In vocational education, students learn in different school-based and workplace-based learning environments and engage with different types of knowledge in these environments. Students are expected ...to integrate these experiences and make meaning of them in relation to their own professional knowledge base. This study focuses both on what types of knowledge students learn in these environments and how they integrate these different types of knowledge. Individual and group interviews were conducted with students, teachers and workplace supervisors in a vocational programme in the Netherlands. Results show that students recognise the importance of vocational knowledge learned in school-based learning environments while they are in the workplace and vice versa, and continuously contextualise knowledge to make it applicable for new circumstances. Also, students learn differently at school due to their experiences in the workplace.
In the midst of current debates about the accessibility of public spaces, resurfacing as a result of highly visible demonstrations and occupations, this book illuminates an overlooked domain of civic ...participation: the office, workshop, or building where activist groups meet to organize and plan acts of political dissent and collective participation. Author Nandini Bagchee examines three re-purposed buildings on the Lower East Side that have been used by activists to launch actions over the past forty years. The Peace Pentagon was the headquarters of the anti-war movement, El Bohio was a metaphoric "hut" that envisioned the Puerto Rican Community as a steward of the environment, and ABC No Rio, appropriated from a storefront sign with missing letters, was a catchy punk name that appealed to the anarchistic sensibility of the artists that ran a storefront gallery in a run-down tenement. In a captivating discussion of buildings and urban settings as important components of progressive struggles in New York City over more than a century, Bagchee reveals how these collectively organized spaces have provided a venue for political participation while existing as a vital part of the city's civic infrastructure. The "counter institution" explored in this book represents both a conceptual and a literal struggle to create a space for civic action in a city that is built upon real estate speculation. The author reveals the fascinating tension between the impermanence of the insurgent activist practices and the permanent but maintenance heavy aspects of architecture. The actors she vividly describes—the war resisters, the Puerto Rican organizers, the housing activists, the punks and artists—all seized the opportunity to create what are seen as "activist estates, " at a time and in a place where urban life itself was under attack. And now, when many such self- organized "activist" buildings are imperiled by the finance-driven real estate market that is New York City, this book takes stock and provides visibility to these under recognized citizens' initiatives. Counter Institution is an innovative work that intersects architecture, urban design practices, and geography (cartography) on the one hand, with history, politics, and sociology on the other. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of activism in New York City and how the city can inspire and encourage political engagement. Through its beautifully illustrated pages—where drawings, maps, timelines, and photographs underline the connections between people, politics, and space—readers will discover new ways to imagine buildings as a critical part of the civic infrastructure and a vital resource for the future.
This longitudinal research explored beginning elementary classroom teachers' beliefs about learning to teach physical education (PE) across time. Understanding how beliefs shape the process of ...learning to teach PE can inform the design of more impactful physical education teacher education (PETE). We mapped beliefs over six years including the three years of an undergraduate elementary teacher education program and the first three years teaching in schools through reflective writing tasks and semi-structured interviews. Across time these beginning teachers believed that learning to teach PE required active participation in PE content, building of a resource bank of content ideas, and practice of teaching the content. Building competence in PE content through active participation combined with development of more complex understandings of PE content through PETE pedagogies can better support elementary teachers learning to teach PE.
A key challenge in vocational education and training (VET) programmes is the lack of coherence between the school-based and the enterprise-based parts of learning. This study explores the conditions ...that are important for the perception of coherence between learning in school and workplaces by interviewing apprentices enrolled in the Media graphics programme in Norway. In addition to the views of apprentices, the study also includes the perspectives of other participants in the vocational education system, such as media teachers and instructors in the workplaces and apprenticeship training office. The interview data revealed that the media education in school had facilitated the students’ learning primarily by allowing them to work on authentic media productions. Despite this, however, some of the apprentices experi-enced a lack of coherence between learning in school and learning in enterprises, mainly because there were few opportunities to specialise in their chosen vocation in school, and limited cooperation between schools and workplaces about placement periods.
When Is Dialogue ‘Dialogic’? O’Connor, Catherine; Michaels, Sarah
Human development,
01/2007, Volume:
50, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
It is easy to claim an ideological affinity with Dialogic discourse, but it is more difficult to understand how to enact this stance in one's classroom talk and interaction. In order to be maximally ...clear about the differences between ideological stance and discourse structure, these independent dimensions need to be isolated and labeled.
This paper analyses the inter-relatedness of layers of involvement, as contributing to learning, within a school sustainability project (the eco-classroom project). This engaged students, staff and ...community members (including professional practitioners) in an architectural co-design project that resulted, after 4 years, in a built classroom. The paper utilises an "ecology of learning" diagram to indicate layers and show connections, which are evidenced by findings from the project, alongside relevant literature in geographies of architecture and childhood, pedagogies of sustainable learning and children's participatory and co-design examples. In conclusion, the ecology of learning approach is critiqued and encouragement of more sustainability co-design projects with children is recommended. It is proposed this could lead to improved processes for all participants while promoting authentic and relevant sustainability learning.
The concept of “professional learning community” (PLC) has been suggested as a tool to improve teachers’ professional competency and students’ learning outcomes since the mid-1990s. In such a ...community, teachers can share their individual practices with the aim of searching for “good practice” based on the outcome of collective inquiry. Such a learning process will result in a reculturing of the school community by reshaping the existing values and cultures and resolving problems such as teacher isolation and individualism. China already has a long tradition of teachers working and learning collaboratively, so investigating collaborative efforts in this context may provide a view of how to contextualize professional development of teachers in schools. This study attempts to access teachers’ lenses in order to explore their views on the effects of subject-based professional learning activities. This also helps to explain how teachers work and openly share their practices aiming at improving their professional competency and student learning outcomes within their communities. Also, factors influencing the sustainability of a professional learning community will be discussed.
This paper reports on a study which explored the mentoring experiences of professionally unqualified practicing teachers enrolled in a part-time Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) ...programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study sought to understand the mentoring experiences these students received from their teacher mentors, who were also their colleagues. Data was collected through interviews towards the end of their programme. Drawing on the concept of teacher knowledge, findings indicate that some students experienced subject-specific mentoring, others received only feedback on generic pedagogic issues, and some received minimal mentoring. They reported content-specific and pedagogical mentoring as the most useful, indicating that this significantly assisted them in improving their teaching, even though they had been teaching for some time. It also emerged that some students received very limited mentoring, where mentors simply complied to fulfil university assessment requirements. The study suggests a need for more focused, comprehensive and ongoing mentor training for mentor teachers. The success of this would require collaboration between all stakeholders involved in departments of education and universities. This paper further suggests that university-school partnerships required strengthening, along with appropriate strategies put in place, towards ensuring mentoring effectiveness.
Worker centers are becoming an important element in labor and community organizing and the struggle for fair pay and decent working conditions for low-wage workers, especially immigrants. There are ...currently more than two hundred worker centers in the country, and more start every month. Most of these centers struggle as they try to raise funds, maintain stable staff, and build a membership base. For this book, Kim Bobo and Marién Casillas Pabellón, two women with extensive experience supporting and leading worker centers, have interviewed staff at a broad range of worker centers with the goal of helping others understand how to start and build their organizations. This book is not theoretical, but rather is designed to be a practical workbook for staff, boards, and supporters of worker centers.
Geared toward groups that want to build worker centers, this book discusses how to survey the community, take on an initial campaign, recruit leaders, and raise seed funds. Bobo and Casillas Pabellón also provide a wealth of advice to help existing centers become stronger and more effective.The Worker Center Handbookcompiles best practices from around the country on partnering with labor, enlisting the assistance of faith communities and lawyers, raising funds, developing a serious membership program, integrating civic engagement work, and running major campaigns. The authors urge center leaders to both organize and build strong administrative systems. Full of concrete examples from worker centers around the country, the handbook is practical and honest about challenges and opportunities.
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