PROFF – Professionalisation of VET teachers for the future - Europa

enterprise. In the new setting, theory has to be more tightly integrated with practice than in thepast. Above all, teachers and trainers have to feel they are taking part in the training process.Often the push to adopt (and teach) new teaching practices has come not from teachersthemselves but from new legislation or management. It is essential, therefore, that teachersdevelop a sense of ‘ownership’, working to make the new techniques their own.A review of the programmes studied shows several clear transnational trends:• most programmes adopt a ‘dualistic’ approach, alternating on-the-job learning withtheory or theory with work in the teacher’s own classroom, mixing informal and formallearning. While this approach is not new, recent programmes have been increasinglyeffective in integrating theory and practice. Alternating practice with theory provides newways of communicating: between teacher educators (including supervisors, externalconsultants, or whoever may be responsible for training) and participants;• many programmes adopt a flexible, modular approach to curricular planning,personalising teaching to meet the needs of teachers and trainers with different needs anddifferent backgrounds;• several programmes favour a ‘bottom-up approach’ which encourages teachers to reflecton their teaching practices, express their skill needs and take part in designing andassessing training to meet those needs. This avoids the risk that a more academicapproach or an approach not based on daily practice and on teachers’ own experiencemight provoke resistance to change. In programmes based on this strategy, teachertraining no longer follows a fixed lecture-based curriculum but adapts from day to day, inline with participants’ daily practices;• in some cases (e.g. in the Finnish Tukeva programme) teacher participation is encouragedby creating ‘study circles’ and ‘experience exchange groups’ involving staff fromdifferent departments and institutions. This enables participants to learn about practicesin other schools or in other parts of the VET system, thereby gaining a new perspective –and a stimulus for reflection – on their own practices;• ICT (websites, web-conferencing) often provides a powerful tool for encouragingexchanges of views among participants and their teachers. Use of these tools is especiallyeffective when available for the duration of training. In some cases (e.g. the Italian HEPprogramme and the Finnish Tukeva programme), part of the programme is delivered indistance learning mode (i.e. via ICT).The programmes studied varied remarkably. Some, such as TOKE and HEP, were very broadin scope with part-time participants taking one to two years to complete their studies. Bothprogrammes required participants to invest time outside the classroom. TOKE requiredstudents to write reports and analyses; HEP involved them in study visits.Other programmes (such as Telkkä) were much shorter. Telkkä participants worked full-timein an enterprise for just two months (although this was preceded by a seminar and independentwork preparing for the seminar).27