Planning Process and Learning at Vocational/Higher Education Level – Role of Documentation and Learning Theories

The planning process in higher education is heavily reliant on the assigned teacher's prior learning, training, and experiences. Understanding the laws, amendments, and guidelines that shape these institutions into formal places of learning is one of the prerequisites for becoming a teacher at a higher education institution. These requirements exist at both the national and institutional levels. One might wonder why these laws and amendments are necessary. One point of view would be to stay within the legal boundaries when teaching at higher education institutes, which is correct but the bare minimum for becoming a teacher. A higher purpose guided by these prerequisites is to comprehend the learning objectives of students in such institutes and to incorporate those learning objectives into the planning process. This would ensure that the students obtain the necessary level of knowledge for their work lives and become useful members of society. In the context of vocational education, it is guided by FinnishVocational Education Agency. These guidelines flow from the Finnish Ministry of Education (MOE) at all level of education including the vocational education. MOE regularly updates its guidelines to not only amend the laws but also to assess the societal needs and resultantly training requirements of teachers (see Teacher Education Development Programme 2022–2026).

To that end, the participants in the OAMK teacher training program discussed the importance of developing an understanding of these laws and guidelines. The responsible group provided an overview of the most important and relevant laws and guidelines in relation to vocational education during this discussion. These included the following: 1) the right to educational support, 2) cooperation with working and business life, 3) competency demonstration and feedback on competence development 4) Funding; 5) The competence-based approach; and 6) Personal study plan. The debate was based on the VET2018 Vocational Education and Training Reform Act. These discussions emphasized the legal requirements that a teacher must be aware of and design courses to include the spirit of such laws in documentation.

Aside from legal documentation, course documentation in the form of course outlines that include learning objectives, content and learning outcomes, skill development activities, and assessment methods is critical. These documents, like legal guidelines, are further guided by learning theories and teachers' personal inclination toward those theories as a lens to achieve the intended goals in vocational education. Group 2 led a session to assist the 2022 cohort in developing an understanding of these learning theories.

Classification of Learning Theories (Ahmad, M., Rahim, L. A., & Arshad, N. I. 2014)

 The group discussed major learning theories such as behaviourism (c.f. Smith, R. 1990), cognitivism (c.f. Skinner, C.F. 1985), constructivism (c.f. Kretchmar, J. 2019) , and connectivism (c.f. Siemens, G. 2004) during the session. The participants were able to form a common ground on the role of theories in lesson planning in a competence-based education after general discussions and activities on various platforms (e.g., Kahoot). The presenting group effectively summarized these findings by emphasizing that a learning theory seeks to help us understand how people learn. Understanding theories allows us to apply them in practice, determining what we see, what we think is important, and thus how we will design and implement our practice. Overall, educators who understand learning theory can reflect on their practice, improve, reshape, and refine their work, and contribute to the advancement of the discipline​. The core idea (which group 2 also demonstrate in their own lecture) is that it is not a single theory but a combination of multiple theories that helps in developing lesson plans to aid competence-based learning.

In conclusion, the prior knowledge of laws and amendments governing vocational and higher education is essential to ensure competence development of the students. This knowledge coupled with the understanding of learning theories and their implementation in practice can help in developing course related documentation which is learner focused and caters to the needs of individual students. For a structured understanding of the planning process, teachers can further use pedagogical scripts to develop operationalization plans before the actual implementation of the planning documentation. In the next post, I will discuss the role of these two aspects i.e. student-centred learning and pedagogical scripts in the planning process.

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References

• Ahmad, M., Rahim, L. A., & Arshad, N. I. (2014, June). A review of educational games design frameworks: An analysis from software engineering. In 2014 International Conference on Computer and Information Sciences (ICCOINS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
• Kretchmar, J. (2019). Constructivism. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
• Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. 9.
• Skinner, B. F. (1985). Cognitive science and behaviourism. British Journal of Psychology, 76(3), 291–301. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1985.tb01953.x
• Smith, R. (1990). Behaviourism. In Companion to the History of Modern Science. Routledge.