Permeability between VET & HE
Lassnigg, Lorenz /
Some insights about VET from Large-Scale-Assessments
Abstract and purpose: Some prominent researchers (e.g. Eric Hanushek) have argued that attention to VET programmes might reduce the level of aggregate achievement in basic academic competences because of the selection of "less gifted" students, and less emphasis on academic competences. The paper addresses this question by looking on the cross-country relationship between enrolment in VET and achievement measures in large scale assessments (e.g. PISA). The data do not support the suspected negative relationship; rather a slight positive relationship is indicated. In addition, more in-depth analysis about the achievement in VET-programmes in Austria is conducted, showing the big impact of the selective structure of the school system on achievement.
DECOWE paper: Some insights about VET from Large-Scale-Assessments.pdf
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Muller, Hartmut /
Abstract CarEasy_VET
Abstract and purpose: One condition for the innovative strength of the companies of the European automotive sector is the ability of the employees to cope with highly complex demands at highest quality levels and in this way the companies guarantee their global competitiveness.
In order to meet these requirements the European automotive industry not only relies on the initial vocational training but they have developed their own specialized concepts for further training. To overcome specific solutions of further training in each company and to reach a European orientation the opportunity arises to carry out the assessment of the usual highly developed profiles of qualification using a credit-point system which can be applicable throughout Europe...
DECOWE presentation: Abstract CarEasy_VET.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Schneeberger, Arthur
From ISCED to EQF: Similarities and differences
Abstract and purpose: To be able to communicate about job profiles (e.g. the car mechanic) you need to relate the job profile to the respective skill level otherwise you would mostly end up in misunderstandings. Therefore many resources have been invested in creating cross-national framework to compare educational levels (ISCED with 6 educational levels with sub-levels) or occupational levels (ISCO with 4 skill levels). These existing classification frameworks have turned out not to be a sufficient standard to compare the qualifications of some national systems.
Therefore the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) has been developed. In a press release of the Commission the following question was raised:
„Why not build on existing reference levels and frameworks (for example ISCED)? (...) Because the EQR introduces, for the first time, a set of reference levels based on learning outcomes (defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competences). The EQR shifts the focus from input (lengths of a learning experience, type of institution) to what a person holding a particular qualification actually knows and is able to do."
(EU-Commission: MEMO/06/318, 5. Septembre 2006, p.6)
All classification systems concerning educational attainment produce vertical structures are based on certain criteria. This is true for EQF as well as ISCED. Albeit there are differences between the two classification systems they have several characteristics in common...
DECOWE paper: will be added shortly
DECOWE presentation: From ISCED to EQF: Similarities and differences.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Sonja Lutovac / University of Maribor, Slovenia
Raimo Kaasila / University of Lapland, Finland
Using Narratives as Innovative Tools in Mathematics Course in Finnish Teacher Education
Abstract and purpose: In this paper we are presenting the use of narratives as tools in mathematics education course. This is one of the innovations in Finnish teacher education. At first we present as a context some major elements of teacher education that are contributing to Finnish pupils' success in PISA-studies. In Finland the goal of elementary teacher program is to produce innovative, reflective and collaborative-oriented teachers who can combine knowledge of educational science with knowledge of subject pedagogy, e.g. mathematical pedagogy.
Narrative inquiry is increasingly used in studies of educational experience (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Yet, in Slovenia, there has been no much interest in using narratives in educational research. In some other countries there is increased amount of narrative research studies done also in some specific domains like music education (see e.g. Clandinin, 2006; McCarthy, 2007), and mathematics teacher education (see e.g. Kaasila 2007; Chapman 2008).
The first author of this presentation collected in spring 2009 qualitative data for her dissertation from faculty of education at university of Lapland in Finland. Her data consist of six second year pre-service teachers' narrative interviews. They had negative experiences about learning mathematics during their own school time. The interviews were made after mathematics education course and teaching practice.,,
DECOWE paper: Using Narratives as Innovative Tools in Mathematics Course in Finnish Teacher Education.pdf
DECOWE presentation: Using Narratives as Innovative Tools in Mathematics Course in Finnish Teacher Education.pt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Owen, John / Centre for Program Evaluation, The University of Melbourne
Improving the Transition from Study to Work of Beginning Teachers: an Evaluation of an Innovative Teacher Education Program in Australia
Abstract and purpose: There has been high concern in Australia and elsewhere regarding the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education to prepare students to become novice teachers. The Innovative Teacher Education Program (ITEP) attempted to meet this concern with a new model that placed high emphasis on partnerships between university and participating schools. The model relied on a practicum that involved a school-based expert mentor working with cluster groups of teachers, and an emphasis on research evidence to explain practices that the trainees encountered in the schools.
Associate with the first implementation an evaluation of ITEP was undertaken during 2008. The study sought to respond to the following policy related issues:
- 1. What is the nature of an effective mentor supported practicum?
- 2. To what extent did the practicum model make a difference to the competence of pre-service teachers?
- 3. What advice can be provided about the future implementation of the model if it is shown to add value to conventional approaches?
In keeping with good evaluation practice, mixed methods were used, including observations of the work of mentors, interviews with school staff associated with the program, and the use of scales to assess the competencies of the trainees. The design allowed comparisons to be made with a group of trainees involved in conventional programs.
DECOWE paper: Improving the Transition from Study to Work of Beginning Teachers: an Evaluation of an Innovative Teacher Education Program in Australia.pdf
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Edwards, John / KSS Deanery, University of London
The Early Professional Development of Beginning Teachers in the UK: What can Students Tell Them?
Abstract and purpose: This presentation will consider the implications for, and the potential benefits of, the involvement of students located in state secondary schools in the early professional development of beginning teachers in England and Wales.
Teacher training has, during the past 20 years in the UK, been strictly controlled by Government legislation and has produced (in the view of many professionals) an instrumental model of professional development, which denies the autonomy of beginning teachers to explore their developing practice and reflect upon their progress.
This is particularly the case for teachers completing their initial training in universities before progressing to newly qualified (NQT) teacher status in state secondary schools.
The presentation offers 3 case studies of student involvement in the early professional development of teachers and claims that this attempt at collaborative pedagogic evaluation promotes elements of school improvement, student attainment and empowerment, teacher professional development and social justice.
Methodological relevance and approach: The paradigm adopted was largely interpretivist in kind. Denscombe (2002) argues that the social world is a not a clear objective entity that possesses qualities which are shared and understood by all and can, therefore, be measured and quantified in a transparent manner.
He further claims: "...it is a social creation, constructed in the minds of people and reinforced through their interactions with each other."
This is particularly the case in the field of education with its history of contested curricula and pedagogies and its function within the social fabric and economic imperatives of a nation.
DECOWE paper: The Early Professional Development of Beginning Teachers in the UK: What can Students Tell Them?.pdf
DECOWE presentation: The Early Professional Development of Beginning Teachers in the UK: What can Students Tell Them?.ppt
Cian, Luca / University of Verona
Expero: an European model of excellence to evaluate the quality of the learning outcomes in vocational trainings
Abstract and purpose:The most famous quality evaluation models (EFQM, ISO, ServQual) applied to the evaluation of educational organization point out their attention on the evaluation of the processes and/or of the service. Instead until now, very few models aim to the evaluation of the learning outcome.
Through two European Projects, named ExPerO and Expero2Eu, financed by the LLP Leonardo da Vinci Program, a model has been developed to monitor and evaluate the quality of the learning outcome in the vocational education.
Methodological relevance and approach : ExPerO (the European LLP project started in 2005 and ended in 2007) aimed to create, on the basis of the international scientific literature, a model able to evaluate the quality of the learning outcome in the VET (vocational education and training) context. This project took in consideration, from one side, the multiplicity of stakeholders of the VET courses, and, on the other side, the different ways to analyze Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality.
DECOWE paper: Expero: an European model of excellence to evaluate the quality of the learning outcomes in vocational trainings.pdf
DECOWE presentation: will be added shortly
Links to related projects: http://www.expero.org/hypertext/index.htm; http://www.expero2.eu/
Rainer Hensel & Frans Meijers / The Hague University of Professional Development
Rien van der Leeden / Leiden University
Joseph Kessels / Twente University
Personal Growth Needs Concerning Competence Development: Part of the Five Factor Model of personality or a separate characteristics?
Abstract and purpose: According to Staw (2004), a positive attitude towards personal growth is a necessary condition to develop personal qualities. Furnham (2008) argues that personal qualities related to the Five Factor model (FFM) of personality are an essential part of the concept competency. The FFM can be criticised because it does not include scales measuring the need for or attitude towards personal growth (Staw, 2004). Today, personal qualities are considered to be relevant for many aspects of an organization's effectiveness (Mount, Barrick, & Steward, 1998). Therefore, assessing personal growth needs seems to be quite important for organizations for which competences are important for the quality of the work or to be competitive.
In this paper we study the relation between Five Factor (Big Five) model personality variables and personal growth needs towards the development of competences, with personal qualities as developmental goals. Data were obtained for a sample of professionals (N=122) in higher vocational education participating in a Strategic Human resource Development Program. FFM variables were measured by the Dutch version of the Neo PiR, personal growth needs towards competence development was measured by a four item instrument. The reliability of this instrument was satisfactory ( = 0.80). Using covariance structure analysis it was shown that relationships between growth needs towards competence development and FFM variables were very weak or absent.
DECOWE paper: Personal Growth Needs Concerning Competence Development: Part of the Five Factor Model of personality or a separate characteristics?.pdf
DECOWE presentation: will be added shortly
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Štogrová Jedličková, Petra / Charles University, Prague
The Role of Virtual Worlds in Teaching and Learning
Abstract and purpose: The presentation describes current trends in online learning and virtual learning communities. It presents critical overview of current theoretical background and research. Challenges which emerge from pedagogical, social, and technological aspects of the active online learning are presented based on the review of tools, roles and techniques. Presentation summarizes the most important challenges and recommendations.
New communication and information tools promise to bring more quality into teaching, learning, and working by providing access to colossal portion of information sources, and to facilities for active learning and problem solving. ICT actually influenced the education theory, in particular anchored instruction and situated cognition. These learning theories recognize that technology impacts social interaction, which in turn, affects the learning process. Situated learning theory proposes that real-life problem solving should be a collaborative task, empowering learners to become part of learning community. Anchored instruction seeks to build problem-solving skills by anchoring instruction around a real-life situation or tangible problem. It seems that most of the online learning applications stipulate these two theoretical starting points. The presentation presents critical overview of current research and experience from various settings: on-line teaching in tertiary education sector, international research projects, professional development virtual community, distance e-learning, online learning tutoring classes, educative online computer games, and virtual worlds such as the SecondLife. Since the author combine both synchronous and asynchronous teaching experience, distance learning, combined learning, both long-term and short-term virtual communities, we refer to that embedded experience in general as to "online learning" or "virtual worlds". The author based her presentation on actual experience and practise as an online teacher, tutor, learner, researcher, and inhabitant.
DECOWE paper: The Role of Virtual Worlds in Teaching and Learning.pdf
DECOWE presentation: The Role of Virtual Worlds in Teaching and Learning.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
Cortés Pascual, Alejandra / University of Zaragoza
Generic competencies and values in pre-university students
Abstract and purpose: This study presents part of the results of research carried out with 1427 students in their last year of non-compulsory secondary education in the Region of Aragón (Spain), in order to find out the factors which have a bearing on their choice of university education, hence, improving the career guidance process. Specifically, this presentation will refer to work values and transversal compentencies. This is deemed to be an important contribution, as it is an integral part in terms of the variables which influence the academic decision process, given the sample studied and the influence of the educational and proactive intervention field in the labour market.
Methodological relevance and approach: It has been conducted with the ORIENTAUNI questionnaire (Cortés, Arraiz, Sabirón, Bueno and Berbegal, 2009) (see questionnaire in Spanish and Englishpersonal web). To develop this test the following process was conducted: 1st ) discussion group with career counsellors from high schools in the Region of Aragón to ascertain what variables would have a bearing on the questionnaire, and 2nd ) theoretical revision on the issue. From both references a questionnaire was drafted and validated in two ways: 1) By six experts (3 career guidance counsellors and 3 university lecturers from the area of Vocational Guidance). After their findings (as to the validity and reliability of the test), the questionnaire that had been passed to the pilot group was reworked. 2) Through this pilot group, with 20 students from the last year of non-compulsory secondary education. When finished, some of the findings from this second test were re-incorporated. The result is a questionnaire with 65 items: 60 closed and 5 open. The questionnaire includes 6 parts: A) Identification Data (1-3); B) Family situation (4-9); C) Future status (10-24); D) Values and options (25-30); D) Core competencies (31-56) and E) Academic and school situation (57-65). The reliability is also adequate in throughout the entire questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha=0.74) and on the skills sub-scale (Cronbach´s alpha =0.909).
DECOWE paper: Generic competencies and values in pre-university students.pdf
DECOWE presentation: will be added shortly
Links to related projects: ORIENTAUNI questionnaire.pdf
Anastasiou, Adamos, Androutsou, Despina & Valkanos, Efthymios / University of Macedonia
The importance of SWOT Analysis for educational units that belong to the field of Vocational Education and Training: The case of the State Institute (IEK) of Epanomi in Thessaloniki
Abstract and purpose: Educational units constitute a considerably separate category of organisations due to the complexity they present compared to all other organisations. The fact that they belong to this particular category of organisations in general presupposes the urgent necessity to operate and even be administrated as effectively as possible so as to be in the position to achieve further advances of development.
Programming is regarded as the first step in the process of administration. As far as the action of an educational unit is concerned, it refers to the function of setting goals and objectives for the procedures according to which the educational, pedagogical and administrative activities of a school unit will be accomplished within a predefined time.
Strategic programming concerns the long-term planning, which focuses on the general orientation of the organisation and the designation of the long-term goals, taking into account the environment and the conditions in which the organisation operates...
DECOWE paper: The importance of SWOT Analysis for educational units that belong to the field of Vocational Education and Training: The case of the State Institute (IEK) of Epanomi in Thessaloniki.pdf
DECOWE presentation: The importance of SWOT Analysis for educational units that belong to the field of Vocational Education and Training: The case of the State Institute (IEK) of Epanomi in Thessaloniki.ppt
Liwiński, Jacek / University of Warsaw
Influence of vocational training on wages and mobility of workers - evidence from Poland
Abstract and purpose: The human capital theory (Becker, 1962) says that participation in training leads to accumulation of either general or specific human capital. In competitive markets investment in general training should have a positive impact on wages and no impact on worker's inter-firm mobility, while specific training - a positive impact on wages and negative impact on worker's inter-firm mobility. These predictions of the theory have been empirically tested in many countries but the results are ambiguous. The goal of my analysis was to test the Becker's theory on the example of the Polish labour market. In particular my goal was to check whether participating in vocational training has an influence on workers' mobility (inter-firm, inter-industrial and inter-occupational) and wages.
Methodological relevance and approach: The influence of participation in vocational training on worker's mobility was estimated by the use of logit model and multinomial logit model, while the influence on wages - by the use of OLS linear regression. The estimations were done on the basis of data from the Polish Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the period 2001-2003.
DECOWE presentation: Influence of vocational training on wages and mobility of workers - evidence from Poland.ppt
Ayalon, Hanna / Tel Aviv University
For-profit Mid-career Programs as a Second Chance for Disadvantaged Social Groups
Abstract and purpose: Israeli universities have recently established Executive Programs, aimed at holders of junior managerial positions, who wish to acquire a prestigious Masters degree and improve their status and salary. These programs are less selective than parallel regular programs. Unlike the regular Masters programs the executive programs are not funded by the state, and the tuition is relatively high. The executive programs are highly criticized on institutional grounds. They are viewed as jeopardizing the status of higher education by turning the universities into a business.
Another line of criticism is on social grounds. Critics claim that that by catering to a wealthy population, the executive programs are enlarging educational gaps. This criticism ignores the fact that the programs are not aimed at young sons and daughters of wealthy parents. They are rather aimed at older people who achieved economic success, and wish to convert it into educational achievements. Following this logic, we analyze the executive programs as a second-chance system, which provides older workers with the opportunity to acquire a prestigious Masters degree from an elite university. This population was deprived of that opportunity in the past, because of educational and economic deficiencies.
Due to the link that exists in Israel between the social profile of students and their educational achievements, we hypothesize that the executive programs provide a second chance for a Masters degree to members of underprivileged social groups - students originating from lower status families, disadvantaged ethnic groups, and inhabitants of the geographic periphery...
Methodological relevance and approach : The binary logistic regression is used to compare the social and educational profiles of students in the executive and regular programs. The multinomial regression is used to compare students in different executive and regular programs that differ in prestige and selectivity.
DECOWE paper: For-Profit Mid-Career Programs as a Second Chance for Disadvantaged Working Groups.pdf
DECOWE presentation: For-profit Mid-career Programs as a Second Chance for Disadvantaged Social Groups.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly
