Dewey (1938) argued that formulating new theoretical approaches in education “means the necessity of the introduction of a new order of conceptions leading to new modes of practice” (p. vi). Increasing young people’s engagement and participation in schooling to increase the likelihood of their completing 12 years of education required a new mode of educational practice to ensure engagement in the senior years of education.
The implementation of VCAL as a senior years’ curriculum introduced a new mode of practice into an environment that had traditionally relied on didactic forms of teaching and learning. Applied learning in the form of active,
transformative, experiential learning provides the pedagogical foundation for all study in VCAL. Applied learning is “active learning at its most literal level” (Schwartzman & Henry 2009, p. 4) as learning is intended to occur as theory is applied to practice in authentic or real world environments (VCAA 2011b).
The understanding of applied learning varies in and across nations and settings (VCAA 2011b; Harrison 2006; Shacklock 2006; Malyn-Smith 2004; Schulz 2015). Programs may be described as using applied learning, but do not necessarily explain how applied learning is understood pedagogically within the context, or program. For example applied learning is frequently reported as used within Higher Education settings in the United States of America, Singapore, Australia, and Canada through the incorporation of workplace learning components completed with industry partners or other authentic learning contexts (for examples see Corpuz 2015, MWSU 2014, Philomin 2015, The Evening Sun 2014). In other countries such as New Zealand this approach is referred to as
cooperative learning (Lucas 2015). Such opportunities provide learning and development opportunities in industries or vocations aligned with students’ career and employment aspirations. Underpinning this approach is an intention to connect students to real life organisations such as ‘Target’, a large discount
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retailer in the United States of America with many stores across the country, to solve real industry problems by applying learning (Daddona 2015). Higher Education providers such as the University of North Carolina (United States of America) offer and promote programs which focus on community partnerships and engagement or value service learning associated with workplace experience (for example see EKU 2012, Port City Daily 2015). While these forms of applied learning have been common in Higher Education for some time, in Australia using applied learning in the senior years of high school challenges the existing and dominant mode of teaching and learning.
When the conceptual construction of applied learning is discussed, a number of writers (Blake & Gallagher 2009; Downing 2015; Schank, Berman & Kimberli 1999; Schwartzman & Henry, 2009) refer to and build on Ryle’s (1949) work on theory of the mind. Ryle (1949) argued there are clear distinctions between knowing that (or know what) and knowing how to complete a task or activity. For example knowing the rules of a game of chess (knowing that) does not
immediately equate to knowing how to play chess. Ryle (1949) argues that the process of gaining facts (theory) about chess is only one step in the process of acquiring skill or ability to play chess (know how).
In Biggs and Tang’s (2007) work on constructively aligning learning outcomes and assessment with teaching and learning activities, they use the terms declarative knowledge and functioning knowledge to highlight a similar dichotomy. The two terms allow them to differentiate between knowing facts and knowledge that can be constructed from facts. For example, the periodic table used in chemistry can be regarded as factual or declarative knowledge. Using information from the periodic table to predict compositions of unknown matter or in analysing
relationships between known and unknown chemical elements can be regarded as constructed or functioning knowledge.
In VCAL there is an emphasis on teaching and learning approaches which develop students’ functioning knowledge, or know how. This is developed by
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encouraging and nurturing student ability to apply knowledge they gained from learning in one context to activities and tasks they undertake in a different context. However, as already indicated, applied teaching and learning
approaches used in VCAL challenge the more conventional modes of practice in senior schooling (I expand upon this later in the chapter as I unpack the VCAA (2011b) principles of applied learning). Subsequently teaching in VCAL requires educators to cross a number of boundaries. One boundary is that of becoming familiar with an applied approach to teaching and learning, for example, to move from a dominant approach of teaching facts and theoretical knowledge (Masters 2015) to a teaching practice that supports students in applying concepts to authentic problems. Another boundary is developing integrated learning opportunities across knowledge domains, for example incorporating literacy, numeracy and work related skills into learning projects. Importantly an
integrated learning approach mirrors the way knowledge is used in everyday life, as “[a]dults do not read, write, speak or complete mathematical tasks in
isolation, but in meaningful contexts” (VCAA 2014e, para 3). A third boundary is the reliance of VCAL on partnerships with community organisations and other educational providers. VCAL educators must undertake ongoing collaboration outside the VCAL provider setting (VCAA 2014f; VCAA 2016). Akkerman and Bakker (2011a) argue that boundaries are experienced when working across “different institutionalized practices” and “interact[ing] with people from different professions, disciplines and cultures” (p. 1).
VCAL educators may need to adjust their perception of what an educator does and who they are as an educator. In VCAL teaching and learning, educators are not regarded as a distributer of knowledge and the students as passive
spectators or receptacles. This approach is what John Dewey calls the Spectator Theory of Knowledge (Kulp 1992) and what Freire (1993) calls the banking
concept of education. In an applied learning classroom “[e]veryone is considered to be both a teacher and a learner” (Diffily & Sassman 2002, p. 1). The educator and their students work together to construct knowledge that provides students with skills and ability in order to know how to do something, rather than simply
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knowing facts about what to do. However, an emphasis on know how rather than know what (Ryle 1949; Schank, Berman &Macpherson 1999) may be regarded as counter cultural to thinking which positions school as a place where curriculum, knowing and student learning occurs in certain ways to comply with certain expectations (Kemmis et al. 2014; Wenger 1998).
Established methods of education value students’ ability to store “generalizable forms of knowledge” and “reproduce the knowledge under exam conditions” (Blake & Gallagher 2009, p. 62). Schank, Berman and Macpherson (1999) argue that schools’ focus on imparting fact-based knowledge was a response to the industrial age and high employment opportunities (student destinations) in factory production lines. Routine tasks did not required complex skill preparation and could easily, and quickly, be taught in situ (p. 164). However, Schank,
Berman and Macpherson (1999) maintain that “life requires us to do, more than it requires us to know, in order to function” (p. 164 italics in original). They subsequently assert schools need to adapt their teaching and learning to ensure students are able to achieve goals that are “relevant and meaningful to them” (pp. 165-166). VCAL seeks to achieve this, but entrenched perceptions and practices in schools regarding pedagogical approaches and the conduct of education can create barriers, which impede the success of the program.