School-Workplace connectivity: Exploratory study on conceptions of vocational learning and teaching across school and workplace settings
The integration of school-based and work-based vocational learning constitutes an important yet challenging task for VET systems across the globe.
Although various integrative teaching and learning models have been developed and several reform endeavours have been launched, implementation of these initiatives is not always straightforward and still poses some unresolved problems. An important factor that may facilitate or hinder successful implementation lies in how the different actors conceptualise the issue at hand, as these conceptualisations influence not only how people process and interpret information but also how they subsequently communicate and act. From this perspective, we consider the individual ways of representing the relationship between learning at school and in the workplace as implicit filters that potentially influence the experiences and actions of key VET actors. In addition, we agree with the socio-cultural scholars who emphasise the need for VET actors to develop a shared view of vocational learning and teaching across schools and workplaces as a holistic and connective-oriented learning project, instead of the outcome of a juxtaposition of separated experiences. In particular, three key aspects of the socio-cultural view of school–workplace connectivity are considered here:
- The need to overcome the theory/practice dichotomy in favour of a more dialogic view of conceptual and practical components of vocational learning;
- The relevance of abandoning the one-way sequential view of vocational learning (schoolà workplace) in favour of a bidirectional and circular understanding of learning processes between the school and workplace;
- The emphasis on transfer as a complex process of ‘recontextualisation’ and ‘transformation’
The aim of the study is to identify how teachers, trainers and apprentices conceptualise vocational learning across learning locations in the Swiss VET system, as well as how those conceptions are compatible with the socio-cultural view of school–workplace connectivity.
A preliminary qualitative interview-based research design is used in the Canton of Ticino, involving ten vocational school teachers, eight company trainers and eight apprentices involved in initial VET programmes in the fields of industry and business and administration. Interviewees were asked to express their opinions on how vocational learning across learning locations should occur. Descriptive, narrative and argumentative discourses are stimulated during the interview. The data were analysed by combining both data-driven (phenomenography – lexical co-occurrence analysis) and theory-driven (content analysis) text analysis procedures. Preliminary findings showed four ways of conceptualising vocational learning across multiple learning locations: 1) Detached view of vocational learning across the various learning locations; 2) Complementary view of vocational learning at the various learning locations; 3) Connection between vocational learning at school and at the workplace as mediated by intercompany courses; 4) Circular integrative view of vocational learning and teaching at the various learning locations.
From a socio-cultural perspective, the qualitative differences among these conceptions can be interpreted as a progressive shift from a more dualistic and unconnected view of vocational learning across learning locations towards a more integrated and connective conception of that process.
The Swiss interview study was replicated in Australia and in Germany. The comparative study is intended to examine differences and similarities in individuals’ conceptions in different countries. The Swiss-Australian comparative sub-study has been partially funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation - International Cooperation.