Constructivist Perspective on Technical and Vocational Education

The changing context of global competition, cultural diversity, new technologies and management processes requires today’s technical and vocational education institutions to produce workers equipped with critical thinking, problem solving and communicative skills, and advanced level of job skills. This requires a new look at prevailing theoretical and conceptual framework of learning, technologies and instructional model of transmitting students in a discrete and well-established set of skills and knowledge. Constructivism, a learning theory based on recent cognitive science research, suggests a way to restructure learning environment that will make vocational and technical education programmes, most viable and effective. In view of the shortcomings of the underlying theories of vocational and technical education (e.g., behaviourism), this paper explores whether and how constructivist theory of teaching and learning can be used in vocational and technical education. Finally, it has been argued that constructivism will be a better solution than behaviourism to serve as the learning theory foundation for vocational and technical education curriculum and pedagogy.