This book gathers work from over a decade of study, and seeks to better understand and support how learners become tradespeople. The research programme applies recent concepts from neuroscience, educational psychology and technology-enhanced learning to explain and help overcome the challenges of learning in trades-learning contexts. Due to the complex and multifarious nature of the work characterising trade occupations, learning how to become a tradesperson requires a significant commitment in terms of time, along with physical and cognitive effort. All modalities (visual, aural, haptic etc.) and literacies (text, numerical, spatial etc.) are required when undertaking trade work. Manual dexterity and strength, coupled with the technical and tacit knowledge required for complex problem solving, not to mention suitable dispositional approaches, must all be learnt and focused on becoming a tradesperson.
However, there is a substantial gap in the literature on 'how people learn a trade' and 'how to teach a trade'. In this book, contemporary teaching and learning approaches and strategies, as derived through practice-based participatory research, are used to highlight and discuss pragmatic solutions to facilitate the learning and teaching of trade skills, knowledge and dispositions. The approaches and strategies discussed include the implementation of technology-enhanced learning; project-based inquiry/problem-based learning; and recommendations to ensure learners are prepared for the future of work.
Dr Selena Chan is an educational developer at Ara Institute of Canterbury (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology – CPIT), where she focuses on curriculum and learning design with teaching teams and supports the implementation of technology-enhanced learning. This work is undertaken across a range of vocational education discipline areas, and from the first-year to post-graduate levels of learning. Her research projects include studies on the perspectives of trade practitioners who become trade teachers; the perspectives of apprentices on how they go about learning a trade; the importance and support of peer learning in vocational learning; the design, development and implementation of a range of technologies to enhance vocational learning including mobile phones, tablets and social networking platforms; and the role of e-assessments in helping learners satisfy New Zealand’s graduate profile outcome-based qualifications. Selena has also published extensively in Vocational Education journals and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vocational Education and Training and the International Journal of Training Research.
