A renaissance for Apprenticeship Learning?- Implications for Transition Countries

Torino 18 September 2009

Sören NielsenEuropean Training Foundation

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Argument

Learning organised as apprenticeship is based on long lines of a self-regulated social organisation

Realities of countries in transition make this form difficult

Renaissance of apprenticeship learning points towards the core of this learning which could maybe be implemented

How to do that in ETF partner countries?

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Apprenticeship learning

Definitions:

Apprenticeship:

Training under a legal agreement defining the relationship between master and learner and the duration and condition of their relationship.

Different connotations of the Anglo-Saxon apprenticeship (learning of the apprentice is

stressed) and the German-Scandinavian ‘Meister Lernen’ (prevalence of the master’s role for learning)

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Apprenticeship learning

Definitions:

Apprenticeship in the guilds:

The formal European apprenticeship of the guilds involves a written contract between master and apprentice, stating obligations for both parts, with the term of apprenticeship often ending after a 4-year period with a journeyman’s test and an official accreditation as a journeyman of the trade.

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Renaissance of apprenticeship

Theoretical approaches:

Anthropological approaches:

Learning understood as a basic social phenomenon, as an aspect of cooperation between different participants in making a production work, embedded in everyday practice and not isolated in educational institutions (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Singleton, 1998; Bourdieu, 1992)

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Renaissance of apprenticeship

Theoretical approaches:

Philosophical approaches:

Philosophers have turned to apprenticeship as a way to learn tacit and bodily competences after research in Artificial Intelligence has demonstrated the limitations of desituated and disembodied simulations of practice (Polanyi, 1958).

Only by observing the experienced master and by using the skills in a practical situation can the novice acquire these practical competences (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986, 1999).

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Renaissance of apprenticeship

Theoretical approaches:

Psychological and Educational approaches:

A psychological approach emphasizes identification and imitation as central means for learning (Jespersen, 1997).

Cognitive apprenticeship designates a synthesis of school and apprenticeship; through modelling and scaffolding the teacher offers the student strategies to solve a problem (Collins et al, 1991)

Howard Gardner discusses apprenticeship and a scholastic approach depicting how to use of apprentice-like situations in the classroom (Gardner, 1993)

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Central features of apprenticeship learning

Learning in apprenticeship shifts the attention from the attributes of individual participants to the environment which makes learning possible – towards communities of practice

The «landscape of learning»

Learning in a Community of Practice Learning through Participation in Practice Bodily Learning and Imitation Learning through Assessment of Practice

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Some key questions

A key issue remains the relevance of the traditional apprenticeship learning to the qualifications required by current forms of production?

Empirical research is needed on potential sources of learning in the learner’s environment – what are the potentials of wandering in the landscape of learning?

For educational policy and practice, the question becomes how to design institutions that may advance apprenticeship types of learning today?

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Guidelines for transition countries

Reorganising the VET school workshops with support from local employers – Prinzip Gestaltung

Curriculum change: modern technology understanding Analyse existing practice of short placements in

companies and transfer good practice into school workshops

Re-establish old links with companies but include new SMEs

A new configuration of inter-linking teaching, learning and practical work exercises in a ‘production logic’ approach

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VET system gains in transition countries

Improved transition from school to work

More efficient and relevant transmission within education system

Higher motivation for students

More interesting work for the teaching profession

Enhanced status for VET systems