Pierce attended university after completing his secondary education where he undertook a general primary school teaching and arts degree. He then spent a year in England playing cricket and working menial sort of jobs. When he returned to Australia he obtained a graduate position at a rural primary school. Pierce explained that after about seven years he had a desire to
… move away from teaching young children because [I find] it very taxing work [and not something that] comes supernaturally to me, whereas young people I probably find a lot easier.
Pierce described himself as particularly sports orientated and when the primary school at which he worked was able to obtain funding for a Physical Education teacher he was able to fill the position full time for three years. He then spent four years working for a private company which educated primary school teachers in inclusive ways to teach Physical Education. He had been working at PARTNERSHIP for about six months.
Pierce had no experience of teaching in secondary programs and told me his only experience of senior years’ pathways was having undertaken VCE himself. He explained
… but obviously it [VCAL] is different and I guess that is part of the challenge I find as well – that is my back ground and trying to find that and turn that into an understanding of the VCAL.
From the discussion with Pierce it was evident that he was struggling to understand both VCAL and his new work environment
… this is my first year teaching in this environment in a VCAL setting … to be honest I’m a little unclear at this stage as to what all the VCAL units are – cause they [are] mapped into the work we do into the curriculum and to be honest it still seems very convoluted to me which units are hidden in there – or that type of thing I am starting to get my head around the job in general but it is the VCAL part of that is probably to be honest a little bit vague with me.
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PARTNERSHIP is an industry specific VCAL provider so it is assumed students have an interest in working in a related industry to the program in which they have enrolled. The educators at PARTNERSHIP are given their curriculum
… here are the units that you need to do, here is the curriculum.
Unlike VCAL educators at other providers, at PARTNERSHIP VCAL educators are given the applied learning tasks which will meet VCAL Skills Strands learning outcomes and do not need to devise them. However Pierce indicated the option was there to use alternative tasks
… you can [devise them] they [the managers] say you have the freedom to do that. You can do that if you don’t particularly like the way they are set out. As long as you map back to certain criteria then you can certainly change the tasks but they are there for you.
Pierce said a clear curriculum was not enough to support his preparedness to teach VCAL or even to explain how VCAL works in practice
…I have never received such a clear curriculum before. So sometimes it is like you are playing catch up to understand where that curriculum has actually come from and why it is worded – or why the tasks are the way that they are … the experience in it [VCAL] is the teacher of it I suppose … I think there is an expectation that you will just sort of pick it up along the way. Which to be honest – I feel full (of information] from the start of the year as it is.
Pierce thought that he would have found it very difficult if the curriculum content had not been given to him
…it would be a nightmare – it would be very challenging – very
challenging – I think [I] just need more training – just need to spend the time sitting down and understanding the program more and planning and I think that was one of the things we didn’t have a lot of in time at the start of the year – to sit down and plan a little bit – but that is offset by the fact that you have that curriculum in your hand a little bit - on a silver platter sort of thing.
Pierce appreciated that PARTNERSHIP had already mapped the VCAL content to the program’s Learning Outcomes as it meant there was no immediate urgency in his coming to an understanding of the structure of the program.
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… I guess one of the things that comes from this organisation is – don’t stress if you don’t understand the VCAL part of it – it is all there you just don’t necessarily know how it is packaged – we have looked after [it]. When I asked Pierce how he had come to understand the applied learning basis of VCAL he seemed unsure of how to respond
… well not really, and I guess part of the problem with where I am at the moment is understanding all the terms and where they fit in, So when you say applied learning what do you mean?
Pierce was not aware that the VCAA website might be of assistance in learning to teach VCAL
… to be honest I wouldn’t know, I’m sure it probably would. [That’s] a little bit to do with time, probably lack of awareness that it is there in the first lace, I’m sure that there is a website there, but it is not known to me to be a resource and I haven’t thought ‘I’ve got a spare five minutes here – I might look that up’.
Partnerships are an important aspect of developing applied learning programs, but in our conversation, Pierce admitted to feeling overwhelmed. Pierce explained
… the fact that there are so many organisations we are linked to that we have to be accountable to. My head is honestly a lot in administrative tasks and trying to work through processes.
At PARTNERSHIP, professional development is provided at the beginning of the year for all staff. As staff teach in similar programs, this initially appears an efficient approach, Pierce commented
… we had an induction process at the start of the year here – about 2 weeks - and we would come in and do different professional
development on whatever the organisation thought was valuable. The downside is not all professional development may be useful to everyone. It can be difficult for educators to individualise the professional development they undertake to their own needs. Pierce said
… they say that if you would like to do some more professional development in something in particular we may be able to find that somehow – but I think that is one of the challenges of this organisation …
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… there is only so many dollars to go around – so that balance between what your staff know and do professionally as opposed to having to actually pay for it is the challenge.
Pierce was of the opinion that he benefited most from learning that had occurred informally within a collegial environment. He said
…probably the best professional development we have done is in our … groups [weekly meeting] there has been sharing amongst the group from people who have been there and done that – tried this didn’t do that – this didn’t work or whatever it might be – that is probably the best.
In a contemporary teaching and learning environment where the use of IT is encouraged, Pierce thought that the computer creates as many challenges as it seems to solve. The classroom resources which are provided to him from the PARTNERSHIP budget relied on him using computers to develop work and students using computers, rather than handwritten responses, to complete and submit the work. The particular cohort with whom he worked were resourceful and Pierce expressed a desire to learn how to manage the use of technology as a teaching and learning device better. He provided an example of a task that may have been completed by one student and then
… saved it under a different name and passed all around the class.
He often thinks his students have out-smarted me by submitting work which is not their own as he explained
… some guys just seem to get their work done amazingly quickly when it has taken them a half an hour to get started.
Pierce commented that if work was handwritten he would be able to identify individual student handwriting as it was handed in.
Pierce feels more constrained in his current teaching that he did in his previous setting where he felt a real joy of creativity. He interpreted the teaching and learning brief there as
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… I give you this and you can go and taken it wherever you think, we will tell you if we think you are stuffing up but basically as long as you are getting good results … BUT here it is kind of like ‘ok’ they are giving you so much curriculum, they are giving you heaps of stuff, but then you are kind of a bit limited in the way you teach it.
In contrast, Pierce felt in his current teaching role
… like I have been innovative this year and I have been pulled up on it … I kind of feel closed in and structured and there is not a love of creativity as such because it is more a love of curriculum, or stick to the curriculum or pedagogy sort of style.
… [applied learning] it is very much hands on – the tasks that you do are hands on – but this is where I feel VCAL is really interesting like I haven’t got my head around it yet – the tasks are very hands on so they are useful tasks – but they are very narrow in their focus – “I need to do this task to get this end” and so that for me is not creativity.
… and it seems to me in this setting it is the old pedagogical style of standing up the front with a PowerPoint presentation saying how you write a letter is the most efficient way to go – so it doesn’t – that isn’t the sort of teaching that floats my boat.
He was surprised to find that his primary school teaching skills were more relevant than I expected them to be. Pierce thought that the students enjoyed some of the basic things such as sitting around in a circle offering an opinion. He said the activities appeared to encourage relaxing with their classmates and promoting communication.
Pierce is comfortable saying to his students:
… I’m learning as I go – I’ll make mistakes – you’ll make mistakes – let’s be ok with that - we are not all perfect.
Pierce said that while he struggled to understand the curriculum he did not expect to be alone and part of his reason for participating in the study was to help others. Pierce comments
… I think you know that is almost part of the reason why I wanted to do this interview is to say – well look ok – this is the way I feel starting out – maybe there are other people in the
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same boat, in the same situation, and maybe that could be addressed.