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.     

Prenatal screening for risk of major parenting problems: further results from the Queen Mary Maternity Hospital Child Care Unit

This research revealed in Stage I the ability to identify during the prenatal period women at risk for possible child abuse and in Stage II an intervention program which when introduced resulted in fewer high-risk mothers relinquishing the care of their infants. The research had two main aims: to use the data from Stages I and II to reassess the criteria for identifying "at risk" mothers, and to develop a brief, easily administered screening questionnaire which could be standardized for widespread prenatal use; and to collect data on a random sample of prenatal patients, to use these data for confirming the validity and stability of the screening procedures, and to estimate the incidence of potentially high-risk mothers in an urban population.     

Teaching the process of molecular phylogeny and systematics: a multi-part inquiry-based exercise

Three approaches to molecular phylogenetics are demonstrated to biology students as they explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates. By analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps, students are repeatedly challenged to develop hypotheses regarding the ancestry of the five species. Although these exercises were designed to supplement and enhance classroom instruction on phylogeny, cladistics, and systematics in the context of a postsecondary majors-level introductory biology course, the activities themselves require very little prior student exposure to these topics. Thus, they are well suited for students in a wide range of educational levels, including a biology class at the secondary level. In implementing this exercise, we have observed measurable gains, both in student comprehension of molecular phylogeny and in their acceptance of modern evolutionary theory. By engaging students in modern phylogenetic activities, these students better understood how biologists are currently using molecular data to develop a more complete picture of the shared ancestry of all living things.     

Prevalence of father-child rough-and-tumble play and physical aggression in preschool children

Three samples of francophone subjects from Quebec (Canada) are used to establish the prevalence of parent-child RTP according to different personal, social and family variables, and to verify if children who engage in more RTP with their father exhibit less physical aggression towards other children and are more competitive without resorting to aggression. Our results showed that 24 to 43% of fathers engaged in RTP with their children on a daily basis, and only 4 to 16% of fathers never do. Moreover, personal characteristics such as the age and sex of the participants seemed to have a greater influence on the frequency of parent-child RTP than variables related for example to work, socio-economic conditions, or the living environment. The hypothesis that children who engage in more RTP with their fathers display less physical aggression towards their peers is invalidated here. We have concluded that it is important that not only RTP frequency, but also and especially indicators of RTP quality be used. Future observational studies of father-child RTP are required in order to do so. Finally, certain preliminary results support the hypothesis that father-child RTP fosters the development of the competition skills in children without using aggression.     

Children's agency beliefs, cognitive performance, and conceptions of effort and ability: individual and developmental differences

In order to understand how children's beliefs and cognitive performance vary according to development in their conceptions of effort and ability, 120 fourth and sixth graders were given the following assessments: (a) a measure of agency beliefs, defined as the extent to which persons believe they have access to certain classes of potential means, including effort, ability, powerful others, and luck; (b) a battery of intelligence test scales, including figural patterns, letter series, arithmetic, and spelling; (c) an interview designed to assess developmental levels in conceptions of effort and ability. Correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for effort decreased with increasing levels of reasoning about effort and ability, but correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for ability increased with increasing levels of reasoning. No such trends were found in correlations between performance and agency beliefs for luck or for unknown causes. The results are discussed in terms of the interaction between individual differences and developmental change.