80933 Secondary Curriculum 1

1
80933 Secondary Curriculum 1

• Lecture10 Vocational Education
• And Competency Based Training

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Vocational Education

• What is vocational education?
• An add - on to the real academic curriculum
• rationale genuine social and educational
  development of the school curricula
• In 1983 one third of Year 8 cohort reached Year
  11 12
• In 2002 80 are expected to experience Year 11
  12

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Why Vocational Education in Schools?

• Context of mass education
• Breakdown of the traditional academic curriculum
• Context of structural change in employment
• Introduction of multiple pathways

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The Development of Mass Education

• Phenomenon of both 19th 20th Centuries
• 20th growth of secondary schools
• Until 1960s post primary streamed by assessment
  of eventual vocational destination - eg technical
  high schools
• Post 1960 - development of comprehensive high
  schools, democratic rationale
• New developments of the democratic HS

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Mass Education and the School Curriculum

• Mission - to provide a professional class for the
  emerging industrial society
• Reflected the traditional curriculum of the
  English Grammar Schools
• They were elite institutions catering to those
  thought to have potential for university
• Reflected the demands of the university foreign
  language, maths, science, English.

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Traditional Academic Curriculum Model

• Dominated by academic disciplines - so reflected
  in secondary curriculum
• This has held privilege for a long period
• Alternative based on needs and interests of
  students - J J Rousseau and J Dewey, based on a
  recognition that the academic disciplines not
  good for all students - philosophy of
  progressivism

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Comparison of traditional and progressive
approaches

• Traditional Academic -disciplines provide the
  core of school curr
• Serves only some students - competitive
• Teaching largely didactic, one size fits
• Assess content and compare students

• Progressive - built on needs and interests
• Serves needs of all
• Teaching to promote discovery, and learning is
  paced
• Assess based on indiv developmental point on
  continuum

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Both Traditional Progressive

• Provide a liberal education
• Both based on underlying assumption that
  education is intrinsically a good thing in its
  own right
• As mass education became a reality, traditional
  disciplines needed to be adapted
• Some areas of traditional disciplines were
  retained e.g. English at 4 levels

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Curriculum Change

• Examples English, initially agreement to
  canonas form of induction, now, sen as
  irrelevant, students studying a range of texts
  not privileging the dominant Anglo-Australian
  culture only (multiple stories and multiple
  voices are valued)
• Challenge to progressive curriculum - that
  students will learn in the right environment
  -time and appropriate envt not key variables

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The Contemporary Student body

• Challenge of NESB, economic, cultural and social
  disadvantage, disability
• Require structured and deliberate interventions

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From Curriculum as Culture ...

• Needs of the National Economy (OECD, 1987, 69)
  The development of contemporary economies
  depends crucially on the knowledge, skills and
  attitudes of their workforces- in short, on human
  capital
• .. with unemployment harshly illustrating the
  consequences of insufficient competitiveness

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To Curriculum as Support for the Economy

• The concept of skilled workforce fuelling
  economic growth
• Since 1980s attempt to link the school
  curriculum with economic purposes
• Liberal education - edification for individual,
  social induction, end in itself
• Economic view stresses instrumental purposes of
  education - means to an end

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International economic competitiveness

• Liberal vs Economic
• Vocational Movement
• Reports Finn (1991), Mayer (1992), Carmichael
  (1992), Keating (1994) dual accredited vocational
  educational courses
• Vocational Education in Schools - two tracks

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Vocational Education

• Links between education and the economy are
  tenuous
• Voc quals dont necessary result in higher
  earnings
• Issue of supply and demand for voc educated
  labour
• Educational policy cannot be expected to offset
  macroeconomic policy 1995

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The Social Purposes of Schooling

• In context of mass education and large senior
  school enrolmentsinnov /imposition?
• Vocational Ed rewards real knowledge and real
  experience
• Still remains a bifurcated (two tracks)
  curriculum
• Advocates for an integrated curriculum, blending
  vocational and general studies
• Providing a rewarding and satisfying educ