Knowing everything from soup to dessert: an exploratory study to describe what characterises students’ vocational knowledge

Abstract

Students' vocational knowledge can be defined as all knowledge students require performing within occupational practice. In the context of vocational education and training, students' vocational knowledge is often discussed from a perspective of either what should be taught and learned in schools or different kinds of knowledge students should gain in occupational practice. Much less focus is on students' vocational knowledge itself. This exploratory in-depth study aims to describe what characterises students' vocational knowledge. To explore students' vocational knowledge, an analytic framework is used to describe vocational knowledge characteristics specifying: (1) occupation-specific knowledge components, and (2) qualities. Results show the framework provides a structure to gain insight into the nature and meaning of vocational knowledge, and is valuable to describe characteristics in terms of knowledge components such as technical procedures or the social and occupational environment, and qualities such as richness, complexity and specificity. Additionally, to use an existing frameworkoriginally developed in the contexts of ICT and Social Work -its usefulness is explored in a new context, namely, the hospitality industry. Recommendations about the framework serving as a potential tool to support students' learning processes are provided.

Nurturing academic writing for students in an enrolled to registered nurse conversion course at university

“…prepares diploma-qualified nurses) is known as Vocational Education and Training (VET), and takes place in government institutions, called TAFEs (Technical and Further Education institutions), as well as in private institutions (Australian Government, no date). Vocational programs focus on specialised knowledge and skills, training and competencies, [4] which make a person employable, or more employable, in an occupation or family of occupations. [5] Advantages of such courses include lower admission requirements, lower program costs than for university, easier access, and opportunities to study close to home.…”

The Work Performance of the Graduates of 3-Yp Vocational High Schools and Its Follow-Up

“…In line with the above description, Heusdens, et al in [3] research, which explored vocational student knowledge, show that the framework provides a structure to gain insight into nature and meaning of vocational knowledge, and is valuable to describe charachteristics in term of knowledge component such as technical procedures or the social and occupational environment, and qualities such as richness, complexity and specificity [3].…”

Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum: A critical review of the literature

“…We included four studies from Australia, two from the United States and three from Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa) in the data base. The literature included a wide variety of research methods, including surveys (e.g., Chandran et al, 2018;Dasmani, 2011;Dumbrell & Smith, 2013), observational studies (e.g., Asplund & Kontio, 2020;Louw, 2013;Sjöberg, 2014), interview-based studies (e.g., Aakernes, 2018;Callan et al, 2015;Heusdens et al, 2018), case studies (e.g., Gleeson, 2016;Kotsifakos et al, 2018), document-based studies (e.g., Nylund & Rosvall, 2016;Rauner et al, 2012), comparisons (e.g., Kap, 2014;Sappa et al, 2016;Schröder, 2019) and evaluations of interventions (e.g., Hoareau et al, 2017;Shrestha, 2016;Yasak & Alias, 2017). Several studies used mixed-method approaches, such as surveys and interviews (e.g., Deitmer & Heinemann, 2017;Stalder, 2012) and "obser-views" that combined observations with interviews (Aarkrog, 2019;Hamid et al, 2012).…”