HOSPITAL PEDRO DE BETHANCOURT DE ANTIGUA GUATEMALA

The intention of VCAL is for students to develop practical skills and knowledge through applied learning pedagogical approaches and a flexible curriculum structure that is able to adapt to their individual needs and interests. Teaching and learning activities focus on developing literacy, numeracy, and promoting general employability skills such as problem solving, civic mindedness and team work. The inclusion within VCAL programs of community based service learning promotes qualities of social responsibility and good citizenship.

The VCAL curriculum is based around four areas of study: Work Related Skills Strand, Personal Development Skills Strand, Literacy & Numeracy Strand and Industry Specific Skills Strand. Bentley (2002) argues that “[e]ducational institutions have, overwhelmingly been structured around organisational principles which emphasis hierarchy, a vertical division of labour and subjects, standardised entry and progression” (p. 5). The VCAL curriculum is an example of a program that challenges his argument as VCAL skills strands are not discrete; “where possible and practical” it is “encouraged” that learning outcomes from a number of VCAL skills strands are integrated (VCAA 2014b, p. 4). One strand is not valued over other strands. An expanded diagrammatical representation of the VCAL program is provided in Figure 2.1.

28 Foundation Intermediate Senior Literacy/Numeracy Skills Strand This Foundation Intermediate Senior Personal Development Skills Strand Foundation Intermediate Senior

Work Related Skills Strand

Foundation Intermediate

Senior

Vocational Education Training (VET) / Structured Workplace Learning (SWL) = (Industry Specific Skills) Fig: 2.1. Curriculum structure of Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning

(An expanded view)

The VCAL strands are mutually supportive in developing skills and knowledge that aim to engage young people in education and prepare them

for work and life Each strand has three

qualification levels. Students study at the level of

their ability.

The Curriculum structure consists of four study strands that are able to be delivered separately or, preferably, in an integrated program

Examples of Personal Development Skills: social responsibility,

development of self, civic responsibility (volunteering),

Examples of Work Related Skills: teamwork, communication, problem- solving, initiative, planning, organisation,

self-management, technology use.

Depending on VCAL level individual student program may include VET certificate or other vocation related

learning. Examples of literacy/Numeracy

Skills: writing a letter/resume, weekly budgeting, reading public transport

timetables

Developed from information on the VCAA website: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au Learning is optimised when students undertake

projects incorporating learning outcomes from

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Each of the four VCAL skills strands are offered at three qualification (ability) levels: Foundation, Intermediate and Senior (VCAA, 2008a). Foundation level has “high levels of teacher support and assistance”, Intermediate level has “some teacher support and assistance but with the expectation that students will demonstrate independent learning”, and Senior level “provide[s] opportunities for students to work as independent learners with teacher support and

assistance available on request” (VCAA 2005, p. 4). Students (regardless of their year level) are able to undertake a VCAL qualification level commensurate with their abilities. Subsequently individual students in a VCAL class may be working towards differing qualification levels depending on their independent learning ability.

As the VCAL is a flexible pathway students are able to undertake a mixture of VCAL, VET and VCE subjects depending on their interests and aspirations. Additionally

[s]tudents who start their VCAL and then decide they would like to complete their VCE, are able to transfer between certificates. Any VCE studies

successfully completed as part of the VCAL program will count towards the VCE. (VCAA 2014a, para 4)

The VCAL program provides opportunities for learning while students are immersed in tasks developed to assist their transition to further education, training and the workplace.

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The VCAA directs that educators develop content for their VCAL programs using applied teaching and learning principles. These are listed in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: VCAA principles of applied learning

1. Start where learners are at.

2. Negotiate the curriculum. Engage in a dialogue with learners about their curriculum.

3. Share knowledge. Recognise the knowledge learners bring to the learning environment.

4. Connect with communities and real life experiences.

5. Build resilience, confidence and self worth – consider the whole person. 6. Integrate learning – the whole task and the whole person. In life we use a range

of skills and knowledge. Learning should reflect the integration that occurs in real life tasks.

7. Promote diversity of learning styles and methods. Everyone learns differently. Accept that different learning styles require different learning/teaching methods. But value experiential, practical and ‘hands on’ ways of learning.

8. Assess appropriately. Use the assessment method that best ‘fits’ the learning content and context. (VCAA 2011b, p. 1)

While applied learning pedagogies are optional in other teaching contexts, learning programs developed in VCAL must be developed using constructivist teaching and learning approaches which support student centred learning and situate learning in authentic contexts such as industry or community settings (Blake & Gallagher 2009).

VCAL’s requirement for constructivist teaching and learning challenges the cultural-discursive dimension (Kemmis et al. 2014) of existing pedagogical practice architectures in schools. Subsequently the learning needs of VCAL educators differ from those of their non-VCAL colleagues.

Plows and te Riele (2016) conducted extensive research into understanding professional development undertaken by educators who work in Flexible Learning Programs (FLPs). FLPs provide alternative education pathways for young people at risk of disengaging from school and education. A variation of VCAL, known as community VCAL is recognised as a FLP and educators who worked in a VCAL program were included in their research. Plows and te Riele (2016) argued that FLPs “require educators to work differently from common

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approaches adopted in many mainstream settings, and taught in many pre- service qualifications” (p. iv drawing on Mills & McGregor 2014; Morgan et al. 2014; te Riele 2014). Their recent work continues to reinforce research (see Chapter One) which asserts skills needed by applied learning educators differ from educators who use other pedagogical approaches (Blake & Gallagher 2009; Bottoms, Presson & Johnson 1992; Parker et al. 2015). While Plow and te Riele’s work focused on whether educators in FLPs had access to adequate professional development on flexible learning in this research I am attempting to understand the everyday adult workplace learning experienced by VCAL educators as they work.

Hodkinson and Hodkinson (2004) have argued that “learning is ubiquitous in human activity, so that workplace learning is inseparable from working practices” (p. 22). The workplace practices of VCAL educators include using applied learning pedagogies. To provide context surrounding learning of VCAL educators, the following sections describe pedagogical approaches incorporated into the VCAA principles of applied learning. Where relevant I provide examples of teaching and learning practices which can be regarded as counter cultural to those predominately used in the senior years of school.