Recovering From Bad Image

Everyone needs to realize that many beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and values are culturally constructed and not divinely ordained. Vocational education lesson plans has dealt with its share of bad images. These perceptions are generated not necessarily by the people who have taken such courses but rather by preconceived notions of vocational education.

Students enroll in vocational education for a variety of reasons. They might enroll because of a specific interest to learn a job skill for employment or because they feel their chances of finding a good career are better in a vocational education program. And in the best-case scenario, vocational education programs have a reputation of taking people from where they are to where they should be by helping them learn a skill, craft or employable knowledge. In doing this, most vocational educator's embrace mastery learning or competency-based education. Yet while this approach has gained credence among educators, vocational education still suffers a bad rap in many quarters.

A Tarnished Reputation

A few years back, upon hearing that enrollment at a community college where I was teaching was going up, the professor sitting next to me exclaimed that it would mean they would be flunking more people the next year. She explained that when enrollment goes up it means that professors can be more selective about who will pass. I thought, "What a strange concept."

Many vocational education programs have an open-door policy with the aim of making all students successful. Vocational education is not an exclusive club--and with good reason. Even when a vocational education course and a traditional course are similar in content, one would be accepted as transferable while the other would not.

For example, say one course takes place in welding shop where piping is assembled for a construction project, while the other course is at an art facility where welded art sculptures are created. Each course would have to teach the same basic welding classes. One student would be a welder and the other an artist. Which word has better connotations? The art course is transferable, the welding class is not.

Another good example of these differences in perception is an Oct.27, 2005, editorial in USA Today concerning NCAA eligibility requirements, which indicates to high schools the kinds of courses that are acceptable for college eligibility for participation in NCAA Division I and II athletics. The NCAA tends to frown on performance-based courses, social studies courses with significant community service, vocational courses, and many interdisciplinary courses and so on. How can the NCAA discourage athletes from taking performance-based courses? If a teacher doesn't use mastery learning techniques to teach athletes their skills, what technique is used?