“What’s going on?”
An overview of current research on
vocational pedagogy
Dr Kevin Orr
Context
The Nuffield Review (Pring et al 2009: 6) found that the longterm history of education in England had left a legacy
which they summarise in five points:
1. “Persistent ‘tri-partite mentality’ that constantly
threatens to revert to seeing young people as
‘academic’, ‘technical/vocational’ and, to be brutal, all
the rest.”
2. “Continuing failure to obtain parity of esteem
between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ qualifications
except by distorting the very aims of the new
courses.”
Context
3. “Ambivalence towards what is meant by
‘vocational’.”
4. “Inability to get the necessary recognition of new
qualifications from employers and higher
education.”
5. “Transient nature of new qualifications”
Growing interest in
vocational pedagogy
• Edge Foundation (2010) Mind the gap:
Research and reality in practical and
vocational education
• Review Vocational Education –The Wolf
Report (2011)
• Learning and Skills Network (2011) Effective
teaching and learning in vocational
education
UK Commission for
Employment and Skills
UK Commission for
Employment and Skills
“The current system has over 19,000
regulated vocational qualifications available
through 176 awarding organisations. Many of
these have limited take-up: 1,780 vocational
qualifications account for over 90% of
achievement.”
Adult Qualifications Review (2012: 11; my
emphasis)
How to teach vocational
education: A theory of
vocational pedagogy
(2012)
Commission on Adult
Vocational Teaching
and Learning (2013)
Reclaim pedagogy
“The evidence suggests that serious
consideration of pedagogy is largely missing in
vocational education and … vocational learners
are the losers as a result of this omission.”
Lucas et al (2012: 13)
A matter of policy, not accident
“…the knowledge and theory which actually
underpins professional performance is acquired
in a somewhat ad hoc manner, largely through
experience, when the individuals encounter real
problems in practising the profession or doing a
job.”
Gilbert Jessup (1991:126)
Don’t frighten the horses…
“Can we use the term pedagogy?
A robust vocational teaching and learning system
must be underpinned by a serious focus on
vocational pedagogy. And yet, as we have gone
round the country visiting sites of vocational
teaching and learning and in our seminars, of all the
terms we have discussed the one that gets people
most agitated is ‘pedagogy’.”
(CAVTL report 2013: 13)
Why does VET pedagogy matter
“Given the complexity of skill it is not sufficient
from a pedagogical perspective merely to
practise as a means to improve.”
(Winch 2010: 45)
CAVTL: two salient ideas
“A clear line of sight to work is critical because
vocational learners must be able to see why they
are learning what they are learning, understand
what the development of occupational expertise
is all about, and experience the job in its context.
The real work context should inform the practice
of vocational teaching and learning for learners,
teachers and trainers.”
(p7)
CAVTL: two salient ideas
“The key enabling factor is the VET system
working as a two-way street, not further
education and skills operating as a separate
‘sector’. The two-way street is about genuine
collaboration between colleges and training
providers, and employers.”
(p7)
CAVTL
“The best vocational teaching and learning combines
theoretical knowledge from the underpinning
disciplines (for example, maths, psychology, human
sciences, economics) with the occupational
knowledge of practice (for example, how to cut hair,
build circuit boards, administer medicines). To do this,
teachers, trainers and learners have to recontextualise
theoretical and occupational knowledge to suit specific
situations.” (p15)
What is understood by vocational
pedagogy?
“vocational education needs to be taught in the
context of practical problem-solving”
“the best vocational education is broadly handson, practical, experiential, real-world as well as,
and often at the same time as, something which
involves feedback, questioning, application and
reflection and, when required, theoretical models
and explanations.”
Lucas et al (2012: 9)
Knowledge and pedagogy
“The best vocational teaching and learning
combines theoretical knowledge from the
underpinning disciplines (for example, maths,
psychology, human sciences, economics) with
the occupational knowledge of practice (for
example, how to cut hair, build circuit boards,
administer medicines).”
(CAVTL Report 2013: 15)
Reductive risks
“phrases such as ‘learning by doing’, ‘hands on
learning’ and ‘practical learning’ can perpetuate
the unhelpful dualism of mind as separate from
body and suggest that vocational learning
needn’t bother itself with the acquisition of
underpinning knowledge (a problem that some
NVQs still wrestle with).”
(CAVTL Report 2013: 34)
Knowledge and pedagogy
Daniels (2012: 8) makes the distinction between
“theoretical or context-independent knowledge
and everyday or context-bound knowledge
[which] have different structures and different
purposes.”
The former can provide the “capacity for
generalization.”
Knowledge and pedagogy
“If vocational education qualifications are to
enable people to gain valuable knowledge and
skills, and are to open up opportunities rather
than constrain and limit futures, then questions
of knowledge in these qualifications, and how
these questions are decided, are crucial.”
Bathmaker (2013: 88)
Who is vocational pedagogy for?
“The privileged access of the powerful to
theoretical abstract knowledge provides them
with the ability to mobilize knowledge to think the
unthinkable and the not-yet-thought.”
Wheelahan (2010: 9).
“powerful knowledge”
Powerful knowledge
To enable “access to the knowledge
[people] need to participate in society’s
debates and controversies…[and] to
participate in ‘society’s conversation’”
(Wheelahan 2010: 1)
References
Bathmaker, A. (2013) Defining ‘knowledge’ in vocational educational qualifications in
England: an analysis of key stakeholders and their constructions of knowledge,
purpose and content, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 65 (1), 87-107.
Claxton, G., B. Lucas, and R. Webster (2010) Bodies of knowledge. How the learning
sciences could transform practical and vocational education. London: Edge
Foundation.
Daniels, H. (2012) Vygotsky and Sociology, London: Routledge
Faraday, S., Overton, C. & Cooper, S. (2011) Effective teaching and learning in
vocational education, London: LSN
Lucas, B., Claxton, G. & Webster, R. (2010) Mind the gap. Research and reality in
practical and vocational education. London: Edge Foundation.
Lucas, B., Spencer, E & Claxton, G. (2012) How to teach vocational education: A theory
of vocational pedagogy, London: City and Guilds.
References
McLaughlin, F. (2013) CAVTL Report:It’s about work…Excellent adult vocational teaching
and learning, London: Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).
Shulman, L. (2005) Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedelus, 134, 52-59
Pring, R., Hayward, G., Hodgson, A., Johnson, J., Keep, E., Oancea, A., Rees, G.,
Spours, K. & Wilde, S. (2009) Education for All: The future of education and training
for 14-19 year olds, London: Routledge.
Wheelahan, L. 2010. Why knowledge matters in curriculum. A social realist argument,
London: Routledge.
Winch, C. (2010) Dimension of Expertise, London: Continuum
Wolf, A. (2011) Review of vocational education. London: Department of Education.
Young, M. (2008) Bringing knowledge back in. From social constructivism to social
realism in the sociology of education. London: Routledge.