Abstract
This chapter considers the distinctive contribution of practice-based learning to New Zealand’s vocational education system. It contends that examining the way apprenticeship-like arrangements combine theoretical knowledge and practice competence is particularly useful for addressing questions about the kinds of knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for 21st life and work and how they are best developed.
The chapter draws on research with general practice (GP) registrars, carpentry apprentices, engineering technician cadets, and their workplace teachers and mentors, exploring “vocational threshold” experiences that act as a portal to new levels of practice capability (Vaughan, Bonne, Eyre, Knowing practice: Vocational thresholds for GPs, carpenters, and engineering technicians. Wellington, New Zealand Council for Educational Research and Ako Aotearoa, 2015). The vocational thresholds that learner-practitioners must cross – developing expertise with uncertainty (GPs), reframing technical know-how with craft values (carpenters), and developing a social eye (engineering technicians) – are notably dispositional in nature. This underscores the critical role of ontology (nature of being), as well as epistemology (nature of knowing), in capability development. The chapter argues that this makes the inherently integrated approach of practice-based learning apposite for a knowledge society requiring attentive, proactive, and wise practitioners.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, the University of Canterbury’s community hub which builds on the “Student Volunteer Army” Facebook campaign to respond to community needs following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.
- 2.
For example, the University of Auckland’s Career Development Centre PhD internships pilot.
- 3.
See the Education Act 1989, the Industry Training Act 1992, the Industry Training and Apprenticeships Amendment Act 2014.
- 4.
Wānanga is TEOs established under the Education Act 1989 by New Zealand’s indigenous Māori people.
- 5.
The interview question was adapted from Grossman et al. (2009) and another question in a study about tertiary education courses and experiences prior to entering careers in clinical psychology, the clergy, and teaching (Grossman et al. 2009).
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Vaughan, K. (2018). Even Better than the Real Thing: Practice-Based Learning and Vocational Thresholds at Work. In: Choy, S., Wärvik, GB., Lindberg, V. (eds) Integration of Vocational Education and Training Experiences. Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 29. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8857-5_10
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