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Exploration of an industrial enterprise as a method of boundary-crossing in vocational education

This chapter presents ‘exploration tasks’ as tools for transfer and boundary-crossing between vocational school and working life. In Germany, vocational education for industrial clerks is supposed to prepare them for work with complex interdepartmental processes. These processes require domain-specific knowledge about products and business processes, the ability to understand complex interrelationships and to apply knowledge in new situations. The author argues that this objective has not been successfully achieved through vocational education in schools or workplace learning in enterprises. A case study of the design, construction and testing of two teaching-learning arrangements within the apprenticeship for industrial clerks/managers is described in detail. The chosen function was order processing, which will become an integral part of their work. The aim was to promote student competence and transfer by linking school-based and work-based learning, learning to practice and real workplace situations, and by systematically enabling boundary-crossing between schools and workplaces. The two teaching-learning arrangements selected were ‘exploration’, which takes place in both the school and the workplace, and the ‘jigsaw’, which take place only in the classroom. The results of the two approaches are compared.

This chapter presents ‘exploration tasks’ as tools for transfer and boundary-crossing between vocational school ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Furstenau, Barbel
Date: 2003
Geographic subjects: Europe; Germany
Resource type: Book chapter
Series name: Advances in learning and instruction series
Subjects: Vocational education and training; Research; Employment;

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