Training Teachers to Develop Work-process-oriented Curricula

Abstract

The work-process-oriented curriculum (WPOC) becomes increasingly popular in vocational education and training (VET). It links the curricula and ultimately the learning processes to the work activity and simultaneously to promote action-oriented learning at the curricular level. In particular, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are more and more applied in WPOC for effective and efficient working and learning. However, it is difficult for a teacher in VET to develop a WPOC, because comprehensive technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is needed for developing a sound WPOC. To help teachers learn to acquire TPACK, we developed a web-based learning environment with three training curricula that addresses the situated nature and complex interplay of technology, pedagogy and content. In this paper, we present the development of our web-based WPOC authoring and delivering environment and the development of the three training curricula. By exploiting the tools and the curricula, the teacher can be trained to develop a work-processoriented curriculum in a way of Learning by Design (LbD). Through testing, the technical feasibility and potential usability of this LbD environment are initially demonstrated.