John Charles Stevenson

Concepts of workplace knowledge

This chapter introduces and draws upon the other papers in this volume to address the issue of how task performance is achieved in workplace settings and the extent to which the knowledge needed for task performance is generic (that is, transcends workplace settings). Specific questions involving the mutual interaction of task performance, knowledge use, and people and artifacts are raised. The questions are then explored from a variety of theoretical frameworks, including cultural historical activity theory, cognitive theory, and socio-cultural and socio-linguistic theories.

Vocational knowledge and its specification

Abstract The contemporary pressure to codify vocational knowledge is economically driven. However, it represents just one of many kinds of knowledge codification that have occurred throughout history. Such codification of knowledge leads to and serves to reinforce differences in the value afforded various kinds of knowledge, education and learners. Three main types of problems with codification are identified: the difficulties involved in codifying knowledge, the inappropriate dualisms that can develop and the omission of important knowledge. Yet codification of knowledge has become important economically in a globalising economy, and the limits imposed on globalisation by the tacit nature of important knowledge is being recognised. In order to tease out the nature of tacit knowledge, Polanyis concepts are outlined and related to advances in contemporary theories of knowledge and learning. A recently developed taxonomy of types and qualities of knowledge is used to illustrate the pervasiveness of tacit knowledge and as a basis for examining various codification agendas. It is concluded that the value of codification relates to the motives for engaging in codification, but that there are dangers in confounding the codes with the knowledge itself. A holistic approach to teaching and learning, which develops plural ways of knowing is outlined and advocated.

Developing Technological Knowledge

It is argued in this paper that various approaches are available in designing teaching and learning experiences for technology education. However, many approaches are based on inappropriate assumptions about transfer, the ways in which meaning is represented by individuals and relationships among different kinds of experiences. It is advanced that the development of technology knowledge in school should aim at developing a rich inter-connectedness among the ways in which technological meanings can be understood by learners, so that learners experience transformations in relation to themselves, technological practice and their knowledge. Cultural-historical activity theory is suggested as a useful basis for designing instruction aimed at the various purposes of technology education.

The metamorphosis of the construction of competence

The idea of competence has different meanings in ordinary, academic, and vocational education and training‐practice. These meanings also have historical dimensions. That is, what is meant by competence has evolved over time, and has been constituted differently in different areas of practice. For instance, in contemporary discussions in education and training, competing notions of competence have been the subject of debate, somewhat reminiscent of recurring debates in education over the last century or more. This paper examines the possible reasons why different meanings are associated with the term competence by examining the nature of the ends that are sought in constructions of competence in dijferent areas of practice. The paper relates advocacy for dijferent constructions of competence to the normative views that underpin them, and to periods in history when they gained their greatest sway. The genesis of the position of the cognitive psychological construction of competence and that of the competenc...

The centrality of vocational learning

Abstract This article explores the concept of the ‘vocational’ in contemporary educational discourses, and argues for the centrality of vocational aspects of learning in making meaning. The existing tensions are seen to lie between discourses that place the vocational at the bottom of a hierarchy of knowledge and value, and discourses concerning expectations for the vocational. It is argued that these tensions flow from a mistaken view of the vocational and vocational knowledge, especially those based on polarisations of behaviour and codification of the knowledge that is implied. The article reviews research findings on workplace activities and discusses them in terms of theoretical concepts about the development of meaning. The findings are interpreted as supporting the need to restore the vocational to its rightful place, as central to the ways in which individuals make meaning by engaging in significant activity.

The implications of learning theory for the idea of general knowledge

Abstract The idea of general knowledge is often put forward as a desirable learning goal, in all sectors of education: in schools, universities and even in technical and further education, especially in a changing society. The promotion of such knowledge is usually in terms of its being different from and more desirable than other knowledge, such as specific knowledge, practical/functional knowledge, technical knowledge, concrete knowledge, instrumental knowledge, skilled/physical knowledge, and/or vocational knowledge. While such differentiations may reflect many different kinds of values and assumptions, this article examines the substantiveness of just one possible basis for separating out the idea of general knowledge in this way: that of learning theory, based mainly on cognitive science. The article argues that, from the standpoint of current learning theory, and the current cognitive theoretical state of our understanding of the nature of knowledge and learning, such differentiations are difficult to sustain.

The Political Colonisation of the Cognitive Construction of Competence

Abstract The idea of competence has different constructions in different areas of practice. Indeed, the construction of the idea of competence has undergone substantial but constrained change, in some areas of practice, over the past decade. For instance, in the contemporary competency‐based education and training (CBT) movement, competence was initially defined as behaviour, observed as performance on pre‐specified work‐based tasks. In the face of criticism, the construction has moved to accommodate those cognitive structures which are thought to underlie and enable such performance. This can be characterised as a colonisation of cognitive psychology which has occurred safely for the CBT movement because of the purportedly value‐free nature of cognitive psychology. Nevertheless, it serves to push aside the implicit values that general education attaches to certain kinds of knowledge. CBT may appear to seek to redress normative problems underlying rival constructions of competence. However, it has not con...

Technical and further education reforms: Theoretical issues

This paper examines theoretical issues arising from technical and further education and training reforms over the last few decades. It illustrates how these reforms have been dominated by particular knowledge concerns assumed to be central to specific areas of human activity. It then examines the reforms in terms of theoretical relationships among knowledge, skills, activity and meaning, as advanced by Piaget (1980a, 1980b) and Vygotsky (1934/1986); and discusses the implications for this and other sectors of education. The paper concludes that the reforms in technical and further education have pursued an image of relevance, but have mistaken how individuals construct meaning in workplace activities and the relationships among these kinds of meanings and those used in wider individual and social activities. It is also concluded that this mistake has serious implications for the current directions of the sector and its effectiveness in preparing people for their working lives.

Reclaiming Bodily Dispositions through the Humanities: Homeless People Learning.

This paper examines data drawn from interviews with homeless people who were undertaking a Clemente programme offered by the Australian Catholic University in the Vincentian Village in East Sydney. The Clemente programme, conceptualised by Shorris, is based on the belief that an education in the humanities empowers people to engage in a more controlled way with the world in which they live, and that they will therefore be less likely to react simply to contexts and events. Two of the striking things about the interview data were the rejection of ‘vocational courses’ and the way in which the learners referred to changes in their bodies that flowed from the humanities programme: the way they walked, the straightness of their backs, together with the metaphor of climbing. The present paper seeks to interpret these and other changes in terms of Mauss’s and Bourdieu’s conceptions of habitus, bodily hexis and dispositions, and possible implications for teaching and learning in vocational education.

Exploring workplace values

Abstract In this article, the question of values in relation to competence is examined. An analytical framework for the examination of values in work sites is synthesised and values in customer service areas of four airline sites are examined. Almost 60 sets of values were identified, which could be clustered into various groups relating to oneself and different foci in the workplace. It is concluded that even these sets of values could be subdivided, would be operationalised differently in different settings and would have different meanings in other service industries. These values seemed to reflect a discontinuity between work and living. It is concluded that the values dimension of competence deserves more attention in delineating work capacities and in the training that prepares individuals for the workplace. Moreover, it is concluded that a greater connectedness between workplace and other life values seems warranted.