Vocational Learning, 2011 Innovative Theory and Practice Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects Series, Vol. 14

Effective knowing and learning for vocational purposes must take account of the wide range of variables that impact on knowledge formation and that promote learning. In light of those many variables, the formal sector of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) must constantly ask itself what it could and should do to better provide vocational learning for those people likely to pursue learning via the informal sector. This book addresses that question.

Vocational Learning: Innovative Theory and Practice discusses four theoretical aspects of vocational learning that support understanding of vocational learning processes and practices: the situations of vocational learning; the power and roles of social networks and identity in vocational learning; knowing and knowledge management processes; and the implications for pedagogic practices in both informal and formal TVET systems. The book provides an overview of a series of international examples of innovative approaches to vocational educational theory and practice, and it draws on empirical research to analyze the effects of those approaches. It includes unique insights into aspects of TVET for Indigenous peoples. With a discussion of policy implications for Europe, North America and Australia, this book is an instrumental tool to understand the underlying factors that generate effective educational and workforce outcomes through effective formal and informal learning.

Preface.- Introduction.- Editors.- Authors/Contributors.- PART A – THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF VOCATIONAL LEARNING.- Chapter 1: Innovations in Theory and Practice.- Chapter 2: Social Partnerships in Learning: Connecting to the Learner Identities of Disenfranchised Regional Learners.- Chapter 3: Where the VET System meets the Performativity of Vocational Learning: Borderlands of Innovation and Future Directions.- Chapter 4: Constructing Learners as Members of Networks.- Chapter 5: Competence as Collective Process.- PART B – CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES OF VOCATIONAL LEARNING.- Chapter 6: Indigenous.com.- Chapter 7: Vocational Learning by Native Americans in the USA.- Chapter 8: VET Identities in Knowledge Work: Gender and Learning in a Globalised Industry.- PART C – VOCATIONAL LEARNING PRACTICE.- Chapter 9: New Forms of Learning in German VET – Theoretical Remarks and Empirical Results.- Chapter 10: Good practice models for using VET to Address Skill Shortages:A Case Study from Health.- Chapter 11: Vocational Education Pedagogy and the Situated Practices of Teaching Core Skills.- Chapter 12: Literacy in the Learning Careers of Students.- PART D – LOOKING AHEAD.- Chapter 13: Vocational Learning in the Frame of a Developing Identity.- Chapter 14: Mature Adult Learning and Employment.- Chapter 15: Learning in Working Life: Identity and Workplace Learning.- Chapter 16: The Impact of Self-Perception and Vocational Learning.- Chapter 17: Vocational Learning Futures.