade apprentice teaching and learning in the Tasmanian Skills Institute (TSI). What strategies are used and favoured and WHY. Teachers typically developed their won theories of learning style. completion of Cert IV might not equip teachers with appropriate skills. innovative approaches required knowledge beyond Cert IV level. pedogogies used were generally traditional (lecture/formal presentation, demonstration followed by practice, dependent and independent use of workbooks), flexible delivery included CD-Roms, online, self directed workbooks and some evidence of innovative strategies (computer based games, interactive DVDs). Choice of pedagogy tended to be based on past experiences, established practices within teaching teams and external industry demands.

Next session with Dr. Llandis Barratt-Pugh and Dr. Sue Bahn - how pre-site construction induction training improves work safety but illuminates the issues of on-line certification. reports on a project to look at mandatory pre-site training as offered in WA and impact of the study on current delivery methodology. Pre-site construction safety programmes need to change beliefs about workplace safety and also provide opportunities to learn and be able to deploy 'instinctive' responses (perhaps learnt through repetition). Evaluation of programme indicates programme was useful, but delivery mode, either f2f or online had mixed responses due to different needs of individuals and companies they work for. Some companies did not trust the online certification and this project findings did lead to removal of subsidies for online programmes.

After lunch, first session with Sonal Nakar on 'the voice of VET teachers: teacher dilemmas and its implications on international students, teachers and VET institutions. identified many challenges, some turning into dilemmas and all based on need to make some form of ethical decision. examples of dilemmas include: lack of resources and support systems for teachers in helping international students with differing IELTs scores; managing percieved inappropriate gift giving by students; inconsistencies amongst various VET institutions regarding curriculum, assessment standards and extent of the course; teaching subject without expertise. Recommendatyions include better partnership between govt and educators in policy making; toughened and consistent national framework for regulation to delivery high quality teaching and learning outcomes; greater opportunity for teacher qualification; and consistency in curriculum/duration delivery.

Next, 'Promises and expectations between apprentices, trainees and their employers' with Ros Brennan Kemmis, Sharon Ahern and Diane Middleton (Charles Sturt University). presentation introduces the concept of 'practice architecture, as apprentices, trainees and employers come into an already established pre-configured way of saying/thinking, doing things, and relating among the different kinds of participants (cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political dimensions). drawing a subsection from Smith, E. Walker, A & Brennan Kemmis, R. (2011) Understanding the psychological contract on apprenticeship/traineeship to improve retention. NCVER. (need to check). the study reported in this project Uses 3 case studies from the main study. where there were instances of differences between expectations and promises between apprentices and employers. in general, preconditions necessary to fulfil contract include: sound HR processes for recruitment, performance management; systems reward both tangible and intangible; early intervention; monitoring training both on and off-job and clear lines of communication.

Then paper from Anthony Wareham from Unitec - evaluating the effectiveness of plumbing and gas-fitting pre-trade programmes in NZ. Looked into theory/practical components of the programme and whether pre-trade courses provided skills/knowledge relevant for entry-level employment in the plumbing trade. 3 pre-trade courses evaluated (school based try a trade, plumbing and gas fitting 4 weeks 'taster' of a 16 week multiskills course, and students Gateway). programme evaluation criteria distilled with need to provide students with authentic work experiences to learn work ethics, be introduced to tools, work etc.

Also attended two sessions with unrefereed papers. The first with Alison Miller, Higher Ed. Qualifications pathways manager and Mary Leahy from L H Martin institute on 'connecting education and work: vocational streams and the capabilities of approach (Sen & Nussbaum)- due to interest in the capabilities approach. both explored the need to an improvement of pathways through tertiary education. Capabilities approach -- alternative to flawed theory of utilitarinism, focuses on what people need in order 'to be and to do', to live life they have reason to value, set political goals as capabilities rather than functioning, appreciation of the corrosive effect of entrenched disadvantage, intrinsic value of people, and humans are social beings.

Keynote by Dr. Salim Akoojee, university of the Witwatersrand, on 'towards a responsive TVET research agenda for the 21st century: Time for doing different things differently'. The presentation - explored the nature of VET research practice and the role of political-economy, provide a possible framework by which we could interrogate VET research and develop a 'responsive' TVET research agenda to take social justice as a starting point. An interesting and thought-provoking presentation, also reminder of Sen and Nussbaum's capability approach, of how transportation of processes that work in developed countries (e.g. national qualification frameworks) may not be suitable in developing world contexts. TVET research needs to ensure reponsiveness to political/social sphere and take a stand to ensure research is used responsibly.

AVETRA AGM followed then the conference dinner - a long day with several interesting presentations to mull over.

Jane Higgins on learner identity for young people who leave school with no or low qualifications

Attended a short 'lunch time' presentation by Dr. Jane Higgins, on - "Towards a learning identity: young people becoming learners after leaving school" -  at the mental health resource centre in Chch.

Jane's work with Judith Sligo and Dr. Karen Nairn on 'vocational imagination' the project on 'first year apprentices' experiences in the workplace. So good to do a catch up f2f with Jane and the work of the education employment linkages group at Lincoln University.
Jane presented initial findings from draft prepared for research participants for feedback. Strong themes coming through which are likely to be in final report. Final report will be on eel website.

She summarised research process, then defined learning identity and progreesed to discussing what supports formation of learner identity with respect to pathways into employment.

Project began with international research lit. review, then the mapping of educational-employment linkages provision in NZ for young people with low or no qualifications (which is in flux and change now). Interviews carried out with providers, policy analysts and the voices of the young people. Unable to make contact with NEETs (not in education, emploment or training) due to difficulties encountered last year through the Canterbury/Christchurch earthquakes.

Research question - what do young people who have left school with low or no qualifications have to say about the capacity of agenccies to assists, including facilitators and barriers.

12 focus groups in 5 learning organisations (n=51) - 2 learning centres with young people facing multiple difficult circumstances, one for teen mothers and one offering youth guarantees programmes

What learning took place across activities leading to NCEA levels, nat certs, drivers licence, or involving fitness, work experience, sport/leisure.

Young people construct a sense of self as a learner that changes over time and is mediated by the institutional structures in which they learn and which therefore impacts upon their view of work/career possibilities. Young people's understanding of their own learning capacities are critical to their aspirations and ability to engage with particular education-employment linkages. (eel lit review p.22)

Towards a learning identity - all participants were in learning environment, left school disengaged, most have been NEET for a period post-school, did not want to be NEET, saw themselves as learners, therefore significant identity formation.

Relationships (between learner and teacher) important in establishing recognition of transition from NEET, low school attainment to learner identity. Being provided with trust in their integrity, choices they could make, being treated as an adult, relevance and paced learning, small class size and positive encouragement.

matrix from 'positive youth development in Aotearoa: Weaving connections: tuhonohono tangitahi - WFCT - details low support/low challenge to high support/high challenge.

Themes on crafting pathways - individuals require emotional support (someone who understands, trustworthy, listens, have patience, high expectations, honest about employment). self motivation important. recommendation from known trusted source.

Finding a way into work - methods used include informal networks of tutors into labour market, individualised assistance, internet, acquaintances, career expos, job search assistance, work experience.

Maintaining a learner identity - and crafting a worker identity - what happens if jobs are not available?? points to fragility of the learner identity.

Current policy environment -- has challenges and may not solve all problems. Including:
Current focus on 16-17 risks missing those who shift towards learning identity over a longer time - confidence building is complex and take a lot of one to one support.
Pursuit of NCEA level 2 but may lead to organisations to replicate school. Gateway and trades academies do not currently cater for many of the young people who participated in this project.

Therefore, shift towards learning identity is a crucial moment for young people who have been in NEET. requires high levels of support and tailored education to facilitate and support, takes time and access to work experience and employment opportunities.

New Book - "Children of Rogernomics" - will be of interest and provide background to the impact of neoliberal economics on youth today.

Motor control and skill development in vocational education

As a continuation to last week’s blog, contributions from the field of sports psychology, dance pedagogy and the training of surgeons are summarised with relevance to the learning of trade 'motor' skills.


Learning a trade requires the acquisition of a range of motor skills. However, the literature is sparse when it comes to vocational trade skills learning and teaching. Each of the following disciplines studies motor skill learning from slightly different angles.

In sports psychology, behaviourists and cognitivists theories are brought together to study how to improve sports performance. For instance, a continuum of skill learning includes the cognitive, associative and autonomous phrases (Christina & Corcos, 1988; Fitts & Poster, 1967) with recommendations on whole vs part practice. Specific terms of relevance include proprioception – the sense of head, trunk and limb movement and exteroceptive – vision and hearing. Books in CPIT library include 'Motor control, learning and development' by Otley and Astill (2008); and 'Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance' edited by J.M. Williams (2010).

From dance pedagogy we have an example from the book ‘Meaning in motion’ by Jane Desmond (2003) Here there is the linking of motor skills development with roots in behaviourist learning theories to regarding the ‘body, tool use and cognition’ bringing together aspects of embodiment, identity, how the brain represents and make connections between the many sensory inputs.

Medical education includes many speciality areas requiring the learning of practical skills. Here is an example on teaching surgical skills by Reznick & MacRae (2006). The paper advocates the use of simulations to assist medical students to learn and deliberately practice the mechanics of the skill before they have to use subsets and variants of these skills in an actual operating theatre.

Therefore, there is a specific language from psychology, to describe various aspects of motor control and skills learning and examples from other disciplines studying, describing and some advocating strategies for application to learning and teaching. Next step for me is to to think through the interconnections, interfaces and synergies between the various approaches to understanding learning how to become a trade worker.

Pedagogy in vocational education

Over the last year or so, I have been grappling with how to best frame a study of ‘how apprentices learn to become’. A 2002 report , as an initial literature review precursor to the large number of projects commissioned by the UK Teaching and Learning Research Programme. The report review of the research, indicated a large amount of work still needed to be done in the vocational education/training and workplace learning sectors. A decade further along, there has been a great deal of work undertaken by the TLRI. However, from my point of view as a voc.ed. practitioner, there is still much work to be done to try to understand how to improve learning for vocational education students.


My catch up on reading over the last six months have focused on the more difficult to quantify aspects of learning trade skills. In my thesis, these have been things that encompass how people 'learn by becoming' beyond the skills and knowledge described in competency-based standards. Including dispositions (diligence, resilience, openness to learning etc.), soft skills, tacit knowledge, intersubjective understanding/distributed cognition, maxims or tricks of the trade etc.

Through exploration of the anthropological and neuropsychological literature, a few likely paths to explore have turned up.  These are:

• Marchand’s work on ‘embodied cognition’ through ethnographical studies as a student of joinery. Describing the ways in which bodily activity / interactions beween people, is similar to vocal communication with it's many nuances, socially derived perspectives to interpret messages and cultural connotations.
• Collins and Evans (2008) on interactional expertise and embodiment in the book ' rethinking expertise'. Here, as with distributed cognition, expertise is seen to not only originate from individuals but through interactions between people, teams and the shared decisions made to innovate, improve practice.
• Nielsen’s (2007) paper on encouragement to understand practice on it’s on merits and not as a dichotomy between theory and practice (with theory usually being perceived as at a higher level).  There is also the observation of the use of ‘circumspection’ as a mode of ‘reflection’ on practice involving the way in which people ‘look around’ when engaged with work (using tools, machinery, bodily movements) and understands the interconnections.

So my sense is to embark on a close observation and comparison between expert and novice and to try to figure out the role of interactional expertise and circumspection in attaining embodied cognition using work video as a means for data collection, as with previous projects.

The fundamentals of workplace learning:

Another ebook has arrived at the library. It is by Danish Professor Knud Illeris, who recently retired at the age of 70 from the university but is still active in research and consultancy.


The book is called “The fundamentals of workplace learning: Understanding how people learn in working life” and consolidates Professor Illeris’ many years of research and work.

Chapter two summarises ‘how we learn, and parts of this chapter are on Google books. The next chapter discusses the concept of the workplace as a ‘learning space’ Followed by a chapter bringing the concepts introduced and discussed in the previous chapters to explain the ‘two triangles’ advanced workplace learning model.

Chapter five enters into a discussion into competency, it’s role in workplace learning. Definitions and advantages /disadvantages of trying to explain work in terms of competency. The important things that competency does not address including aspects of insight, empathy, structural understanding and the importance of judgement.

Then follow 5 chapters on workplace learning in practice with the last 3 chapters ‘cross cutting perspectives’ connecting the introductory theory chapters with the workplace learning in practice chapters.

Overall, a slightly different approach from the various other theorist I am more familiar with. The model brings together the various socio-cultural influences on individual's and workplace contributions towards formation of work identity through engagement with workplace practice. Of interest is the blending of aspects of competency into the discussion and model.

Born to learn and overschooled but undereducated

Last week, one of the DTLT students from Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT), introduced the CPIT adult education team to the website – born to learn. 

The site summaries a book ‘ Overschooled but under educated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents by John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart (links to videos with John on learning in the early years and Heather on why education needs to change) .  Google books preview of parts of the first 4 chapters available.

The main premise of the book, build from a synthesis of contemporary research in neurobiology, cognitive psychology etc. is that humans are ‘born to learn, not born to be taught’. Therefore, schools have to encourage self-directed learning, personalised individual learning plans, foster the use of mentors and provide the opportunity for teenagers to practice at becoming better learners.

Of interest is the one of the authors’ experiences as a teacher chaperoning a group of senior high school students on a field trip to North Africa. The headman of the village tells the teacher that unlike the village kids, who at a similar age are already contributing to their family’s and community’s well-being and productivity, the kids from Western societies are still dependent on their family and are unable to accomplish even the simplest of domestic/agricultural tasks.

Also, there is a reflection in the first chapters of the book on the role of apprenticeships in helping the younger generation find meaning and status in life, and the role of adult mentors in providing young people with structure and challenge. Schools have taken the ‘factory model’ too far, dampening the natural instincts of their students by imposing a lock-step, one-size-fits all model. The current needs of humankind require more of schools including the need to prepare young people to face the big challenges like environmental degradation, globalisation, peak oil etc.

In all, not a new message, as evidenced by many other commentators, Sir Ken Robinson, John Seely Brown, Marc Prensky, dana boyd, Michael Wesch to name but a few well-known internationally, and locally in New Zealand we have Stuart Middleton and  Derek Wenmouth)  

The website has packaged the message into an easy to understand  and accessible medium for parents, teachers and policy makers.

Using Adobe Connect

This year, I am teaching one of the Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching courses. The course is called Learning ang Teaching 2 but is aka 'adult learning theories'. Students on the course are polytechnic teachers/tutors. This year is the second time I am running this course fully on-line. The students are based in two institutions in Christchurch and in Nelson. I learnt much from working with the students on last year's course. So this year, I have make plans to include a larger number of 'virtual classroom' type courses. Every fortnight, we meet for an hour or so to discuss the course content and activities posted on to a course Moodle site.

This week, we had our first virtual classroom session using Adobe Connect meeting space. We had a 'get to know how to use' session last week and as a result, the session went without too many technical hitches. Everyone managed to get their microphones and earphones working and were able to contribute to the session. I recorded our session from this week and had a chance to hear/see the action again today, providing me with a good opportunity to reflect on how the session.

At the moment, I am only using the simplest of approaches. This is mainly so  I can upskill myself but also to provide students with a chance to become familiar with the various icons in the meeting space. online conferencing protocols and become comfortable in the virtual classroom enviroment. As the course progresses, I intend to learn newer ways to present material and encourage input from the students. Working my way through the various features provided is a good way to learn and to model to students, how to use and improve on using virtual classroom structures.

On viewing the recorded session, I find that I will have to leave items on the screen for longer and to give students more time to respond to questions. Plus I need to work on encouraging students to 'raise their hand' to interrupt or take turns. I have also been trying to run the session with participant input by doing a 'round' but this can be intimidating to some participants and I have no recourse to body language to gauge when someone is ready to contribute or if someone is reluctant. I will need to collect some feedback on how the session went, so that the students are motivated to participate in as many of the virtual sessions as possible. So looking forward to the next session.

Apprenticeship in critical ethnographical practice - Jean Lave's new book

The new book by Professor Emerita Jean Lave and Professor Thomas P. Gibson  called 'Apprenticeship in critical ethnographical practice' (2011) is a wonderful read. It traces Lave’s journey as an ethnologists. Her initial studies of apprentices have contributed to a better understanding of how learning occurs in the real world. This book details her research of Vai and Gola tailors’ apprentices in Liberia in the 1970s. Threaded through the book is the practice of ethnography, the many facets of becoming a researcher through doing field work. Usual preview via Google books.

There is a recorded presentation at Universidad los Andes in Colombia– assumptions about how people learn and how work by anthropologist and social psychologists overturns some of these assumptions and suggests other approaches - summarising some of the concepts in the book.

I first found the book at the CPIT ebook library. However, it was frustrating to try to read the book at the office due to interruptions and the usual meetings interspersed through my work day. I then accessed the book at home on my ipad but had difficulty accessing the wifi in bed. So I had a look at Amazon and found the ebook at a reasonable price (NZ$15.12) so it is now on my ipad Kindle app and I have been able to dip in and out of it over the last two weeks. Each reading brings new learning. One Kindle feature is that the book shows up sections highlighted by other readers. I turned this off at the first skim read but for the current, more in-depth read, I have created and shared my own highlights and also paid some attention to what others have highlighted. As with all ebooks, the ability to bookmark and annotate is also a great advantage.


There is much in this book to absorb and reflect on. Lave’s passion for her work shines through every page in the book. She writes of her commitment to the task of critical ethnography and how doing research through praxis, involves also changing one’s whole ways of doing, thinking and being. In so doing, the researcher is continually transforming their identity, just as the participants they are observing grow as they learn and develop. Of importance is the ‘critical’ aspect. The critical ethnography researcher needs to be mindful of the impact of their fieldwork and to use their findings to help improve opportunities for their participants.


Chapter one is very much a deliberation on how research apprenticeship has also involved the researcher is undertaking an apprenticeship in critical ethnography.


Chapter two is an overview of Lave’s original work in Liberia, when she undertook to study the mathematics learnt through ‘informal’ learning. There are vivid descriptions of the tailor’s district and the apprenticeship system as practiced 40 years ago in West Africa.


Chapter three ‘becoming a tailor’ details the ways in which tailors learn their craft and how many of the skills learnt were also about ‘being a tailor’. The beginning of learning to be a tailor, involves entry points both into the trade/apprenticeship and into learning tailoring. The emergence of the well quoted ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ conception is described and substantiated with observations of how novice tailors enter the trade and begin tailoring by firstly learning how to sew on buttons. This not only provides a 'simple' task to master but the opportunity to examine the finished pair of trousers through 'tailors' eyes and hands'.


Chapter four goes into ‘testing learning transfer’. Here Lave describes a series of experiments she carried out with tailors, to find out if ‘school based’ type mathematics or algorithms would be similar in a workplace situation. The chapter also details much of Lave’s reflection on the effectiveness of this form of research method. A must read chapter on how embedding numeracy practices needs to be based on real-world practices and not just ‘school based’ learning couched into a different format.


Chapter five titled ‘multiplying situations’ goes into Lave’s strategies to improve on the work described in the previous chapter. Having found out that work-based mathematics was vastly different from school-based approaches, she describes in this chapter, her work at unravelling the salient structures that underlie work-based and real-life practical mathematics, what Lave calls ‘mundane maths’. The example used to explain the ideas learnt are apt. It is a record of a tailor, negotiating the best price from a customer, using quick calculations to ensure that he gained a reasonable profit, while the customer drove the price down with aggressive bargaining. How did apprentices learn this skill? And could such a skill have been learnt in a school-based system?


The last chapter ‘researching apprenticeship, research as apprenticeship’ links back to the discussion in chapter 1. I can relate well to how doing research via completion of PhD is very much a research apprenticeship. This brief chapter also lays out the foundational premises for situated learning so that the transfer of learning between school and real-world application is narrowed.


The references contain a wealth of anthropological literature to explore further. Many are pre-1970s to support the work as reported in the book but there are a substantial number of newer references I am not familiar with which will need following up.

Vocational education : Professor Stephen Billett's latest book

A hardcopy of Professor Stephen Billett’s new book ‘Vocational education: purposes, traditions and prospects’ arrived in the library just as I got back to work a month ago.  Usual preview also available on Google books. As much of the content is relevant to my research, I have put time  into working through the book.

In this book, Billett argues for better recognition/respect of the role of vocational education. To support the assertion he begins by undertaking a review of the positioning of vocational education through analysis of its historical roots, both in Western (Greek, Roman) and Asian (Chinese) traditions. Discussions continue by unpacking the connotations of the terms 'vocations' and 'occupations'. The historical valuing of vocations is contrasted to the more prosaic acceptance of the need for people to undertake paid work in the form of occupations. Of interest, is the collation of an argument for the deliberation of not only vocations but occupations as a calling. Thereby, closing the loop with regards to occupations and vocations, with some individuals, transforming their occupations into vocations.

The various economic, social and political pressures and continuous reforms within vocational education are then overviewed and brought together in the next few chapters on the development and purposes of vocational education.

Then a useful chapter, introducing, substantiating and describing the vocational education curricula as intended curriculum as decreed by standards setting bodies, enacted curriculum by those who deliver the learning required to take up a vocational occupation and the experienced curriculum as how learners/students encounter and engage with the learning. Parts of this are summarised in Billett’s keynote presentation last year at the Industry Training Federation’s (ITF) NZ vocational education research forum. The concept is useful when we assess the impact of vocational education on students who are being prepared (through pre-trade or university education) for work. Does the intended curriculum actually meet the needs of industry and is the curriculum as experienced by learners, actually sufficient preparation for the realities of work?


Overall, a scholarly book written for an academic audience. It provides good overview of the present state of affairs in the vocational education field. Vocational education is something governments require to assist with the training of a ‘skilled’ workforce. Yet, vocational education is more than ‘just training’, it prepares people for occupations , in turn providing livelihoods for many. For some, occupations are not just a job, but a means to also attain fulfilment. As vocational educators, we need to think through our objectives. Are we training? or educating? Does preparation for work also need to include many non-work related skills that help people become 'who they want to be and become'?  So, in a sense, the book raises many questions about vocational education's role - for individuals, society or humanity?

ebooks on workplace learning / education research relevant to vocational education research

There are now many ebooks in the CPIT library. During my summer trawl through the University of Canterbury library, I noticed many of the journals now only available as digital (as from 2008) and there are more books listed as ebooks on the library catalogue.
At CPIT, many of our ebooks are available via the eblib (EBL) subscription. You can either browse the books (5 minutes – arrghh) or make a request for a loan. Loan requests are for 7 days and there can be gap of a few days (for some books) before the access email arrives. Not the most user-friendly experience in comparison to just picking the book off the library shelve and flicking through it. I also checked access to the ebooks via my ipad. On-line reading worked without any glitches, the only drawback being the multiple logins required to obtain access.

Anyway, I worked through three ebooks a couple of weeks ago, as I requested them all on the same day. Something I will need to make plans around as working through three books in a week is heavy going.

The first book “Making work visible: Ethnographically grounded case studies of work practice” (2011) edited by Margaret Szymanski and Jake Whalen and the most relevant to my current work. This book records the work of Xerox and the work of well-known researchers in the field of workplace learning including Lucy Suchman and John Seely Brown. In a sense, it is almost a history book, as it documents the many studies made from the 1970s, on improving workplace learning but also machine-human interaction. Chapter one is a transcript from a presentation by Suchman, detailing the journey of the work practice and design project.

The second chapter is by Wes Sharrock and Graham Button, detailing their engineering investigations on ‘ what is made visible on making work visible?’. This chapter has a good discussion on the advantages and pitfalls of using ethnographical research methods (ethnomethology) to study workplace practice. As an example, they describe studies of engineers planning work and how these workplans may at times become barriers to the actual work progressing.

Chapter 3 is by Peter Tolmie on ‘uncovering the unremarkable’ and focuses on studies of software engineers working at home or at office, to understand ‘unremarkable’ computing a precursor of ubiquitous computing : having technology work in the background without acknowledging but using the capabilities when required. Although seemingly a simple task, the article details the complexities of uncovering the unremarkable, a clear warning to those of us trying to study and understand tacit learning.

Francois Brun-Cotton and Patricia Wild write on ‘work practices to understand the implications of nascent technology’, of relevance to our netbooks projects. Provides a good description of ethnography, based on collection of a wide range and volume of artefacts, both static and multi-media.

The next chapter is interesting reading both from the technology and cultural point of view. Diane Schiano and Victoria Berlotti work on ‘ using field study to inform the design of a mobile leisure guide for Japanese youth’ called Tokyo to Go. A good overview of how to conduct a field study using various approaches.

The above are from the first two parts of the book, the next two parts are less relevant covering ‘practices around documents’ and ‘the customer front’. The last two parts ‘ learning and knowledge sharing’ and ‘competency transfer’ – as applied to the projects detailed in the book, have a few chapters for follow up. The last chapter in the book is especially useful to my current learning about ethnography as a research method and how to introduce analytical thinking to other trades tutors. This chapter by Brigette Jordan on ‘Transferring ethnographical competence: personal reflections on the past and future of work practice analysis’ provides a realistic guide to mentoring others into the culture of ethnographical research.

The second book is written by Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl and Veronique Mertl called “how students come to be, know and do: A case for a broader view of learning’ (2010). Here, a research study of a group of American grade school students, is used extend the understanding of how people learn. The book strongly advocates a sociocultural approach to try to increase the numbers of women and minority people into the sciences.

The third book is Yrjo Engestrom's work on ‘from team to knots; studies of collaboration and learning at work’ (2008). Here, 6 case studies are used to illustrate the activity theory framework to study how teams work. The case studies include a TV broadcasting team to find out why the team has ‘stagnated’ in their work approaches; a court trial team as an example of a supposedly tightly restricted/controlled work, innovating possibilities to bring about efficient trial process; a primary health care team to study how newly constructed teams find their bearings and a mode of working together; a teaching team as an example of boundary crossing; industrial machining teams engaged in knowledge creation; and how telecom call centre teams build a shared concept and attain their own social capital. Good examples of how activity theory has been used to study diverse workplaces.

Common themes run through these three books. They are related to preparing people (and students) for a work life of continual change. Xerox’s studies and the case studies in Engestrom’s book provide insightful observations with some recommendations for future strategic learning directions. The book by Heerenkohl and Mertl offers one possible route for education to prepare the next generation for the complexities that lie ahead as humanity copes with social, technological and environment challenges.

The three books are part of the Cambridge University Press ‘Learning by doing: Social, cognitive and computational aspects’ series and over the next few months I will work my way through other pertinent books in the series.

Emerging approaches to educational research - book summary

Through browsing through another new book in the CPIT library, I started to work through the first few chapters in greater detail. The book is ‘the Sage handbook of workplace learning’ edited by Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns, Karen Evans and Bridget N. O’Connor. Chapter 2 by Professor Paul Hager on ‘theories of workplace learning’ provides a good overview of the three approaches , the theories influenced by psychological theories, socio-cultural theories and post-modern theories. So, time to update my knowledge on the post-modern theories through an ebook from the CPIT library ebook collection. The book is edited by Professor Tara Fenwick, Professor Richard Edwards and Peter Sawchuk and called ‘emerging approaches to educational research’. Fenwick presents a summary at the University of Technology last month.

This book provides a good introduction to why research approaches have shifted and moved towards trying to understanding the diverse nature of learning and the various contexts learning take place in. The book introduces, describes, discusses and evaluates the ‘sociomaterial’ research approaches or ‘four arenas’ for future educational research. The four arenas are complexity theory, cultural historical activity theory (CHATs), actor-network theory and spatiality.

Each of the four arenas is based on recent dissatisfaction with the inability of research frameworks to capture, study and explain ‘how people learn’. Each proposes frameworks / methods to try to account for the many material / non-material contributions towards how learning occurs. There is generally no ‘right or wrong’ answer coming through using any of the four arenas as research frameworks. Hence, the use of ‘post-modern’ as one categorisation for a raft of research approaches that go beyond the usual ‘qualitative/quantitative’ debate.

The common premises of the four arenas are:

Not dependent on the individual as being the sole focal point of study

Challenge relationships/binaries on which our understandings of ‘practice’ are founded

Challenge notions of context as being where the action is and allowing for a wider range of ‘contexts’ to be recognised

do not take reductionist stances but recognise the continuous dynamic nature of learning

acknowledge the complexity and ‘mess’ that represents the ‘real-world’.

Accept that learning is fundamentally difficult to pin down or to explain.

For me, the above represents some of the steps I have taken as a teacher/researcher, moving from trying to grasp the ‘known’ to understanding that the ‘known’ is slippery, dependent not only on context but on social/historical/ontological factors and attempts at explanation are always going to be incomplete. The above also challenge my grounding as a ‘socioculturalist’ in trying to explain learning as an ‘equilibrium’ between social affordances and individual agency with contributions from the various social relationships individuals encounter. Shifting towards a post-modern framework requires unpacking my current belief systems and evaluating another new way of looking at things.

There is a helpful explanation of the terms used in ‘knowing organisations:practice-based approach’ (book by Nicolini, Gherardi and Yanow) by Svabo – titled – ‘materiality in a practice-based approach’ also relevant to the ‘emerging approaches to educational research’ book.

Ibooks 2, ibooks author and itunes u app

Endgadgets has a brief summary of the latest Apple launch. An educational focus with details of ibooks 2 for purchase of textbooks, free Mac app - ibooks author - for those who want to compile their own textbooks and put them up on itunes and an ipad app for itunes U. A more educationally focused summary from the Guardian provides some balance.

Unfortunately, ibook has always been a dud in New Zealand as we are only able to access a small range of 'free' classics . Similar thing now with ibook 2, textbooks are only accessible within the US of A. As a teaser, there are two interactive books that we can download in NZ.  One a pretty picture book with animation is for younger children (the yellow submarine) and the other, and Introduction to life on earth. Both provide good examples of what is possible with interactive books, with a facilities for the book to be read out (yellow submarine) and video and interactive windows/sections (life on earth).

On the bright side, it will be interesting to try out ibooks author to compile interative textbooks. Something we will work on through the next couple of months. The ibooks author app is now downloaded onto the Learning Technologies Unit sandpit Mac and I have emailed a few tutors who might be interested, to try it out. 

I downloaded the Itunes U app on to my ipad this morning. A nice, clean interface which recognised my current itunes podcasts and popped them on to the bookshelf.  Straight –forward app store type layout to find and download more pod or vodcasts. I have been working my way through a series of podcasts from Oxford University on 'critical reasoning for beginners' and now downloaded a series on 'Nietzsche on mind and nature'. About 4-5 hours of podcasts on Nietzche, enough for the next two months of dog walkies :)

Working knowledge in the globaliizing world

I am putting the time in this week to catch up on reading of books recently purchased by the CPIT library. Firstly, a hard copy book edited by Liv Mjelde and Richard Daly as part of the series published by Paul Lang on studies in vocation and continuing education called ‘working knowledge in the globalizing world'. The articles in this book originated from papers presented at a conference in oslo in 2004 on vocational education and training.


The chapters in the book have been divided into two parts. Part one with writings on ‘working knowledge: work related learning’ and part two on ‘vocational education training: policies and practices in a globalizing world. I concentrated my reading on the chapters in part one although there are also a few chapters in part two marked for future follow up.

The chapters of relevance in part one are:

‘apprentices’ transfer of knowledge from school to workplace in the VET dual system: a study of a VET-programme for rescue officer’ by Vibe Aarkrog provides a good overview of the ‘transfer’ challenge. The main premise of the chapter is that more complex work situations tend to involve some form of customer service component. Least complex tasks tends to see a transfer of knowledge learnt at vocational school towards applying or replication of learnt knowledge/skills. Whereas more complex tasks involve interpretation / re-estimation and reflection of learnt knowledge/skills.

The second article by Faizul Bhyat is based in a South African printing press workplace context and discusses ‘From the particularities of practice to the generalisation of theory’. The author works with a team of printing press workers to enhance their understanding of printing based engineering through situated and applied learning of physics. An interesting article, detailing a strong theoretical framework, a good description of the challenges and case study and the possibilities for the approach to workplace learning. In the conclusion, the author summarises the approach as ‘consciously applying scientific thinking to industrial processes, through conscious introduction of concepts in their appropriate syntax and application context, provides a material basis for what has been previously been seen as the abstract language of science knowledge.’

Jeanne Gamble’s chapter on ‘what kind of knowledge for the vocational curriculum’ provides for a good overview of her work with apprentices in cabinet making. There is a good summary of Bernstein’s work on pedagogical practice and an attempt at explaining craft pedagogy in terms of the relationship between ‘externally visible performance’ and ‘internally held competence’. This leads to discussion on forms of knowledge in relation to the vocational curriculum. The main premise is that epistemology from academic and vocational traditions are both valid but need to be respected for what each has to offer. In respect to the vocational curriculum, theory and practice can be brought together, each with their context dependent meanings.

‘Cooperative education: learning to work- working to learn, and trying to make sense of it all’ is written by Garnet Grosjean to discuss the challenges of helping students learn through work based attachments / internships etc. The chapter provides overviews of activity theory, constructivism and socioculturalism as pertaining to cooperative education programmes, bringing the frameworks together to help students ‘become a professional’.

Tony Irizar and Adita Chiappy contribute the next chapter on ‘the concepts of ‘working knowledge’ and ‘zone of proximal development’ as applied to teaching English as a secondary language’. There is an overview linking the various concepts to enhance communicative language teaching and a call to acknowledge the contributions of zpd to assist students in learning a new language.

Last chapter in part one is from Liv Mjelde on ‘ workshop pedagogy in vocational education: working knowledge and the zone of proximal development’. Here the work of John Dewey, Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Vygostsky are synthesised with Mjelde’s work to explain how to best utilise the zone of proximal development to assist ‘apprentices and master’ reach learning goals through ‘learning by doing’ to move from simple/concrete to the complex/general; learning through goal orientated activity and the integration of hand, mind and heart.

Plans for 2012

After last year’s interruptions, I am looking forward to a quieter and more productive year. However, the year ended with a good shake up on 23rd December with another aftershock and we have had several reminders the earth is still settling in with aftershocks in the first week of January.

I am hoping that plans for this year will eventuate as CPIT braces for another year. I have applied for two Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub funded projects. One with hospitality front office receptions tutors Debby Taylor and Heather McEwen to improve students’ critical reflective practice in front-office reception skills using net tablets to record and archive role plays. The other with the manufacturing (fitting, turning and toolmaking) team led by Tony Smith, to evaluate their project based learning approach and to do an impact evaluation of the effectiveness of embedding literacy and numeracy into their programme.


The other important objective for this year is to concentrate on dissemination of findings from the many projects completed over the last three years and the PhD thesis. Not only in the form of academic journal articles, but presentations at relevant forums. For instance to trade tutors and industry / employers forums on the first year apprenticeship project and the peer learning projects with Flip.

An article by Michele Martin via a November blog from the bamboo project, provides some direction for on-going professional development. She introduces the concept of being a ‘social artist’ linking to the work of Wenger’s ‘learning citizen’.

My Xmas present to self was the book ‘designing research for publication’ by Anne Sigismund Huff. This highly readable book, is a real ‘must-read’ for postdocs and aspiring academics. The book is full of insightful hints and provides good guidelines to plan a research pathway and trajectory. Of note is the need to ‘find the right conversation’, something I need to think through as I presently have a diverse (but I think connected) range of research topics. Mlearning/use of technology in teaching/learning, vocational identity formation for apprentices and trades tutors, skills acquisition/learning of novice trades students, apprenticeship processes, eportfolios and constructive/inquiry learning etc. to name the main strands! Bringing structure and cohesion to find synergistic links with these research topics makes life interesting, but they need to be carefully brought together.


So, there is much to look forward to this year :)