Number 1 Electronic Journals Journal of Vocational and Technical Education

For over three-quarters of a century, the implicit learning theory underlying the curriculum and pedagogy of career and technical education has been behaviorism, but the emerging theory of constructivism may have implications for career and technical education practice in the future. Preparation of workers for entry into and advancement in the workplace of the next decade requires an educational program that provides not only job skills, as career and technical education did throughout the 1900s, but also higher order thinking, problem solving, and collaborative work skills. Classical behaviorist theory does not adequately address the latter kinds of learning, but constructivist theory may. Constructivist principles are examined in light of the fundamental requirements of career and technical education as we move into the new century with a new name for a redesigned profession. Of the three basic types of constructivism discussed, cognitive constructivism is most compatible with career and technical education. The authors recommend a more thorough examination of the relative efficacy of behaviorism and cognitive constructivism to serve as the learning theory on which to base career and technical education in the future. To embrace such a foundational change, leaders in the profession must re-think many of the fundamental assumptions underlying the mission, curriculum, and pedagogy of career and technical education. Perhaps such a rethinking is due. Constructivism: EJournals Digital Library and University Libraries Search Addison Off Campus Sign in Ask a librarian The Career and Technical Education Perspective Domains of study and practice, such as career and technical education, are founded upon both implicit and explicit theoretical frameworks. Theoretical frameworks allow scholars to organize and synthesize knowledge and conjecture within a field and serve to describe, explain, and predict behavior and experience. The established theoretical framework that still guides career and technical education is based primarily on the work of David Snedden and Charles Prosser (Camp & Hillison, 1983; Doty & Weissman, 1984) from the early 1900s. Both Snedden and Prosser were concerned principally with broad political and policy issues and seem to have given little consideration to a learning theory to undergird their vision for career and technical education. Even in his later years, Prosser omitted any mention of a learning theory for career and technical education (Prosser & Allen, 1925). Nevertheless, the implicit learning theory underpinning career and technical education, since before the Smith Hughes Act, has been behaviorism (Dobbins, 1999; Wirth, 1972). The foundational work on which career and technical education in America was built is more than three-quarters of a century old. Much has changed since the heated, sometimes rancorous, debates between David Snedden and John Dewey from 1910 to 1920 that polarized the educational community in the United States (Wirth, 1972). Since the late 1800s, t hree learning theory metaphors have dominated education, as a whole: learning as the acquisition of stimulus-response pairs (behaviorism), learning as the processing of information (information processing), and learning as the construction of knowledge (constructivism) (Mayer, 1992). These changes in explanatory metaphors have resulted from, and have allowed for, new insights concerning the nature of learning and knowledge. As researchers began to see that complex learning was difficult, if not impossible, to explain using complicated chains of SOR pairs, and as the computer began to enter the academic consciousness; information processing theory emerged to explain how mental structures affect behavior. Then, after several years of productive research into the components of memory and cognition, it became apparent that context and culture influenced the representation of these components; and constructivism emerged to explain personal meaning and the nature of reality and representations. In the remainder of this article, we will demonstrate that, in spite of a broad change in the philosophical orientation of general education away from behaviorism and toward information processing and constructivism, the structural realities of career and technical education have precluded a similar fundamental shift in this field. We will then explore whether a constructivist framework might reasonably provide an appropriate theoretical undergirding for the practice of career and technical education. The Past: Theoretical Foundations of Career and Technical Education The unifying theory underlying career and technical education in the United States in the first part of this century, as envisioned by David Snedden and effectuated by Charles Prosser, was the so-called social efficiency doctrine (Camp, 1982, 1983). Proponents of social efficiency held that only an efficient society could create a positive environment in which the individual could prosper and find satisfaction. Social efficiency advocates went on to contend that public schools were an arm of the social system; and, as such, they had an inherent mission to further the good of society by contributing to its efficiency. Clearly, career and technical education, as envisioned by Snedden and Prosser, made up one of the bulwarks of social efficiency, in that the preparation of a well-trained, compliant workforce was a sine qua non of an efficient society (Wirth, 1972). Theoretical Framework Underlying Social Efficiency Six fundamental theories formed the basis for social efficiency as Snedden and Prosser applied the doctrine to career and technical education in the early 1900s (Camp, 1983): 1. Socioeconomic stratification. Sociologists held that in all societies, the development of social classes was a natural, indeed an essential phenomenon. Movement between social classes was possible, but a stable social system rightfully made vertical social mobility difficult. 2. Probable destiny. The theory of probable destiny was an intrinsic corollary of socioeconomic stratification. According to the theory of probable destiny, social classes are inherently stable, so that a person born into a working-class family will probably live and die as a member of the working class. A young person's "probable destiny" could be determined by a combination of factors, including socioeconomic class at birth, aptitudes, and interests. 3. Psychometrics. Psychological measurement, an emerging science at the time, was seen as capable of determining each student's probable destiny as a simple matter of testing. Classification into the academic or vocational tracks would then be both reliable and scientifically based. 4. Social control. The theory of social control posited that for any society to exist, its members must adhere to both the implicit and explicit norms of that society. For society to endure over time, such adherence must be voluntary and near automatic on the part of the citizenry. 5. Pedagogy. Although never formulated as a single, coherent theory, pedagogy involved the systematic study of teaching and learning that was rapidly developing at that time. According to Wirth (1972), Albert Shaw's study of the administration and teaching methods used at Hampton Institute, combined with Snedden's own dissertation, Administration and Educational Work of American Juvenile Reform Schools, led Prosser and Snedden to conclude that the pedagogy for career and technical education must be based on an organized, rigidly sequenced, hands-on approach to teaching. 6. Behaviorism. As the emerging learning theory of the early 1900s, behaviorism provided the final foundation for social efficiency. In particular, the research of E. L. Thorndike (Thorndike, 1932) contended that learning consists of the formation of links between specific stimuli and responses through the application of rewards (Wirth, 1972). This emphasis on S R pairing reflected behaviorism's positivistic philosophical base. That is, an analysis of the human condition that relies on only verifiable observations of behavior and not on untenable mentalistic constructs. Further, behaviorists believed that most human behavior could be understood as basic reflexive learning mechanisms or "laws" that operate on one's experience within the environment. Snedden and Prosser's reasoning was that psychometrics and sociology would allow schools to guide students into their ideal educational tracks based on their probable destinies (Wirth, 1972). Behavioral science provided the mechanism and pedagogical science provided the processes by which the schools would teach students the right work and moral habits. Those habits would lead to a voluntary compliance with social norms in compliance with social control theory. That compliance, in turn, meant that members of all social classes would benefit from a healthier society and economy and, eventually, a more humane workplace. By providing a scientifically based mechanism for teaching and learning, the science of behaviorism is, thus, seen as a lynchpin of the educational system's contribution to social efficiency. Contemporary Career and Technical Education The discussion described in the previous section took place during the period from 1910 to 1920 while career and technical education, as we have known it, was being designed and put into place in America under the name of vocational education. Those early debates would seem to have little to do with the realities of early 21st century career and technical education. But, as Dobbins (1999) argued, behaviorism remains the learning theory undergirding current career and technical education thinking. To illustrate his contention, he pointed to the links between behavioral learning theory and the competency-based approach to programmatic decisionmaking and curriculum structuring, which is still pervasive in career and technical education (Finch & Crunkilton, 1999)