Vocational Education and Training: Researching the Relationship between School and Work

Researchers and policy makers agree that the relation between school and work is an important characteristic of vocational education and training (VET) and needs attention. The relation itself poses several challenges for research to be successful and useful for policy makers. In this article, we outline these challenges and answer the following question: What needs to be considered when researching the relation between school and work? Our central claim is that research on the relation between school and work needs to (1) take into account contextual conditions of the VET system, including identifying the central actors and their responsibilities within a VET system, (2) take into account the characteristics of VET itself, (3) define the quality of the relation between school and work (depending on the context, characteristics of the VET system and VET itself), and (4) be consistent with respect to chosen research aims and paradigms. To illustrate how these aspects can be taken into account an example of empirical research conducted in the German dual apprenticeship system is described. The readers are provided with guidelines for researchers and policy makers to carry out high quality research on the relation between school and work in VET systems that enables policy makers to make use of the results to improve the relation between school and work in VET systems.     

On the Performance of Likelihood-Based Difference Tests in Nonlinear Structural Equation Models

This article investigates likelihood-based difference statistics for testing nonlinear effects in structural equation modeling using the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) approach. In addition to the standard difference statistic T_D, 2 robust statistics have been developed in the literature to ensure valid results under the conditions of nonnormality or small sample sizes: the robust T_DR and the “strictly positive” T_DRP. These robust statistics have not been examined in combination with LMS yet. In 2 Monte Carlo studies we investigate the performance of these methods for testing quadratic or interaction effects subject to different sources of nonnormality, nonnormality due to the nonlinear terms, and nonnormality due to the distribution of the predictor variables. The results indicate that T_D is preferable to both T_DR and T_DRP. Under the condition of strong nonlinear effects and nonnormal predictors, T_DR often produced negative differences and T_DRP showed no desirable power.     

Consultants’ Learning within Academia: Five devices for the design of university-based learning opportunities for management consultants

This paper explores the ways in which it is possible for universities to design learning opportunities for management consultants. Drawing on a successful practice in The Netherlands and using the literature on learning, development of competencies and career theory, it investigates selected aspects of this particular “market”, comparing the conventions governing the practice of consultants with those of academic practice. Its subsequent argument for the successful design of learning opportunities for professional consultants is organised around a discussion of five learning “devices”: (1) a self-reflective design practice; (2) a design process operating along three dimensions - the acquisition of knowledge and/or techniques, development of professional competencies, and personal and professional transitions; (3) treating knowledge as a process rather than a product; (4) building on learning experiences in work and on anticipated performances; and (5) a prohibition of “ego” in consultants' learning. The paper concludes with some reflections on the use of these devices elsewhere.     

Biology Curricula at Universities in the European Community

In literature, several processes have been suggested to describe conceptual changes being undertaken. However, a few parts of studies analyse in great detail which students' learning processes are involved in physics classes during teaching, and how they are used. Following a socio-constructivist approach using tools coming from discourse analysis, we suggest studying three processes of students' learning: (1) establishing links between ideas, (2) increasing the domain of applicability of ideas, or (3) decreasing the domain of applicability of ideas. Our database consists of video data and written worksheets of two students at the upper-secondary school level (Grade 10 [15-year-old students]) during a one-month teaching sequence about gas. Based on semiotic resources contained in oral and written language, we reconstruct in great detail all the ideas about gas expressed by both students during the entire teaching sequence. Our analysis deals with (1) how learning processes are identified based on the ideas expressed by students, and (2) how the three learning processes are used by the two students during teaching. Our results show that during the teaching sequence: (1) the emergence of the networks of three ideas is supported by networks of two ideas expressed previously by students; (2) both students express more networks of two ideas than networks of three ideas; (3) the process ‘increasing the domain of applicability’ of an idea or a network of ideas is very often involved; and (4) the process ‘decreasing the domain of applicability’ of an idea or network of ideas is rarely used by them.     

Concept Formation in Biology: The Concept ‘Growth’

Summaries

English

A concept is understood here as a logic core, which is surrounded by an associative framework, to which also the name of the concept belongs. The logic core is a pattern of properties of a class of things, which is invariant to individual objects of the class as well as to the observer. The pattern is determined by logic relations, which are constituents of the epistemic structure of the learner.

In this article an analysis of the situation concerning the concept ‘growth’ is carried out. The logic core of the concept is theoretically investigated by means of systems theory and is empirically tested by means of free definitions. The associative framework, however, is determined by means of free association tests.

It is shown that in the course of school education a marked shift takes place in the logic core as well as in the associative framework from a ‘growth in terms of geometric dimension’ towards a ‘growth in terms of particle numbers’.     

Data-driven approaches to education governance and their implications

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability -