Ian R. Cornford’s research while affiliated with University of Technology Sydney and other places

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Publications (25)


Improving quality assurance in European vocational education and training: factors influencing the use of quality assurance findings
  • Article

March 2010

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22 Reads

Studies in Continuing Education

Ian Cornford

Mere platitudes or realistically achievable? An evaluation of current lifelong learning policy in Australia

January 2009

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23 Reads

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12 Citations

International Journal of Lifelong Education

Lifelong learning has come to be seen almost universally as essential for effective personal and social functioning in the modern world. Subsequently it has become the basis for educational and social policies in many modern societies, but not Australia where a spokesperson for the previous, conservative Liberal‐Coalition federal government indicated that Australia does not have a policy on lifelong learning because it does not need one. Reasons given included that Australia has the highest post‐compulsory education participation rate among OECD countries. This article establishes a range of criteria for assessing the effectiveness of lifelong learning policies. It then critically reviews literature on the effectiveness of lifelong learning policy in Australia and concludes that assumptions under‐girding policy thinking are seriously flawed. Evidence from secondary completion rates, ratings in international benchmarking studies, and post‐compulsory vocational education policies in particular, indicate that the Australian federal government has seriously overestimated the effective bases for continuing, effective lifelong learning. It is concluded that the likelihood of a national framework being created and serious policies developed and implemented by the Australian federal government to promote effective lifelong learning is not great at present, but with a new government promising an education ‘revolution’, there is now at least some possibility of change.


Two models for promoting transfer: A comparison and critical analysis

December 2006

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46 Reads

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11 Citations

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Transfer of learning is of major interest in vocational education on account of its importance in effective training for real world performance. A number of models have been advanced over the past several years with varying degrees of relevance for teaching in vocational education. This article critically analyses and compares two models by Cornford (1991) and Yelon (1992), which although presently not widely known or cited in relevant literature, appear to have potential for assisting vocational teachers and trainers to develop generalisation, and transfer beyond the initial training setting. Unusually, the two models are complementary, rather than in conflict. One operates at a micro-level of teaching practice and the other at a macro-level which involves features of both initial training and the settings in which the knowledge and skills are most likely to be applied.


+work-based learning of commercial cookery apprentices in the new South Wales hospitalities industry

December 2006

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37 Reads

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32 Citations

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Results from qualitative research involving interviews with apprentices, employers and teachers in Commercial Cookery at a TAFE NSW College are used to highlight a range of problems for apprentices in work-based learning. Of considerable importance in effective learning are employee-employer relationships, opportunities for learning and deliberate practice under the supervision of managers/employers with specialist knowledge and the ability to convey that knowledge. Many small-medium size business owner/managers revealed little concern for the learning of the employees and a considerable lack of understanding of how to create conditions to contribute to learning. It is concluded that, if work-based learning is to achieve the goals which are desired, then substantial changes of attitude of employers and managers to apprentices must take place, and governments must implement systems to develop and monitor policies, and enforce relevant legislation.


Challenging current policies and policy makers' thinking on generic skills

January 2005

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79 Reads

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44 Citations

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Policy making in the English-speaking world has been increasingly bedevilled by the unrealistic expansion of the meaning of ‘skill’. In this process generic skills have emerged as of considerable importance, while the concept of lifelong learning has become a policy mantra. The current focus upon generic skills by policy makers is important and worthwhile, but serious weaknesses in understanding their nature and how to attain them is evident. Three central issues of transfer of learning, framing and classification appear not to be well understood by policy makers, with transfer of learning essential for the development of generic skills. Recent changes in thinking about transfer of learning that have occurred over approximately the last 15 years are reviewed. Australia, which has pursued issues of generic skills with some vigour, is used as an example of the inconsistencies and problems that can develop because of the failure of policy makers to understand the complexity of the issues, and the importance of transfer and effective teaching. Recommendations are made on the need for policy makers to understand learning and transfer, and reconfigure a central place for these in policy focused upon implementation and realistic outcomes.


Learning-to-learn strategies as a basis for effective lifelong learning

August 2002

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2,560 Reads

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228 Citations

International Journal of Lifelong Education

Learning-to-learn skills are essential for effective lifelong learning to develop over the entire lifespan. These skills, which consist of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, largely have been neglected in analyses of issues surrounding lifelong learning and in policy development. This article draws particularly upon the work of Weinstein, Meyer, Schraw and other cognitive psychologists to outline some of the knowledge and skills required and some of the educational implications for their development from a human developmental psychology perspective. Much of the initial work in establishing these skills needs to lie with schools for reasons of access and equity. However, since mastery of cognitive and metacognitive skills is not likely to be fully achieved by the end of secondary schooling, with metacognitive skills in particular only likely to reach fuller development through work experience, there are important implications for educators at further and higher education levels.


Reflective teaching: Empirical research findings and some implications for teacher education

June 2002

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882 Reads

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136 Citations

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Reflection has been very fashionable in all sectors of teacher education, including vocational and adult education, for a number of years. Despite numerous articles, there is little solid empirical evidence that supports the view that it results in superior teaching practices with teacher trainees. This article examines the results of relevant empirical studies and some of the more recent writings that have undertaken a more critical view of underlying concepts. Case study material from a new Bachelor of Education in Adult Education degree designed around the concept of reflection is cited. Problems inherent in reflective approaches are examined along with reasons why reflection became so widely adopted in teacher education in the absence of any empirical evidence to support its wide scale adoption. Future developments in teacher education practices involving aspects of reflection are considered briefly, as is the need for rigorous empirical studies before the wide implementation of new teacher education strategies.



Competency-Based Training: Evidence of a Failed Policy in Training Reform

August 2000

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110 Reads

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22 Citations

Australian Journal of Education

The political decision to implement competency-based training widely throughout vocational education systems in Australia, before rigorous evaluation through adequate pilot programs, was made because it was viewed as essential for increasing skill levels and work productivity. Recent data indicate that Australia's relative international competitiveness actually declined during 1994–97, suggesting an urgent need to reassess underpinning policies. Despite the marked reluctance of the Australian National Training Authority to commission studies specifically assessing the effectiveness of competency-based training, several independent studies have been carried out. These and other commissioned studies indicate some major problems with competency-based training which has not achieved stated objectives of increasing skill levels. Research also indicates that competency-based training has not been adopted widely by business and industry. The appropriateness of using public agencies to implement innovations which are untested, and may not be supported by the wider community intended to benefit from their introduction, is queried.


Imperatives in Teaching for Lifelong Learning: moving beyond rhetoric to effective educational practice

July 1999

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16 Reads

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25 Citations

Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education

Changes wrought by the ongoing technological, economic and social revolutions have once again emphasised the importance of lifelong learning. Current projections are for three or four changes of occupation during a working lifetime. There appears clear evidence of the need for the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies to cope with continuous change and maintain knowledge and skill currency during an entire lifetime. The Australian government commissioned report by Candy, Crebert and O'Leary raised a number of issues at undergraduate level, but failed to address the need for teaching more broadly for genuinely lifelong learning. This paper considers a range of approaches and strategies which it will be necessary to adopt to move beyond rhetoric to effective educational practices. Central to effective teaching of cognitive learning strategies will be adoption of appropriate curricula in teacher education courses.


Citations (19)


... This encompasses the ability to track students' recent degree of understanding and to adjust individual maturation in learning as it is in demand (Bransford et al., 2000). However, Cornford (2004) remarked that metacognition strategies have been disregarded in most educational environments; therefore, their efficacy in achieving satisfactory outcomes remains under examination. The lack of metacognitive strategy instruction leaves students unprepared to direct their cognitive processes. ...

Reference:

A Glimpse of My Progress: Exploring Reflective Journaling as an Innovation to Enhance Metacognitive Skills, Motivation, and Acceptability of Learners
COR04942 Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies as a Basis for Effective Lifelong Learning: How Far Have We Progressed?
  • Citing Article

... Especially when considering that the effectiveness of such training programs depends on external factors. For example, Cornford [42] and Hurrell et al. [43] found that soft skills performance and development also depends on contextual and organizational determinants, such as autonomy or support; consequently, individual soft skills training may not be a sufficient means to develop soft skills. Short and effective training programs might not be easy to create. ...

Making Generic Skills More Than A Mantra In Vocational Education Policy
  • Citing Article

... But even before that, the influence of the union movement had lessened with general recognition by these groups themselves that the union movement was singularly ill equipped to make educational decisions (Ewer & Ablett, 1996). In terms of the exercise of real power in decision-making, the vocational education policy agenda has been dominated by politicians, bureaucrats in a largely politicized public service context (Cornford, 2004), and business and industry from the late 1980s (Billett, 2004). ...

Changes to the Australian Public Service: Some Deleterious Effects Upon Political Accountability and VET Policy Formation and Implementation
  • Citing Article

... Knowledge has been closely linked to effective economic production and the maintenance of a society's prosperity (Cullen 1997), with there being substantial evidence that those with higher levels of skill and knowledge are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to gain a higher income (Watson, 2003). While the arguments that we have entered an information era and/or become a knowledge society (eg Drucker 1994) have been challenged, on the grounds that empirical evidence does not support much of the optimistic rhetoric (Lloyd & Payne, 2003), there is substantial evidence that the nature of work and knowledge has changes into a more cognitively demanding kind since the wide application of computer technology (Cornford, 1998). There is also considerable, demonstrable evidence that the pace of technological change has not slowed and changes to legislation relating to social benefits, etc are ongoing. ...

Schooling and Vocational Preparation: Is a Revolution Really Taking Place?
  • Citing Article
  • August 1998

Australian Journal of Education

... There is a debate on what hinders the transmission and acquisition of employability competencies under the CBT approach as different studies propose different reasons for the failure such as domination of theories in the training and learning process (Cornford, 2000), inadequate competencies among trainers (Smith, 2008) and limited assessment methods (Lockyer, et al., 2017). ETF and ILO (2020) and UNESCO_UNEVOC (2013) proposed lack of time, rigid and outdated centralized training content, language problems, insufficient practical sessions and absence of career counseling facilities hinder learners to acquire employability competencies. ...

Competency-Based Training: Evidence of a Failed Policy in Training Reform
  • Citing Article
  • August 2000

Australian Journal of Education

... However, the state of continuous unemployment indicates that existing education system is unable to educate and train people in line with social expectations (Dempsey, 2013). In this regard, Cornford, Athanasou, and Pithers (1996) are of the view that lifetime learning is the commendable strategy to deal with the challenges of contemporary societies and it is highly associated with VET sector. This has made improved training quality as the most stimulating task for VET institute and policy makers to meet the rising demand for skilled and technical workers (Gutherie, 2010;Wheelahan, 2011). ...

Career Counsellors and the Promotion of Lifelong Learning
  • Citing Article
  • July 1996

Australian Journal of Career Development

... During changeable circumstances people initiate changes in their lives or adjust themselves to rapid environmental changes by setting and designing goals and directions of changes according to their 'conceptions of self in future' (Cornford, 1995); career development requires not only regular reflection on the self and the environment and receptivity to feedback, but also the imagination of possible selves, ensuring career (and life as a whole) designing motivation (Savickas et al., 2009). ...

Career Counselling, Possible Selves and Changing Occupational Skill Requirements
  • Citing Article
  • July 1995

Australian Journal of Career Development

... Competency-based training is aimed at trying to make VET programs much more relevant to meet the needs of the Australian industry and companies (Robinson, 2000). Vocational education has become an instrument in Australia to create a more effective workforce in an era of technological change and fierce international competition (Cornford, 1999). CBT is therefore intended to align VET with Australia's economic policy objectives, and the way to achieve this is by using CBT to directly align training outcomes with specific job requirements. ...

Rediscovering the importance of learning and curriculum in vocational education and training in Australia
  • Citing Article
  • March 1999

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

... Modularisation, as a concept, is not necessarily a new phenomenon (Cornford, 1997), even though it has become mainstream in Zimbabwean university education only recently with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Literature on modularisation in institutions of higher learning dates back to the 1970s such as Goldschmid and Goldschmid (1972), who review the principles, implementation, management, formats, problems and research in modular instruction. ...

Ensuring effective learning from modular courses: a cognitive
  • Citing Article
  • June 1997

Journal of Vocational Education and Training

... Despite the continuing popularity of RP, it has become the focus of recent criticism. Akbari (2007) and Cornford (2002) contended that there was a lack of empirical evidence to show the effectiveness of RP. This observation has been corroborated by more recent studies (see, e.g. ...

Reflective teaching: Empirical research findings and some implications for teacher education
  • Citing Article
  • June 2002

Journal of Vocational Education and Training