Interactional Processes of Handling Errors in Vocational School: Students Attending to Changes in Vocational Practices

Making errors is an inevitable part of work and learning situations. Recent research has shown that errors can provide important learning opportunities, in particular in education or training, where there may be ample time and support to learn from them. Yet, more knowledge is needed of how learning from errors is developed through interactional processes in a particular context. Adding to prior research of learning from errors in education, the present study is conducted in a vocational school context, where there may be opportunities to learn from errors conducted as students gain new experiences with the complex work processes of a vocation. Thus, this study aims to provide novel insight into how students’ learning from errors in school-based vocational training is developed. Findings from a 1-year field study of culinary vocational education show that teachers and students participate in learning activities of shared experience, improvisation, and reflecting on errors in ways, where the students learn to pay constant attention to the complex cooking procedures. The findings further demonstrate students’ transformed participation in challenging and error-prone vocational assignments as a central part of their identification with the culinary vocation.

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title: Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice
abstract: This reader comprises articles that demonstrate human fallibility and the necessity to learn from errors in daily work. The book is an attempt to bring together several lines of research in order to sketch the current state of that research on learning from errors in work contexts. The public memory is filled with many examples of catastrophic events in working life (e.g. the accident at Chernobyl, the sinking of the Titanic, the chemical accident in the Sandoz plant in Basel), which all initiated public discussions about the role of human error in their occurrence (Dorner, 1989). However, the issue of learning from errors has gained less public awareness. In the context of quality management systems, enterprises have developed strategies for avoiding errors (Hackman & Wageman, 1995), but reality always corroborates the insight that errors cannot be avoided totally in complex settings (e.g. Vester, 2007). Hence, learning from errors matters for organising daily working life, and, it thus matters for research on professional and workplace learning. The chapters in this book discuss theoretical concepts and empirical analyses of learning from errors in work settings. They enter an intriguing area of educational and psychological research in two respects:

title: Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work
abstract: This chapter provides an overview of, and integrates findings from, several studies that have been conducted since 2002 at the University of Regensburg (Germany), which focused on human fallibility and learning from errors in work contexts. Together, these studies provide evidence on four key questions about errors at work and the possibility of learning from them. Specifically, the studies investigated (1) the role of errors as starting points for learning, (2) employees’ engagement in learning activities after errors, (3) potential outcomes of learning from errors in terms of refined knowledge, and (4) supportive conditions for learning from errors at work. The chapter summarizes the main findings on these issues and draws conclusions for the enhancement of organizational strategies to foster learning from errors and for future research.

title: Modelling learning from errors in daily work
abstract: This study explores error situations and learning activities of nurses after the experience of an error episode. We assume that errors – although undesirable events – are a natural part of work processes and can lead to individual learning and organizational change. The importance of dealing with errors in an open and learning orientated way has been emphasized in applied works on quality and safety management. Furthermore, research on work-place learning and professional development has indicated that learning from errors is an important way of developing professional competence. Until now, little is known about how and under which conditions individual learning from errors takes place at work. For the purpose of empirical investigation, a process model was developed which conceptualizes learning from errors in terms of the engagement in self-regulated learning activities after the experience of an error episode. This model was further developed in an exploratory interview study with 10 experts in the field of hospital nursing. We found that especially non-formal learning activities that incorporate social exchange were considered to be important. The results of the study guide the further development of research instruments and studies aiming to investigate learning from errors.

title: Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction: Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study
abstract: Errors play an important role in instructional settings in school and are thus very important for learning and comprehension processes. Teachers have to account for the learning processes of their students and are responsible for providing a cognitively stimulating and motivating learning environment. Thereby, mistakes and errors can be treated in a more or less sensible and useful way. In order to learn from errors, classroom conditions must exist which allow for students’ trial and error behavior and which accept that errors and mistakes may occur. Some studies indicate that how teachers handle mistakes, as well as students’ actual opportunities to learn from errors in school instruction, may vary from culture to culture. Two important prerequisites for errors to “enter the stage” are (1) the intention of fostering a learning-oriented approach towards errors, and (2) creating a supportive social climate (Spychiger, Journal fur Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung, 3:31–38, 2003). This chapter presents findings from a video study in physics instruction conducted in Germany and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. One major aim of the study was to investigate the role of classroom conditions which are important for errors to occur in instruction, as well as the extent to which students perceive a climate which fosters a learning-oriented culture with respect to errors and mistakes. Both video analyses and students’ questionnaires were used for this purpose and to identify distinctions between the two countries. The video analyses indicate some country-specific distinctions. The students’ ratings show that the Swiss students perceive their opportunities to learn from errors more intensively than their German colleagues. The findings corroborate the assumption of a better learning climate towards errors and mistakes in Swiss instruction.

title: Human fallibility : the ambiguity of errors for work and learning
abstract: The Ambiguity of Errors for Work and Learning: Introduction to the Volume Johannes Bauer and Christian Harteis.- Part A: Errors, their Learning Potential, and the Processes of Learning from  Errors and Learning from Errors at Work Stephen  Tracing Outcomes of Learning from Errors on the Level of Knowledge Martin Gartmeier and Elke Schuttelkopf .- Towards a Theory of Negative Knowledge (NK): Almost-Mistakes as Drivers of Episodic Memory Amplification Fritz Oser, Catherine Napflin, Christine Hofer, and Philipp Aerni.- Professional knowledge is (also) knowledge about errors Hans Gruber and Michael Mohe.- Part B: Methodological strategies.- Research on Errors and Learning from them: Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction - Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina  The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel  How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.-  Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid. Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction - Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina  The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel  How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.-  Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid.

title: Written identification of errors to learn professional procedures in VET
abstract: Research has demonstrated that the use of worked-out examples to present errors has great potential for procedural knowledge acquirement. Nevertheless, the identification of errors alone does not directly enhance a deep learning process if it is not adequately scaffolded by written self-explanations. We hypothesised that in learning a professional procedure in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) domain, written identification and analysis of errors on a faulty procedure fosters better learning outcomes than a non-written identification and even a written identification on a correct procedure. This was tested using a 2 × 2 factorial design that contrasted written vs. non-written self-explanations and correct vs. incorrect video-recorded worked-out examples. Although the use of faulty video-recorded worked-out examples did not show a clear and undisputed effect, the study validated the use of the writing process to acquire procedural knowledge. The results opened the field to future applications of this instructional method in VET.

title: Errors and Learning from Errors at Work
abstract: To understand what constitutes errors at work and, in particular, how productive learning might arise from those errors, it is necessary to go beyond viewing errors as only objective social facts. That is, only considering errors from the perspective of observable shortfalls in performance, as judged by others. Instead, it is necessary to also account for other and, in particular, personal premises for what constitutes errors at work, and how learning occurs as a consequence of errors and is shaped by cultural, situational and personal factors. In taking these ideas forward, this chapter discusses human performance at work, and proposes that making errors is central to learning, and that a consideration of errors, and how productive learning might arise from them, needs to be premised on socio-personal factors, not just as objective facts: a mistake made, even though that can be the case. Ultimately, both performance at work and learning are held as being socio-personal processes shaped through individuals’ engagement and negotiation with the social world. Therefore, to understand the nature of errors and their associations with learning, it is necessary to consider the contributions and relationships between objective social reality and individuals’ subjective concerns of experience and learning.

title: INTEGRATING ERRORS INTO THE TRAINING PROCESS: THE FUNCTION OF ERROR MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTIONS AND THE ROLE OF GOAL ORIENTATION
abstract: Error management training explicitly allows participants to make errors. We examined the effects of error management instructions (“rules of thumb” designed to reduce the negative emotional effects of errors), goal orientation (learning goal, prove goal, and avoidance goal orientations) and attribute x treatment interactions on performance. A randomized experiment with 87 participants consisting of 3 training procedures for learning to work with a computer program was conducted: (a) error training with error management instructions, (b) error training without error management instructions; and (c) a group that was prevented from making errors. Results showed that short-and medium-term performance (near and far transfer) was superior for participants of the error training that included error management instructions, compared with the two other training conditions. Thus, error management instructions were crucial for the high performance effects of error training. Prove and avoidance goal orientation interacted with training conditions.

title: Negative Knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise
abstract: In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals’ expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the concept relates to constructivist theorization and metacognition. Building on existing conceptions of negative knowledge, we systematically relate the concept to research on expertise and learning from errors. The concept of negative knowledge augments existing theories of professional knowledge by emphasizing knowing about what to avoid as part of experts’ effective actions. During routine actions, negative knowledge enhances professionals’ certainty of how to proceed and increases the efficacy through the avoidance of impasses and suboptimal problem-solving strategies. Quality and depth of reflective processes after actions are related to the development of negative knowledge. The potential of negative knowledge for the investigation of professional learning is discussed through reference to recent empirical work.

title: Tracing Outcomes of Learning from Errors on the Level of Knowledge
abstract: Existing research on informal learning from errors focuses primarily on prerequisites and processes of such learning, and thereby widely neglects an important perspective: the investigation of outcomes of learning from errors. Studies engaging in this perspective could contribute to resolving current problems of error-related research. In particular, light could be shed on how employees’ ability to anticipate errors is based on prior error-related learning, how lessons learned from errors are transferred into future practice and the possible counter-productivity of such lessons. One relevant approach with regard to the identified explanatory gaps is the theory of negative knowledge. This is understood as employees’ knowledge about what is wrong or about what not to do. Negative knowledge is assumed to be acquired through learning from errors, to be represented in script structures and to be helpful for avoiding actions which are known to yield poor outcomes. One challenge for research on negative knowledge is that this approach provides only an indirect explanation for how problems are actually solved; moreover, measuring an actor’s negative knowledge may be complicated due to incidental variations in the formulation of given statements. In the light of these challenges, we conclude that future studies on outcomes of learning from errors on the level of knowledge should research negative knowledge in its embeddedness in structures of experiential knowledge. Moreover, the pertinent sociocultural context should be considered and performance measures should be used comparatively with verbal accounts of actors’ error-related knowledge.

title: Human fallibility : the ambiguity of errors for work and learning
abstract: The Ambiguity of Errors for Work and Learning: Introduction to the Volume Johannes Bauer and Christian Harteis.- Part A: Errors, their Learning Potential, and the Processes of Learning from  Errors and Learning from Errors at Work Stephen  Tracing Outcomes of Learning from Errors on the Level of Knowledge Martin Gartmeier and Elke Schuttelkopf .- Towards a Theory of Negative Knowledge (NK): Almost-Mistakes as Drivers of Episodic Memory Amplification Fritz Oser, Catherine Napflin, Christine Hofer, and Philipp Aerni.- Professional knowledge is (also) knowledge about errors Hans Gruber and Michael Mohe.- Part B: Methodological strategies.- Research on Errors and Learning from them: Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction - Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina  The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel  How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.-  Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid. Methodological Perspectives Klaus Mehl and Theo Wehner.- Measuring Organizational Climate for Learning from Errors at Work Daniel Putz, Jan Schilling, and Annette Kluge.- Part C: Learning from Errors in the Professions.- Innovation by Learning from Mistakes: The Relationships between Team Characteristics, Error Orientation, and Team Innovation Marianne van Woerkom.- Error Orientation and Intuitive Decision Making: Results of an Exploratory Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine Christian Harteis and Franziska Frost.- Learning from Errors in the Professions: Empirical Findings on Processes, Outcomes, and Supportive Conditions Johannes Bauer, Martin Gartmeier, and Christian Harteis.- Part D: Enabling Learning from Errors.- Dealing Effectively with Errors during Training Nina Keith.- Reflecting on Learning from Errors in School Instruction - Findings and Suggestions from a Swiss-German Video Study Inger Marie Dalehefte, Manfred Prenzel, and Tina  The Role of After-Event Reviews Shmuel  How does Learning Occur Using this Organizational Instrument? Yvonne Pfeiffer and Theo Wehner.-  Research on Human Fallibility and Learning from Errors at Work: Challenges for Theory, Research, and Practice Christian Harteis, Johannes Bauer, and Helmut Heid.

title: The Perception of Error in Production Plants of a Chemical Organisation
abstract: There is considerable current interest in error-friendly corporate culture, one particular research question being how and under what conditions errors are learnt from in the workplace. This paper starts from the assumption that errors are inevitable and considers key factors which affect learning from errors in high responsibility organisations, focusing specifically on production plants in a chemical company. An attempt is made to conceptualize potential links between individual, collective and organisational levels of analysis on the one hand, and factors relevant to an error management culture on the other hand. This is followed by an empirical validation of the factors proposed by means of interviews with ten safety representatives and executives from production plants in a chemical company. A problem-centred interview technique was chosen focussing questions on a realistic near-miss event. The content analysis identified two relevant factors for constructive error handling in chemical production plants: a) the perception of an error as a learning opportunity, and b) psychological safety within work groups. On the basis of these findings, strategies are discussed for fostering an error management culture which allows learning from errors and provides suggestions for the handling of errors.

title: Quality of instruction and achievement outcomes
abstract: This chapter reviews the fundamental assumptions, main results, and major problems of research on instructional quality and cognitive student outcomes. Although considerable progress has been made in this field of research, the present theoretical state, encompassing mostly simple process-product relations, is far from satisfactory. Findings from our own research demonstrate that it is both necessary and fruitful to expand the simple process-product paradigm by including cumulative, interactive, compensatory, and contextual effects.

title: Negative expertise: comparing differently tenured elder care nurses' negative knowledge
abstract: Negative expertise is conceptualised as the professional's ability to avoid errors during practice due to certain cognitive agencies. In this study, negative knowledge (i.e. knowledge about what is wrong in a certain context and situation) is conceptualised as one such agency. This study compares and investigates the negative knowledge of elder care nurses at three different levels of professional experience. Thereby, various forms of negative knowledge—declarative, procedural, self-reflective and vicarious—are investigated. Moreover, the specificity of negative knowledge is compared across different levels of professional experience. Verbal data was collected from a prompting task study of 37 elder care nurses. These were prompted 20 diagnoses of varying typicality for the professional field. The nurses were asked what was critical to pay attention to and what ought to be avoided in case of these diagnoses. The study's results reveal a significant superiority of highly tenured elder care nurses in vicarious negative knowledge, as well as in highly specified negative knowledge. Procedural and procedural negative knowledge (PNK)—which are the most important facets in quantitative terms—show an approximately parallel developmental pattern among the different groups. For declarative knowledge, a U-shaped intermediate effect was discovered. It is concluded that PNK has the most immediate error-preventive function. With regards to future research, the great specificity of highly tenured elder care nurses' negative knowledge discovered in this study is discussed here as one possible explanation as to why they are able to intentionally avoid errors (i.e. their negative expertise).RésuméL'expertise négative est conceptualisée en tant que la capacité professionnelle à éviter les erreurs lors de la pratique dues à certains agents cognitifs. Dans cette étude, les connaissances négatives (c.-à-d. les connaissances relatives à ce qui est erroné dans un contexte ou une situation donné) sont conceptualisées en tant qu'agent de ce type. Cette étude compare et étudie les connaissances négatives des infirmières prodiguant des soins aux personnes âgées à trois stades d'expérience professionnelle différents. Nous étudions donc plusieurs formes de connaissances négatives, à savoir les connaissances déclaratives, procédurales, auto-réflectives et vicariantes. De plus, la spécificité des connaissances négatives est comparée en fonction des différents niveaux d'expérience. Des données verbales ont été collectées à partir d'une étude de tâches proposées à 37 infirmières soignant des personnes âgées. On leur a proposé 20 diagnostics de typicalité variable dans leur domaine professionnel. Il a été demandé aux infirmières ce qu'il était crucial de surveiller avec attention et ce qui devait être évité dans le cas de ces diagnostics. Les résultats de cette étude révèlent une supériorité importante des infirmières soignant des personnes âgées les plus gradées en matière de connaissances négatives vicariantes ainsi qu'en ce qui concerne les connaissances négatives très spécifiques. Les connaissances procédurales et les connaissances négatives procédurales, qui sont les facettes les plus importantes en termes de quantité, montrent un schéma de développement approximativement parallèle entre les différents groupes. Pour les connaissances déclaratives, un effet intermédiaire en forme de U a été constaté. On en arrive à la conclusion que les connaissances négatives procédurales possèdent la fonction de prévention des erreurs la plus immédiate. En ce qui concerne la recherche future, la grande spécificité des connaissances négatives des infirmières soignant des personnes âgées les plus gradées révélées dans cette étude est exposée ici comme étant une explication possible de la raison pour laquelle elles sont capables d'éviter intentionnellement des erreurs (c.-à-d. leur expertise négative).

title: The culture of learning from mistakes: How employees handle mistakes in everyday work
abstract: Workplace learning circumscribes processes leading to the development of competencies and skills through daily work. It is of increasing importance for many modern enterprises, which consider themselves as being learning organisations, to make use of the potential of their employees in order to be competitive within global markets. Dealing with mistakes is a particular strategic source of workplace learning for such organisations, because contemporary work often is so complex that mistakes cannot be avoided. A workplace culture of learning from mistakes stands to maximise them as effective learning experiences. Two empirical studies were conducted in order to investigate conditions of learning from mistakes in everyday work in modern enterprises. Study 1 assessed the role of individual mistake orientation using a questionnaire. Through the comparison of 52 managers and 108 working staff members the variability of learning from mistakes was investigated. Study 2 assessed how communities of practice deal with mistakes and what is done to prevent them occurring in future. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 subjects, 14 managers and 14 working staff members. Study 1 revealed a greater appraisal of mistakes as opportunities for learning by managers, but no differences in related strategies and emotions. Study 2 revealed that mistakes are constructively dealt with, and that they are appraised as learning opportunities. Both studies indicate the presence of a culture of learning from mistakes in everyday work. Conclusions are drawn about organisational and personal prerequisites for this kind of workplace learning.

title: Effectiveness of error management training: a meta-analysis.
abstract: Error management training (EMT) is a training method that involves active exploration as well as explicit encouragement for learners to make errors during training and to learn from them. Past evaluation studies, which compared skill-based training outcomes of EMT with those of proceduralized erroravoidant training or of exploratory training without error encouragement, have yielded considerable variation in effect sizes. The present meta-analysis compiles the results of the existing studies and seeks to explain this variation. Although the mean effect of EMT across all 24 identified studies (N = 2,183) was positive and significant (Cohen's d = 0.44), there were several moderators. Moderator analyses showed effect sizes to be larger (a) for posttraining transfer (d = 0.56) than for within-training performance and (b) for performance tasks that were structurally distinct (adaptive transfer; d = 0.80) than for tasks that were similar to training (analogical transfer). In addition, both active exploration and error encouragement were identified as effective elements in EMT. Results suggest that EMT may be better suited than error-avoidant training methods for promotion of transfer to novel tasks.

title: Error Climate and How Individuals Deal with Errors in the Workplace
abstract: This cross-sectional field study investigates the effect of contextual influences (error climate) on reactions to errors (how individuals deal with errors). We surveyed n = 830 apprentices in various trainee positions in the hotel and restaurant industry. The responses show that perceived error climate in the training company, as well as the self-concept of professional competence, predict the way in which apprentices deal individually with errors. Moreover, the findings indicate that both—socio-demographic group and the characteristics of the organization—also influence affective responses to errors.

title: Crossing boundaries and maintaining differences between school and industry: forms of boundary‐work in Swedish vocational education
abstract: This article discusses forms of ‘boundary‐work’ in school‐based training for industrial work or, put another way, discourse and practices that cross, blur or reinforce boundaries between school and industry. The discussion builds on two ethnographic studies, one conducted in the 1980s and one in 2006, to provide insights on continuity and change in an activity system with two partly conflicting raison d'êtres: one linked to the educational mandate of the school and the other to industrial demands on the school. Two forms of boundary‐work are used by teachers and students to make sense of everyday activities and define school‐based vocational training. The ‘reaffirmation’ of boundaries and of schooling specificity involves taking the fostering and educational aspects of education seriously; the ‘reconstruction’ of workplace experiences provides instructional practices that link schooling to work. Various manifestations of these forms of boundary‐work are analysed, as are tensions and developments over time.

title: Defining boundaries between school and work: teachers and students’ attribution of quality to school-based vocational training
abstract: School-based vocational training has been organised to support students’ boundary crossing between school and work. Such training has the potential to engage students in relevant work-oriented schooling. Drawing on theories of boundary connections and symbolic resources, it is argued that school participants define and attribute quality to school-based vocational training based on their experiences and expectations of past, present, and future boundaries between school and work contexts. Empirical findings from an ethnographic study conducted at a Danish vocational school illustrate that students and teachers in some cases attribute negative qualities to school-based vocational training, whilst, in other cases, they find it difficult to define the boundaries between school and work, thus questioning the relevance and organisation of school-based vocational training in supporting students’ boundary crossing between school and work. It is therefore argued that boundaries between school and work practices do not exist per se. Instead, more attention needs to be directed to the negotiations in which particular boundary connections between school and work practices are developed. This may have important consequences for the preparing of students for apprenticeship.

title: Vocational knowing and the content in vocational education
abstract: What is the object of activity for teachers in vocational education, i.e. what is the content that vocational teachers want their students to learn? What can the answer indicate about vocational education as a social practice, compared to the social practice of apprenticeship? The article is based on sequential interviews with twelve teachers from five vocational programs. In the interviews, the teachers relate the content of vocational education to vocational knowing, but vocational knowing and knowing in school are not the same thing. Vocational knowing is described as a situated judgement, consisting of a vocational language for the content of the vocation (tools, materials, methods, techniques, planning and ethics) and experience of working with these. Tacit knowing is essential in the interaction between these two aspects. Knowing in school can be described as having developed the abilities for further learning in different contexts. The main area concerns preparation for the vocation, whereas the others concern further learning more specifically (in the vocation, in higher education and in retraining) and citizenship. The results are discussed in relation to learning and knowing in learning vs. in producing practices.

title: Aspects of a Practical Understanding: Heidegger at the workplace
abstract: This article aims to clarify some of our pre‐conceived assumptions when we address issues of learning in practice. It argues that we need to develop an understanding of practice based on its own premises. For this purpose the German philosopher Martin Heidegger's (1889–1976) understanding of practice and learning is introduced. Heidegger emphasises the use of equipment as crucial for a practical understanding. This perspective is contrasted with an intellectualistic approach to learning in practice exemplified by the work of Donald Schön. Heidegger and Schön's perspectives on learning in practice are evaluated and discussed throughout the article. Examples from studies of apprenticeship are used to illustrate Heidegger's comprehension of learning in practice. Especially learning through the use of tools and equipment, learning in context, learning as a consequence of making mistakes and learning as a matter of developing a sense of familiarity are types of learning emphasised in this article.

title: Cultural psychology: The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding
abstract: When I began research on craft apprenticeship among Vai and Gola tailors in Liberia 15 years ago, the community of scholars who worked on cross-cultural comparative studies of education and cognitive development had definite opinions about “informal education.” Learning through apprenticeship was assumed to be concrete, context-embedded, intuitive, limited in the scope of its application, mechanical, rote, imitative, not creative or innovative – and out of date. Views have changed. There is considerable interest, currently, in situated learning, embodied knowledge, and the mutual constitution of the person and the lived-in world. The math-learning research community, which certainly claims a stake in debates about crucial forms of thinking and knowing, has begun to explore apprenticeship learning, or “the new cognitive apprenticeship.” By this they mean that it might be possible to learn math by doing what mathematicians do , by engaging in the structure-finding activities and mathematical argumentation typical of good mathematical practice (e.g., Brown, Collins, and Newman, in press; Schoenfeld, 1985). They emphasize the situated character of problem-solving activity while focusing on learning in doing. There is agreement, then, about the situated character of learning and knowing in apprenticeship, while the significance of this fact has become subject to quite different valuation over time. Indeed, those same math-learning researchers are likely to describe conventional school math learning as the all too mechanical transmission of a collection of facts to be learned by rote, a process devoid of creative contributions by the learner.

title: Apprenticeship in Critical Ethnographic Practice
abstract: In this extended meditation, Jean Lave interweaves analysis of the process of apprenticeship among the Vai and Gola tailors of Liberia with reflections on the evolution of her research on those tailors in the late 1970s. In so doing, she provides both a detailed account of her apprenticeship in the art of sustained fieldwork and an insightful overview of thirty years of changes in the empirical and theoretical facets of ethnographic practice. Examining the issues she confronted in her own work, Lave shows how the critical questions raised by ethnographic research erode conventional assumptions, altering the direction of the work that follows. As ethnography takes on increasing significance to an ever widening field of thinkers on topics from education to ecology, this erudite but accessible book will be essential to anyone tackling the question of what it means to undertake critical and conceptually challenging fieldwork. "Apprenticeship in Critical Ethnographic Practice" explains how to seriously explore what it means to be human in a complex world - and why it is so important.

title: Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation
abstract: Acknowledgements 1. Legitimate peripheral participation 2. Practice, person, social world 3. Midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, non-drinking alcoholics 4. Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice 5.

title: From the transmission of representation to the education of attention.
abstract: The article discusses the role of experience and generational change in the ways human beings know and participate in the culture. It questions the assumption of cognitive science that knowledge exists primarily in the form of ‘mental content’ that is passed from generation to generation, and that culture is a legacy that people receive from their ancestors. The author dialogues with the neo-Darwinian biology and cognitive psychology in order to place human development beyond the dichotomy between innate abilities and skills. He proposes the concept of human skills as emergent properties of dynamical systems where each generation achieves and exceeds the wisdom of their predecessors. He concludes that the contribution for the increase of human knowledge that each generation gives to the following is given least as a cumulative supply of representations and more for an education of attention.

title: Being and Time
abstract: Translators' Preface. Author's Preface to the Seventh German Edition.  Exposition of the Question of the Meaning of Being. 1. The Necessity, Structure, and Priority of the Question of Being. 2. The Twofold Task of Working out the Question of Being. Method and Design of our Investigation. Part I:. The Interpretation of Dasein in Terms of Temporality, and the Explication of Time as the Transcendental Horizon for the Question of Being. 3. Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Dasein. Exposition of the Task of a Preparatory Analysis of Dasein. Being-in-the-World in General as the Basic State of Dasein. The Worldhood of the World. Being-in-the-World as Being-with and Being-One's-Self. The 'they'. Being-in as Such. Care as the Being of Dasein. 4. Dasein and Temporality. Dasein's Possibility of Being-a-Whole, and Being-Towards-Death. Dasein's Attestation of an Authentic Potentiality-for-Being, and Resoluteness. Dasein's Authentic Potentiality-for-Being-a-Whole, and Temporality as the Ontological Meaning of Care. Temporality and Everydayness. Temporality and Historicality. Temporality and Within-Time-Ness as the Source of the Ordinary Conception of Time.

title: Tracing Error-Related Knowledge in Interview Data: Negative Knowledge in Elder Care Nursing
abstract: This paper empirically investigates elder care nurses' negative knowledge. This form of experiential knowledge is defined as the outcome of error-related learning processes, focused on how something is not, on what not to do in certain situations or on deficits in one's knowledge or skills. Besides this definition, we presume the existence of other forms of negative knowledge that relate to elder care nurses' professional competence and practice. Data were collected by means of the prompting-task methodology, which was applied among 37 elder care nurses from a nursing home institution. Content analysis confirmed declarative, procedural, and self-reflective negative knowledge to be relevant in the investigated domain. Additionally, the elder care nurses voiced vicarious negative knowledge. This knowledge was focused on what certain nursing home residents' are not able to do or are not aware of. For each of these forms of negative knowledge, different subfacets are identified and illustrated through sample statements. Moreover, the relationship of different types of workplace errors is outlined. We conclude that negative knowledge represents failure-critical aspects of work situations and, thus, represents a valuable resource for professionals' competence and practice.

title: Challenges for the dual system and occupational self-governance in Denmark
abstract: Vocational education and training in Denmark is based on the dual system and the apprenticeship model and in many ways constitutes a success story. Since the 1930s, the social partners have had a decisive influence on the VET system through the principle of occupational self-governance, and this is a major reason why the dual system has survived until today. Although none of the system’s stakeholders seriously question the value of apprenticeship, it is confronted with two major challenges that pose questions as to whether apprenticeship can remain the basis for vocational education in the future. The first challenge relates to whether companies can provide a stable supply of training placements of sufficient magnitude. The second challenge relates to whether occupational self-governance can survive the pressure from growing government intervention aimed at integrating the VET system within general educational policy. In order to answer these questions, the first part of this article examines how the Danish dual system came about as part of a historical process. In the second part of the article, the challenges confronting the VET system are examined in order to assess the future of a VET system based on apprenticeship.

title: Teachers and students' divergent perceptions of student engagement: recognition of school or workplace goals
abstract: In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school responds to the need for more knowledge on this theme by exploring the social dynamics of engagement perceptions. Results show that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings. The misrecognition of the students' perception of engagement had direct negative consequences for student performance and school attachment. The implications of the findings are discussed in detail.

title: Ethnography : Principles in Practice
abstract: Features include the selection and sampling of cases, the problems of access, observation and interviewing, recording and filing data, and the process of data analysis.