This paper investigates entry-level student teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching in the Further Education and Training phase (FET) through Baseline Assessment. The study employed a ...quantitative research technique. The data collection instrument was a mathematics subject knowledge test (Baseline Assessment) for FET phase student teachers. Purposive and convenient sampling methods were employed in the study. The study enlisted the participation of 222 first-year mathematics education student teachers from a rural Higher Education Institution (HEI) specialising in FET phase mathematics teaching. One hundred and seventy-five (175) student teachers completed the Baseline Assessment for all grades in this study (10, 11, and 12). The Baseline Assessment findings were examined using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that student teachers have a moderate knowledge of mathematics topics in the FET phase at the entry-level. In addition, an adequate level of understanding for teaching Grades 10 and 12 Patterns, Functions, Algebra, Space and Shape (Geometry), and Functional Relationships. While the elementary level of understanding for teaching grade 10 Measurement, Grade 11 Patterns, Functions, Algebra, and Trigonometry and Grade 12 Space and Shape (Geometry). There is no level of understanding for teaching FET phase Data and Statistics and Probability. The paper suggests that student teachers must develop a comprehensive understanding of the mathematics curriculum with the assistance of teacher educators in HEIs.
Recruiting and retaining vocational education and training (VET) educators is an increasing challenge in countries across the world. So understanding their transition and retention is vital to the ...development of a sustainable workforce. This paper draws on interviews with senior administrators of Australian training providers and survey data from practising VET teachers and trainers to identify factors that most influenced these educators to remain in what was, for most of them, a second or later career. The research found that the major influences on retention of new educators in VET were partly extrinsic, including employment conditions, lifestyle balance and support for professional development, and partly intrinsic, including a supportive culture and job satisfaction through enjoyment of teaching and giving back to industry. The findings provide training providers with a clear indication of what encourages educators to make a long-term commitment to VET teaching and what motivates them to perform at their best once they have made the transition.
Helping beginner and veteran teachers to develop technological knowledge and skills in how to use new information and communications technologies (ICTs) to teach is a critical component of teacher ...preparation in this digital age. This article reports on a study in which 117 beginner and veteran (experienced) Computer Application Technology (CAT) teachers at 11 government Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in Gauteng, South Africa, completed a 65-item questionnaire. The questionnaire addressed 13 knowledge constructs, using a 5-point scale which addressed the nature and context of CAT teachers’ procedural, functional and pedagogical content knowledge (PrFPACK) in an ICT-enhanced classroom. Additional data was solicited using classroom observation and interviews to understand CAT teachers’ PrFPACK and e-skills in the use of ICT resources. The data was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and thematic analysis. The research findings revealed a number of significant differences in beginner and veteran CAT teachers’ PrFPACK. The results of the study confirmed that professional development of beginner and veteran teachers in the use of new ICTs in the digital age should be an ongoing effort in all educational institutions. It is imperative to train both beginner and veteran CAT teachers in an innovative method of teaching with ICT resources.
In this article we discuss findings from an exploratory Irish online survey that examined professional practice issues for adult guidance professionals working in the Irish Further Education and ...Training (FET) sector. We explore current guidance counselling provision to adult learners in the context of major structural and systemic reforms that have been taking place in the FET sector since 2013.
Digitalization and automation have increased substantially in recent years and are reshaping the working world. These fundamental changes alter employee training needs and training programs. They ...create new employment opportunities, may cause excessive demands or raise fears of job loss. The extent of the societal transitions induced by the ongoing digitalization call for high-quality research data. In this paper, we introduce a new multi-dimensional survey module on digitalization and its consequences for the working world, which has recently been implemented in the adult cohorts of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). We show how well and for which employee groups the newly developed survey questions capture experiences with digital technologies at the workplace. We test for the applicability of the instrument with regard to gender, age, education, and job tasks and show that it predicts employee's actual participation in further training. Moreover, we show the potential that results from the combination of the new survey module with further key strengths of the NEPS data such as its life-course or competence measures.
Digitalisierung, der Einsatz vernetzter digitaler Technologien und Automatisierung haben in den letzten Jahren stark zugenommen. Sie prägen die heutige Arbeitswelt. Dieser tiefgreifende Wandel führt zu veränderten Weiterbildungsbedürfnissen und schafft neue Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten. Aber er führt auch zu Überforderung oder der Angst vor Arbeitsplatzverlust. Das Ausmaß der durch die fortschreitende Digitalisierung induzierten gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen erfordert qualitativ hochwertige Forschungsdaten. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir ein neues mehrdimensionales Messinstrument zur Digitalisierung der Arbeitswelt vor, das in den Erwachsenenkohorten des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) implementiert wurde. Wir zeigen, wie gut und für welche Beschäftigtengruppen die neu entwickelten Items die Alltagsrealität am Arbeitsplatz abbilden. Wir prüfen die Anwendbarkeit des Instruments im Hinblick auf Geschlecht, Alter, Ausbildung und Aufgaben im Beruf und zeigen, dass es die tatsächliche Weiterbildungsbeteiligung von Beschäftigten vorhersagt. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir das Potenzial auf, das sich aus der Kombination der neu implementierten Items mit weiteren zentralen Stärken der NEPS-Daten - wie der Lebensverlaufserfassung und Kompetenzmessung - ergibt.
PurposeMentoring processes and relationships can prove crucial to teachers in the initial phases of the teacher education continuum. Limited research exists regarding mentoring in further education ...and training (FET) in Ireland. This paper attempts to address this gap, illuminating and unpacking the “mentoring stories” of five teachers in FET.Design/methodology/approachThe overall project adopted a narrative approach. Data were collected via in-depth interviews, part of which clearly focussed on participants' lived experience of mentoring. Thematic analysis revealed four overarching themes.FindingsThe themes reveal a spectrum of practices and perspectives on the role of mentors. There are ample instances of collegiality, mutual respect and an appreciation of the professional life stage of the mentee. However, evidently a lack of understanding of who mentors are and what they do persists, leading to some informal approaches and opening up the potential for misinterpretation and misalignment.Originality/valueThis paper sheds light on an area of FET practice that has been relatively unseen before now. It gives voice to those who have experienced mentoring in the Irish FET sector that, to a degree, has seen structural and attitudinal transformations in recent times.
This qualitative study explores the views of nine teachers working in the Further Education and Training in Ireland regarding the use of technology. Drawing on in-depth interviews, thematic analysis ...exposed a techno-positive perspective and a hierarchy of technologies with newer technologies being valued more. A sort of 'intangible' quality is ascribed to technology, which we labelled 'techno-magic'. The study uncovered a phenomenon of 'techno-guilt' where teachers blamed themselves for not using new technologies. The study concludes that there needs to be a new dialogue that moves beyond pro/anti-technology and empowers teachers to approach technology with a more critical perspective.
The current process of assessing creative writing essays (using the correction code and the rubric to mark the pre-final and final drafts of essays in the Further Education and Training band) does ...not provide useful feedback that learners can use to improve their creative essay writing skills. This discursive paper highlights the basic flaws of the process. Amongst others, is the issue of the holistic nature of the rubric feedback presented to learners on their essays, the generic essence of the rubric in assessing different essay types as though they are similar and the divergent focus of the rubric feedback on the macro-scale issues from the focus of the correction code on micro-scale essay features. The argument here is that the different foci of the two assessment tools leave learners with uncertainty on what they need to improve in their writing, thus impairing the whole process of assessment. This study recommends, inter alia, an inclusion of rubric feedback in pre-final drafts and the expansion of rubric feedback presented to learners.
► This paper applies the capabilities approach to the broader debate of the role of vocational education and training (VET) in poverty alleviation. ► The central argument is that VET has an important ...role to play in poverty alleviation which includes training for employability, but also includes the expansion of other central capabilities.
This paper applies the capabilities approach to the broader debate of the role of vocational education and training (VET) in poverty alleviation. The capabilities approach provides an approach for conceptualising and evaluating VET which differs in orientation from dominant productivist conceptions. It does so by shifting the focus from economic development to human development. By placing the well-being of VET students at the centre of our concern it shifts the lens from income generation and with it employability to a lens on capability expansion which includes but is not limited to the capability to work. The paper is based on interviews with 20 South African Further Education and Training (FET) college students. The central argument is that VET has an important role to play in poverty alleviation, but only if located in a multi-dimensional view of poverty which understands poverty as capability deprivation across multiple human functionings. In this broader notion of poverty, the role that VET plays includes training for employability, but also includes the expansion of other important capabilities such as, and in the voice of a FET student interviewed in this study, ‘the ability to dream’, or in the language of the capabilities approach, the capability to aspire.
Owing to the mixed-bag effects of religion on society, and particularly South Africa's history with religion as embedded in the oppression of and liberation from apartheid, a recent curricular review ...has seen the introduction of teaching about religion in the Life Orientation (LO) curriculum. From our standpoint as academics in Religion Education, we question whether the current curricular arrangement is potent enough to carry the mandate of the National Policy on Religion and Education (hereafter referred to as the religion policy) of promoting religious literacy. To answer this question, we subjected the LO curriculum to content analysis, assessing the underlying content and pedagogical assumptions within the frame of scholarship in religious literacy. While doing so, we make critical reference to the religion policy with the aim of reflecting on government's intentions with RE in schools.
PDF
