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Vocationalising the Design and Technology Curriculum: A Case Study from Post-Compulsory Education

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Abstract

This paper analyses the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) in Manufacturing, a course recently introduced in England and Wales to provide a broad, vocational introduction to manufacturing industry for students in post-compulsory education. The paper opens with a brief introduction to the main characteristics of the GNVQ curriculum and assessment model. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the prescribed GNVQ Manufacturing course with particular emphasis on its outcome-based character. The paper then proceeds to a description of the enactment of GNVQ Manufacturing in three schools and colleges and seeks to account for the very considerable differences which are revealed between the three courses. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the analysis for the development of broadly vocational courses in technology and design and for the processes of curriculum construction more generally.

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Yeomans, D. Vocationalising the Design and Technology Curriculum: A Case Study from Post-Compulsory Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 8, 281–306 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008853910505

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008853910505

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