Thesis (M.Dev. ( Planning and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Motivation has been said to be a major factor in determining student academic performance, and in this study the researcher aimed to investigate the effects of motivation on National Curriculum Vocational (NCV) students‟ academic performance at Capricorn TVET College. Due to the nature of the study the researcher used mixed research methods to collect data. The research findings revealed that motivation has an effect on students‟ academic performance such that lack of motivation has been identified as a major factor that contributes to poor academic performance among NCV students. Lack of lecturer motivation, inadequate Learning, Teaching and Support Materials (LTSM), lack of practical work were also identified as factors that can hinder NCV students‟ motivation. The results also revealed that positive college culture and positive student competition as well as giving of rewards or incentives to students are the most effective motivational strategies to enhance students‟ motivation and can assist in keeping students motivated. The study also determined that it would be beneficial if lecturers use those strategies to motivate students. Alternative sustainable motivational strategies are essential in order to keep students motivated and for them to be able to perform well academically.

<p>  </p> <p>This study used two instruments for data collection: The Intelligence Survey (IS) and Multiple Framed Teaching Strategy Index (MIFTSI). Permission was requested and given to use the two instruments from the developers Luo and Huang. Educators who teach entrepreneurship education courses in one higher institution in the south-south of Nigeria are the primary source of data collection for this study. The study participants were those who volunteered to participate in the survey through their email addresses. The data collection used a Qualtrics questionnaire consisting of the Intelligence Survey and Multiple Framed Teaching Strategy Index, including five demographic questions. </p>

Individuals and organisations need to do much more if sustainable development is to be achieved. Appropriate environmental vocational education and training (EVET) is essential for current decision makers. Crucial decisions need to be made before the present generation of school and college students achieve significant positions of authority. An increasing range of EVET courses and course providers are available within the UK. However, availability is not synonymous with suitability for either the attendee and/or his/her (future) employer. Previous research indicates that, as a component of lifelong learning, EVET courses should and the methods used to evaluate them should be student-centred. This thesis describes the development and validation of a new studentcentred evaluation framework. Preliminary literature reviews identified six fundamental issues which needed to be addressed. Existing academically productive evaluation models were examined and critically appraised in the context of these problems. The output from this process was used to develop a bespoke research methodology. Empirical research on four commercial EVET programmes revealed distinct personal, teaching and work-based presage factors which influenced course attendance, individual learning and subsequent organisational learning. Modified versions of Biggs' 3P model and Kirkpatrick's Four level Evaluation Model were shown to provide an effective student-centred evaluation framework for EVET courses. Additional critical elements pertaining course utility and the student's long(er) term ii retention of knowledge/skill were derived from previous research by Alliger et al (1997). Work-based presage factors and the student¿s return on expectation were added as a direct consequence of this research. The resultant new framework, the Presage-Product Evaluation Framework, was positively received during an independent validation. This confirmed inter alia that the framework should also be capable of adaption for use with other VET courses. Recommendations for additional research focus on the need to demonstrate this through further empirical studies.

There has been an increasing amount of interest shown in vocational education and apprenticeships in the early twenty-first century by successive governments and other parties connected with occupational training. However, the English further education sector has been described as ‘chronically under-researched’ (James and Biesta, 2007: 7), particularly in regard to narrative accounts of college education and pedagogy (Richardson, 2007) and there has been very little empirical research on pathways into the plumbing profession. This study explored teachers’ and students’ perceptions and experiences of both full-time college courses and apprenticeships in plumbing in order to deepen understanding of these particular types of vocational preparation. It also endeavoured to investigate whether the two different routes into plumbing appeared fit for purpose. Within an interpretive framework, data were collected using two main research methods. Ethnographic snapshot observations were recorded during lessons in three further education colleges and at the workplaces of five plumbing students and formal 1:1 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 tutors and 14 students. The data were thematically analysed. From the many issues relating to the opportunities offered and the challenges posed by the different pathways into plumbing that this study identified, three key findings emerged. First, there was strong evidence of a dislocation between theory and practical learning, both within the college setting for full-time students and between the workplace and college settings for apprenticed learners. This had implications for both the quality of learning and the learners’ levels of motivation. Second, the study revealed the importance of supervised work experience that was centred on long-term acquisition of knowledge and relationship development for apprentices with support from their college tutors and co-workers. Finally, the findings showed the importance of authentic assessment. It was found that simulations in college could not adequately replicate the experience of doing the job in the real world. Given the inherent risks and problems regularly encountered in the plumbing profession, this signalled significant health and safety implications.

This research project conducted an in-depth, qualitative assessment of vocational education and training (VET) teachers’ perceptions of pedagogic innovation, with an emphasis on obstacles and supporting factors. The main research question was: “How do teachers’ roles and perspectives shape innovation processes in VET and what does this imply for the development of teaching and learning practices?” Three clusters of subsidiary questions were derived around thematic foci: ‘perceptions and concepts’, ‘documentation of practice’, and ‘dynamics, limitations, and lessons for innovation’. Based on analytical strategies derived from grounded theory, two phases of interviews – the first with ten experts and the second with 62 VET practitioners at 20 colleges – were conducted in England, Germany, and Austria, with a focus on full-time VET (Further Education Colleges, Berufskollegs, and Berufsbildende Mittlere und Höhere Schulen) in the 16-19 age range. Classroom observation preceded semi-structured, 30 to 60 minute interviews with teachers. The study builds on previous research and existing frameworks such as Lipsky’s concept of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ and Flyvbjerg’s ‘critical cases’. However, it fills a gap in the literature by focusing on practitioner perceptions, motivations, professionalism, autonomy, work contexts, and own learning in relation to pedagogic innovation, whilst tracing relevant connections to educational policy, college management, and societal influences. Teachers are shown in multiple roles as inventors, designers, and implementers of innovation, facing nine categories of obstacles. Those include limited time and budgets, bureaucracy and lack of autonomy, problems with project planning and execution, and issues related to lack of support. In addition, this study provides a comparative investigation of practitioners’ interpretations of key terms (‘pedagogy’, ‘didactics’, ‘innovation’), revealing differences between England on the one hand, and Germany and Austria on the other, based on different degrees of autonomy and innovative focus. Based on such findings, the study details recommendations for college leaders and policy makers for facilitating pedagogic innovation, placing each in their respective national contexts.

Ce texte donne une compilation brève des traits fondamentaux du système d'éducation vocationnelle dans les pays germanophones. Tandis que d'autres essais de ce genre se limitent généralment dans la description des structures organisationnelles, ceci tente une phénomènologie essentielle de ce système bien particulier tout en considérant son historique et son présent.

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Aus- und Fortbildung von Lehrkräften der beruflichen Bildung in Entwicklungsländern und leistet einen Beitrag zur Disziplin „Berufsausbildung in der Dritten Welt“, einer Disziplin der Berufspädagogik. Sie verbindet Aspekte der internationalen Berufsbildungszusammenarbeit aus deutscher Sicht mit Aspekten der vergleichenden Berufspädagogik, des internationalen Projektmanagements sowie der Didaktik und Methodik im Kontext der beruflichen Bildung. Im Mittelpunkt der Schrift steht eine empirische Untersuchung zur Aus- und Fortbildung von Lehrkräften der beruflichen Bildung in der Volksdemokratischen Republik Laos mittels eines nationalen in-service-trainingsystems, das durch deutsche und laotische Experten im Zeitfenster 2000-2003 erfolgreich und nachhaltig eingerichtet wurde. Das System mit der Bezeichnung „Multiplikatoren-Trainingssystem (MTS)“ basiert auf einem erprobten deutschen Konzept, das seine Transferfähigkeit in mehreren Entwicklungsländern bereits nachgewiesen hat.

De nos jours, la transmission du patrimoine culturel immatériel reste une problématique internationale qui touche à la fois la question de conservation de notre passé et la question actuelle du développement de l’économie créative. Cependant, cette transmission se réalise à travers de différents biais éducatifs, qui pourraient être formels ou non formels, qui pourraient viser à former les professionnels ou les amateurs. Cette présente thèse a choisi le patrimoine artisanal et sa transmission comme le sujet de recherche, avec une attention particulière portée sur les formations formelles et non formelles, qui sont considérées comme les dispositifs de transmission professionnelle du patrimoine artisanal, le chercheur s’est approché vers un terrain spécifique, celui de l’artisanat de la céramique et a mené une étude comparative sur les formations formelles et non formelles, organisées dans les deux sociétés contrastées dont celle de la Chine et celle de la France, qui transmettent cet artisanat. En analysant les discours de 28 céramistes dont 14 céramistes indépendants (7 Chinois et 7 Français) et 14 céramistes salariés (7 Chinois et 7 Français), cette thèse vise à faire comprendre quels sont actuellement les modes (formels et non formels) de formation professionnelle en artisanat de la céramique, les plus respectivement favorisés par les céramistes praticiens en Chine et en France. Des perspectives sont dégagées sur les similarités et les écarts dans les comportements et les routines des activités de transfert, d’appropriation des savoirs et des savoir-faire concernés et de création à partir des savoirs et des savoir-faire transmis de chacun des modes de formation, employés dans ces deux contextes sociaux dissemblables que sont ceux de la Chine et de la France. / Today, the transmission of intangible cultural heritage remains an international issue that touches not only the preservation of the past but also the practical question of the development of creative economy. However, this transmission can be realized via various educational channels, whether it is formal or non-formal, which could aim to train professionals or amateurs. This thesis decided to choose the artisanal heritage and its transmission as the research subject, with a particular focus on formal and non-formal formations, which are considered as devices for the professional transmission of the artisanal heritage. The author advanced the topic towards a specific field, that of the craft of ceramics and carried out a comparative study on formal and non-formal formations, organized under the context of two contrasting societies, that of China and France, which transmit this craft. By analyzing the talks of 28 ceramists, including 14 independent ceramists (7 Chinese and 7 French) and 14 ceramists-employees (7 Chinese and 7 French), this thesis aims to offer a clear understanding on what are the prevailing modes (formal and non-formal) of vocational training in the craft of ceramics, that favored mostly by the ceramic practitioners in China and France. Observations and perspectives have been made on the similarities and differences in terms of practices and routines of transfer, acquisition, and creation of knowledge and the know-how of each of the training mode, adopted under the different social contexts of China and France, which are marked by sharp contrasts.

In the light of youth unemployment and increased transnational mobility practice oriented vocational education and training get more and more importance in the international cooperation in education. There is a broad consensus among educational experts, that one of the possible measures to reduce youth unemployment in the world is to provide youth skills and competences, which are needed on the labour market. The school based vocational education needs to be updated with practical skills. The fundament of each practice oriented vocational education and training system (VET) lays in the cooperation between the main actors: the enterprises and vocational schools. Dual systems in countries as Germany, Switzerland and Austria offer many good practice examples on the benefits of the engagements of both actors in the vocational education and training system but nevertheless these examples cannot be taken as “one model fits all” which can be implemented in each country. Therefore each country interested in the redesign of their own vocational education and training system needs to identify possible benefits of and challenges in their system, to be able to specify the opportunities and threat for future development. It cannot be presumed that enterprises can be forced to take apprentices and train them in their facilities. It has to be evident for every educational actor willing to cooperate with enterprises, that enterprises first strive for growth in profits upon others to be able to secure their existence and secondly they may support additional, non-economic activities; for example the vocational education and training of future employee. Although to ensuring the quality of future employees may partly be seen as their social responsibility this fact will still depend on their economic situation and their need for skilled labour. However, making profit does not collide with the idea of the engagement of enterprises in the vocational education and training. It only needs an in depth-analysis of potentials and needs of enterprises and vocational schools and an adequate planning as well as development of the educational programs and activities. The following example on the PR China delivers many interesting basic approaches on how cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools can be built up, managed and preserved. Thanks to the over thirty years of multilateral cooperation between der PR China and other European and Asian countries, the PR China already knows what is needed to modernize the vocational education and training system. Further education of teachers, redevelopment of curriculums and the redesign of the infrastructure of the vocational schools are those activities, which enriched the Chinese vocational education and training system in the last thirty years. There is still backwardness in the economically weak part of the country but within the “go-west-strategy” of the government innovative measures are offered for enterprises to foster the development of the western region; for example cut red tape or tax and duty exemptions. In the course of the bureaucracy development of the east-southeast part of the country and through the increased perception of the country in the international business the quality of labour become more relevant also for the PR China. Products with low-value-added and unskilled labour were not sufficient anymore for the competitiveness of the country in the international environment. More and more enterprises realised the shortage of qualified labour because of the rise of progressing technology and of the availability of qualified labour. The commitment to quality in the vocational education and training laid on the market orientation and therefore on the establishment of cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools. The PR China can consequently show good practice examples from cooperation in the vocational education after more than thirty years of learning from other countries. The constructive element of these cooperation was identified by the actors as the consensus about the mutual benefit of cooperative activities. Although there are many good practices in the cooperation, nevertheless, more persuasiveness is still needed for continuous fostering of quality in the vocational education and training. The cooperation is not only influenced by the interest, need and the level of cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools, but the nature of the directives of the government are crucial for the cooperation too. For example, the decentralized implementation of the directives of the government may endanger the uneven development and quality assurance in vocational training. The transfer of responsibility of the state in the hands of the provinces ensures on the one side more freedom for provinces, for instance, it allows them to adapt the vocational education and training to their specific needs and to implement it to local circumstances. This means, to offer labour market oriented vocational education and training. On the other side it needs in the context of quality assurance to archive the knowledge gained through the fragmented implementation. This implies, that already developed teaching and learning materials should not get lost but it should be used as synergies and transfer these to other provinces, schools or enterprises. One of the exemplary efforts made by good situated “model vocational schools” is their willingness to overtake a sponsorship for other less developed vocational schools that are located mostly in the western region. Previously mentioned schools support the improvement of the teaching quality of latter mentioned schools and help them especially in the initial phase of the redevelopment of their teaching and training system. More concrete, “school sponsorships” allow to share knowledge, experience or to share technical equipment. The further education of teachers, the establishment of training facilities, the adaptation of curriculum to the labour market needs leave space for the consideration of local needs on the one side, and the dynamics of market development on the other side. It is only possible to take over responsibility for less developed schools, if there is financial support through the government too. School sponsorship is mostly subject to model schools therefore there is a significant need for recognition and promotion of education activities of these model schools. The high dynamic of the labour market in developing regions may cause challenges in the cooperation between vocational schools and enterprises, especially in the time of recession. If the cooperation with a vocational school gives rise to concern because of the limited time, personal availability or financial support in the enterprises, than the support of enterprises may decrease. Therefore the model schools strive to mobilise all actors, ask for financial and material benefits during the time of economic growth to be able to implement those benefits targeted and lay a solid fundament for the performance of less developed schools. This fundament may consist of well-educated vocational teachers, well-equipped training facilities as well as practice oriented curricula. A solid basis allows vocational schools in a economically weak period to use previous investments and benefits. Additional created supplementary services, as further educational offers for enterprise employees, well-educated vocational teachers as consulters by building up of new production lines or by doing research on the effectiveness of human resources, are examples for reserves to bear itself. The redefinition of the role of vocational schools as “service providers” in a wide sense, allows setting quality standards in relation with the pedagogical requirements and economical needs in the vocational education and training. The school administration and teachers need to be equipped with additional management skills in addition to their educational and professional skills to be able to initiate, build and maintain cooperation systematically and analytically. Enterprises need to be aware of taking responsibility for future skilled labour while cooperating with vocational schools. The openness of enterprises for cooperation allows determining one's potential within vocational education and training and look for benefits for both actors. It is necessary for a successful cooperation to be a "win-win" situation, so the motivation for all parties should be maintained. Finally each cooperation needs competent teachers, well equipped training facilities also strategic planning (AIOC-strategy) in sense of analysis of initial situation and the possibilities for the implementation of practical vocational education and training, optimisation of available capacities and resources, the interdependence of responsibilities and competences of both actors, and the consolidation of pedagogical quality criteria under economic premises. The PR China has tried in the past thirty years to modernize its vocational education and training system; this happened mostly in the technical occupations. The challenge for the future will be to do the same effort for the service occupations. The reform and open-door policy of the Chinese government since the 1970s brings many opportunities not only for the economy, but also for the society. The rapid development in the technically based fields brought the anticipated economic upswing and leads the PR China from a development country to the second biggest economy in the world. Now, the current government aims more to increase the life standard of the Chinese and strengthen the domestic consumption than to focus on industry production. Through the emerging middle class the quality and necessity of services gain higher importance in the society and it is seen as an integral part of increasing their quality of life. Chinas new generation remained from the destructive revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, which have slowed down the development in the country. It has now in hand to bring together identity of the country with its traditions and modernity not only outwardly in the perception of the world, but to strengthen it also in the Chinese society.

<p>The need for STEM employees is on the rise in direct relation with the changing needs of our globe (Jang, 2015). There are gaps to be filled not only in the workforce and industry, but also by academia and government (Jang, 2015). K-12 STEM education has the ability to address 21^st century problems, in particular, the need for more highly skilled workers in STEM fields by focusing on developing students’ 21^st century skills. A critical skill for students to develop to be able to properly collaborate on teams and engage in the STEM workforce is problem solving. Problem solving is thought of as being the most important cognitive goal of education in every educational context: formal, informal, public schools, universities, and everything in between (Jonassen, 2010). In order to properly assess students, and know where improvements could be made, it is vital that we examine teachers first. By exploring how teachers approach problem-solving, and how self-efficacious they feel teaching problem-solving, then we can determine how to better assist both teachers and students. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature through surveying three states agriculture and science teachers using two established instruments. The survey was distributed online via Qualtrics and was available to participants for three weeks during the month of January 2020. The survey is divided into three major sections with the first two sections being the instruments used: (1) Problem Solving Inventory, (2) Teaching Science as Inquiry, and (3) Demographics. Demographics was placed at the end of the survey following recommendations from Dillman et al. (2014).</p><p> The final response rate for the survey was 9.04% for agriculture teachers and 13.4% for science teachers, a total of 22.44% (n = 504). After data cleaning there is a total of 4.3% of useable responses from agriculture and 5.58% for science resulting in a usable response rate of 9.88% (n = 205). A little more than half of the participants were female (59%) with the remainder being male (39.5%) and a small percentage (1.5%) elected not to respond or selected “prefer not to say”. The largest population that responded to the survey were between the ages of 44 and 54 (43.1%) and teaching for 21-25 years (19%). The survey found that teachers thought of themselves as being confident problem-solvers but used a more avoidance-style. Teachers also felt they had less control or had more negative feelings in regard to problem-solving. Overall, teachers from both agriculture and science viewed themselves as being moderate to high problem-solvers in general. The instrument was not intended to measure problem-solving relating to the classroom. The second instrument, the Teaching Science as Inquiry, measured how efficacious they felt teaching problem-solving. Teachers from both science and agriculture perceived themselves as being very self-efficacious and had high expectancy outcomes. ANOVA tests were conducted between the two groups to determine if there were differences in their responses and no statistically significant differences were found. A correlation was conducted in order to determine which variables from the two instruments held relationships. The correlation suggests that the two instruments have several strong relationships between the variables like personal self-efficacy and expectation outcomes. research should focus on refining the instruments to reduce the number of questions and survey more individuals to capture more generalizable results. </p>