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This report investigates and discusses the literature on women business operators, synthesising recent research on women in relation to business and vocational education and training (VET), and raising implications for current policy directions. Analysis of the literature identifies the complexities policy makers face concerning women small business operators and VET. The three major sections of the report offer a context and policy overview, a description of small business and VET in the Australian context, and an examination of the VET system, small business and women. Key statements arising from the study and a summary of the findings are given in the executive summary. Show less

This document reports on a study undertaken by researchers at the Centre for Learning and Work Research (CLWR) at Griffith University, and the Studies of Work, Education and Training academic team at Monash University. The study sought to evaluate the contribution of competency based training (CBT) to Australian vocational education and training (VET). This report is structured into seven chapters. The first chapter outlines the context for the project, its policy analysis and briefly outlines the findings. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the associated literature, focusing on both the expectations behind the initial implementation of CBT, and evaluations of that implementation over the last decade. Chapter 3 outlines the project methodology. Chapter 4 is a report of findings that focus on curriculum development. Chapter 5 reports findings concerning assessment issues. Chapter 6 outlines the work completed in evaluating changes in teachers' practice. Finally in chapter 7 the findings and conclusions from each of the preceding chapters are synthesised into a set of key deductions and a set of recommendations for the future.

A brief overview of this study may be found at TD/TNC 59.34. Show less

The project reported in this overview sought to determine the ways in which competency based training (CBT) had contributed to the development of an Australian workforce that is adaptable and flexible. Data were gathered from respondents involved in two industries (metals and hospitality) in two states (Victoria and Queensland). Analyses of these data were used to identify the impact of the introduction of CBT on curriculum, assessment and instructor’s practice, and to determine the educational worth of CBT in realising government policy goals. This overview document comprises a set of findings arising from the investigation, a synopsis of the study, a brief overview of the rationale for the investigation and the means by which it was conducted. It also provides a summary of findings and recommendations for future policy and practice.

The full report of the study may be found at TD/TNC 59.19. Show less

This paper reports the outcomes of a pilot study that aimed to investigate how experts think, act and learn. The study, focusing on three vocational experts (a painter, a midwife and a mechanic), comprises an investigation of the characterisation of experts, their ways of knowing and the knowledge deployed when engaged in work. The study suggests that current accounts of expertise are narrowly defined and that situational factors and dispositional attributes need to be included, further suggesting that goals for and curriculum practice within vocational education need to account for situational factors and the range of experiences of individualsin developing expertise. Show less

This chapter aims to advance understanding of learning as part of everyday thinking and acting, examines the strengths and limitations of learning in workplaces and proposes a model for organising learning in the workplace. The author stresses that it is through everyday activity in the workplace that individuals learn and that learning in the workplace involves different processes from learning in an educational setting. The everyday activities and goals of the workplace structure learning in the workplace and the activities that individuals learn in the workplace influence what knowledge they construct. This chapter emphasises that the effectiveness of workplace learning rests on guided access to workplace learning experiences. If learners are denied access to structured and unstructured learning opportunities, weak learning occurs. The chapter shows how learning in the workplace occurs and proposes how learning experiences in the workplace can be utilised to their maximum.

This monograph is indexed at TD/INT 61.40. Show less

Examining work as social practice offers a means of understanding relations between behaviour and the social world or the mind in activity. Recent views have proposed that cognition is distributed (Hutchins 1991; Resnick, et al 1997) or stretched across the social partners and artefacts that comprise the social practice in which they act. Therefore, more than proposing social practice as a context for cognition, it seems necessary to understand the reciprocal, co-constructive nature of knowledge constructions, its application and how judgements about its efficacy might arise. Emanating from these concerns, are important factors associated [with] relations between individuals' thinking, acting and knowing and how they act (Cobb 1998) (or are permitted to act) in social practice such as work (Darrah 1997; Hull 1997). The study of work as social practice may permit these relationships to be understood more clearly as they provide a context in which the relationships can be managed. From an investigation of emerging work practice, a basis for understanding work, the requirements for performance and the means for learning these requirements is presented. A scheme comprising activities and interdependencies is proposed as offering a tentative basis to understand relations between work, as a social practice, and individuals' thinking, acting and knowing.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

The title of the conference was 'Changing practice through research: changing research through practice'. This volume of the collected papers is indexed at TD/ANTA 82.129; selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 60.137 to TD/TNC 60.149. Show less