Vocational knowledge development during teacher-student interactions: exploring vocational conversations

Vocational education aims to enhance students’ vocational knowledge development. However, which pedagogies enhance such development is not self-evident. This article therefore explores vocational knowledge development during vocational conversations between teachers and students. Vocational knowledge development is viewed here from a cultural-historical stance, referring to its situated and social nature. The study is conducted in senior secondary vocational education in the Netherlands, in the domain of Sport Instruction. Four types of vocational conversations were identified, namely: performance-oriented conversations, concept-informed conversations, problem-based conversations and professional identity conversations. The conversations differ in their meaning, nature and context. Meaning refers to the vocational content of the conversations, nature to the way the conversations are regulated and context to characteristics of the learning environment and practical circumstances. Performance-oriented conversations and problem-based conversations were most frequently observed. Implications of these results are discussed from the perspective of teachers in their role as significant other.