Higher education providers need to deliver graduates with the conceptual understanding required for professional life. Conceptual understanding entails a synthesis of relevant facts, theories and ...practices that influence occupational performance. To help align curricula with individual student differences, this study investigates differences in international business undergraduates' conceptual understanding with regard to study progress. Seventy-four international business students of a bachelor's programme in the Netherlands participated. Students were presented with a complex business problem. They then wrote essays in which they explicated their conceptual understanding of the case. Using a rubric, six components of conceptual understanding were graded on a 5-point scale ranging from negligible to extraordinary. Results indicated three types of conceptual understanding: limited, developing and extensive. Their relationship with study progress was nonlinear, indicating that effects other than curriculum may account for differences between students. Suggestions are made to account for differences, and recommendations are made regarding curriculum development.
Learning environment designs at the boundary of school and work can be characterised as integrative because they integrate features from the contexts of school and work. Many different manifestations ...of such integrative learning environments are found in current vocational education, both in senior secondary education and higher professional education. However, limited research has focused on how to design these learning environments and not much is known about their designable elements (i.e. the epistemic, spatial, instrumental, temporal and social elements that constitute the learning environments). The purpose of this study was to examine manifestations of two categories of integrative learning environment designs: designs based on incorporation; and designs based on hybridisation. Cross-case analysis of six cases in senior secondary vocational education and higher professional education in the Netherlands led to insights into the designable elements of both categories of designs. We report findings about the epistemic, spatial, instrumental, temporal and social elements of the studied cases. Specific characteristics of designs based on incorporation and designs based on hybridisation were identified and links between the designable elements became apparent, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the design of learning environments that aim to connect the contexts of school and work.
Educational institutions and vocational practices need to collaborate to design learning environments that meet current-day societal demands and support the development of learners’ vocational ...competence. Integration of learning experiences across contexts can be facilitated by intentionally structured learning environments at the boundary of school and work. Such learning environments are co-constructed by educational institutions and vocational practices. However, co-construction is challenged by differences between the practices of school and work, which can lead to discontinuities across the school–work boundary. More understanding is needed about the nature of these discontinuities and about design considerations to counterbalance these discontinuities. Studies on the co-construction of learning environments are scarce, especially studies from the perspective of representatives of work practice. Therefore, the present study explores design considerations for co-construction through the lens of vocational practice. The study reveals a variety of discontinuities related to the designable elements of learning environments (i.e. epistemic, spatial, instrumental, temporal, and social elements). The findings help to improve understanding of design strategies for counterbalancing discontinuities at the interpersonal and institutional levels of the learning environment. The findings confirm that work practice has a different orientation than school practice since there is a stronger focus on productivity and on the quality of the services provided. However, various strategies for co-construction also seem to take into account the mutually beneficial learning potential of the school–work boundary.
This article analyses the dilemmas and practical tensions in implementing competence-based vocational education. Eleven case studies were conducted, including observation of lessons and interviews ...with teachers and students. The results show that schools meet various fundamental issues in realising this approach. A crucial question is how to stimulate the acquisition and use of a way of knowing and thinking that is based on vocational theory. Reflection, authenticity and coaching are relevant characteristics that are hardly put into practice yet. To understand these results the article reflects on factors that account for the distance between promising concepts and actual teaching practice.
► Dilemmas and practical tensions in implementing competence-based vocational education. ► Eleven case studies in technical secondary vocational education. ► Analyses by using a practice-based model of powerful vocational learning environment. ► Characteristics like coaching, reflection and authenticity are scarcely found. ► Teachers struggle with how to stimulate knowing and thinking that is based on vocational theory.
This article focuses on the development of professional learning communities (PLCs), which are communities within schools, composed of voluntary participating teachers facilitated by school ...principals with a specific task to accomplish as part of a larger innovation project. Four PLCs were observed during 3 years by using questionnaires and participatory research. The questionnaires revealed that PLCs differed in their group characteristics, collective learning processes and outcomes. Through participatory research, we explored seven elements affecting the development of PLCs, namely, task perceptions, group composition, tensions between roles, beliefs about alignment, reflective dialogues, socialisation and ownership. Beliefs about alignment, ownership and socialisation had sufficient impact on the development of the PLCs. A case study including two contrasting PLCs indicated interrelations between task perceptions and ownership by members and between ownership and socialisation activities. Regarding implications, this research suggests to explicitly create and facilitate reflective dialogues and ownership over time for PLCs to flourish.
Supervisors are responsible to train students in healthcare placements. Although there is knowledge about workplace learning and supervision in general, little is known about supervisors' pedagogic ...strategies in specific healthcare placements. In this study, we identify how supervisors' reasoning and interrelated actions manifest in physiotherapy and nursing work settings.
Following the stimulating recall approach, we conducted 16 interviews with supervisors at seven work settings. Using a theoretical framework of workplace supervision, we performed a deductive template analysis.
Four configurations of pedagogic strategies reveal how supervision manifests in healthcare placements. The results provide unique insights into specific supervision moments, and elucidate the situatedness of the supervisors' strategies.
The present study illustrates the variation in aims and focus of supervisors in placements. Supervisors' pedagogic strategies were found to be mainly based on (A) role modelling, (B) overall support, (C) trust, and (D) letting go. Further research is needed to investigate the interplay between supervisors and students in learning situations within work settings.
•Review of 42 journal articles on learning environments at the school-work boundary.•Identification of three categories of learning environment designs, based on school-work ...connection.•Cross-contextual learning environment designs can be based on (1) alignment, (2) incorporation, and (3) hybridisation.•Specific design characteristics discerned from a spatial, instrumental, temporal, and social perspective.•A conceptual framework to describe and compare vocational learning environments.
This article introduces the concept of Personal Professional Theories to refer to knowledge development within the context of vocational education. They are personal interpretations of formal ...theories, work process knowledge and notions about professional attitude in a specific occupational domain, and are assumed to be frames of reference for professional experiences and guides in action simultaneously. To make detecting development in personal professional theories possible, strategies need to be validated for revealing them. Two strategies i.e., concept mapping (CM) and a combination of CM with stimulated recall (SR) are compared, by grading them on three aspects of adequacy (i.e., richness, coherence and content), to see which one reveals personal professional theories better. The sample consisted of 16 students of two training courses. Both strategies succeeded in Revealing personal professional theories: The constructed maps displayed personal interpretations of formal theories, work process knowledge and notions about professional attitude. However, the concept maps of the combined strategy did worse on all aspects of adequacy. The CM strategy appeared better for Revealing personal professional theories. Several explanations are offered, which deserve further investigation. Hence, despite the project's small scale, the outcomes provide in interesting clues to reveal personal professional theories.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the school-work connection from the perspective of curriculum design. The aim was to uncover considerations underpinning the design of learning environments in vocational ...education. The research took place in the Netherlands. A focus group methodology was chosen to elicit designers' considerations, which generally remain largely implicit. These considerations concern the designable elements of learning environments: epistemic, spatial, temporal, and social elements. Design considerations were uncovered at each of the aggregation levels of a curriculum. At the macro-level, considerations referred to the connectivity between the contexts of school and work. Based on these considerations, different designs were chosen along the school-work continuum. At the meso-level, another continuum was found: the complexity in terms of practices involved in the learning environment. At the micro-level, concrete design considerations were revealed that designers take into account to strengthen the school-work connection. Thus, design considerations at three levels were made explicit. Moreover, the need for alignment between the designable elements and the curriculum levels became more apparent, leading to a deeper understanding of curriculum design for vocational education. This paper adds understanding of ways to strengthen the school-work connection and design future-proof vocational curricula.
How to design learning environments leading to learning-, thinking, collaboration- and regulation skills which can be applied to transferable, knowledge oriented learning outcomes is still ...controversial. We studied the designs of learning environments in innovative higher professional education more closely. To characterize learning environments we identify designable elements and position them on a scale ranging from specified, to emergent elements. Next, the main problems with the designs are identified. We introduce adaptive elements as a potential solution. We observed participants adapting such elements to suit their own needs or the needs of others. The designable and adaptive elements fulfill a dual function: they should offer contextual clues that would be available in professional practice and scaffold learners in need of support.
PDF
