What is Excellence in Practice? Empirical Explorations of Vocational Bildung and Practical Wisdom through Case Narratives

The approach of vocational Bildung didactics has been developed to investigate practical knowledge in matters of education for Bildung and phronesis (practical wisdom). Case narratives of unusual richness or success are at the core of the approach, each case representing an articulation of someone’s practical knowledge. The concept of a practice as developed by MacIntyre is introduced here as a way of situating the practical knowledge of Bildung and phronesis gained from case narratives. A series of case studies are discussed to examine the practices that surfaced. The result is a differentiation of MacIntyre’s concept in two directions: one more specific called vocational practice and one more general called a cultural practice. This differentiation is then applied to the case studies and it is argued that it helps illuminate aspects of them that previously were difficult to comprehend within the framework of vocational Bildung didactics. The conclusion is that biographical cases where cultural and vocational practices intersect are uniquely positioned to afford knowledge of how such intersections have been achieved through education and what they have meant for the person initiated into such matrixes. This, in turn, contributes to the insight with which we are able to design vocational education and training curricula that support initiation into dynamic vocational practices with a focus on the goods and virtues possible to develop through them.     

Wilhelm von Humboldts ?Die Vasken“

This paper interprets Wilhelm von Humboldt??s travelogue of his voyage to the Basque country (??Die Vasken??) as an empirical study on human development (??Bildung??) that applies an ethnographic research approach. Against the background of Humboldt??s comparative anthropological considerations the paper focuses on the underlying theory and methodology as well as on the results in Humboldt??s study of the Basques. It will be shown that in ??Die Vasken?? Humboldt directs his attention at anthropological questions on character building (??Charakterbildung??) through applying his anthropological method which combines empirical research with philosophical speculation. The analysis of the results of Humboldt??s study of the Basques demonstrates that Humboldt succeeds in developing his anthropological theory of ??Bildung?? in such a way that he can apply his new insights later in practice in the reform of the Prussian educational system. Finally, a critical reflection about the results of ??Die Vasken?? points out a central methodological and at the same time educational problem in ethnographic research on ??Bildung??. With this interpretation of Humboldt??s study of the Basques the paper provides a historical reflection about theory and methodology in educational anthropology that offers still important insights for actual ethnographic research in the field of education.     

论“双师型”教师队伍的建设途径

职业教育的职业性和实践性特点,决定了职业学校的专业教师不仅必须具备教师的基本能力和素质,还必须有丰富的现代新型知识和实践能力,既能讲理论又能指导实训操作,“教师技师合一”。建设这样一支高素质的“双师型”教师队伍,是办大、办活、办强品牌专业,实现职业教育又好又快发展的关键。     

小学教师实践性知识发展的叙事研究

教师实践性知识研究已成为研究者关注的热点,运用教育叙事,以一位小学教师为个案,从自我知识、学科教学知识、学习者的知识和情境知识等方面展示其实践性知识发展的真实状况。个人的教育信念、原有的受教育背景和生活经验、教学反思的意识、学习方式的转变和学校文化的创设等是影响小学教师实践性知识形成与发展的深层次原因。研究启示,教师实践性知识的生成离不开日常教学生活、教学反思以及教师学习共同体的建立。     

高职社会工作专业实务课程的任务驱动型教学模式研究——以个案工作实务为例

探索在个案工作实务课中进行任务驱动型教学模式改革,呼应高职教育的职业导向定位,同时为社会工作专业教育加强实践教学,切实提升学生的实际服务能力开拓思路。从任务驱动型教学模式在个案工作实务课中的操作要点、操作过程、注意事项三个方面对此进行了详解。     

Conceptualizing narrative authority: Implications for teacher education

In this paper I explore an alternative to the dominant authority of positivism in teacher education research and curricula through the conceptualization of narrative authority. Narrative authority is rooted in the personal practical knowledge of teacher education students, university teachers and classroom teachers as they interact within the contexts of teacher education. I begin by describing Dewey's conception of experience as individually continuous and socially interactive. I then discuss two ways in which knowledge is constructed from experience and describe how each Ivalues a different kind of authority. 1 then focus on the educative qualities of experience and show how narrative knowledge expressed through mundane and sacred stories can become taken-for-granted or be reconstructed through experience. Next, I describe how we can think of ourselves as authoring our lives through our narrative authority. I then consider the institutional narratives of teacher education in which sacred stories of apprenticeship, technical rationalism, and inquiry are embedded. I conclude by discussing some of the implications acknowledging narrative authority has for reshaping teacher education.     

Narrative Inquiry for Science Education: Teachers’ repertoire‐making in the case of environmental curriculum

This paper considers how the school science curriculum can be conceptualised in order to address the contingent and complex nature of environmental and sustainability‐related knowledge and understanding. A special concern lies in the development of research perspectives and tools for investigating ways, in which teachers are faced with complex and various situations in the sense‐making of science‐related issues, and subsequent pedagogic issues. Based on an empirical examination of Korean teachers’ sense‐making of their curricular practice, the paper develops a narrative approach to teachers’ perspectives and knowledge by considering the value of stories as sense‐making tools for reflective questioning of what is worth teaching, how and why. By employing the idea of ‘repertoire’, the study regards teachers’ stories about their environment‐related personal and teaching experiences as offering angles with which to understand teachers’ motivation and reflection in curricular development and implementation. Furthermore, three empirical cases present ways in which the nature of knowledge and understanding is recognised and potentially integrated into pedagogies through teachers’ narratives. Finally, the paper argues for the need to reconsider the role of the science teacher in addressing environmental and sustainability‐related issues, in ways that facilitate teachers’ reflexive interpretation of meanings in cultural texts and the construction of pedagogic text.     

教学学术视域下大学公共英语教师实践性知识发展策略研究

教师实践性知识在教师专业发展中发挥重要的核心作用,实践性知识的优化能促成教师教学学术水平的提高。教学学术的内涵与实践性知识的特征具有天然契合性,教学学术为大学公共英语教师实践性知识发展开辟了有效途径。以教学学术理论为指导,立足于教学实践,以叙事作为实践性知识显性转化的载体,通过行动研究将教学与研究相融通,开展基于共同体的集体批判反思,对改善教学与研究失衡的现实困境,促进大学英语教师实践性知识发展具有重要的现实意义。     

基于教学反思的教师实践性知识发展

有效教学要求教师具备丰富的实践性知识。然而,我国教师实践性知识缺失,亟待提高。教学反思是教师实践性知识生成和发展的重要机制。教学反思从教师的教育信念、教师的职业道德感等方面促进教师实践性知识发展。因此,教师应努力培养自身教学反思能力,促进实践性知识的发展,改进教学实践。     

专业化视野下的学前教育专业师资队伍建设的实践探索

高职高专学前教育专业的教师,既要求具备坚实的学科专业素养和较高的教育教学科研水平,还要具有丰富的幼教实践经验和操作能力。笔者从教师专业化发展的角度,分析了学前教育专业师资队伍的现状和特殊性要求,并以四川幼儿师范专科学校为例,提出了严把师资入口关,构建合理师资结构;建设数字化、信息化资源系统;打造研究中心;完善教师培训机制;深入幼教一线开展实践研究等措施,切实提升教师的教学科研能力及专业实践能力,为学前教育专业师资队伍建设提供了借鉴范例。     

Knowledge through a collaborative network: a cross‐cultural partnership

A recurring issue for researchers, policy‐makers and practitioners is how new knowledge can be disseminated, critiqued, assessed and incorporated into policy development and practice. Campbell and Fulford examined strategies in a Canadian Education Ministry which was striving to incorporate research findings into policy debate. They evolved a useful framework indentifying six forms and stages of knowledge development related to research use in this context: generation of new knowledge, mobilisation, contextualisation, adaptation, application and integration. This paper uses their framework to explore links between research and practice in a collaborative cross‐cultural partnership designed to develop greater capacity in teacher education in a Pacific country, and based on action, co‐construction and reflection. It argues that there are blurred boundaries between knowledge production and its practical implementation, use and testing, that contextualisation and relationship building are crucial to knowledge mobilisation, and that knowledge is generated across all stages in the process.     

论职业培训概念的界定

对职业培训基本概念的深入探讨和界定，有助于指导职业培训的理论研究与实践活动。职业培训不同于普通教育等教育种类，它面向从业人员和有就业要求的人员，以传授职业知识和技能技巧、培养职业态度等为目标。职业培训具有周期性短、适应性强、实用性强等鲜明的特征。     

Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers' development

In the practice of teacher education, most would agree that critical reflection in and on the process of learning to teach and the activities of teaching play a central role in teachers' professional development. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory, we examine how narrative inquiry functions as a culturally developed tool that mediates teachers' professional development. We analyzed narratives written by three teachers of English as a second/foreign language set in three different instructional contexts. Our analysis suggests an interwoven connection between emotion and cognition, which drove these teachers to search for mediational tools to help them externalize their experiences. The activity of engaging in narrative inquiry created a mediational space where teachers were able to draw upon various resources, such as private journals, peers and ‘expert’ or theoretical knowledge, that allow them to reconceptualize and reinternalize new understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching activities. The intersection of experiential and ‘expert’ knowledge provided a discourse through which these teachers named experiences and constructed a basis upon which they grounded their transformed understandings of themselves as teachers and their teaching. Depending on where these teachers were in their professional development when they wrote their narratives, we uncovered evidence of idealized conceptions of teaching with commitment to action as well as the transformation of teachers' material activities. Implications for the role teachers' narrative inquiry may play in teacher education programs are provided.     

Potentials,dissonances and reform initiatives in field-based learning and mentoring practices in the early childhood sector in Germany

In Germany, the field-based element in the education/training of early childhood educators is given high priority in the development of professional competencies. Nevertheless, Germany lacks a firmly anchored regulatory and curricular framework for early childhood education and care settings as ‘workplace learning sites’ (Lernort Praxis) and the current approaches towards practical placements have been strongly criticised. Debates have focused on the (inadequate) interface between theory and practice and the overriding influence of the vocational colleges as sites of professional preparation. The examination of existing regulations regarding practical placements shows that the practice sites and the mentors who work there receive too little attention. Beyond this, the education/training of (early) childhood educators is dominated by the vocational colleges – not least because the two places of learning (i.e. the college and the workplace) are assigned to different authorities and ministries. The quality of workplace-based learning can therefore only be enhanced by relevant policy decisions and by integrating the interface between theory and practice on a curricular basis.     

以教育叙事研究为切点促进幼儿教师专业发展

幼儿教师专业发展是其教育理论知识与教学实践相结合,不断内化为个体理论知识和实践知识的教育机智的过程。教育叙事研究来自实践,服务于实践,是幼儿教师成为学习者和研究者,是促进幼儿教师专业发展的有效方式和手段。     

高职教育中人才培养问题的思考

知识经济时代的竞争关键在人才。高职教育培养的人才必须具备较强的综合素质及其能力,以适应社会发展需要。通过对高职教育中人才培养目标存在的误区以及高职人才综合素质的体现进行分析,提出了优化高职教育人才培养的主要实施途径。     

高职院校学生创新型实践能力培养的探索

提高高职学生“实践能力、创造能力、就业能力和创业能力”的关键是学生创新型实践能力的养成。高职院校可以通过强化以创新型实践能力为本的办学理念、创新人才教育培养体系、加强“创新型”和“双师型”教师队伍建设、建立完善的实训场所、推进职业资格培训与教学的融合等方法来培养高职学生的创新型实践能力。     

数控车生产型案例在教学中的应用

文章首先分析了《数控加工技术》课程的性质和作用,对传统的教学内容进行了反思,之后从培养学生岗位能力和职业素质出发,在教学实践中引入数控车企业生产案例,实践证明,该方法符合职业教育的现实要求,极大提高了学生多方面能力。     

Contextualising Vocational Knowledge: A Theoretical Framework and Illustrations From Culinary Education

The nature of knowledge in vocational education is often described in dichotomies such as theory versus practice or general versus specific. Although different scholars now acknowledge that vocational knowledge is more than putting bits of theoretical and practical knowledge together, it is still unclear how vocational knowledge should be theorised instead. In this article we theorise the idea of contextualising vocational knowledge to understand the nature of vocational knowledge and illustrate this process of contextualising with empirical examples from culinary education. We adopt an activity-theoretical focus on contextualising that involves both particularising and providing coherence. We posit a cognitive process of meaning making where meaning derives from seeing the relationships of parts to the whole. The aspects of the nature of coherence and the relation between concepts and actions seem rather underdeveloped in vocational education theory. To characterise this process at a micro-level, we enhance the activity-theory approach with an inferentialist one. Inferentialism offers a way to focus on reasons and inferential relations between concepts and actions that provides coherence in vocational knowledge. To characterise the broad spectrum of processes relevant for vocational knowledge, we propose the terms “conceptualising” and “concretising”. Conceptualising involves inferring what follows from understanding a concept in a particular situation in relation to the meaning of other concepts. Concretising involves inferring what follows from understanding an aspect of the occupational practice in which students are participating. We argue that this way of framing vocational knowledge helps to better understand its nature and development.