Download pdf - Insights into Vocational Learning from an Applied Learning Perspective

ORIGINAL PAPER

Insights into Vocational Learning from an AppliedLearning Perspective

Bruce Pridham & Simon O’Mallon & Vaughan Prain

Received: 16 February 2011 /Accepted: 15 July 2011 /Published online: 9 August 2011# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Abstract A theoretical framework for understanding applied learning processes isnow warranted given the frequency with which these processes are now beingutilised. Drawing in part from the literature on applied education in schools as wellas theories of vocational learning such a framework is offered here that seeks toexplain these learning processes in terms of the interplay of multiple accounts ofinfluences at micro, meso and macro levels. This framework integrates current andemerging theories around practical learning, and provides insights into vocationaland workplace education processes. We clarify how features of our frameworkcomplement broader current debates and concepts in the literature on vocational andwork-related learning, particularly focusing on influences for that learning at themicro level of individuals’ experiences and understandings entailed in embodiedcognition, or knowing through practice. Moreover, the value of this framework isdemonstrated through its application to two very different case studies of learningprocesses in workplace settings. In conclusion, some implications for furthertheoretical and practical work in this area are advanced.

Keywords Applied learning . Embodied cognition . Barsalou

The Challenge of Theorizing Learning in Vocational Education

There is growing recognition of the need for diverse perspectives to explaininfluences on learning processes in vocational learning and education (Billett 2008,

Vocations and Learning (2012) 5:77–97DOI 10.1007/s12186-011-9063-8

B. Pridham (*) : S. O’Mallon :V. PrainFaculty of Education La Trobe University, P.O. Box 199, Bendigo, Victoria 3552, Australiae-mail: [email protected]

S. O’Mallone-mail: [email protected]

V. Praine-mail: [email protected]

2009; Hodkinson et al. 2008). As noted by Billett (2008, p. 4), “a broad platform oftheoretical perspectives and contributions will be required to address … a morecomprehensive understanding about the project of vocational and professionaleducation”. For Hodkinson et al. (2008), socio-cultural perspectives provideuseful organizing frameworks to understand the interplay of influences onindividual and systemic vocational learning. In theorizing workplace learningexperience, Billett (2009, p. 39) argues that such learning depends on “relationalinterdependence between individual and social contributions”, thus resisting areductive binary account of either social or individual determinism as the keyfactor in this process. From Billett’s perspective, social practice and personalindividualistic cognitive experiences are both crucial mediating and mediatedcontributors to workplace learning. We agree, and in this paper advance a casefor the value of an applied learning perspective for theorizing practicallearning experience. Our framework draws partly from theories used in appliededucation, and from current accounts of learning processes in vocational andworkplace education. In developing our case, we draw on and provide usefulinsights into the necessary interplay between individual experiences andunderstandings, local contexts, and broader influences, on practical learningprocesses, focusing particularly on the micro level of individual experience.

We begin by outlining the emergence of theoretical accounts of appliedlearning processes in vocational education, noting how these accounts tend tofocus mainly on the effects of classroom and workplace interactions. Ourproposed framework examines learning processes at this meso level, but alsoconsiders their interplay with micro and macro level influences and effects,where micro refers to individual experience and understanding, and macrorefers to systemic or broader cultural influences. We draw partly on the pastliterature in this field to develop this framework, but also incorporate relevantinsights from recent research in embodied or grounded cognition (Barsalou1999, 2008; Glenberg 1997; Damasio 1994; Wilson 2002, 2008), the sociologicalstudy of craft development (Marchand 2008; Sennett 2008), and broader accountsof macro influences on national restructuring of workforce skills acquisition(Bentley 2000; Kirby 2000; Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment 2005; Beare 2006; Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority2009). In reviewing current concepts about professional and work-relatedlearning, we seek to clarify how our account of applied learning processesadds to current understandings of these concepts. We outline our framework,and then demonstrate its explanatory value by applying it to two distinct kindsof case studies. Our first case study entails a retrospective account by one of usof learning to be an expert shoemaker, re-interpreting this experience in thelight of the model. In our second case study, we interpret the behaviour andperceptions of a group of pre-service teachers, formerly tradespersons, engagingin a vocational education program. We chose these cases because they havesimilarities around re-skilling processes in an applied learning context. The firstentails acquisition of expertise in a craft, and the second focuses on the use ofprior craft knowledge to becoming a teacher. We aim to show that ourframework of the interplay of micro, meso and macro influences on learningprovides useful insights into both cases, particularly in relation to embodied

78 B. Pridham et al.

learning. We conclude by identifying various further implications arising fromthese insights into factors influencing applied learning processes.

Theorizing Applied Learning

There is considerable international interest in vocational education programsthat prepare school students for workplaces through guided experience in thesesettings, and where authentic practice is viewed as crucial for this learning(Harteis and Billett 2008; Harteis and Gruber 2004). This has led to a stronggrowth in school programs that offer what is characterized as “applied” learning, incontrast to traditional mainstream academic curricula. Learners can now undertakecourses such as Specialised Diplomas in the United Kingdom (Qualifications andCurriculum Authority 2009), the Ontario Specialist High Skill Major in Canada(Ontario Ministry of Education 2009) and the Senior Certificate (Applied) inIreland (Department of Education and Science 2009). Attempts to explain howstudents learn from these programs have drawn mainly on standard mainstreamtheoretical frameworks and pedagogies, such as experiential learning, constructiv-ism, and the value of practical group work (Dalton 2004; Harrison 2006; VictorianCurriculum and Assessment Authority 2009). This kind of learning is claimed tobe effective because it entails “hands on” problem-solving and guided learnerreflection (Dalton 2004), or because, following Dewey (1916), it links groupinteraction, meaningful experience, and guided reflection (Harrison 2006).Participatory experience and reflection are seen as key drivers of this learning.However, more comprehensive and informed accounts of this learning process arerequired.

Indeed, these accounts of how applied learning works reiterate larger currentthemes in the literature on the nature of vocational learning. As noted by Billett(2004), Hodkinson et al. (2008), dominant theories of vocational learning arebroadly conceptualized in terms of two competing explanations. Learning is eitherpredominantly individual- or socially-dependent. At the micro level of cognitiveperspectives of individuals’ learning it is often held to be about mentalisticprocesses, where learning is understood mainly as the personal acquisition ofpropositional or declarative knowledge, skills and dispositions (Anderson et al.1997). By contrast, at the meso level of socio-cultural or situated learning theories,learning results from contextual and interactional influences, where participation inguided purposeful group activity produces both individual and group procedurallearning and tacit knowledge (Greeno 2009). From cognitive perspectives, individuallearners develop resources such as mental models, schemas, organizing strategiesand frameworks to learn from interacting with material and symbolic tools (Bruner2004). From socio-cultural perspectives, these tools are cultural resources, andlearners need to participate in authentic activities with these tools to learn effectively(Cole and Wertsch 1996; Vygotsky 1978). Both perspectives acknowledge insightsfrom one another, and recognize crucial reciprocities between active learners andsupportive environments, including the key role of mentors and coaches in guidedactivity in educational processes. However, they identify different key drivers andoutcomes of learning.

Vocational Learning from an Applied Learning Perspective 79

Hodkinson et al. (2008) and others have identified concerns with this mainlycognitive perspective on learning at micro and meso levels. They argue that bothbroad theory families, despite differences, view learning as predominantly aboutconceptual gains and organizers, and that both fail to integrate four key dimensionsof an adequate learning theory. These are: i) that learning is both embodied andsocial, ii) that learning is always contextualized, iii) that learning incorporatesbroader social and institutional structures, and iv) that learning always entails issuesof political power. They argue that a more holistic approach is needed that takesaccount of the interplay of these factors. They claim an appropriate learning theoryneeds to integrate mind and body, the individual and the social, and the interplay ofstructure and individual agency. They argue for the central importance of culturalconsiderations in understanding/explaining individual learning and learninghistories, and that cultural influences explain learning processes within broadersystemic factors affecting curriculum and what counts as vocational learning.However, while they provide a persuasive organizing framework to understandthe interplay of individual and systemic learning in general terms, they struggleto explain the specificities of learning strategies of individuals and theirrelationship to broader systemic learning, particularly at the level of embodiedcognition, or learning through physical activity, such as those being promotedin vocational education programs in Australian schools. Our framework seeks toaddress this issue of exactly how these levels of influence interact. We hold thatan applied learning perspective, informed and enriched by recent insights fromcognitive science, and sociological accounts of workplace learning, cancomplement their account and provide insights into how individuals learn frompractice. In all, more encompassing frameworks are needed to integratecurrently isolated but compelling accounts of local and broader factorsinfluencing vocational learning for individuals, for groups, for sectors, and fornation states (Harteis and Billett 2008).

A Framework for Theorizing Applied Learning Processes

Our framework of applied learning aims to characterize and integrate currentand emerging theories and frameworks relevant to understanding vocationallearning (see Fig. 1). We characterize these theories as operating at micro, mesoand macro levels. Our use of a nested Venn diagram to locate levels and togroup complementary theories is also intended to signify reciprocities of effectsbetween levels. This kind of triadic framework has been previously applied toresearch in a range of fields, including critical discourse analysis (Fairclough1992), economics (Dopfer et al. 2004) and, in part, in the sociology of education(Hargreaves 1985). It assumes that in any system, or cluster of systems, there arespecific level effects as well as reciprocal effects between local, middle order andmore global aspects of a system’s functioning and maintenance. Vocationaleducation, therefore, can be understood nationally and internationally as a clusterof such systems. In conceptualizing applied teaching and learning processes andinfluences at different levels, we propose that “micro” refers to accounts of


cognitive/affective/perceptual/embodied processes and interactions experiencedand understood by individuals. These micro level influences should be understoodas more than purely cognitive. “Meso” refers to theories about these processes atthe level of interactions in classrooms, groups, workplaces, and communities, anddraws on a well-established literature about learning from guided groupparticipation. “Macro” refers to accounts of larger influences around the historyand rationale of practices, discourses, and policies at a broader state, national andinternational levels.

Applied Learning at Micro, Meso and Macro Levels

The vocational education literature, while drawing on theories at each of thesethree levels, has tended to focus mainly on meso and macro levels, rather thanoffer specific and theoretically justified accounts of how and why appliedlearning processes work for individuals, and interact with these largercontextual influences. Practical work is simply seen as necessarily entailingmeaningful clues that support performance and improvement, including thenotion that a “hands on” experience is self-evidently valuable for learners.However, the question of what exactly makes practical experience valuable forlearning has been assumed or left unexamined in these accounts. Sometheorists, such as Billett et al. (2006), have claimed reciprocal relations betweenindividual subjectivity and workplace learning, but this analysis has not focused onembodied cognition, or knowing through practice, rehearsal, mental simulation, orinformed reflection. Here, we outline the theoretical basis for a micro-levelanalysis beyond past straightforward cognitive accounts, indicating how recentresearch in embodied cognition at this level can strengthen a case for theeffectiveness of this approach to learning.

By “micro” level we refer to the growing recognition in recent research bycognitive scientists of critical linkages between cognitive, affective, perceptual,social and embodied processes at the level of individuals interacting with physicaland social environments (Barsalou 2008; Calvo and Gomila 2008; Glenberg 1997).As noted by Barsalou (2008), there is now compelling evidence from a range ofrecent cognitive science studies and neuroscience research that indicates howcognition and learning are enabled by perceptual simulations, bodily states, feelings,introspection and situated action. From this perspective, individuals know and learnnot just through manipulating stored symbols in memory or cognitive schema, butthrough the interplay of mind, body, feelings and environment, supported through re-enactment of these experiences in offline perceptual simulation. This interplayimplies a far more dynamic account of learning processes than one just shaped bysocial and physical factors. Thinking, reasoning and abstracting are grounded inperception, situated action, motives and intentions, embodiment and environmentalaffordances, rather than in stored resolved symbolic templates. What we canvisualize, perceive, rehearse, enact, simulate, feel, want and reflect upon forms thebases of our representations of knowledge and our capacity to symbolize andabstract.


Other studies elaborate these complex links between mind, body, feelings,perceptions, activity, environment and learning. For Damasio (1994, 1999),neuroscience research has established that feelings are not mere supports forcognition and reasoning, but are critical enablers of human judgement. How we feelabout a situation, what affective memories we have of this kind of experience, will

Fig. 1 A theoretical framework for applied learning


influence our reasoning and problem-solving capacities in new similar contexts.For cognitive linguists, such as Lakoff and Johnson (1999), the concretemetaphors through which we interpret our experience are based heavily on ourmaterial bodies and our interactions with our environment, shaping rather thanjust reflecting our thoughts. For example, in feeling ‘high’ or ‘low’ wetranspose spatial understandings into representations of affective states. ForWilson (2002, 2008) embodied cognition entails more than adaptation of bodiesto an immediate situation, but rather the use of diverse ways in which humansperceive and reflect through embodied action both on-line and off-line. Wilson(2002) also drew a distinction between online experiential hands-on learningand offline learning, implying that applied learning can occur through directaction as well as through perceptual re-enactment and mental visualisation orre-visualisation. She noted how we use our hands to guide and supportreflection when we write, type, draw and gesture. Similarly, Barsalou (1999,2005) focused on the central role of perceptual simulations in key cognitivefunctions such as drawing inferences, and developing and monitoring expertperformance. As argued by Sennett (2008, p. 10), “all skills, even the mostabstract, begin as bodily practices”, and knowledge is gained “in the hand throughtouch and movement”. He elaborated his case through detailed discussion ofexamples drawn from piano playing, cooking, and the modification of scientificinstruments. While he was interested in explicating the development of expert craftknowledge in these areas, the same case can be developed more broadly forpractical work in general.

At the meso level, there is a very developed literature on the value ofapplying group work, collaborative problem-solving and guided learnerreflection to propositional, procedural and dispositional learning (Billett 2001;Dewey 1916; Eraut 2004; Jonassen 1999; Lave and Wenger 1991; Marchand 2008;Schank et al. 1999). However, the structuring of group work experiences, as notedby Marchand (2008) in his account of minaret builders in Yemen, integrateshistories of cultural practices at the macro level with embodied experiences atthe micro level of individual experience and motivation. In his study, the rolean individual gets to experience in building a minaret, and its embodiedlearning, depends on cultural and group rules and organization. Group work atthe meso level mediates macro and micro applications. Every classroom andworkplace has symbolic and material tools that mediate learning, and shape, inproductive ways, actual and potential group and individual practices andproblem-solving. These tools can be more or less abstract, from theorganization of time in the vocational curriculum to the precise instrumentsfor producing or representing work.

At the macro level of broader influences, as noted by Beare (2006), Bentley(2000), Billett (2008), Kirby (2000), Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (2005), Stenstrom et al. (2006), and many other commentators,diverse regulatory, historical, globalized, economic and cultural influences affectwhat counts and is sustainable as vocational education internationally and atlocal levels. These influences apply and interact in multiple ways. Supplyshortfalls in some vocations can lead to abridged programs, such as recentabbreviated teacher preparation programs in Australia and the United States of


America. Efficiency imperatives can impact negatively on some labour-intensive crafts, but also promote highly individualized craftsmanship, as inmusical instrument-making. National immigration policies adjust to addressshortfalls in some skilled worker categories. Changes in methods of productionof goods, practices in trades, and increased mobility of capital, impact on whatcounts as useful vocational knowledge and appropriate regulation of vocationalstandards in different settings. All of these macro level influences deeply affectinduction into, and maintenance of, vocational practices for both individualsand groups. In the following section, we present two case studies todemonstrate the explanatory value of the framework for interpreting influenceson vocational learning.

Two Case Studies and Methods of Analyses

We have selected a case study approach because it provides a focus forextensively exploring and understanding events and “…enables a holisticunderstanding of the situation, phenomenon, episode, site, group or community”(Kumar 2011 p.127). While both case studies focus on learning from workplacepractice, we use contrasting methods of analysis to show that our theoreticalframework can be productively applied in different contexts, and from theperspectives of participant researcher as well as interpreter of others’ workplacelearning. Our first case study comprises a reflection by one of us on hisexperiences as a shoemaking novice, expert, and master craftsman, and alsodraws on his learning and teaching experiences with others in this craft. Hisinitial learning to become a shoemaker was undertaken as a non-apprenticethrough industrial footwear manufacturing training in a Technical and FurtherEducation College in Australia. This training occurred in a simulated industrialwork environment. Following this, he undertook specialised footwear patternmaking training in Milan, Italy, to refine the process of shoemaking.Completing a Masters Degree in Design using shoemaking as the focus tostudy the characteristics of design thinking, visualising, and problem-solving, hebegan to examine and explain bespoke shoemaking in much greater depth.However, the questions of how people learnt this craft, how they understoodand interpreted what was explained and occurred in front of them remained aset of open questions during these experiences. In this case study, he uses thetheoretical framework advanced in this paper to re-interpret his shoemakinglearning and teaching experiences in order to gain further insights. This casestudy draws on the self-reflexive research method outlined by Alvesson andSkoldberg (2009), who proposed that researchers should acknowledge explicitlytheir own active involvement in knowledge production. Themes and constructswere initially outlined in writing by the participant researcher and then discussedfor confirmatory evidence with the other researchers.

Our second case study reports on the experiences and perspectives of 20graduates of a Graduate Diploma in Technology Education pre-service teacherpreparation program. We report on their reflections and our observation of theirpractice in their transition to teaching, showing how themes and constructs from


our framework can provide useful insights into their learning experiences.This case study entailed interviews with 20 tradespersons undertaking thiscourse in order to work in secondary schools in the Design Creativity andTechnology area. The pre-service teachers participated in a 40 min interviewat the start and end of their 1-year program (see Appendix A), with a follow-up 25 min interview and workplace observations with 5 teachers 6 months afterthe program was completed. These follow-up interviews and classroomobservations of two lessons of each teacher aimed to clarify themes identifiedfrom earlier interviews. Transcripts of all interviews were independently analysedby the researchers, before a consensus on emerging themes was reached throughdiscussion. The field notes and observations of the pre-service teachers in theworkplace confirmed the emerging themes. Methods of data analyses in thissecond case followed principles outlined for qualitative case study research,focusing on identification of patterns in participant responses (Denzin andLincoln 2008; Merriam 1998; Yin 2008).

Case Study One: From Novice to Expert Shoemaker

This case study is a self-reflexive account of my learning processes through a20 year journey from beginning as a novice shoemaker to an expert and ontobecoming a master craftsman. The case study elaborates past learning experiencesand identifies current understandings of those experiences situated within our triadicmicro, meso, macro framework. The account recalls how I made sense of myteaching/learning experiences throughout that 20 year journey, moving from learningthrough the footwear manufacturing curriculum into studying handmade (bespoke)footwear and subsequently designing and delivering a bespoke footwear trainingcourse in South Australia for 17 years.

Introducing Shoemaking Training: A Factory Model

In considering the interrelatedness of the micro, meso and macro levelinfluences on my learning shoemaking, what was taught, how it was taught,where it was taught, what influenced the learning experiences, and how Iprocessed the learning, all contributed to supporting, steering, underwriting, andembedding what constitutes meaningful skills learning for me. My shoemakingtraining began in an Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) collegein a simulated manufacturing environment. The curriculum, like the trainingsetting, was strongly influenced by the footwear manufacturing advisory boardto train students in production line manufacturing techniques. The students inmy class learnt as a team, practicing by manufacturing 200 to 300 pairs ofshoes in production runs, rotating between machine operations so as to beconsidered competent in footwear manufacturing. Although this apprenticeshipmethod provided “a prime site for connecting theories of knowing to practicaldoing” (Marchand 2008, p.1) and was suitable for commercial manufacturer’semployees, it lacked the depth and understanding I and other students were looking


for in making meaning out of our studies. Recalling these teaching/learningmethods I can now see that the meso and macro levels of our applied learningmodel were well addressed, but what was lacking was connection with themicro or personal level of learning. Relationships at the purposeful practicalgroup learning meso level were strong and collaborative whilst macro levelinfluences from globalization, efficiency and regulation clearly re-designed thelearning site, the curriculum, and how we were complied to perform for theassessment processes.

Shoemaking Training: A Bespoke/artisan Model

There are between 72 and 156 operations required to design and make a pair ofshoes by hand. The skills, considerations and language developed forshoemaking are very specific and we will look at one skill practice for thisexample, ‘toe-lasting’. In shoemaking the 3-D form responsible for the finalshape of the shoe is called a ‘last’. The ‘shoe upper’ is the leather or materialthat covers the last and subsequently encases the foot. ‘Toe-lasting’ is theprocess of pulling, creasing and pleating the shoe upper leathers/materials overthe toe of the last. In custom-made shoes, this process is done by hand with‘lasting pincers’, the pliers designed for shoemaking. Considerable skill isrequired to feel the direction of stretch around a leather hide because it changesdue to the nature of cattle from whom the leather is taken being living walkinganimals. Thinking of one’s armpits and knee skin will help to recognisediffering areas of stretch on the human body. It is the micro level activitiesdescribed in our triadic model that warrant better understanding for the skillslearnt through making shoes by hand. The intimacy between the tools and themaker, the feelings that require subtle distinctions to reflect and correctperformance in action, the constant rehearsal and re-enacting as perceptualsimulations, all of which must be practiced continually in order to makebeautiful handmade shoes supports our case to better understand teaching/learning in an applied way.

Micro Level Analysis: Toe-Lasting Footwear

Through my footwear production training, I learnt to operate a toe-lastingmachine that clamps onto the shoe upper leathers and then forces the lastupwards into the leathers, stretching the shoe into shape. The machine relies onthe adjustments and correct pressures being set so as to not destroy the shoe.The first few shoes were often sacrificed in correcting the machines settingsand I remember this always concerned me. I was taught through repetition, butlearnt the intricacies of the machine’s operation from other students and/orapprentices who operated these daily in their factory jobs as it had becomeclear at the time that my lecturers had only cursory knowledge of machineproduction skills. Years later, when I began teaching handmade footwear at thesame institute, conversations with my former lecturers revealed they were


taught through similar methods they delivered to me and that they hadspecialised in 4 or 5 skills before going on to become leading hands andoverseers in their respective companies. This specialisation was commonpractice in the shoemaking trade. Explaining this recollection through the lensof micro, meso, macro levels of teaching/learning it is clearly evident how themacro level influences had created an unquestioning meso level trainingstructure for footwear apprentices. I can now see that my need for a deeperunderstanding of shoemaking were possibly too time-consuming for the modelof training I received.

The bespoke shoemaker must be proficient in every shoe-making operation inorder to establish a desirable reputation. Recalling the beginnings of my bespokeshoemaking journey my skill at toe-lasting was rudimentary; all too often the toes onpairs of shoes would be slightly misaligned or on one toe would tear openunexpectedly whilst I levered with the lasting pincers. Each time this destructiveoutcome happened I paid a little more attention to the preceding sequence of events.Extensive notetaking through thumbnail sketches and journaling augmented mylearning by reducing the quantity of information that took up space in my mind.Accessing these notes and drawings would unlock the string of recollectionsand sequences of shoemaking events in my mind and play them as littleanimations in real time. I developed this perception technique as an efficientproblem solving tool. Over time, I constructed a ‘mental workshop’ in mymind, mirroring my actual workshop, where all the equipment, tools andmaterials I used were utterly real yet plastically malleable due to their etherealnature. The development of these skill sets enabled me to make and remake ashoe 30 or more times until I was satisfied with the best outcomes before I hadconsumed any of my materials and was an important step towards becoming amaster craftsworker. This became a very elegant way to problem-solve and Isubsequently taught my students how to develop these skills.

Considering these episodes with my present knowledge it is clear to me that theteaching/learning processes were addressed in a holistic manner intuitively and there-enactment of the simulations, the interplay of mind and body, and the connectionswith feelings are amongst the attributes identified by our triadic applied learningmodel. Through the journaling process, the cognitive demands and representationalbottlenecks were eased by offloading memory to the environment (Wilson 2002, p.7). Concurring with Glenberg’s (1997, p. 1) view of memory as entailing “…theencoding of patterns of possible physical interaction with a three-dimensionalworld”, my system of storing and retrieving experiential information had establisheditself and the cataloguing of this memory library supports Schank et al. (1999 p. 168)notion of becoming an expert in a field. Recognising the advantages ofunderstanding these skill sets supports our basis for embodied cognition being apowerful tool to describe and influence skills-based teaching/learning.

Meso Level Analysis: Teaching Shoemakers Toe-Lasting

My learning of footwear manufacturing was supported by the group’s interactions.The lecturers would transfer some of the machine operations instructions to the


group but it was the knowledgeable apprentices who were more familiar withthe machinery being taught, such as the toe-lasting machine that clarified theoperations and provided the real instruction. At that time, I recognised that thedesignated student, an expert operator, had difficulty in transferring theknowledge and skills to others verbally but when we applied the learning onthe machine it was easier to coach us through the learning, because theapprentice was familiar with the process of making, and not familiar with theprocess of teaching. I noticed how quickly I learnt the concepts and couldmodify my skills when able to “do” the task. Similarly, as for others in thegroup, further insights were gained from the diverse descriptions offered toclarify the task at hand.

When I began teaching bespoke footwear, my experiences from industrialfootwear training drove me to aim to deliver a more meaningful course to mystudents. The toe-lasting process for the bespoke shoemaker requires holdingand incrementally releasing the leathers with one hand whilst the other handlevers, twists, pleats and tucks the gathered leathers under the last. It is anextremely dexterous manoeuvre and takes persistence to learn. Intermittently, Idemonstrated the technique to my students by asking one student to place theirhands on the lasting pincers and the shoe leather whilst I placed my handsover theirs and enable them to experience the ‘feel’ of the leather movingsteadily underneath whilst we both performed the operation. This tuitiondirectly spoke to the student’s body and was repeatedly successful intransferring a deeper knowledge of the skills they were practicing. The effecton the group was interesting in that they all vicariously shared the learningbeing experienced. Another successful problem-solving tool was teaching thestudents to use mental rehearsals of shoemaking sequences for before theyundertook the actual task, saving time and materials. The success of this skillslearning process concurs with Barsalou’s (2008) suggestion that cognition isgrounded through simulations, situated action, and bodily states when needed.The benefit of interplay between the novice and the expert/mentor highlights thesocio-cultural and social construction of knowledge (Billett 2001). Jonassen’s(1999) account of modelling strategies encapsulate the transition from novice toexpert in that “learners will attempt to perform like the model, first throughcrude imitation, advancing through articulating and habituating performance, tothe creation of skilled, original performances” and further suggests thatbehavioural modelling demonstrates how to perform a task, and cognitivemodelling relates to the reasoning supporting the activity (1999, p. 231). As anexpert shoemaker the teaching workshop provided me with opportunities toincrease my skills through the sheer volume of problem-solving scenarios, andprovided the students with the opportunity for social cohesion in a fledglingcustom footwear community of learning.

Macro Level Analysis: Influences on Toe-Lasting

The Macro level influences affecting skills learning in the footwear-making industryhave evolved in step with the changes to production equipment and techniques.


These include influences from globalised wholesale/retail competition, the needfor companies/industries to remain competitive, the atomisation of factory jobs/operations, and the changes brought into shoemaking trade competencytraining as a result of these changes in manufacturing practices. Stevenson(2007) raises concerns with how the training sector, in meeting nationalguidelines set by industry bodies for their training needs, runs the risk oflosing breadth and depth in student learning. The contemporary industrialshoemaker has become a skilled technician, a specialist machine operator moreso than an artisan and the training for toe-lasting is leagues apart from thebespoke toe-lasting skills all shoemakers once knew. Variants in specialistproduction machinery/equipment make it improbable for apprentices/skilledworkers to learn on each specific machine in institutionalised settings, leavingthe training/induction to be provided by skilled workers mentoring in the worksite, creating a community of practice. The macro level influences imposelearning needs and plans into the meso and micro level activities as thelearners’ experiences are both personal and shared in a group (Lave andWenger 1991). As stated earlier, my own shoe trades lecturers specialised in only4 or 5 shoemaking skills whereas the bespoke shoemaker must be an expert in allof these skills to remain viable.

Shoemaking evolved from the hand skills practiced by resident andtravelling artisans towards batch manufacturing in village workshops, intothe industrial manufacturing plants of today. The bespoke skills grew into ahighly regulated Guilds’ craft, and craftsworkers had to sit annual licensingexams to demonstrate their continued proficiency and professionalism. Thus,the macro level influences demanded a level of personal or micro levelexpertise to be demonstrated before accreditation was granted. Until the mid1800s, all shoes were “straights” having no distinction between left and right,and the wearer’s foot had to “break in” the shoes for comfort. Centuries laterthe entrenchment of mass production footwear has altered our consumerexperience and product diversity by providing affordable homogenousfootwear; in turn this change has redefined the training needs forcontemporary shoemakers. Oddly enough, the homogeneity of productionfootwear was a primary driving force for my learning and then teachingbespoke footwear. I, like my students could not buy the shoes I wanted towear and so undertook the journey of becoming a bespoke shoemaker. Thetoe-lasting techniques used in bespoke footwear making today are verysimilar to earlier traditions with the exception that modern adhesives providea more efficient way to hold the shoe together. The constant development ofthese adhesives corresponds to their commercial industrial benefits, theyillustrate how the hand-made and the industrial footwear-making vocationstravel hand in hand in their respective teaching/learning, and productionpathways.

This case study exemplifies the interconnectivity amongst the micro, mesoand macro level forces and activities of our applied learning model in shoe-making skills teaching/learning, and illustrates how understanding andembracing these symbiotic relationships can benefit skills teaching/learningprogram development and delivery in institutions and worksites.


Case Study Two: Applied Learning in Technology Education

Our second case considers the experiences and perspectives of 20 tradespersonsundertaking a Graduate Diploma in Technology Education to work in secondaryschools teaching in the Design Creativity and Technology courses. This casestudy focuses on multi-level influences on the pre-service teachers’ learning,where we argue that our framework provides further explanatory insights intotheir behaviour and reflections. The students were not made aware of theframework during this study.

Micro Level Analysis

Our analysis of the students’ reflections on how they learnt as individuals, aswell as our observations of their practices, indicated the strong interplay ofmind, body, feelings, activity and the environment in their learning. Studentshad a strong sense of the performance requirements of being a teacher. Theirresponses to interview questions indicate that students are able to connect themicro and meso levels that we in our framework without necessarily beingcognisant of them. The value of the framework lies in the potential to interpretand influence student learning at multiple levels. The students were aware thatthey needed to change from past strategies as tradespersons if they were tobecome effective reflective teachers. When discussing the process of problem-solving in the trade workshop, one participant acknowledged that, “I wouldhave a list in my head and I do have memories and I know that I still do it. Iwould build something in my mind, I don’t write it down… I go through thesteps and the physical actions in my head…. think about what you do first, sothe process of making happens as smoothly as possible, and ends up with awell constructed pattern”. This process of perceptual simulation, as noted byBarsalou (2008), entails the integrated use of memory, perception, and activityto guide and reflect on performance. However, this student described teachingas more challenging, in that it was an “ongoing process where you’re alwaysthinking—it involves a lot of thinking and preparation and doing thingsdifferently”. Another student noted that:

When I worked in my trade I had been doing it for 17 years, and things happenedautomatically. I just knew what to do. With teaching I have to be a lot moreorganised, I go through what I am planning to do the next day inmymind at home.

This process still entails perceptual simulation, but the students are aware ofbroader challenges and the improvised nature of many classroom interactions. Asanother student commented:

I didn’t rely on my skills and my background to be a teacher. I realised thatthere are two different things: there’s having skills and doing and there isteaching. The fact that I had the skills made the subject easier to teach. I didn’thave to think so much about how things worked and solving problems, but theactual teaching is not an extension of the trade, it is a complete career change,just completely different.


The pre-service teachers needed to shift from the habit of working‘online’, where actions were likely to be, if not automated, prompted orgoverned by routine problem-solving with available resources. Instead, theyneeded to connect ‘online’ action in the classroom with ‘offline’ rehearsal,planning, imagining classroom scenarios, and reflecting on the reciprocaleffects of their actions and those of their students, as well as broader lessonoutcomes. Early in the program the pre-service teachers presented ‘microlessons’ as an opportunity to enact lesson-planning and practise performance.Students were given clear guidelines and encouraged to rehearse theirperformance prior to delivery, followed by peer and self-reflection. Weobserved how students gained assurance from these embodied rehearsals. ForBarsalou (2008) these experiences are evidence of the necessary mix of‘online’ and ‘offline ‘learning, in this case in becoming a successful teacher.Cognition is grounded in the interplay of selective recall of perceptions,knowledge, memory and language, and in the capacity for the teachers to runperceptual simulations of their past or future classroom experiences as theyparticipate in new lessons. Subsequent recall is always selective in so far asindividuals in any classroom context will attend to and remember only someof the possible aspects of past experiences in teaching. The furtherrequirement for students to complete professional journals and produce lessonplans were both useful tools to enable symbolic offloading and re-inspection ofpractice. Similar to the shoemaker case study, the pre-service teachersacknowledge the intimacy and sophistication of their mental modelling foroutcomes prior to action. Students successfully negotiated the course hurdlesand assessments associated with the pre-service teacher education program andthe remarks from the interviews can be meaningfully and reasonably interpretedto substantiate the proposed framework.

Meso Level Analysis

Students involved in the study commented on how valuable the socialinteraction was for their learning, the survey responses were supportive andillustrative of the meso level proposed in our model. Interview comments bythe pre-service teachers’ indicated that they appreciated how the course wasstructured around intensive practical group work, collaborative problem-solving,and shared offline reflection. One student commented “we were able to bounceideas off each other, learn a lot from each other, working on units of workaway from the uni… I was then able to ring some other people who weredoing the same course, to discuss things with them. And to be honest, I thinkthat’s how I learned most”. This social basis of learning entails the co-construction ofembodied knowledge around shared goals (Billett 2003).

Course participants acknowledged the value of an explicit focus on sharedexperience. One student commented that there was a lot of support andencouragement from everyone, “because we were on a common journey. Therewas some passing on of assignments and such, my feeling was that theassignment wasn’t the difference between that person becoming a good teacheror not. It was about supporting each other to become teachers. It’s about


becoming a teacher.” The students’ exchanged accounts of their experiencesfrom their trade backgrounds, identifying themselves as professionals withsimilar goals, thus providing a cohesive reason for unity and cooperation. Thesestudents were redefining themselves beyond initial self-perception as trades-persons towards taking on the identities of technology teachers. One studentnoted that “on the value of interaction with other class members, we all had atrade background. Because we all had similar backgrounds and embarking on[a] similar career change, we all discussed it.”

This shared meaning or inter-subjectivity arose through interactions in theclass environment and outside the course setting and was beneficial andimportant to the participants in that they were in control of the questions andinterpretations validated through the broader interaction of the group as a wholecommunity. “When we had the weekend [course] we all went out for tea, thosewho stayed went out socially and developed camaraderie.” “We had a couple ofstudents who had worked for a couple of years as instructors. They shared theirexperiences… they understood how schools worked when the rest of us didn’t.This was very helpful.” These shared experiences provided personalised supportand a basis for focused reflection and discussion.

When speaking about the initial teaching experience in a classroom itbecame apparent that the informal exchange, or ‘stories of the trenches’provided a level of comfort for the participants: “I think perhaps when youfirst start it is about survival, it’s about getting to the end of the class.Curriculum …that is drawn on later”. The first practicum experience is oftencritical for the pre-service teacher. When asked how she felt through thisexperience, one participant identified the value of experienced teachers,experts, knowing how to introduce a novice into the system. “I clearlyremember my first impressions of the classroom as being absolutely shockedat the noise level and the behaviour of the students… having not been in aclassroom for 20 years. I was quite overwhelmed and fortunately I didn’t walkin and start teaching the class, I had an opportunity to acclimatise to whatwas around me, I was a part of the class. My supervising teacher recognisinghow I felt, not throwing [me] in too deeply.” In the shift from novice toexpert the beginning teacher accumulates symbolic and material tools andstrategies in the same manner as the artisan. The support from experts aroundthe novice provides the environment to reflect critically and engage thelearning of the trade/skill through formal and informal guidance. The conceptof learning as a social activity and the structure of learning experiencesmediated through the mechanisms of course structure provide the supportivecommunity of practice with the opportunity for individuals to redefinethemselves from trades person to Technology Teachers. In this way, mesolevel activity draws on and expands micro level individual accounts of, andprocesses in, learning experiences.

Macro Level Analysis

Various broader factors affected the students’ program. The training of newTechnology teachers occurs within regulated procedures, including a specified


number of practicum days and contact hours, and student graduate outcomes areclearly articulated by the University and the relevant industry registration bodiesthe Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). Students are made aware in theintroduction to the course of the regulatory constraints, standards andperformance requirements to graduate from the course and be eligible forteacher registration. This accountability, policy context and regulation frame-work combine to define the macro context in which students learn in waysshaped by micro and meso level processes.

More broadly, globalized shifts in labour markets, including the need foreducation systems to cater for expanded demand for citizens skilled in newtechnologies, influence policies around increased employment opportunities fortechnology teachers. In deciding to become technology teachers, some of the pre-service teachers acknowledged their desire to maintain the culture of practice andhistory associated with their trade, while others were influenced by other factors.One student noted that “they put off 65 employees due to the drought… and one ofmy kids said why don’t you become a teacher Dad and it kind of triggered somethinginside and the process started”. Another student claimed he “wanted to extend myknowledge to kids”. Another student, employed by a major telecommunicationcompany undergoing significant labour force restructure, took up the opportunity tobecome a teacher.

A different set of cultural factors influence the relative status of technologyeducation in schools when contrasted with more academic subjects. Pre-servicetechnology teachers are often faced with a systemic resistance to the acknowledg-ment of their skills and level of competence in their trade, and their rich history inworkplace learning. They face challenges in transferring this knowledge to a newlearning environment that often accords more status to traditional curricula andacademic approaches to knowledge construction (Teese and Polesel 2003). At thesame time, schools are expected to demonstrate their currency with, and relevanceto, workplaces and to workplace preparation. There has been a dramatic shift inrecent times away from the view that educational institutions are the major site oflearning, with increasing recognition of the value of workplaces, and workplace-school partnerships, in this regard (Boud 1998; Bentley 2000; Beare 2006). Thesebeginning teachers are moving into school settings where they face multipledemands and challenges. These include gaining curricular legitimacy for theirsubjects beside traditional academic subjects, enacting effective pedagogy forembodying their curriculum for their students, and maintaining currency in theirtechnological knowledge and practices in relation to those in current and newworkplaces. As one participant in the course noted, “you don’t teach how youlearnt when you were working in the trade—you don’t teach the skills younecessarily used directly in your trade—you use the knowledge and you use theskills but not in the same way. So, I guess, if you could make it clear,somehow, that teaching is not an extension of your trade.” This pre-serviceTechnology teacher also recognized the critical role of the school-workplacenexus in students’ learning: “if you give them some real skills and they can doa bit of work experience, or get out there and see that their learning is relevant,you can keep them at school”. In this way, various macro level influences drivepractical learning processes and experiences at micro and meso levels.


Elaborating Applied Learning

In this paper we have argued that theories of applied learning processes can begrouped productively in terms of interactive micro, meso and macro levels, and thatthese theories offer insights into learning processes arising from practical work,including workplace and vocational education. We view this theoretical frameworkas complementing past accounts of the nature of, and influences on, vocational andworkplace learning (Billett et al. 2006; Billett 2009; Hodkinson et al. 2008). We havefocused particularly on the micro level, seeking to go beyond past purely cognitiveaccounts of personal experience, noting how recent theories of embodied orgrounded cognition provide a persuasive enriched explanation and justification ofhow applied learning processes can be understood at this level. We have argued thatthese processes entail the interplay of cognitive, affective, perceptual and embodieddimensions of that learning. In making this point, we have not sought to downplaycritical meso-level accounts of learning as deeply dependent on social interactions,group goals, histories of proven practices, and context-specific artefacts. Rather, wehave sought to indicate strong theoretical and practical interdependencies betweenthese two levels and beyond, to macro accounts of system factors and influences.

Our two case studies have been presented as offering indicative, and intentionallydiverse, evidence of the value of conceptualizing applied learning processes as theinterplay of micro, meso and macro theories. We consider that this framework, whilepartly derived from applied education, and from vocational preparation programs, hasthe potential to inform understanding and framing of vocational and workplace learningexperiences generally. This framework can assist managers and educators to predict andplan for more effective future learning opportunities and experiences in schools andworkplaces. Both our case studies demonstrate accounts of enabling factors that supporta shift from novice to expert, or at the very least to a more competent worker, and theembodied skills required to make this shift successfully. Having knowledge of howlearning is enabled and shaped at each of the three levels potentially provides aframework for conceptualising how to understand and enable this transition.

The framework and the case studies point to various future researchpossibilities. This triadic framing of theories around applied learning processes,for instance, can be usefully incorporated explicitly into the workplace as wellas the curriculum of teacher preparation programs. This framing may alsoenable workers and students to understand more clearly some of the linked complexitiesof practical learning processes and factors/resources/strategies influencing theseprocesses, particularly at the micro level, for themselves, their peers and future learners.Further, this framing provides a basis for considering how workplaces and schoolcommunities of practice can be sustained and grow, and how local systems canunderstand and adapt learning processes to address inevitable change.

Appendix A

Pre-service Teacher Interview Schedule

1. Why did you choose the Grad Dip Tech Ed at La Trobe Bendigo?


2. What was your Technology area of specialty?3. What are your expectations of what learning opportunities the course will

provide? To what extent have these expectations been met?4. What will assist/has assisted your learning in the course? What might be/were

constraints?5. How do you think we might improve the content and teaching methods of the

course?6. Would you be prepared to come back at some stage to speak to existing

students?7. What further professional learning opportunities would be helpful?

Follow Up Interview Schedule

1. Can you describe what it was like to undertake this course with other peoplewho had a trade background?

2. What were they issues that students focused on in discussion formally andinformally throughout the course?

3. Can you describe or explain the value of the interactions between the groupmembers?

4. How did working together as community in the Technology Education courseprepare you for your new career?

5. How valuable were other students’ experiences in helping to prepare you for ateaching career?

6. What were the key elements of the course that helped prepare you for teaching?7. Can you describe the difference between how you prepared for work in your

trade and how you prepare for teaching?

References

Alvesson, M., & Skoldberg, K. (2009). Reflexive methodology: New Vistas for qualitative research (2nd ed.).Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Anderson, J., Reder, L., & Simon, H. (1997). Situated versus cognitive perspectives. Form versussubstance. Educational Researcher, 26(1), 18–21.

Barsalou, L. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577–660.Barsalou, L. W. (2005). Continuity of the conceptual system across species. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,

9(7), 309–311.Barsalou, L. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology., 59, 617–645.Beare, H. (2006). How we envisage schooling in the 21st century. Kent: Australian Council for Education

Leaders.Bentley, T. (2000). Learning beyond the classroom. Educational Management Administration Leadership,

28, 353–364.Billett, S. (2001). Knowing in practice: re-conceptualising vocational expertise. Learning and Instruction,

11(1), 431–452.Billett, S. (2003). Vocational curriculum and pedagogy: an activity theory perspective. EERJ European

Education Research Space: vocational and lifelong education research European EducationalReserach Journal, 2(1), 6–21.

Billett, S. (2004). Workplace participatory practices: conceptualizing workplaces as learning environments.Journal of Workplace Learning, 16(6), 312–324.

Billett, S. (2008). Introduction to the first issue. Vocations and Learning, 1, 7–10.


Billett, S. (2009). Conceptualizing learning experiences: contributions and mediations of the social,personal, and brute. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 16, 32–47. 2.

Billett, S., Fenwick, R., & Somerville, T. (2006). Work, subjectivity and learning. Dordrecht: Springer.Boud, D. (1998). A new focus on workplace learning research. In D. Boud (Ed.), Current issues and new

agendas in workplace learning (pp. 1–8). NCVER. SA.Bruner, J. (2004). A short history of psychological theories of learning. Daedalus, 133(1), 2–9.Calvo, P., & Gomila, T. (2008). Directions for an embodied cognitive science: Towards an integrated

approach. San Diego: Elsevier.Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. V. (1996). Beyond the individual-social antinomy in discussions of Piaget and

Vygotsky. Human Development, 39, 250–256.Dalton, J. (2004). “A” is for applied: what is applied learning? Fine Print, 1, 8–15.Damasio, A. (1994).Descartes’ error: emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Putnam Publishing.Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New

York: Harcourt Brace.Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2008). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Department of Education and Science. (2009). Second Level Education in Ireland. Retrieved October 18

2009, from http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=&pcategory=17216&ecategory=20658&sectionpage=12251&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=18628

Dewey, J. (1916). Experience and thinking. In J. Dewey (Ed.), Democracy and education. New York:MacMillan Publishing.

Dopfer, K., Foster, J., & Potts, J. (2004). Micro-meso-macro. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 14,263–279.

Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 247–273.Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Glenberg, A. (1997). What is memory for? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 20(1), 1–55.Greeno, J. (2009). A theory bite on contextualizing, framing, and positioning: a companion to son and

goldstone. Cognition and Instruction, 27(3), 269–275.Hargreaves, A. (1985). The micro-macro problem of the sociology of education. In R. Burgess (Ed.),

Issues in educational research: Qualitative methods. East Sussex: Falmer Press.Harrison, L. (2006). “What is applied learning?”: Exploring understandings of applied learning amongst

beginning teachers. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in EducationConference, Adelaide.

Harteis, C., & Billett, S. (2008). The workplace as learning environment: introduction. InternationalJournal of Educational Research, 47(4), 209–212.

Harteis, C., & Gruber, H. (2004). Competence-supporting working conditions. In H. P. A. Boshuizen, R.Bromme, & H. Gruber (Eds.), Professional learning: Gaps and transitions on the way from novice toexpert (pp. 251–270). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishing.

Hodkinson, P., Biesta, G., & James, D. (2008). Understanding learning culturally: overcoming the dualismbetween social and individual vies of learning. Vocations and Learning, 1, 21–47.

Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-designtheories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Vol 11. Mahwah: Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates.

Kirby, P. C. (2000). Ministerial review of post compulsory education and training pathways in Victoria.Melbourne: Department of Education, Employment and Training Victoria.

Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology a step by step guide for beginners (3rd ed.). London: Sage.Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to

western thought. New York: Basic Books.Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Legitimated peripheral participation. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.Marchand, T. (2008). Muscles, morals, and mind: craft apprenticeship and the formation of person. British

Journal of Educational Studies, 56(3), 245–271.Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Franscisco:

Gossey-Bass. Inc.Ontario Ministry of Education. (2009). Specialist High Skills Majors. Retrieved October 18 2009, from

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/pathways/shsm/shsm_fact_sheet.pdf.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2005). Going for growth, economic policy

reforms. Paris: OECD Publishing.Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. (2009). Curriculum for the Diploma. Retrieved October 18

2009, from http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_6208.aspx.


http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=&pcategory=17216&ecategory=20658&sectionpage=12251&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=18628

http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=&pcategory=17216&ecategory=20658&sectionpage=12251&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=18628

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/pathways/shsm/shsm_fact_sheet.pdf

http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_6208.aspx

Schank, R., Berman, T., & MacPherson, K. (1999). Learning by doing. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.),Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Vol 11. Mahwah:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Sennett, R. (2008). The craftsman. London: Penguin.Stenstrom, M.-L., Grollman, P., Tutschner, R., Tynjala, P., Nikkanen, & Loogma, K. (2006). Integration of

work and learning: Policies, strategies and practices Paper presented at the European ResearchNetwork in Vocational Education and Training Symposium, Geneva.

Stevenson, J. (2007). Technical and further education reforms: theoretical issues. The AustralianEducational Researcher, 34(3), 15–34.

Teese, R., & Polesel, J. (2003). Undemocratic schooling equity and quality in mass secondary educationin Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2009). VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook, 2009.Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 9, 625–636.Wilson, M. (2008). How did we get from there to here? An evolutionary perspective on embodied

cognition. In P. Calvo, & T. Gomila (Eds.),Directions for an Embodied Cognitive Science: Towards anIntegrated Approach. Elsevier.

Yin, R. (2008). Case study research: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
