Example:
From a course related to financial services, students emerge able to understand the clusters of professions related to the area, such as accountancy, banking. They also acquire the beginners’ skill set to facilitate entry to further studies or a career in the field, e.g. they know about the role and importance of financial services in an economy; they understand basic concepts of finance and how to apply them to daily life situations; they know about the structure and regulations of the financial services industry, the roles and functions of different types of financial institutions, the features and the functions of different financial products; and they have enough basic financial knowledge to determine whether they might wish to work in the field of financial services in adult life.
Students who have studied an Applied Learning course can apply knowledge acquired effectively in meaningful tasks. Students acquire this type of knowledge through the experience of actively participating in the learning activities of the course, internalising the requirements and gradually building up the necessary skills and the confidence to apply all this to tasks in an unfamiliar environment. Such knowledge may not necessarily be codifiable or made explicit by students, but is internalised and can be inferred from what they do.
Example:
From a course on image design, students emerge having explored skills in coordination and illustration in image design. They will also have explored first-hand the roles and responsibilities of an image designer and have understood the requirements and work ethics required in the design industry.
Students will be able to use the knowledge and research skills acquired to explore career opportunities. They will also be able to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired to different forms of design work.
Example:
From a course on financial services, students emerge having explored products involving different levels of financial risk for customers with different profiles. They will also have explored first-hand the functions of the regulatory bodies, and the requirements applied to the non-banking financial sector such as insurance or securities, through regulators and self-regulatory bodies. Students will be able to discuss the role and responsibilities of a financial planner and understand the work ethics related to the industry.
They will be able to use the knowledge and research skills acquired to explore career opportunities. They will also be able to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired to the exploration of other products for customers.
4.2 Guiding Principles
4.2.1 For effective learning and teaching, Applied Learning tutors/teachers should be equipped with the following five dimensions of competencies:
Dimensions Required Professional Development/
Work Experience A. Understanding of Students
and Their Needs Pedagogical knowledge and skills applied to teenage children and young adults
B. Command of Teaching and Facilitating Skills
C. Command of Subject Knowledge and Skills
Training in a subject discipline (which may relate to one or more of the six areas of studies)
D. Positive Attitude
Not reflected by paper qualifications, but by the inclinations of teachers and the cultivation of positive attitude E. Authentic Experience Work/Trade experience
Individual tutors are not required to demonstrate all the above dimensions of competencies. A team of tutors with complementary skills and knowledge can fulfil the requirements.
4.2.2 Learning and teaching within Applied Learning courses should:
develop students’ generic and transferable skills, and address their career aspirations;
embed knowledge elements within applied and practical contexts;
sequence learning over the two-year duration of the course to accommodate the growth of students’ capabilities, capacities and maturity;
give students every opportunity possible to demonstrate their skills and knowledge, and enable them to be re-assessed should they have an earlier failure;
provide opportunities to discover the capabilities and prior knowledge and skills of students before commencing key elements of the course;
incorporate clear expectations for student attendance and behaviour which are conveyed to students;
offer students helpful and relevant learning support and careers advice.
Pastoral and careers support is the responsibility ultimately of the secondary school which enrols the student, but Applied Learning course tutors should advise students on the career and further education pathways that are accessible to them;
meet the requirements for all five dimensions of competencies set out above through teamwork;
keep pace with social and technological developments and with pedagogical developments such as competency-based assessment; and
incorporate opportunities to systematically evaluate the success of the course in meeting the needs of students and stakeholders, and apply measures to improve the course and its delivery.
4.3 Approaches to Learning in Applied Learning
4.3.1 Understanding the context of the course
The context of an Applied Learning course is generally close to students’ daily life experiences, e.g. medical science, design studies, financial management, hospitality.
However, students’ own knowledge about the context may be limited to the level of common sense and is often fragmented. As such, through the Applied Learning course, it is essential to provide students with a more systematic understanding about the context, which will include:
the cluster of professions/trades/industries related to the course;
the future global and local outlook; and
the beginners’ skill set to facilitate entry to further studies and/or work.
These requirements generally give rise to facts, rules and skills. As such the most effective pedagogical approach towards them is direct teaching, which can include strategies such as:
lectures;
guided web-based or other authentic searches of facts;
demonstration and practice; and
visits to different workplaces.
4.3.2 Understanding and interpreting workplace requirements
To be an effective practitioner, a defined body of formal knowledge and skills is the necessary, but not sufficient, condition to meet workplace requirements.
The important attributes required could include maintaining high standards of ethics and acquiring the latest knowledge to deliver high quality service, etc.
In Applied Learning, these attributes are infused in the curriculum pillars of foundation skills, thinking skills, people skills, and values and attitudes and practised through the context provided in the pillar of career-related competencies.
In the study of Applied Learning courses, given the relatively small number of contact hours, it is not possible for students to acquire all the essential knowledge and skills to be an effective practitioner in a particular trade. It is, however, essential that students become aware of the complexity of the workplace and of the fact that mastering technical knowledge and skills is not sufficient in itself to be an effective practitioner. They have to be aware that to become an effective practitioner they must become a lifelong learner, equipping themselves over time with the range of attributes embedded in the Applied Learning curriculum pillars.
Not all knowledge and skills can be learned through direct teaching, nor can positive attitudes. Students need to have authentic, or at least near authentic, experiences in order to develop what is required in the workplace. Teachers should therefore provide learning-by-practising opportunities for students to explore, experience and try out chosen tasks in an authentic or near authentic environment. For example, they might get students to:
produce an end product in a design course;
organise a real event in a hospitality course; and
explore a financial product through a reality check with target customers.
Through the process of adopting strategies to formulate the end product of the task to earn credentials as well as overcoming the obstacles in achieving the ultimate aim of the task through the collaboration of a project team, students would be able to acquire the non-codified knowledge and skills essential to their further studies and adult life.
4.3.3 Demonstrating entrepreneurship and innovation
Entrepreneurship and innovation involve:
seeing failures and threats as an invitation to innovation;
having a strong knowledge base in a relevant discipline, and a knowledge of relevant processes and tools;
having strong thinking skills to carry out a systematic analysis of a situation, and exercising problem-solving skills to suggest solutions; and perseverance to put the solutions into practice;
doing something different rather than simply doing better what is already being done – innovation; and
being able to shift resources (not limited to physical resources) from areas of low productivity and yield to areas of higher productivity and yield – entrepreneurship.
In the process of learning-by-practising, students develop their learning-to-learn capabilities, internalise knowledge, and build up their confidence. As there is no defined body of knowledge and skills in this process, how much students can gain from it cannot be easily quantified and will vary among individuals.
Entrepreneurship and innovation are embedded in the senior secondary curriculum as indicated in the following diagram:
The keywords are seeing failures and threats as an invitation to innovation.
Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the Applied Learning context, students of Applied Learning, after understanding the context of the course, could select an area related to the course, which could be a theme in design, a financial product, etc to conduct an in-depth study, which could be in the form of a project, case study, etc.
This type of learning process not only draws upon a wealth of transferable skills but also a strong knowledge base which students develop from their prior learning in junior secondary education, Applied Learning studies as well as other subjects.
In the learning process, some students might be able to go beyond the context of the Applied Learning course to develop application in other areas of their daily life experiences in doing something differently, e.g. apply the knowledge, skills and process in building up an investment portfolio to creating their own portfolio of lifelong learning.
The design of learning activities should encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, which should also be reflected in assessment. For details, please refer to Chapter 5.