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Journal of Education, 2021
Issue 85, http://journals.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/joe doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i85a01
Online ISSN 2520-9868 Print ISSN 0259-479X
Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum: A critical
review of the literature
Christine Winberg
Professional Education Research Unit, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
winbergc@cput.ac.za
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6234-7358
Shairn Hollis-Turner
Professional Education Research Unit, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
Hollis-TurnerS@cput.ac.za
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0001-3229
(Received: 5 September 2020; accepted: 14 September 2021)
Abstract
There is a growing number of studies in the field of vocational education and training, but not many focus on the
practical subjects that prepare students for transition to workplaces. This critical review of the literature on
practical subjects in vocational colleges set out to contribute to debates on the relationship between theory and
practice in vocational education through a particular focus on the knowledge forms that are evident in curricular
and pedagogical practices in practical subjects. The critical review identified the conceptual, procedural,
technical, and contextual forms of knowledge in practical tasks and activities. Based on these findings and
drawing on the concept of semantic gravity in Legitimation Code Theory, we found stronger and weaker forms
of semantic gravity in practical knowledge and propose that strengthening and weakening semantic gravity
through the purposeful selection and sequencing of tasks and activities enables cumulative knowledge building
towards competent practice.
Keywords: practical subjects; vocational education; vocational colleges; critical review of the literature,
semantic gravity
Introduction: An overview of key debates in vocational
education
Scholars in the field agree that vocational education should support students’ transitions from
education to work (e.g., Allais & Shalem, 2018; Billett, 2011; Rauner et al., 2012; Winch,
2013). However, the purposes, curricula, and pedagogies of vocational education are strongly
contested. Is the purpose of vocational education to prepare young people for specific jobs or
8 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
is it to prepare them more broadly for employability and citizenship? Educationalists have
argued that vocational qualifications “have been robbed of their educational integrity and are
too narrow, too task focused and too tied to particular jobs” (Wheelahan, 2015, p. 127), while
industry representatives argue that vocational qualifications should meet the needs of
employers and provide the basis for a skilled workforce and occupational progression as
Rageth and Renold (2020) have noted.
There is, therefore, an inevitable tension in vocational curricula between the logic of
education and the logic of industry. This tension is evident in the connection (or
disconnection) between theory (in the form of academic subjects) and practice (in the form of
practical subjects and work-based learning). Ryle (2009) proposed a distinction between
know-how, or practical knowledge, and knowing that, or propositional or theoretical
knowledge that has been useful in identifying a knowledge base for vocational education.
Winch (2013) expanded on Ryle’s distinction by pointing to the importance of the
interrelationship of “knowing how and knowing that” (p. 281) in vocational curricula and
warned of the consequences of neglecting this relationship. That attention has not been paid
to the relationship between theoretical and practical knowledge is evident in the ongoing
debates about the extent to which the curriculum should be structured by disciplinary
knowledge or by occupational standards. Should the focus be on the “specifics of the
vocational area with minimal curriculum extension and enrichment” (Fuller, 2015, p. 232) or
should the vocational curriculum include a wider range of academic subjects and civic
education? On the one hand, it is argued that theoretical subjects provide the explanatory
logic and the principles that underpin practice (Wheelahan, 2015), and, on the other, that
practical subjects and work-based learning provide context and opportunities to connect
theory to practice (Billett, 2011). The issue of the relationship between both forms, is,
however, under-represented (Winch, 2013). Geographically, there are differences across
vocational education systems, with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland tending towards a
broader educational base (Rauner et al., 2012), and the UK (Fuller, 2015), Australia
(Wheelahan, 2015) and many developing countries tending towards a more narrowly defined
vocational curriculum (McGrath et al., 2020).
Whether or not a vocational pedagogy exists is debatable, given the varied terrain of
vocational education. The classic so-called signature pedagogy of vocational training was
apprenticeship, but with the shift towards college-based vocational education (dating back to
the early 20th century), scholars identified a disjuncture between the goals of vocational
education and the pedagogies most effective for the achievement of those goals (Lucas,
2014). Rauner et al. (2012) proposed that a vocational pedagogy has to address both
propositional and procedural knowledge, i.e., not only how to perform an action but “why it
is shaped this way rather than another and how the processes of genesis and design take place
as part of the development of society” (p. 20). Indeed, studies show that that narrow
outcomes “have long been identified as only accounting for superficial learning” rather than
“complex performance” (Billet, 2011, p. 7). “Competence”, interpreted as the “professional
competence to act”, plays a major part in the debates in vocational pedagogy and especially
in the system of examinations (Rauner et al., 2012, p. 20). Thus, the ways in which vocational
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 9
courses are assessed, and the role of academic staff and practitioners in assessment “has to be
viewed as a dimension of the development of professional competence, and to be integrated
into a model of competence development” (Rauner et al., 2012, p. 32).
There are related debates about the settings in which vocational education should take place.
Should students be primarily located in the workplace with some classroom provision or
should it be the other way around with full-time attendance at a vocational college and some
opportunities for workplace experience? Billett (2011, p. 17) warned of “the cognitive
consequences of participating in an environment that is remote from those in which the
knowledge to be learned is applied.” Clearly, colleges are “not able to provide the full range
of authentic experiences required” for competent practice (p. 125), and practical subjects
cannot take the place of internships and other forms of work-based learning. In this regard,
practical subjects and students’ engagement in practical activities while undertaking
vocational studies in colleges is understood not as a substitute for actual work experience, but
as a preparation for work placement (Rauner et al., 2012).
The extent to which practical subjects support successful transition into workplaces and
competence-building is the focus of this critical review. In the context of practical training,
Winch pointed to the importance of mapping “the main kinds of know-how that need to be
taken account of” in preparing students for practice (2013, pp. 281–282). While there has
been “an exponential increase in articles with a vocational focus” (Gessler & Siemer, 2020),
very few of these studies have a focus on practical vocational subjects. It is thus timely that a
critical review of the literature on practical subjects be undertaken to address “the need for
review studies for the purposes of systematic knowledge aggregation, clarification and
interpretation” (p. 100). The research question guiding this critical review of the literature is:
“How do curricular and pedagogical arrangements in practical vocational subjects support
students’ transitions to work?” Our intention in this study is to contribute to debates on the
relationship between theory and practice in vocational education through a particular focus on
the knowledge forms that are evident in curricular and pedagogical practices in practical
subjects.
A theoretical framework for critically reviewing the
literature on practical vocational subjects
Because the focus of the critical review is on the knowledge forms that are evident in
curricula and pedagogies in practical vocational subjects, we conceptually framed the critical
review with Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a social realist framework that has been
widely used to study the knowledge base of different types and levels of educational
provision (Maton, 2014), including vocational education (e.g., Johansson, 2020). LCT is
multi-dimensional in offering a variety of concepts and tools to analyse practices. Each
dimension explores one set of organising principles of dispositions, practices, and fields,
conceptualised in LCT as legitimation codes. An analysis of legitimation codes explores
“what is possible for whom, when, where and how, and who is able to define these
possibilities, when, where and how” (Maton, 2014, p. 18).
10 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
Analysing a field of practice involves identifying the semantic structures “whose organizing
principles are conceptualized as semantic codes comprising semantic gravity and semantic
density” (Maton, 2014, p. 2). Semantic gravity explains the degree of context-dependence of
meaning while semantic density explains the degree of condensation of meaning (Maton,
2014). Both semantic gravity and semantic density are necessary in a vocational curriculum,
and an appropriate relationship between them is key to the success of vocational programmes.
A focus on semantic density would foreground the theoretical, abstract components of the
programme, while a focus on semantic gravity reveals the contextual, practical, work- or
occupation-oriented aspects of the programme.
Winch (2013, p. 282) pointed out that there is “an excessive concentration on skill” in the
vocational literature, rather than on “other forms of know-how whose development is vital to
any professional or vocational education.” Consequently, there is a need “to articulate the
main relationships between these different kinds of know-how.” In order to define
appropriate forms of know-how, as well as to explain the relations between the different
forms of know-how, we drew, as mentioned above, on the concept of semantic gravity.
Semantic gravity approximates to Ryle’s (2009) notion of know-how and it is this practical
knowledge form that is foregrounded in our study. Winch (2013, p. 283) argued that we
should resist “attempts at reduction, either of know-how to knowing that (broadly speaking
the intellectualist tradition) or of knowing that to know-how (what is sometimes known as
‘strong anti-intellectualism’).” For this critical review of the literature on practical subjects,
know-how or, in this case, semantic gravity, highlights the different forms of practical
knowledge and the nature of the relationships between types of semantic gravity in practical
subjects that were important to preparing students for transition into work practices. While
we acknowledge the presence and importance of semantic density in practical subjects, and
generally in vocational curricula, the focus of this study is practical knowledge, and the
relationships between forms of practical knowledge in practical subjects. The focus on
semantic gravity does not imply that semantic density is absent; there is often an inverse
relationship between semantic gravity and semantic density. When semantic gravity is
weaker, it is less embedded in its context, thus enabling the inclusion of conceptual
knowledge within practice. Because of its potential to identify relationships between theory
and practice through stronger and weaker linkages to contexts, semantic gravity is pertinent
to a study of knowledge in practical training.
Translation Device
In order to operationalize the concept of semantic gravity a “translation device” (Maton &
Chen, 2016, p. 28) was needed to form a bridge between the high level concept of semantic
gravity and its application to studies of practical work in vocational education and training
(see Table 1).
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 11
Table 1
Translation device for semantic gravity in practical vocational subjects
Semantic Gravity Range Knowledge Codes Descriptors/examples
Weaker
Semantic Gravity
Conceptual SG- Theory, concepts, and principles
that underpin practice.
Stronger Semantic
Gravity
Contextual SG+ Knowledge acquired in practice.
In practical subjects, weaker semantic gravity (SG-) indicates the foregrounding of concepts
and principles, while stronger semantic gravity (SG+) is evident in contextually embedded
forms of knowledge that develop through practice and that are often tacit and difficult to
explain and to teach. The arrow in the Range column indicates that weaker and stronger
forms of semantic gravity can be positioned along a continuum. The difference between
practical work that is undertaken as part of an internship, or other form of workplace
learning, and the training provided in practical subjects is the presence or absence of real
work. While there are many forms of learning in practical subjects, such as active and
engaged classroom learning, problem-based learning, laboratory work, studio work, and
simulations, these would not be equivalent to actual workplace practice. However practical
subjects are likely to have stronger semantic gravity and might adapt ideas from actual work
practices. Curricular and pedagogical practices are likely to draw on a range of knowledge
types, concepts, and codified forms of knowledge as well as knowledge arising from practical
tasks and activities.
Winch (2013) identified three types of know-how, namely “skill (and its technique
component), transversal ability and project management ability” (p. 281). He proposed a
“nesting” or “hierarchical relationship” between the three forms of practical knowledge (p.
295). There are two aspects to “skill”, namely “the ability to perform tasks” and the
“technique” used to perform them. “Transversal abilities” include “planning, communicating,
[and] evaluating,” and develop from skills (pp. 287–288). Despite their name, transversal
abilities are context-dependent because they arise from a particular vocational field, and
while they are transferable within the vocational field, they are generally not transferable
across fields. Finally, project management is an ability to put into effect “relatively long-term
sequences of actions” that build on and articulate different transversal abilities (p. 821).
We used semantic gravity in the critical review to study curricular and pedagogical practices
in practical subjects, determine practice variations across occupational fields, and explain the
knowledge forms that underpin the practices. Traversing the full extent of the semantic
gravity range has been shown to enable students to draw on theoretical concepts in order to
formulate solutions to the challenges they confront in practice (Maton, 2014). The translation
device (Table 1) was used to make visible the extent to which the studies focused on different
forms of knowledge in practical training and provided the theoretical basis from which
curricular and pedagogical practices in vocational subjects could be critically appraised.
12 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
Methodology of the critical review of the literature
We followed the PRISMA methodology for critically reviewing the literature (Evans et al.,
2012). In common with systematic reviews, for Eva (2008, p. 853) a critical review presents a
“synthesis of a variety of literatures, identifies knowledge that is well established, highlights
gaps in understanding, and provides some guidance regarding what remains to be
understood.” A critical review is particularly apposite when scholars hold different views, as
is the case in relation to the practical training of students in vocational education. The
distinctiveness of a critical review is that the results “should give a new perspective on an old
problem, rather than simply paraphrasing what all other researchers and scholars in the field
have shown or said in the past” (p. 853). The PRISMA critical review methodology is
comprised of four steps: 1) identification of the studies through a transparent and replicable
search strategy; 2) screening of the studies for duplications and for relevance to the topic; 3)
checking the eligibility of the data extracted against justifiable quality criteria; and 4)
critically analysing the data extracted (Evans et al., 2012). It is the last step, i.e., the critical
analysis of the study data that distinguishes a critical review from a systematic review. In a
critical review, drawing on a theoretical framework to provide new perspectives and
theoretically informed insights into the studies reviewed, the data extracted is coded and
thematically analysed.
Identification
The search strategy included the selection of appropriate search terms and testing them via
pilot searches. The vocational education literature does not use standard terms for practical
training in colleges, thus a number of context-specific terms were required (e.g., “practical
training”, “practical subjects”, “school-to-work”, “pre-apprenticeship”). Since practical
training is a term commonly used for industry-based training in work placements, we
excluded “industry” in the searches. When we searched in generic databases we included
“vocational education”, “vocational training”, “VET” and “TVET” in the searches, but when
we were searching in or cross-checking vocational education journals, this was unnecessary.
We searched six academic databases and cross-checked in a meta-database (SCOPUPS) as
well as in nine individual journals. We also searched relevant journals that were not in
academic publishers’ databases. Table 2 provides a schematic representation of the search
strategy.
We included articles on the basis of relevance, i.e., if they were research studies on the
curricula, teaching, learning, and/or assessment of practical subjects or practical training in
technical and vocational colleges. The searches conducted resulted in an initial database of
256 articles, books, book chapters, and conference proceedings.
Screening
Duplicate or very similar studies were removed. Titles and abstracts were not helpful in
judging the study’s relevance to the topic since many terms used to describe industry or
higher education training are similar to those used in college-based training. Consequently,
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 13
we read all articles, chapters, and conference proceedings in order to determine their
eligibility for inclusion in the study.
Table 2
The Search strategy
SEARCH TERMS DATABASES
SEARCHED
CROSS-CHECKED IN
(“Vocational Education”
OR “Vocational Training”
OR VET OR TVET) AND
(“practical training” OR
“practical subject” OR
“school-to-work” OR “pre-
apprenticeship”) NOT
industry NOT university
NOT “higher vocational
education”
Elsevier Journal of Vocational Behavior
Emerald Education + Training
IEEE Xplore IEEE Transactions on Education
SABINET Journal of Vocational, Adult and
Continuing Education and Training
Journal of Education
SCOPUS International Journal for Research in
Vocational Education and Training
(IJRVET)
Springer Empirical Research in Vocational
Education and Training
Taylor and Francis Journal of Vocational Education &
Training
Journal of Education and Work
International Journal of Training
Research
JOURNALS NOT IN ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS’ DATABASES
Search terms as above - Nordic Journal of Vocational
Education and Training
- Journal of Technical Education and
Training
Eligibility
Following screening, 68 studies remained in the database. We re-read all items in it and
screened articles on quality criteria. The intention was to include only empirical research
studies and research-based evaluation studies. Thus, articles that were position papers,
reviews, opinions, shorter than two pages, or that lacked a methodology section were
excluded, resulting in a final database of 63 studies. We excluded studies earlier than 2010 to
keep the database as up to date as possible.
Included for critical analysis
The translation device provided the basis for an iterative process of identifying emergent
themes by consensus. Finally, we produced a synthesis of the findings, paying particular
attention to commonalities across studies. We used the translation device (Table 1) to code
14 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
the data. Both of us jointly coded and analysed the studies. The literature was managed in an
Excel database (available at http link).
Figure 1
PRISMA Flow Chart for the critical review of the literature
Source: Evans et al. (2012).
Screening
Included Eligibility Identification
Records identified through database
searches
(n = 234 )
Additional records identified through
other sources
(n = 22 )
Duplicate/irrelevant
(n =188 )
Full-text articles excluded
on the basis of quality
(n = 5)
Records in initial data base
(n = 256 )
Records screened
(n = 256 )
Full-text articles assessed
for quality
(n = 68)
Eligible studies
(n = 63)
Studies critically
analysed
(n = 63)
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 15
Findings from the critical review of the literature
Most of the studies (43/63) that we included in the critical review of the literature took place
in European countries, with Germany, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries particularly
well-represented. Asian countries, including China, India, Malaysia, and Hong Kong
comprise the next cluster (11/63). We included four studies from Australia, two from the
United States and three from Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa) in the data base. The
literature included a wide variety of research methods, including surveys (e.g., Chandran et
al., 2018; Dasmani, 2011; Dumbrell & Smith, 2013), observational studies (e.g., Asplund &
Kontio, 2020; Louw, 2013; Sjöberg, 2014), interview-based studies (e.g., Aakernes, 2018;
Callan et al., 2015; Heusdens et al., 2018), case studies (e.g., Gleeson, 2016; Kotsifakos et al.,
2018), document-based studies (e.g., Nylund & Rosvall, 2016; Rauner et al., 2012),
comparisons (e.g., Kap, 2014; Sappa et al., 2016; Schröder, 2019) and evaluations of
interventions (e.g., Hoareau et al., 2017; Shrestha, 2016; Yasak & Alias, 2017). Several
studies used mixed-method approaches, such as surveys and interviews (e.g., Deitmer &
Heinemann, 2017; Stalder, 2012) and “obser-views” that combined observations with
interviews (Aarkrog, 2019; Hamid et al., 2012).
Conceptual underpinnings of practical subjects
Ten studies (16%) focused on the role of conceptual knowledge in practical subjects. Studies
in this category described different ways in which connections were made between
disciplinary knowledge and practical activities, particularly in laboratory-based practicals.
Most studies in this category were in engineering fields, including automotive (Nylund &
Rosvall, 2016), mechanical (Kotsifakos et al., 2018), electronic (Kotsifakos et al., 2019) and
software engineering (Kosmidis et al., 2019), as well as in information technology (Gkamas
et al., 2019; Yasak & Alias, 2017) and green technologies (Gleeson, 2016). The studies
highlighted how scientific knowledge was drawn on in technical tasks and activities. Gleeson
(2016) made a case for including scientific knowledge in the practical training of heat pump
installers, explaining that errors occurred when the scientific basis of a particular practice was
not clear to a technician. Scientific knowledge was similarly fundamental to laboratory-based
practice as Kotsifakos et al. (2018) pointed out. They argued that professional competence in
software engineering is grounded in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) knowledge. They explained their pedagogy for “in-classroom . . . computational
capabilities of the latest versions of the modern software” as attempting “through STEM to
make students feel the phenomena that surround them in a holistic and interdisciplinary way
rather than learning isolated segments” (p. 1). Gkamas et al. (2019) explained that teaching
students to “analyse domain specific trends and present them as structured information, create
code to statistically analyse data, apply data statistics and data visualization” and so on,
required the “integration of data science with data practice” (p. 2).
16 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
From routine to complex processes
Procedural knowledge, or the knowledge of how to do something, is commonly associated
with practical subjects and with practical training more generally (Sappa et al., 2016). Nine
studies (14%) foregrounded procedural knowledge in fields such as ambulance and rescue
services (Andersson, 2016), policing (Söderström et al., 2020) and firefighting (Holmgren et
al., 2019). These are fields that place a strong focus on protocols. In some occupations a
period of observation of skilful practice, followed by assisted practice, was required before
students engaged in independent practice (Rantatalo et al., 2019). In college-based practical
training for emergency services, procedural knowledge was often learned in simulated or
virtual environments. In such environments, students were able to “virtually experience a
police situation, which encourages an inquiry process helpful for interpreting information and
negotiating the complexities and challenges they are faced with in the practical training”
(Söderström et al. 2020, p. 13).
In a study of practical subjects in business, IT, engineering, and hospitality, it was found that
sequencing episodes of practice from simple to more complex tasks, was necessary for the
acquisition of specific procedures, techniques, and the development of expertise (Sappa et al.,
2016). In carpentry, Louw (2013) similarly found that the sequencing of activities and tasks
as well as the provision of sufficient practical exercises and repetition was needed for the
honing of skills to develop competence.
Procedural knowledge was also foregrounded when the practical subject included training for
particular processes, such as “a complex procedure in the biomedical domain” (Hoareau et
al., 2017, p. 786), project management in structural engineering (Bünning, 2013) and
construction (Deitmer & Heinemann, 2017). A rich base of procedural knowledge was
necessary in the field of caregiving, where routines were often changing and needed to be
“deliberated, thoroughly examined and adapted to face new challenges” (Poortman et al.,
2011, p. 268).
Learning the tools of the trade
Twelve studies (19%) focused on the specific tools and technologies that were central to
practical subjects, such as developing hand skills through the use of “SMART (Skill
Mentoring and Assistance in Real Time) tools” (Akshay et al., 2012, p. 1). SMART tools are
devices that provide “motion monitoring and audio-visual feedback” to assist students in the
skilful use of occupational tools. The SMART device “is easily attached to any vocational
tool and can guide the user to conform to specific spatiotemporal trajectories and orientation
as described by template shape” (p. 1). Chandran and colleagues argued that a “haptic
simulator, designed to train manual lathe operators with sophisticated skills” provided an
“intensity of haptic feedback” that exceeded that of trainers providing feedback on a user
hand-wheel and manual lathe (2018, p. 97). In the context of technical computer engineering,
augmented reality in the college laboratory “had a positive impact on student achievement in
motherboard assembly” (Sirakaya & Kilic Cakmak, 2018, p. 13). In many cases, attaining
skilful practice required a purposeful sequencing of activities and tasks, management,
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 17
monitoring, refining, and honing before the required level of practice was attained (Louw,
2013).
Occupational technologies were foregrounded in two practical programmes in the hospitality
industry, namely baking (Callan et al., 2015) and cooking (Heusdens et al., 2018). In the
baking course, the curriculum was designed “around the use of the technology that . . . bakers
use every day” (Callan et al., 2015, p. 300). Heusdens et al. (2018) similarly structured their
cooking course around “conglomerations of all kinds of knowledge required for practising”
(p. 436). Additional studies pointed out that integrating occupational and educational
technologies into practical subjects could support students’ transition to workplaces
(Enochsson et al., 2020), that could lead to “new interpretations of the expected learning
outcomes . . . improved course designs, tasks and tutoring approaches” (Holmgren et al.,
2019, p. 82).
Constructing knowledge through practice
Most of the studies (35%) focussed on contextual forms of knowledge that developed in
practical training, particularly when there was alignment between the practical training
curriculum and relevant occupational standards (Hamid et al., 2012). Practical subjects
provided “the occupational orientation of the main qualification” (Kap 2014, p. 360), and
when “purposefully aligned with industry standards and practices” enabled students “to
construct meaningful knowledge development, skills acquisition and practical competence”
(Rauner et al., 2012, p. 152). Such curricular alignment in practical subjects facilitated
“school-to-work transitions, while at the same time bringing forward specific transition risks
before . . . apprenticeships” (Stalder, 2012, p. 124). It was important that trainers understood
the occupational standard in order to distinguish the “predominantly contextually specific
applications of knowledge tied to the context rather than articulating appropriate applications
of knowledge from disciplinary systems of meaning” (Heusdens et al., 2018, p. 448).
Many studies focused on curricula, in particular on the alignment of training outcomes with
“industry-determined specifications of performance that set out the skills, knowledge and
attitudes required to operate effectively in a specific industry or profession” (Shrestha, 2016,
p. 143). When there was alignment, practical subjects could be used “as a basis for the
quantitative assessment of professional competences and competence development” (Rauner
et al., 2012, p. xv). Several studies explained how curricular alignment with industry
standards was achieved in specific disciplines. For example, in mechanical engineering tasks
are “action-oriented” and consist of distinct phases, i.e., “inform, plan, decide, implement,
control, and evaluate” (Wilke & Magenheim, 2017, p. 484). The sequencing of the tasks
provided the curricular logic, while the respective demands of the phases could be supported
with appropriate pedagogies, such as “3D representations . . . used to enrich the work with
mechanical drawings in the planning phase” (Wilke & Magenheim, 2017, p. 484). A
curriculum in the field of caregiving was similarly guided by typical tasks, in this case, the
use of simulated cases each of which had three phases: “briefing, scenario, and debriefing”
(Aarkrog, 2019, p. 11). Elements of work-aligned tasks, such as fault identification,
diagnosis, and remediation were key to the logic of practical curricula. For example, “the use
18 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
of competence snippets instead of comprehensive material” was important in preparing
students for Industry 4.0 (Jaschke, 2014, p. 608). “Learning hierarchy techniques” was
similarly helpful in developing a practical training curriculum (Yasak & Alias, 2017, p. 183).
Effective practical training required authentic learning tasks that addressed key vocational
competencies. In media and communication, for example, the students worked on authentic
media productions (Aakernes, 2018); in caregiving a key central issue was “fidelity i.e., the
degree to which the scenario matches the practice it is intended to simulate” (Aarkrog, 2019,
p. 11). In a study comparing the training of nurses and IT technicians, Ümarik et al. (2010)
found several problems in assessment practices, including “fictitious assessment practices,
low quality of training and motivation of workplace trainers, and also the lack of
correspondence between the school curriculum and the competence base needed in the real
workplace” (p. 145). Problem-based learning in vocational education and training (PBVET)
was seen to have a positive impact on competency development in the field of building
construction (Fjellström, 2015). Ogbuanya and Chukwuedo (2017) implemented “varieties of
faulty mobile phones ranging from simple or budget phones to high technology phones such
as smart phones” in an IT technician programme, and in some cases, “faults were deliberately
induced in the phones to enable the students to acquire varieties of skills during the training
sessions” (p. 103). In police education, the video recording of simulated critical incidents
enabled rich learning through debriefing and reflection on practice (Sjöberg, 2014).
Simulation, including 3D and animation required “instructional design of the trade specific
learning and teaching materials as well as the readiness of students, teachers and workplace
mentors” (Ricky & Rechell, 2015, p. 96). Sjöberg et al. (2019) claimed that students in
secondary roles also engaged in deep learning through formulating and providing “feedback
to primary participants and through informal discussions and reflection processes” (p. 47).
Playing secondary roles in police simulation was important in the development of observation
skills (Rantatalo et al., 2019, p. 490).
Generic skills that support practice
Ten studies (16%) focused on the need to include generic skills and abilities in practical
subjects. A wide variety of concepts and terms were used to describe generic skills,
including: “soft skills” (Papier, 2017, p. 45); “general skills” (Nyen & Tønder, 2018, p. 232);
“transversal skills” (Gkamas et al., p. 3);, “employability skills” (Ogbuanya & Chukwuedo,
2017, p. 88), “transfer skills” (Kilbrink et al., 2018, p. 464); “transferable skills” (Gekara &
Snell, 2018, p. 107); “collaborative work” (Andersson, 2016, p. 245); “21st century skills”
(Schröder, 2019, p. 87); “social networks” (Neroorkar & Gopinath, 2019, p. 16); “vocational
identities” (Klotz et al., 2014, p. 6); the “culture of workplaces” (Ortoleva & Bétrancour,
2016, p. 179); and “active learning” (Deitmer & Heinemann, 2017, p. 128). Nyen and Tønder
argued that “there is a need to balance general and vocational skills with vocational
specialisation and to integrate school-based and workplace learning” (2018, p. 232).
Not all the generic skills discussed in the articles were of the same order; some were more
basic and others considerably more complex. Some skills were linked to learning skills, for
example, active learning was found to be important for students’ engagement in practical
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 19
training (Dasmani, 2011). Khaled et al. (2014) claimed that students’ engagement in college-
based practical training built “technical and procedural skills, but also competencies and
professional identity” (p. 475). In a technical course, teachers felt that the course was
successful “not only if a student had gained an apprenticeship, but also if he or she had been
rehabilitated from drug or alcohol problems or if he or she enrolled in another course”
(Dumbrell & Smith, 2013, p. 170). Asplund and Kontio (2020) argued that students’ “anti-
school culture” could be mitigated by the introduction of “happy objects” such as
smartphones into practical training since the “happy objects” contributed to a positive “future
vocational identity as building and constructing workers” (p. 65). Students’ dispositions
towards their chosen occupation were strongly influenced by their practical learning
experiences and the extent to which their experience of practical training supported their
identification with the occupation.
Several studies noted the role that reflection played in practical training. Eportfolios were
proposed “as a tool for mediating experiences and feedback . . . targeting the learning
outcomes” (Nore & Lahn, 2014, p. 24–25). When eportfolios included “writing and peer
feedback in practical training” they had the potential to “integrate the social dimension of
learning” and “culture of workplaces” (Ortoleva & Bétrancour, 2016, p. 179).
Nyen and Tønder proposed the consideration of two main dimensions when one was
integrating generic skills into the vocational specialisation, namely, “the degree of shielding
from demands and expectations in the world of work and the degree of relevance for the
development of occupational skills” (2018, p. 239). Interpersonal and inter-professional skills
were particularly important in police, ambulance, and rescue services (Andersson, 2016).
Appropriate practical training could support students’ emergent vocational identities (Klotz et
al., 2014). There were thus advantages in integrating employability skills into the vocational
specialisation to provide students with opportunities “to gradually develop a vocational
identity” (Nyen & Tønder, 2018, p. 238). Practical training that included site visits to
workplaces or college visits from industry representatives became “an intermediary between
the industry and the graduates [that helped] build social networks” (Neroorkar & Gopinath,
2019, p. 16). Papier similarly found that including general skills in practical training provided
“vital social capital to students who had minimal resources and networks to draw on for
employment” (2017, p. 46).
Discussion: Opening the black box of practical knowledge
The studies included in the critical review showcased the range and variety of practical
subjects in vocational education and the varieties of curricular and pedagogical arrangements
and provided critical insights into the complexity of practical knowledge. We categorised the
studies according to the relative strengths of semantic gravity evident in the practices
described. We identified different types of semantic gravity in the studies, namely,
conceptual, procedural, technical, and contextual knowledge forms, and generic skills. While
we analysed these categories separately, most studies indicated or implied shifts between
stronger to weaker forms of semantic gravity.
20 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
Many studies referred to the conceptual underpinning of practice. Even in the most practical
of activities, the semantic gravity could be reduced to provide more abstract guiding
principles. For example, Ortoleva and Bétrancourt, in their study on caregiving, stated that
they provided students “with solid conceptual knowledge along with substantial practical
experience” (2016, p. 178). In other words, their students experienced a semantic gravity
range. Some studies referred to how concepts and practice (or weaker and stronger semantic
gravity) were connected in post-practical reflective learning. For example, reflecting on
practice enabled students “to turn concrete experiences into relevant integrated knowledge”
(Schwendimann et al., 2015, p. 367).
Studies focusing on procedural knowledge explained the concepts and principles that guide
the procedures. For example, Sappa et al. (2016) explained that although procedural,
technical, and conceptual knowledge were distinct forms of knowledge, they were connected
in the “process of ‘making sense’ of the practical procedures by means of the conceptual
framework . . . learnt in the educational environment” (p. 295).
The need to develop both specific technical skills and concepts to attain “integrative
knowledge” was a constantly “moving target” (Johansson, 2020, p. 875), and practical
subjects constantly shifted between the “theoretical groundwork” and the “practical work”
(Wilke & Magenheim, 2017, p. 484). Heusdens et al. (2018) found it important to categorise
the types of practical work for different occupations in the hospitality industry since each task
tended to include different knowledge forms. In another example, it was found that “transfer
as learning for new situations did not only occur through practising and making mistakes, but
also involved how something worked, and then performing it” (Kilbrink et al., 2018, p. 464).
In 2010, Masodonati and colleagues pointed out that the movement between knowledge
forms did not occur only from theory to practice, but from “unstable forms of knowledge”
(such as the contextual knowledge developed in practice) toward “relatively stable” forms
(such as procedural or conceptual knowledge) (p. 404).
Many studies focused on the alignment of the outcomes of practical subjects with industry
standards and the strengthening of the semantic gravity of practical curricula and pedagogies
through industry partnerships. For example, while Gkamas et al. (2019) highlighted the
importance of theoretical knowledge in their study of practical subjects in IT, they also
pointed to the importance of regularly updating the practical training curriculum in
collaboration with industry partners, particularly in the fast-moving world of IT. However,
studies also showed that alignment with industry standards was insufficient in supporting
“coherence between learning in school and learning in enterprises” (Aakernes, 2018, p. 77)
because such “coherence” could be attained only through more integrative forms of
knowledge building. Thus while “outcomes matter”, the “technical procedures or the social
and occupational environment, and qualities such as richness, complexity and specificity”
were also important (Heusdens et al., 2018, p. 437). While most studies supported the
integration of generic skills development in practical training, there were concerns that if
practical training was “driven with the aim of fulfilling specific employer skills” occupational
Winberg & Hollis-Turner: Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum 21
outcomes as well as “the quality, depth and breadth of transferable skills” could be
compromised (Gekara & Snell, 2018, p. 107).
Synthesis
In our synthesis of the findings of the critical review, two cross-cutting themes emerged.
First, the multi-layered nature of the knowledges in practical training and, second, the shifting
relationships between these knowledges in learning through practice. Studies reiterated that
practical subjects were constantly shifting between knowledge forms. This can be described
as “cumulative knowledge building” (Maton, 2014, p. 181), which is achieved through
appropriate strengthening and weakening of semantic gravity in practical subjects. Students
engaged in practical tasks could be understood to be continually crossing the boundaries
between different knowledge forms such as drawing on principles and codified procedures,
learning to use tools effectively, and honing their skills as they engaged in increasingly
complex practices. The activities described in the studies of practical subjects included
conceptualising, strategizing, planning, preparing, implementing, doing, conducting,
reporting, debriefing, and reflecting. These activities required students to access the full
semantic gravity range if they were to attain competence.
Conclusion
This critical review of the literature on practical training in vocational education identified
the stratified knowledge base of practical subjects, and showed how conceptual, procedural,
technical, and contextual forms of knowledge are connected in practical tasks and activities.
All knowledge types are essential for each occupation, but their relative importance varies.
Practical tasks and activities differ across and within vocational fields. Tasks with a clearly
defined objective, such as “the specification of a solution for a technical problem, require a
structured and systematic approach” (Rauner et al., 2012, p. 50), thus foregrounding
procedural and technical knowledge forms. When there is “an openness of objectives” and
more “room to manoeuvre”, such as in problem-solving “activities in diagnostic work
processes, e.g., in industrial and technical occupations where error diagnosis plays an
important part . . . defined work steps” are less important, and theoretical knowledge is
necessary to guide practice (p. 51).
The studies showed that practical subjects included a range of learning experiences and
activities in which the different knowledge forms are intentionally integrated into practical
tasks through specifically designed curricula and pedagogies. Cumulative knowledge
building requires students’ engagement in diverse episodes of practice that explicitly link the
knowledge forms through strengthening and weakening the semantic gravity, thus making
explicit the causal links across the different knowledge forms.
The studies showed the importance of students’ engagement in authentic and relevant
practical tasks to support cumulative knowledge building and enable progress towards
competent performance. The studies also showed that vocational educators could facilitate
22 Journal of Education, No. 85, 2021
competence development in practical subjects through appropriate concepts and strategies,
guiding students in the skilful use of tools and technologies and demystifying the tacit and
contextual forms of knowledge that are embedded in practice.
Acknowledgement
This project was funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training’s Technical
and Vocational Education and Training Directorate.
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