Dutch prevocational secondary schools are reforming their educational programmes to make them more competence-based. This reform has substantial implications for the roles played by teachers. Yet, little empirical research has been conducted on teachers' processes of competence development in vocational settings. This study explores teachers' individual action theories regarding the introduction of competence-based prevocational secondary education. The cognitive apprenticeship model provides a conceptual framework for addressing this issue. The research questions addressed here are: How do teachers value elements of the cognitive apprenticeship model in designing and delivering competence-based prevocational secondary education?, and, What individual action theories do teachers have regarding competence-based prevocational secondary education? The study was designed in two phases. In the qualitative phase, interviews and concept map techniques were used, while the quantitative phase employed a questionnaire. Teachers valued elements of the cognitive apprenticeship model differently, and suggested two additional features: a custommade educational approach and the professionalisation of teachers.
Learning theories broadly characterised as constructivist, agree on the importance to learning of the environment, but differ on what exactly it is that constitutes this importance. Accordingly, they also differ on the educational consequences to be drawn from the theoretical perspective. Cognitive constructivism focuses on the active role of the learner, and on real-life learning. Social-learning theories, comprising the socio-historical, socio-cultural theories as well as the situated-learning and community-of-practice approaches, emphasise learning as being a process within and a product of the social context. Critical-learning theory stresses that this social context is a man-made construction, which should be approached critically and transformed in order to create a better world. We propose to view these different approaches as contributions to our understanding of the learning-environment relationship, and their educational impact as questions to be addressed to educational contexts.
Over the last two decades, institutions for higher education such as universities and colleges have rapidly expanded and as a result have experienced profound changes in processes of research and organization. However, the rapid expansion and change has fuelled concerns about issues such as educators' technology professional development. Despite the educational value of emerging technologies in schools, the introduction has not yet enjoyed much success. Effective use of information and communication technologies requires a substantial change in pedagogical practice. Traditional training and learning approaches cannot cope with the rising demand on educators to make use of innovative technologies in their teaching. As a result, educational institutions as well as the public are more and more aware of the need for adequate technology professional development. The focus of this paper is to look at action research as a qualitative research methodology for studying technology professional development in HE in order to improve teaching and learning with ICTs at the tertiary level. The data discussed in this paper have been drawn from a cross institutional setting at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. The data were collected and analysed according to a qualitative approach.
