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The concept of curriculum as a personal journey is now timely, yet timeless and pertinent as an explanatory basis for understanding learning and development across the lifespan. It addresses a current need to explain adults' learning across working life when achieving individual, occupational, community, and societal goals. Advancing this explanation necessitates elaborating how that learning is realised and can be supported educatively.

This conceptual paper presents and discusses the concept of personal curriculum to illuminate and explain pathways of adults' learning and developmental experiences across working lives. It offers a perspective of curriculum as a personal, rather than an institutional phenomenon. It also extends the concept of 'experienced curriculum' beyond periodic episodes of engagement in educational programmes to capture the continuity of educative experiences across the adult life course. Importantly, this concept liberates curriculum from the constraints of something intended, enacted and appraised within specific social settings (e.g. educational and work settings) to be more inclusive of the totality of learners' experiences. The case is made for its conceptual, theoretical and practical salience beyond a focus on institutional imperatives. Drawing upon empirical work on how working age adults sustain their employability across working lives, this conception extends discussions about what constitutes curriculum, to encapsulate the learning pathways individuals take across working life.

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A greater acknowledgment of the interdependence between individual and social agency is warranted within current conceptions of learning, and policy and practice within adult and vocational education. Currently, some accounts of learning tend to overly privilege situational agency to the detriment of the more widely sourced, relational and negotiated contributions of individual and social agency. As these accounts fail to fully acknowledge the accumulated outcome of interaction between the cognitive and social experience that shapes human cognition ontogentically and remakes culture, they remain incomplete and unsatisfactory. In a different way, social agency is also overly privileged in current conceptions of vocations, vocational education and its policy and practice within Australia. A consideration of individual intentionality and agency and its interdependence with social and historical contributions is proposed to balance views that privilege particular social influences in current conceptions of vocational practice and its development.

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The volumes from which this paper is taken are indexed from TD/TNC 77.351 to TD/TNC 77.353. Individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 77.354 to TD/TNC 77.437. Show less

This paper reports a pilot study which aims to understand further 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 individuals in developing expertise. Show less

Vocational learning comprises more than factual knowledge and procedures; the development of a vocational identity is a key aspect and outcome of vocational education provisions and assumed to play an integral role in how students learn and perform. Despite the salience of vocational identity however, the processes that contribute to its formation are far from fully understood. It is unclear whether and which elements of vocational education and training provision shape this process and if and to what degree forms of identity really support the actual vocational performance of a vocational learner.

This study seeks to provide deeper understanding of the circumstances that enable different forms of identity to develop and how they direct learning and workplace effort. Using structural equation modeling with data from 504 vocational learners and correlation analysis with data from 187 industrial apprentices, this article proposes a model to account for key influences and the impacts of vocational identity formation for the commercial sector. The results indicate that vocational identity mediates and is closely aligned to the development of vocational engagement and competence. A free career choice and the provision of maximal functional integration into operating processes at the workplace are key factors underlying identity formation.

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This paper proposes that current discourses on workplace learning restrict how it is conceptualised and discussed. Describing workplace learning environments and experiences as 'informal' and proposing that 'informal learning' occurs in workplaces constrains understanding about how learning occurs through work. Instead, learning experiences in the workplace are structured by historical, cultural and situational factors and this structuring influences how and what is learnt. As in educational institutions, there are intentions for work practice, goal-directed activities that are central to the practice's continuity as well as interactions and judgements about performance shaped by their practice. These workplace affordances shape the kinds of activities individuals participate in and the guidance they can access and from which they learn. It is therefore incorrect to describe learning through work as being 'informal', as this structuring shapes learning and often has inherently pedagogical purposes associated with continuity of the practice through participant learning. Also, describing learning in workplaces as being either 'formal' or 'informal' suggests a situational determinism that de-emphasises the role of human agency in the learning process. Linking both individuals' agency and workplace goals is continuity through learning. It is proposed therefore that learning in workplaces be conceptualised in terms of participatory practices focused on continuity.

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Volume one of these proceedings is indexed at TD/TNC 68.31, volume two is indexed at TD/TNC 68.32 and individual papers may be found from TD/TNC 68.17 to TD/TNC 68.29 and from TD/TNC 68.33 to TD/TNC 68.100 Show less

There is currently a widening interest in learning in the type of situation where the learnt knowledge is to be deployed - situated learning. However, the understanding of this approach to learning and its outcomes remains incomplete. It remains unclear how situations influence the construction of knowledge. This paper seeks to commence addressing this question through an analysis of the nature and possible cognitive consequences of situated learning. To engage in this analysis it is necessary to offer an initial reconciliation of aspects of cognitive and socio-cultural theorising. This reconciliation provides a basis to advance an account of how situations influence the co-construction of knowledge. It is held that individuals' participation in goal-directed activities is integral to a mutually transforming process of learning. Moreover, the situation and circumstances constitute a basis for understanding these activities and therefore cognition. Areas of compatibility between the two perspectives are first identified followed by a view of how social circumstances influence the reciprical construction of knowledge using a review of the literature. Finally, an account of the likely cognitive consequences of situated learning and their sources is advanced.

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The aim of this report is to identify and discuss policy options to promote employers’ increasing their contributions to employees’ training and development. This includes outlining the level of employer sponsorship of training identified through different statistical data, comparisons between Australia and other countries, highlighting models that seek to account for different approaches to and mechanisms for employer sponsorship of training, and consideration of policy options to lever greater commitment from Australian enterprises. The report seeks to establish the conceptual terrain for advancing policy in the area of employer sponsorship of training. The research involved a two-step methodology. In the first phase, an extensive literature review was conducted on the policies used by governments in Australia and overseas to encourage employers to invest in training. In the second phase, interviews were conducted with major stakeholders in Australia and a range of overseas experts to appraise the effectiveness of policies in more detail.

A range of policy goals were identified which have the potential to be met through an enhanced commitment by enterprises to training. These goals include fulfilling specific enterprise needs as well as building the national base of skills. Given the uncertainty of policy goals, and the evidence of inconsistent commitment to investment in training across sectors, and between enterprises of differing sizes, it was concluded that, in the short term, at least four policy mechanisms might be used judiciously to secure different kinds of goals and in different circumstances. These mechanisms are: levies; partnerships; leverage; and regulation. Enhancing the status of vocational practice and vocational education appears to be a key goal for the Australian context however the report suggests that it is important that governments take on this role, rather than industry, since the latter might well experience difficulty promoting arrangements which have the potential to jeopardise industrial processes. Show less

The study reported here used high school students' paid part-time work experiences to assist them to reflect upon work, working life and post-school pathways. Because many high school students engage in paid part-time work, in any Australian senior school classroom there is a range of experience that can be used to assist students to consider working life and post-school pathways. These experiences are more readily available and authentic than those provided through school-organised work experience programs. In order to understand how the students' experience of paid work might be best engaged, students and teachers in six schools in Victoria and Queensland participated in processes of reflecting on these experiences. Consistently, across all cohorts of students, authentic workplace experiences were identified as assisting a range of educational purposes associated with students' consideration of learning about work, the world of work and to consider post-school options and pathways. Key variables in the likely success of this initiative were the facilitative capacity of teachers, their knowledge and valuing of working life outside schools, and students' capacities and readiness to engage in reflection of their paid work and the resourcing and privileging within the school of vocational education and training (VET) provisions.

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Volumes of papers are indexed at TD/TNC 90.212 and TD/TNC 90.213. Selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 90.214 to TD/TNC 90.264. Show less

This book is the result of a long-term project, undertaken from the early to the late 1990s, to understand contemporary working life and its implications for learning throughout working life. The research revealed the close link between the engagement of people in their work and their learning. A better understanding of learning through, and for, work thus required greater insight into what constitutes work and how people engage in paid work. The author therefore examines the changing nature of work and how workers are changing in response to the requirements of contemporary working life. The implications of these changes for preparing people for work and maintaining their skills throughout their working life are investigated. This is achieved by analysing the relationships between the changing requirements of working life and how people engage in work. The implications for vocational education and professional development are also addressed. The book contains four sections: the introductory section outlines the case for examining changing work and the experience of work for the worker and presents the concepts that are discussed in the other chapters; the second section focuses on the cultural, social and individual 'genesis of knowledge' needed for work, the relational interdependence between social and individual factors, a relational basis for understanding work, and ideas about the worth of work; the third section focuses on the changing availability and categorisations of paid work, practices of participation in work, the character of those participating in work, and the requirements for work performance; and the final section offers a framework to describe work, and elaborates the factors shaping working life. The chapters are as follows: Section one, 'Introduction', contains: Work, change and workers. Section two, 'Social and individual bases for understanding work life', contains: Cultural, situational and individual geneses of work life; A relational basis for understanding work life; The worth of work. Section three, 'Changing concepts and requirements of work', contains: Changes in available work; Changing participation in work; Changing composition of paid workforces; Changing requirements for work performance. Section four, 'Describing and elaborating work', contains: A framework for describing work; Changing work practice and work requirements: case studies; Work, learning and identity. Show less

This monograph examines the growth and implications of higher education offered by TAFE institutes. It is the culmination of desktop research and interviews with staff from state offices of higher education, senior managers at dual-sector universities, TAFE institutes that offer higher education and some that do not, and teachers and students across six states. It also considers several implications arising from the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education (2008). Key messages in the report include: (i) while numbers of higher education students in TAFE are small, these may well increase as governments strive to both meet their equity objectives and boost the proportion of the Australian population with a degree; (ii) a distinctive, although not unique, feature of higher education courses in TAFE is their applied orientation; (iii) some of the TAFE institutes offering higher education see themselves developing as polytechnics, while others view their offering of higher education qualifications as an extension of their role as vocational education and training (VET) providers; (iv) mixed-sector TAFE institutes aim to help their students negotiate the boundaries between VET and higher education qualifications and adapt to learning in university, including through the provision of greater learning support; (v) institutional and industrial relations structures are impeding growth of higher education in TAFE institutes; and (vi) almost every person consulted in the project raised the issue of TAFE’s profile and its perceived lower status compared with universities.

A podcast of an Interview with Leesa Wheelahan about this publication is indexed at TD/TNC 95.20 Show less