Font Size: a A A

Comparative Research On Vocational Teacher Education And Training In England,United States And Germany

Posted on:2017-05-09Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:N TangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1227330485472975Subject:Vocational and Technical Education
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
During more than thirty years since the Reform and Opening of China, the vocational education has been developing rapidly, the pace and quality of which are impressive. As the improvement of the external environment, the quality of the vocational teachers is getting better. However, the quality of teachers is still the "bottleneck" of vocational·education in China and has limited the progress of vocational education. Despite of a number of measures have taken to improve vocational teacher education, the whole system has not fully established, which is lack of access to high level training for vocational teachers, and unable to highlight the characteristics of vocational education, mostly duplicating the training mode of general normal education.When keeping eyes on international environments, it is found the teacher education in developed countries has experienced a transition from unorganized to organized, and the organized teacher education deeply affected the reform process in vocational teacher education. At present, in some developed countries, vocational teacher education has gradually shown the tendency of professionalization, on one hand with the external professionalization by forming different training modes, on the other hand with the internal professionalization by promoting the study and research in basic subject of vocational education, such as subject pedagogy.In summary, based on the examination of the dilemma of vocational teacher education in China, this study focuses on the external system and internal function of vocational teacher education from the international perspective, and tries to find any reference and inspiration to China. In details, the research questions of this study are: How professionalization of vocational teacher education performs in these counties and how to promote teachers’professionalization, what experiences and inspirations to conclude on vocational teacher education in China.Based on the key research questions above, this study focuses on the dilemma of vocational teacher education in China, with the logic starting point of exploring developmental pathway of external professionalization of vocational teacher education and internal professionalization in developed countries, takes VPCK as theoretical tool, utilizes comparative and historical research methods, and follows research route of "from deduction to induction". Therefore, this study includes four modules and seven chapters.Module One takes the meaning interpretation and analytical framework designing as the core theme, including Chapter One "Introduction" and Chapter Two "The Analytical Framework of Vocational Teacher Education" two chapters. With the concept of teachers’professionalization in the transition from sociological significance to educational significance, the central topic of teachers’ professionalization has shifted from external social status promotion to teachers’ internal professional development, which also makes teachers training from occupation-oriented type turn into professional teachers education and training. Thus, professionalization has become inevitable orientation of vocational teachers education and training. However, in terms of teacher education reforms in the world, teachers’ education and training is gradually moving towards the external professionalization, and easier to ignore the internal professional development of teachers. Nevertheless, in 1980s, Shulman proposed PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) from the perspective of the theory of knowledge, which is also a new perspective for internal professionalization of teachers’education and training. In view of this, this module applies PCK theory to vocational education, and re-conceptualizes it as VPCK (vocational education pedagogical content knowledge), as a theoretical tool for examining internal professionalization of vocational teacher education and training. Based on the above analysis, at last, this module selects the England, United States and Germany as comparative units of this study; establishes two research clues— historical analysis and cross-sectional analysis; selects professional standards, qualification accreditation, curriculum and VPCK as key reference indicators of comparative analysis; and ultimately build a comparative analytical framework and analytical model of vocational teacher education and training.Module Two takes historical evolution, basic elements and main characteristics analysis of vocational teacher education and training in developed countries as the core theme, including Chapter Three "Vocational Teacher Education in England", Chapter Four "Vocational Teacher Education in United States" and Chapter Five "Vocational Teacher Education in Germany" three chapters. In order to show a more comprehensive view of vocational teacher education and training system in different countries, at first, this module sorts historical data and divides historical stages based on professional standards, qualification accreditation, curriculum these three variables, and finds that different countries show organizational and professional developmental tendency in vocational teacher education and training. Then, this module applies VPCK theoretical tool and conducts a cross-sectional analysis on three basic elements of vocational teacher education and training system——professional standards, qualification accreditation, and curriculum, and finds that different countries have formed a relatively complete external professional vocational teacher education and training system; at the same time, they are adopting various strategies to promote internal professionalization of vocational teacher education and training by emphasizing on VPCK. Finally, this module analyzes the main features of vocational teacher education and training in the three countries based on analytical model, and establishes different vocational teacher education and training models for the three countries.Module Three takes similarities and differences analysis of vocational teacher education and training in three countries as the core theme, including Chapter Six "Comparative Analysis of Vocational Teacher Education" one chapter. This module demonstrates the current situation of vocational teacher education in England, United States and Germany based on the analytical framework established in Chapter Two, and analyzes the commons and differences of vocational teacher education in the three countries. By comparing the three countries, this module finds differences are: training modes of professionalism or nationalism, open or sealed training pathways, general or subject-based professional standards, competence-based or seniority-based qualification accreditation, curriculum structure towards all majors or specialized major. Also there are some commons, which are deconcentration in administration authority, professionalization of vocational teacher education and training, and emphasis on VPCK. At last, this module concludes the basic rules in vocational teacher education and training, which are:coordination among different stakeholders, establishment of institutionalized training framework, and the focus on teachers’ professionalization.Module Four takes suggestions on vocational teacher education and training in China based on international experiences as the core theme, including Chapter Seven "The Inspirations and Suggestions on Vocational Teacher Education in China". This module reviews the evolution history of vocational teacher education in China, and analyzes the current situation according to the indicators of comparative analysis selected in Chapter Two, and finds that there are some characteristics of vocational teacher education in China, which are:government’s leading role, projectized training system, and mutual independence of the key three indicators. However, this module also discusses related problems, such as centralization of authority without supporting measures, low openness of professional education, qualification accreditation ignoring training process, and separation in curriculum system. Finally, based on the perspective of VPCK and international experience, suggestions on promoting vocational teacher education in China have been given, including:establishing "government-market" administrative mechanism, setting up in-service training mode as the main means, improving the professional standards of vocational teacher, establishing "procedure-oriented" qualification accreditation system, and reform on the curriculum system of vocational teacher education. Also, the vocational teacher education and training model in China under ideal conditions has been established at the end of this module.All in all, this study has made valuable exploration in the field of vocational teacher education from the theoretical level and methodological level. From the theoretical level, this study divides professionalization of vocational teacher education into external and internal two dimensions, and proposes VPCK as the theoretical tool for examining the internal professionalization of vocational teacher education. From the methodological level, this study utilizes comparative research method and establishes comparative analytical framework and analytical model. Finally, this study summarizes main conclusions:vocational teacher education in some western countries has demonstrated a transition from external professionalization to internal professionalization, and VPCK theory is the tool for promoting internal professionalization in vocational teacher education; for a long time, vocational teacher education in China is experiencing a process of internal professionalization, however this process is actually essentially different from which in western countries; China should learn from western countries to promote the popularity of professional vocational teacher education by external professionalization, at the same time reserves internal professionalization this "good tradition", to form the situation of external professionalization and internal professionalization complementing each other.
Keywords/Search Tags:Vocational education, vocational teacher, teacher education and training, teachers’ professionalization, VPCK
PDF Full Text Request
Related items