Transforming learning: From traditional teaching to applied learning VATEVALA Conference 7 September

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Transforming learningFrom traditional teaching
to applied learningVATE/VALA Conference7
September 2007

• Damian Blake
• damian.blake_at_deakin.edu.au

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Traditional teaching?
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21st Century Learning?
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Thinking about teaching

• Three questions
• 1. What counts as relevant knowledge?
• 2. What counts as appropriate learning
  relationships?
• 3. What counts as valid assessment?

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Traditional teaching Knowledge

• Relevant knowledge is
• Contained in disciplines
• Propositional
• Pre-defined in a text and/or by a teacher
• Frequently abstracted from its intended use
• Valued for its generalisability
• Owned by individuals
• Learning is knowledge acquisition in a classroom
  context.

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Traditional teaching Relationships

• Relevant relationships
• Student-as-child
• Teacher has personal and institutional power
• Students behaviour is managed
• Teacher relates to a group of students
• Emphasis on learners identities as compliant and
  passive
• Dependent learners
• Learning involves being taught.

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Traditional Teaching Assessment

• Relevant Assessment
• Emphasis on assessment for measuring an
  individual students acquisition of knowledge
  (learning?)
• Emphasis on summative assessment tests and exams
  that occur at the end of a period of teaching
• Task require recall and memory work
• Assessment involves measuring remembered
  knowledge.

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Changes in school participation (Source ABS,
2007)
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Changes in provision(Source MCEETYA, 2004)
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Change in Stakeholders
Table 2 Enrolments in VET in Schools Programs
in 2004 by ANTA Industry Group Source (MCEETYA,
2004 p. 10)
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Changes in learning sites

• 6,711,871 million hours of structured workplace
  learning
• Community-based learning programs (eg PDS)
• Adult learning contexts (TAFEs, ACE, VET
  providers)
• In school project work
• Partnerships

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Changes in learning temperaments

• More likely to
• Expect immediate personal relevance
• Expect real-life application of knowledge
• Be less compliant
• Greater diversity in learning intents and
  preferences
• Teachers need to respond or

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Applied Learning A new chapter
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Learning in TAFE and Workplaces

• Knowledge
• Considered relevant for its specific application
  in a context
• Likely to be integrated and multi-faceted
• Tacit
• Owned by a community, team or profession
• Learning involves knowledge creation and
  application.

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Learning in TAFE and Workplaces

• Relationships
• Adult relationships
• More equal distribution of power
• Learners responsible for their own behaviour
• Independent and self-directed learning
• Learning involves relationships that assume
  independence and self-directed students.

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Learning in TAFE and Workplaces

• Assessment
• Performance-based
• Demonstrate knowledge and skill under practical,
  context-based circumstances
• Happens when learners are ready
• Emphasis on formative role of assessment
• Requires greater synthesis of propositional and
  tacit knowledge

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New work for schools

• Differentiation in the later years on a scale not
  seen before
• Vocational differentiation
• Gender differentiation
• Integration into the community
• Broader sharing of the responsibility of
  schooling
• Awareness of diversity of values

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What does this mean for teachers?

• A re-conception of teaching that overcomes the
  traditional dichotomies between
• Hand-mind
• Vocational-academic
• Learning-working
• Personal development-cognitive development
• Theory-practice
• Learning being undertaken by VCAL students
  requires them to transcend these dichotomies.

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Shifting from traditional teaching

• Understanding applied learning is more than just
  hands-on learning.
• Overcoming conflicting messages between
  traditional teaching and applied learning
• Knowledge
• Relationships
• Assessment

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Shifting from traditional teaching

• Challenging the marginalisation of applied
  learning in some school settings.
• Accepting and then embracing that learning occurs
  beyond (formal) school contexts.
• Understanding teachers work as a community
  enterprise rather than private business.

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Shifting from traditional teaching

• Finding new ways to provide learning structure
  that goes beyond content-driven and
  compliance-focused approaches
• The Big A Applied Learning Project
• Infrastructure in the community (workplaces,
  community groups and organisations)
• The significance of teams of teachers and
  communities of practice