In the context of achieving China’s Agenda 21 for Sustainable Development (SD), it is crucial for TVET to explore its own reforms to meet the increasing demand for green skills, and serve and promote sustainable development of the social economy. Zhang and Zhang (2012) point out that the significant tasks for TVET institutes, in addition to empowering students with theoretical knowledge and professional skills, more importantly, are developing students’ competencies for SD. The aim of this article is to try to synthesize the existing literature and studies, summarize relevant information and available evidence to find factors that affect vocational students’ competencies for SD in terms of teaching and learning process of TVET. The main findings identified the following factors that affect the learners’ competencies to deal with sustainability: teaching concept deviating from talents and training goals for SD; current instructional methods and content do not promote student’s competency for SD; the absence of comprehensive assessment. In response to these barriers and the demand of equipping students with key competencies for sustainability, practical advice and recommendations are offered for teachers to enhance their relevant competencies (instructional competency, hands-on competency, competency to plan, competency to act in concrete domains, competency to analyse and reflect the teaching and learning process, etc.).

Keywords: Vocational Education Teaching and learning; Competencies for SD; Vocational Training and Sustainable Development

1          Introduction

Compared with academic education, TVET was relegated to a second-class educational system in the past (Han 2009). The TVET is now considered as the key to stimulating economic prosperity as it can equip students with vocational skills which are vital for improving the quality of employment and promoting poverty alleviation (Bagale 2015).

On 19 February 2019, Chinese Ministry of Education held a conference on the reform of vocational education and introduced that in 2018, there were eleven thousand and seven hundred vocational colleges with a total of 26.855 million students in China, and every year, vocational education provides large numbers of skilled workers (such as carpenters, mechanics, technicians, masons, electricians) to society. TVET plays a vital part in cultivating technical personnel in a great variety of industries, as well as providing essential human resources support for the country’s economic growth and social development (Long 2014).

In the new era, TVET should correctly handle the relationship between its own value orientation and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the whole society. It is significant for TVET to explore its own reforms in order to maximize coordination with the rapid development of the green economy in a stable, sustained and long-term manner. In practice, SD requires people to take into account the responsibility of protecting the ecological and social environment when pursuing economic benefits.

In 1992, Agenda 21 was adopted at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and the SD strategy for human society was officially mentioned and proposed for the first time (UN 1992a). Since then, SD has begun to become the core concept of economic and social development and aroused extensive worldwide attention.

Aligned with the Agenda 21 of Rio de Janeiro, China’s Agenda 21, as an action plan, was reviewed and approved at the 16th executive meeting of the State Council On March 25, 1994. The main content of this Agenda 21 involves: the overall strategy and policy of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and specifically point out that “education is the key to promote SD and increasing individuals’ competencies to solve environmental and development problems.”

On June 1st, 2012, the National Report on SD of the People’s Republic of China was released and aimed to take the scientific development as the main theme to achieve sustainable economic as well as social harmony and progress in China. Individuals, as practitioners and subjects of developmental purpose, the improvement of their overall quality is obviously the most critical element for implementing SD strategies.

The purpose of TVET is to equip the manpower with knowledge and skills required for their future jobs embedded in the socio-economic context and guarantee them successfully transition from education to working life. However, after students graduate from TVET, it is uncertain as to whether they possess competencies for SD and can truly develop their own potential and work creatively in their professional positions (Zhu & Deng 2013). These issues force the cultivation of vocational students’ competencies for sustainability becoming an urgent problem that need to be solved (Jin, 2014; Yi, He, Luo, & Wang 2018; Zhu & Deng 2013). Thus, in the context of China’s Agenda 21 for SD, TVET institutes need to rethink how to develop students’ competencies recognized as crucial for SD.

Teachers play irreplaceable and unique roles in aspects of guiding students’ development and orientation as well as equipping them with a broad range of knowledge, attitudes, and vocational skills in adherence to SD. They are the crucial driving forces in creating empowered and globally-responsible individuals or citizens who can become active change agents for SD and thereby consciously follow the development rules between humans and nature. However, research in China reveals that the teaching and learning process in TVET does not bring the expected teaching effects on furnishing students with competencies for SD maybe because TVET teachers are not well informed about SD, and cannot adequately supervise students in this process. To identify what teachers’ competencies that are required to address the issue of the attainment of competencies for SD through TVET, this paper examines current situation in TVET institutions. This provides an opportunity to evaluate what are the barriers concerning the cultivation of students’ competencies to deal with SD in teaching and learning exit. This analysis provides the evidence of what change should be achieved in terms of teaching and learning, and thus, enable this paper to suggests key competencies TVET teachers required to support teaching and learning for SD.

2          Essential characteristics of Education for sustainable development (ESD)

“The 2030 Agenda”, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, launched a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to stimulate action over the next 15 years for people, planet and prosperity. Education is the most critical element for the realization of the 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015).

ESD has certain key features as outlined by Pavlova (2013), Jiang (2009), and the UNESCO (1983, 2009, 1992, 2015, 2017):

• is based on underpinning principles and values;
• Generally, cope with the coordinated, harmonious and consistent development among society, economy and environment;
• emphasizes life‐long learning;
• highlights the core competencies required for SD (e.g. foresighted thinking, critical and systematic thinking skills);
• is multidisciplinary and largely depends on all disciplines to contribute to ESD;
• is largely led by meeting the increasing demand for green skills;
• involves formal and informal education;
• is locally relevant (i.e. if local environmental policies are compatible with (green) economic growth);
• create globally-responsible citizens, maintaining a sustainable standard of living, and enhance societal well-being.

3          What are competencies for SD?

Competencies for SD refers to relevant competences for dealing with a sustainability problem which our societies are now facing (i.e. poverty reduction, globalization, social cohesion) (Lambrechts, Mulà, Ceulemans, Molderez, & Gaeremynck 2013). This suggests that individual possessing competencies for sustainability are able to acquire, apply and innovate knowledge to achieve the goal of continuous and harmonious development of human and nature, as well as individuals and society.

de Haan (2006) developed a framework of “Gestaltungskompetenz” (shaping competence) which comprises a set of key competencies toward SD (22-25), as summarized by Adomssent and Thomas (2013, 4-6) :

• competency in foresighted thinking;
• competency in interdisciplinary work;
• Competence to create knowledge;
• participatory skills;
• competency in planning and implementation;
• capacity for empathy, compassion and solidarity;
• competency in self-motivation and in motivating others; and
• competency in distanced reflection on individual and cultural models.

Sleurs (2008) discusses competencies for SD which encompasses the following four competencies: System thinking; Values and ethics; Emotions; Action.According to Lambrechts et al. (2013), although different authors report on competencies for SD using different settings and perspectives, these competencies have similar characteristics: responsibility, emotional intelligence, system orientation, future orientation, personal involvement, ability to take action, etc.

Among these competencies, Adomssent and Thomas (2013) report that the most important ones are “Systemic thinking, anticipatory thinking and critical thinking” (4). German scholar Klaus Hahne (2008) believes that systems thinking skills, based on the concept of SD, determine the real actions that people take. System thinking skills can help students make choices in contradictory situations or conflicts of the economy, society, and ecology; as well as balance in complex relationships and diverse social groups to determine the correct direction of development (Xu 2013).

In the doing of the process for SD, individuls must have competencies in respect to very concrete fields, including strong theoretical foundation (subject-matter knowledge), high vocational skills with strong hands-on ablility, dealing with and developing the process based on experience, practice and reflections.

4          Why are TVE teachers particularly crucial for fostering students’ competencies for SD?

Most of the students trained in TVET are first-line high-quality skilled talents in various jobs. TVET teaching staff can best support skills development of students as they are familiar with the labor market demand and industry needs. Vocational skills can help students produce quality and competitive goods with higher efficiency and it is therefore indispensable for poverty reduction and SD.

In addition, TVET teachers are not only significant in technology diffusion and dissemination through skills and knowledge transfer, they can also prepare and encourage various types of skilled labor to contemplate, deliberate and reflect SDGs related content for appropriate application in their future professional practice.

Besides, teachers can review the TVET curriculum often by incorporating SD concepts and principle as well as giving due consideration to changes in the new technology. They can also be active change agents and role models for the SD agenda, disseminate SDGs related principles to the graduates who would, in turn, practice these principles in their future career (Chinedu, Wan-Mohamed, & Ajah, 2018).

Thus, TVET teachers become extremely important to achieve the SDG by imparting their SDG-related ideas, skills, and attitudes to students in order to meet societal market needs, thereby impacting on economic development and the broader contribution to societal progress and wellbeing.

5          Methodology

Taking other reviews of research literature (Ismail, Nopiah, & Rasul 2017; Liu 2019) as a guide, determining the inclusion criteria is critical for conducting this synthesis review. First of all, articles published between 2009 and 2019 were searched in three predominant database systems of China: CNKI, VIP and WANFANG DATA. Furthermore, the following terms or keywords were used to conduct the search: ‘TVET’, ‘students’, ‘competence’, ‘competency’ ‘Sustainability’ ‘Sustainable development’ ‘Teaching and Learning’, ‘Barriers’ or ‘Issues’. Titles, abstracts, background and conclusion were retrieved, and articles were screened to be included if they were related to the proposed issues regarding the students’ competencies for sustainability in teaching and learning in Chinese TVET institutions.

A total of 57 publications, which met the aforementioned criteria, were yielded in our preliminary list through this electronic search. Besides, this review only focuses on teaching and learning fields for secondary and higher vocational colleges because teaching is the main way of training talents, which is directly related to the cultivation of students’ competencies for SD (Wang, Zhang, Zhao, & Fang 2018).

Thus, the title, abstracts and scope of the articles, which are relevant to the teaching and learning in TVET were examined. Two individuals separately searched, check all the required information, and through this second check, we finally gathered 33 papers in this review, while the rest of the publications were discarded.

6          Result and Discussion

The main findings obtained which were observed to affect the vocational students’ competencies for SD are as follows: teaching concept deviating from talents training goals for SD; current instructional methods and content do not promote student’s competency for SD; the absence of comprehensive assessment.

6.1         Teaching concept deviating from talents training goals for SD

In the process of talent training in China, teachers of higher vocational colleges mainly pay attention to a specific technology or skill education, while ignoring development of students’ competencies for sustainability (Chu & Li 2014; Ding 2015; Jin 2014; Li 2012; Lin 2015; Liu 2017; Si 2016; Wang, Zhang, Zhao, & Fang 2018; Zhang 2014; Zhang & Li 2013; Zhou 2018). For example, Cui (2018) and Ding (2015) reported that most vocational colleges take the initiative to use the employment rate as a guiding indicator, and therefore increasing numbers of TVET teachers are taking “empowering students with the Job Skills” as the main goal in the talent training program, while other aspects such as theory-study, comprehensive development of students become insignificance or even neglected. The direct impact of this is that some courses that improve the overall quality of students are gradually compressed or even reduced (Cui 2018; Long 2014), and numerous VET colleges do not offer courses related to cultivation of students’ competencies or skills necessary to deal with SD (Cui 2018).

This one-sided view of the “employment-oriented” concept (too much emphasis on job adaptability) (Jin 2014; Zhou 2018), paying special attention to various “skill competitions” (Wang, et al., 2018), as well as order-orientated talent-training model (Cui 2018; Li 2012; Qi & Zhong 2015) are the embodiment of the lack of competences of SD of higher vocational students.

Practice has proved that outstanding talents trained in higher vocational education, not only possess high skill with strong hands-on ability, but also shows their professional ethics, strong theoretical foundation, as well as their achievements in the interdisciplinary and cross–industry context ( Zhou 2018).

6.2         Current instructional methods and content do not promote student’s competency for SD

Whether the goal of student’s competency for SD can be achieved is closely related to the professional teaching content and instructional design (Yang 2015). However, the cultivation of students’ competencies to deal with sustainability has not penetrated into the teaching content of TVET (Luo 2017).

As mentioned above, teachers are more concerned with the basic requirements of students’ employment (Wang, et al. 2018) and attach too much importance and value to the improvement of students’ vocational skills (Cui 2018), while ignoring the cultivation of students’ competences for SD and ability needed for long-term development in their TVET Teaching and Curriculum (Li 2012; Luo 2017, Wang, et al. 2018).

Literature shows that traditional, teacher-centred pedagogical approaches are still dominant in the classroom instruction in quite a few of TVET institutes and hinders the development of students’ practical ability (Du & Mao 2017; Wang & Chen 2012; Xiong 2013; Yan 2016). The foundation of higher vocational students is weak and they lack motivation to learn (Ding 2015; Zhang, 2014) and those students are characterized by poor learning habits, low interest in learning, poor self-management and self-learning ability (Li 2015; Lin 2018; Xiong 2015; Yan 2016; Zhang 2014; Zhang 2014; Zhang & Li 2013). This Traditional didactic instruction cannot stimulate students’ passion to show a more initiative, active, engaging style of learning. Thus, students passively receive lectures’ course content and PowerPoint presentations, and the degree of student participation in the learning process is low (Lu 2018). Neglecting “student-centred” teaching means and methods limit students’ ability to “discover, propose, and solve” problems independently (Luo 2017). This is not in line with the objective requirements of vocational education students’ competencies for SD in the new era.

6.3         The absence of comprehensive assessment

When teachers evaluate the true level of a learner in daily teaching activities or in the workplace where students are trained, they lay emphasis on outcome assessment. Evaluation and judgment are too often only focusing on the knowledge component (Zhou 2018). The lack of “formative assessment” as well as being indifferent to the development of students’ non-intellectual factors (Zhou 2018) will inevitably lead to the evaluation results lacking rationality and therefore problematic for evaluating students’ competences for SD (Du & Mao 2017). Chu and Li (2014) report that at present, the evaluation system of higher vocational students’ competencies for SD is imperfect (also non-standard) and almost no factors closely related to competencies for SD included in the scope of the evaluation.

Through analysis and feedback, teachers should make objective case evaluations on students’ performance, identify progress aspects, provide special training and guidance on inadequacies, and promote the improvement of students’ professional ability and competences for SD through repeated evaluation and training (Zhou 2018).

7          Recommendations

Competencies is hardly comparable with knowledge acquisition, and cannot be taught (Barth, Godemann, Rieckmann, & Stoltenberg, 2007) or communicated (Adomssent & Thomas, 2013). But competencies are viewed as learnable through practical experience (Hartmann, 2017). This leads to the question how to acquire SD competencies. In response to the above problems, the following measures are proposed for TVET  teachers to enhance students’ competency acquisition towards SD.

7.1         The method of reflection levels

“The theory and method of reflection levels” developed by Hartmann (2005, 2017) is a beneficial tool for teachers to analyse, plan, design and develop complex learning situations (i.e. How to produce a product according to the demands of customers or how to design a sophisticated workpiece of specific material) which can provide plentiful opportunities for the development of competencies of their students (Hartmann 2017). Method of reflection level is associated with the analysis of the actual working processes, and engaging in the work activities and each step of reflection helps vocational students to gain and accumulate practice experience. Thus, this model is especially conducive to fostering students’ critical thinking skills.

Hartmann (2017) implies that competencies are growing in the learning process (e.g. participation in new tasks at work) rather than passively receiving it (See Figure 1). Teaching on the bases of the theory of reflection levels is centered on a (more or less) complex situation and involves a carefully planned learning process, even provide detailed guidance with specific explanations and sufficient instructions to learners. The objective of this theory is to analyze complex situations, to structure them in respect to their conditions a.s.o. Therefore it as a methodological component, that could be focused on teaching processes, so that it can be used to maximize the likelihood that whenever an individual is asked to perform assigned tasks or learn something new, the teacher already systematize and construct suitable learning situations to make the learner’s challenges more visible and learning more efficient. The design of learning situations needs to be well thought out, build upon learners’ prior knowledge as well as their existing competency levels, and then move to cultivate learners’ higher-level competencies.

 “The method of reflection levels”, enabling a learner to be able to deal with complex, unfamiliar situations, be able to act upon reflection, respond to emergencies or diagnose the problems, and make the corresponding decisions. In the case of cooperative work process, it is also concerned that participants are able to carefully negotiate the results of the work, take on responsibility, offer their individual skills, take into account ethical standards when acting, as well as to be able to shift and adjust their behavior accordingly in order to meet customers’ needs, expectations or even changing demands on the products, despite any personal conflict such as different perceptions, ideas, desires between individuals.

This, however, requires that participants must possess the capacity to distance themselves from the work done, be able to reflect on the process from the outside, provide constructive feedback and understand/know what is necessary in the next moment, such as method, procedure, and communication elements involved (Hartmann 2005; 2017).

This competence-orientated method can be combined to embed SD in the curriculum, and helps to identify learning opportunities and design learning situations focusing on attaining relevant key competencies to deal with SD.

Figure 1: “The method of reflection levels” (Hartmann 2017)

Based on this reflection level model, it will be easier for TVET teachers to organize effective teaching and learning processes, which involves building certain sustainability-related competencies of students. The improvement of cultivating students’ competencies for SD is an accumulation process and the application of reflection level model can be mastered through a short period of teacher training and practice.

7.2         General didactic considerations

Lambrechts et al. (2013) cite study of Sluijsmans (2008), and enumerate certain types of methods, techniques and strategies for teachers to foster students’ necessary competencies to deal with sustainability:

• interactive methods: group discussion, brainstorming, role play, etc.;
• action-oriented didactic: project-based learning (i.e., collaborative real-world projects) (Wang 2017; Yi, He, Luo, & Wang 2018; Zhang 2014), the facilitation of a workshop, learning through internships, solving real local environmental problems, etc.;
• research methods: bibliographic research, case studies, and problem analysis, etc.

These methods and strategies can also be combined or linked to better help teachers embed SD in the curriculum, reducing the gap between knowledge and practice. (Lambrechts et al. 2013).

In addition to, Ng, Lam, Ng, and Lai (2017) present that “blended learning” also subtly improve students’ self-management of their studies (enhancing their learning motivation and self-regulation learning ability), form a “community of practice”, and nurture their participatory skills because such learning provide opportunities for students to ‘prepare theories related contents outside class time by watching online videos or pre-assigned instructional materials and engage in group discussion and tutorial in class’(268).

7.2.1        Teaching assessment

Teachers should adopt diversified assessment methods, respecting learners’ uniqueness and differences in individual development and providing opportunities for students to evaluate their own learning and review, assess or grade the work of a peer. This self-assessment, self-perception and peer evaluation can capture learners’ insights on finding inadequacy to practice their critical-thinking, which help students to monitor their own learning processes.

Lambrechts et al. (2003) report that competencies cannot be evaluated by non-current and isolated learning outcome, and suggested the following three steps of the evaluation in guiding learners’ learning process.

• feed-up: make assessment criteria explicit and transparent for learners, give examples
• feed-back: provide sufficient feedback to learners
• feed-forward: offer students guiding information on how to go further in the learning competences process.

7.2.2        Elaborately planned project

It has been proved that the project-based teaching is effective in TVET teaching (Pavlova & Chen 2019；Sun & Liu 2012; Zhou 2018). Bell (2010), Baysura, Altun, and Yucel-Toy (2015) as well as Frank, M. and Kordova, S. (2009) state that 21st-century competencies such as critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and system thinking can be acquired via project-based learning. Carefully planning projects concerning training students’ competencies for SD is the key to the successful implementation of the project (Zhou 2018). The project should reflect on a given number of competencies for SD. At the project design phase, it is significant for TVET teachers to think about the following questions:

What do these competencies for SD mean for the students?

Are these competencies for SD likely to be achieved by the students?

How to guide students to achieve these competencies for SD in their teaching methods?

What learning activities will students engage with in order to develop these competencies for SD?

How to assess whether students have achieved these competencies?

If the project that includes dealing with community issues or local environmental problems and cooperation with a partner (for example, enterprise) in practice, learners can learn real-world (authentic) challenges, tasks, and benefit from the collaborative partners’ experiences and expertise.

Project design should potentially have multiple levels. ‘A project does not need to be highly complicated and complex but the simple and quick project may not be enough to provide students with a constructive investigation’ (Liu 2019, 7), which drives learners’ in-depth inquiry, involves their new understandings, and eventually foster their competencies.

7.2.3        Establish the concept of lifelong learning for students.

Strengthening the attitude of lifelong learning in students (Gao 2014; Si 2016; Zhao, Liu, & Zhao 2015). This type of learning has become a need in addressing social and environmental issues for human development in today’s knowledge-based, high-tech society and putting it into practice is necessary to help students keep up with the pace of the times (Zhang & Zhang 2012). Lifelong learning is described as crucial for the achievement of SDGs, such as responsible consumption and production; decent work and economic growth; gender equality; health and well-being; and climate change mitigation (English & Carlsen 2019).

7.3         Strengthen cooperation with Enterprises

School administrators of TVET should strengthen cooperation with enterprises (Li 2015; Qi & Zhong 2015; Wang & Chen 2012; Xiong 2013; Yi, He, Luo, & Wang 2018; Zhu & Deng 2013; Zhao 2015; Liu & Zhao 2015) and encourage in-service teachers’ rational flow between enterprises and colleges on a regular basis to keep subject knowledge up to date, gain enterprise-based expertise, cultivate hands-on ability, and understand talents quality requirements of enterprises (Chen 2016). Then, according to local green economic structure and industrial green development, as well as talents demand of enterprises, TVET teachers need to re-examine and reorient subject system and teaching content towards sustainability, develop knowledge, skills, perspectives, and values relevant to SD (Lambrechts et al. 2013; Lin 2015), and develop a systematic, integrated curriculum to serve local businesses and green economies (Xiong 2013; Shi & Meng 2016).

Overall, in order to empower students with specific knowledge, skills, and aforementioned competencies to solve problems related to SD (i.e. long-run economic growth, taking into account the environmental resource scarcity, damage and destruction), teachers must have instructional competency (Hartmann 2005), possess subject-matter knowledge, use appropriate  teaching skills, participate in  designing appropriate learning  situation and create an atmosphere which is conducive to  student-centered learning. For TVET teachers, realistic, hands-on experience and competency are also required to guide vocational students’ practical training process. Besides, to face the challenges in the perform the task of teaching, TVET teachers must have competency to acquire new knowledge and skills, competency to plan, competency to implement plans and act in a forward-looking manner, competency to analyse, reflect and develop the teaching and learning process (de Haan 2010; Hartmann 2005; Rauch & Steiner 2013).

8          Conclusion

TVET is a primary supplier of the labor force of nations (Chinedu, Wan-Mohamed, & Ajah, 2018) and TVET teachers are key persons in developing those numerous workers’ knowledge, skills, values and capabilities required for SD. TVET teachers must have competencies such as instructional competency, hands-on competency, competency to plan, competency to act in concrete domains, competency to analyze and reflect the teaching and learning process, etc., which will, in turn, help students to acquire competencies towards SD. It is difficult to meet the SDGs without recognizing the roles, functions and contributions of teachers in the process of empowering students with competencies for SD, especially their modern teaching methods.

This paper focuses on dealing with students’ competences for SD on the part of teachers. Actually, how to successfully and effectively equip student with competencies to deal with sustainability not only depends on the teachers’ teaching concept relevant to SD, didactical approaches, and assessment methods, but could also depend on a number of other factors. These are including the students in the class (for example, the foundation of higher vocational students, their learning motivation, and self-management ability, etc.), the equipment involved in the teaching and learning process, policy formulation and safeguard mechanism concerning SD, as well as the surrounding environment. In practice, this study will help vocational schools understand the current situation of enhancing students’ key competencies for SD and try to provide evidence for vocational colleges to take reformation and transformation. For the future, researchers could make further efforts on exploring how a citizenry’s key competencies for SD will affect the performance of living in harmony with nature in the vocational education context.

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Citation

Liu, H., Hartmann, M., Hariyanto, D. & .Liu, M, (2019). Enhancing students’ key competencies for Sustainable Development in Chinese Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): implications for TVET teachers. In: TVET@Asia, issue 14, 1-17. Online: http://www.tvet-online.asia/issue/issue-14/liu-etal(retrieved 31.12.2019).

Teaching is one of the main components in designing learning activities and conducting educational plans. As an essential tool for achieving teaching objectives and ensuring the teaching quality in technical and vocational education, Project-Based Learning involves a dynamic classroom approach that empowers students to acquire new knowledge and skills, and solve real-life questions. Meanwhile, students design their own educational activities and performances by interaction with the surrounding natural and social reality (Baysura, Altun & Yucel-Toy 2015). The purpose of this paper is to try to synthesize the literature and studies, summarize available evidence to find barriers encountered by Chinese teachers concerning the application of the PjBL in teaching and learning of TVET. This paper is about the main challenges teachers faced, including deficiency of knowledge, limited skills and enterprise experience in managing PjBL; project designs lacking multiple levels and being unrelated to reality; the absence of developing a rubric for assessing student skills or teachers not being aware of having a different role (role conversion). In response to these obstacles, practical advice and recommendations are discussed to improve the effectiveness of PjBL activities and VET-teachers’ teaching quality.

Key words: project-based learning, teaching and learning, TVET

1 Introduction

The effectiveness of teaching and learning not only depends on the analysis of the educational purpose, students in the classroom, learning environment and the curriculum content being taught but also depends on how teachers flexibly use various teaching methods and techniques (Sada, Mohd, Adnan, & Audu, 2015). Nowadays, especially in technical and vocational education, traditional teaching methods (curriculum-based, teacher-centered and discipline-focused education approaches) are increasingly being replaced by student-centered educational approaches. This considers learners’ individual differences and the aim to develop their autonomy, independence, lifelong learning and problem-solving skills (Altan & Trombly 2001; Huba & Freed 2000; Rutkauksiene, Schreurs, Huet, & Gudoniene 2010).

Technical and vocational education is the education that prepares people for a particular job field (Webster 1993). And therefore VET-teachers need to “know both the professional interactions, e.g. in farming, craft, industry and/or service (as domain experts) and the associated teaching activities in school (as professional teachers)” (Hartmann 2017, 104) in order to “equip its students with a range of cognitive and technical skills as well as equipped with character development worker mind set (attitude, soft skills, employability skills, or generic skills)” (Sudjimat 2016, 1). In TVET, the predominant instruction is work-oriented. The characteristics of this type of education demand – the “student-centered approaches” – are increasing in importance in terms of teaching technical and vocational subjects and in providing the opportunity to students to solve crucial issues of contextualization (Sudjimat 2016). Project-based learning (PjBL) as one of such approach has been accepted for instruction in many fields of study since Dewey first described it at the end of the 1890s, and this idea then further developed by Kilpatrick in his essay (1918). This paper uses the abbreviation “PjBL” to represent project-based learning in order to distinguish it from the acronym “PBL” referred to as problem-based learning that originated in the 1960s. It is also an instructional, student-centered approach that empowers students to “conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution to a defined problem” (Savery 2006, 12). The differences between PjBL and PBL are as follows: 1) The learning goal of PBL is to let students flexibly grasp the knowledge or course content through the experience of solving open-ended problems. On the other hand, PjBL is not just for mastering subject knowledge, it tends to focus on motivating students to plan, investigate, think critically and creatively in students-as-workers settings (Boss 2011) that perhaps has more potential to help students to enhance their flexible understanding, employability skills, and work readiness. 2) Since PBL is for mastering subject knowledge, the time to solve the problem cannot and should not be too long, whereas PjBL, as a long-term program, has no strict time constraints. It is completely normal for some projects to last for one semester or one year. 3) Generally, PBL involves cases or scenarios, therefore, its specific teaching steps are basically fixed, while PjBL uses authentic real-world tasks and follows general steps (Campbell 2014). 4) PjBL ultimately requires the generation of a tangible product or presentation while PBL does not have this requirement. 5) PBL is a subset of PjBL (Hmelo-Silver 2004; Larmer 2014; Savery 2006).

Effective PjBL makes students see that they gain great benefits for example promoting their high-level thinking to develop the capacity to transfer learning to new challenges from the practical application of acquired knowledge (Noga & Depešová 2016), which can prepare them to survive in today’s knowledge-based, high-tech society. However, research in China reveals the project method in TVET does not bring the expected teaching effects maybe because vocational teachers are not well informed about PjBL, cannot adequately supervise students in this process, and meet problems in implementing PjBL. This situation raises questions on the effectiveness of the attainment of knowledge and skills through this hands-on approach. Consequently, the research discusses barriers faced by teachers concerning the application of the PjBL in teaching and learning of TVET.

2 Project-based learning

PjBL, which is grounded in constructivist learning influenced mainly by Swiss biologist, psychologist, and behavioral scientist Jean Piaget, Soviet developmental psychologists Lev Vygotsky and American psychologist Jerome Bruner in the last century, refers to a dynamic, systematic and learner-centered teaching and learning method in which students acquire new knowledge and skills under the guidance of a teacher through exploration of realistic, complex questions, challenges or problems, establishing the project, and designing their own products and tasks (Pecore 2015; Thomas 2000; Shepherd 1998). In this teaching-learning process, students cannot only gain the subject core knowledge more effectively, but they can also make progress in applying knowledge into practice. The literature reveals that PjBL process is associated with five types of learning approaches: activity-based learning, inquiry-based learning, place-based learning, problem-based learning and self-directed learning (Baysura et al. 2015; Cole, Means, Simkins & Tavali 2002). Compared with traditional learning methods (teacher-centered instruction), PjBL approach not only improves students’ self-organizing and self-responsibility but also develops students’ critical thinking skills (Shepherd 1998), scientific research skills, problem-solving ability as well as social-emotional skills (Baysura, et al. 2015; Raghavan, Coken-Regev & Strobel 2001).

From a didactic point of view, PjBL has certain characteristics as outlined by Markham, Larmer, and Ravitz (2003), Gudjons (1989), Frey (1991) and Thomas (2000):

• A project is realistic and existent, not school-like; and “the project is central, not peripheral to the curriculum” (Markham, et al., 2003, p.4).
• Generally, problems surround the participants are set as a starting point for the project; the problems should “drive” students “encounter or struggle with the core/critical concepts and principles of a discipline” (Thomas, 2000, p.3).
• The project involves a constructive process to deepen students’ understanding.
• It is multidisciplinary and largely depends on students’ self-organization and responsibility.
• It is led by complete learning Acts.
• Project work, as learners’ experience-oriented and interest-oriented activity, can be done in bigger or smaller groups and in individual too.
• The students show initiative in participating in the learning activity and have a high degree of autonomy in observing an object, utilizing resources, manipulating tasks and revising work (Barron et al. 1998).

2.1 The comparison between traditional teaching and Project-based learning

PjBL and traditional teaching (textbook-and-lecture driven instruction) are compared with the following six elements, “teaching objectives”, “organizational form of teaching”, “way of communication”, “degree of participation”, “incentive method”,“characteristics”.

2.1.1 Teaching objectives

Traditional teaching is “teacher-centered”, “content-oriented”, focuses on “teaching”; teachers, as the main authority figure, are the source of knowledge, they impart their wisdom, skills, and expertise directly to students to realize knowledge transmission (Gong & Ding 2007; Ahmed 2013).

PjBL is “student-centric”, “self-directed”, focuses on “learning”; instead of providing direct instruction, PjBL provides an excellent path to develop and practice students’ thinking skills (Dostál 2015) as well as above-mentioned competencies to explore future work.

2.1.2 Organizational form of teaching

Under traditional mode, lecturers control all the decisions regarding the teaching methods, curriculum content, teaching schedule, and the diverse forms of assessment. Students are passive learners or rather just listen, memorize the course content and sometimes write down notes if necessary. A class is considered as a unit for lecturers to manage and they teach the whole class at the same time (Ahmed 2013).

In PjBL, students organize their own studies by posing, exploring, wrestling with, and answering realistic questions; the teacher is seen as an assistant in project works, and students are split into teams to gain new knowledge or further consolidate, verify and enrich the relevant course content in the project process; and complete the project with a presentation or product.

2.1.3 Way of communication

Under the traditional mode, communication is usually a two-subject process: the teacher asks questions and students give answers (Gong & Ding 2007).

Knowledge is co-constructed in PjBL by both, lecturers and students, and it emphasizes communication and interaction among students to collaboratively share or exchange their ideas, views, and feelings too (Thomas 2000; Baysura et al 2015).

2.1.4 Degree of participation

In the traditional classroom, students listen to the teachers’ instructions and commands, and act as recipients of the teachers’ lecture content and powerpoint presentations passively (Ahmed 2013).

In PjBL, student have opportunities to take responsibility of their own lives and learning activities, thus they have a sense of ownership over their studies and show a more initiative, active, engaging style of learning (Thomas 2000).

2.1.5 Incentive method

Traditional mode focuses on external incentives such as a certificate, plaudits or prizes; it is not easy to sustain long-term learning motivation or enthusiasm (Gong & Ding 2007).

In PjBL, students’ internal drives are fully mobilized because they are more autonomous to make necessary decisions of their studies. Their learning enthusiasm is dependent exclusively on the intrinsic interests which allow learning to be more durable and sustainable (Baysura et al. 2015; Hmelo-Silver 2004; Noga & Depešová 2016).

2.1.6 Characteristics

In traditional teaching, teachers supplement the lecture content according to students’ weaknesses and emphasize knowledge acquisition rather than its application in real-life situations.

Using students’ advantages to carry out the learning activities, PjBL highlights how to apply acquired knowledge and skills in new situations, and this significantly reduces the gap between knowledge and practice (Thomas 2000; Baysura et al. 2015).

2.2 The importance and effectiveness of PjBL in TVET

Students involved in PjBL demonstrate a deeper and more profound understanding of the subject they are studying and retain content longer (Fernandes, Mesquita, Flores & Lima 2014), especially in the mastery of the concept of science. For example, in Schneider, Krajcik, Marx and Soloway’s study, students participating in a Project‐based science (PBS) curriculum scored higher than the national sample on content knowledge assessments of NAEP science test (Schneider, Krajcik, Marx, & Soloway 2002). Meanwhile, PjBL can increase students’ engagement in learning compared with the traditional teacher-led dialogic instruction (Fernandes al. 2014) as PjBL is a learners’ interest-oriented activity where they learn from “trial and error” or their mistakes, rather than learning by passively receiving. This promotes students passion and enthusiasm, increases creativity, improves their learning efficiency, learning autonomy and individualized expression. Moreover, applying acquired knowledge to carry out the real-life tasks also stimulate individuals’ willingness and increase their motivation to participate (Bartscher, Gould & Nutter 1995).

Actually, students who are involved in PjBL can benefit much more than only acquiring the content. According to Iwamoto, Hargis, and Vuong (2016), students of an experimental group that engaged in the project outscored the control group in the following three indicators for academic performance: self-efficacy, level of perceived control, and growth mindset. In addition, PjBL offers opportunities for students to work in groups, and this has been shown to improve their collaborative, communication and interpersonal skills, which are identified as the essential competencies to explore a future career. Besides, Baysura et al (2015) cite studies by Bell (2010), and state that 21st century competencies such as critical thinking , usage of digital resources, higher-order thinking skills, problem-solving skills can also be acquired via PjBL (Baysura et al. 2015; Thomas 2000; Noga & Depešová 2016). Another essential point, PjBL method is particularly suitable for the teaching of study-work combinative courses of vocational education (Zhang 2013). Students’ learning through PjBL (as a bridge that connects educational situations to the real ‘macro world’) is not an isolated process; they embrace “learning by doing”, make progress in putting theory into practice, concentrate on experience and reflection, and eventually build their transferable skills (Thomas 2000) that are pursued after being in full-time school-based vocational education or apprenticeship Training.

3 Methodology

Taking other literature reviews (Ismail, Nopiah & Rasul 2017; Mustaffa, Ismail, Tasir & Said 2016) as a guide, determining the inclusion criteria is crucial for conducting this synthesis review. To begin with, only articles published from 2007 until 2018 were selected in the in three prominent Chinese database systems, namely CNKI, VIP, WANFANG DATA, and one English database Google Scholar. In addition, titles, abstracts, keywords, and results were retrieved, and studies were screened to be included if they pertained to the addressed issues concerning the barriers of PBL implementation encountered by teachers. The following keywords or terms were applied to conduct the search: ‘China’, ‘TVET’, ‘Teaching and Learning’, ‘Project-Based Learning’, ‘Barriers’ or ‘Issues’. This electronic search yielded a full review of 29 articles that meet the above-mentioned criteria. Besides, this review only focuses on PjBL in the teaching of science and technology fields for secondary vocational schools and higher vocational colleges. The abstracts of the articles, which are related to these fields were examined, this second search results in 14 publications. Then, the “snowball method” was applied to review the references of these chosen articles for additional works. One new study emerged after finalizing this method. 15 papers finally are included in this review.

4 Result and Discussion

The main findings contributing to the issues faced by vocational teachers concerning the application of the PjBL include: lack of knowledge, skills and enterprise experience in managing it; project design lacking multiple levels and being separated from reality; absence of a developed rubric for assessing student skills; teachers’ role conversion – not being aware of having a different role in PjBL settings. To teach effectively, teachers should be aware of these barriers and notice certain requirements as a way to improve teaching quality.

4.1 Lack of Knowledge, skills and Enterprise experience in Managing it

The constraints faced by vocational teachers in the process of project implementation are mainly manifested in their insufficient knowledge, less exposure to skills training and lack of work experience (Gong & Ding 2007; Lin 2009; Xun 2009;). One of the reasons why teachers lack of knowledge in implementing PjBL in China is that teachers’ interdisciplinary knowledge gradually fades or lags behind because of many years of engaging in teaching one or more specific courses (Gong & Ding 2007). Their insufficient knowledge and skills of adjacent disciplines, related fields, and interdisciplinary subjects make them unable to guide students or unconfident to answer students’ various types of questions covering a wide range of fields during the project process. Another reason is that teachers lack the awareness to update their knowledge. As Wu (2012) noted, the company is using the textbook of a current version but teachers are still teaching an earlier version at their colleges. If teachers’ instructional designs could not evolve with the new emerging technologies and rapidly changing knowledge, they will inevitably fall behind and cannot meet the needs of the time, even less the knowledge they taught to students synchronizes with the time. In addition, most of the vocational teachers do not have rich and flexible practical knowledge of the subjects they teach, and a lack of training opportunities in practical operation such as how to cut metals or control electronic equipment among teachers in vocational colleges makes them less skilled (Qingwen 2005). This, to some extent, reduces the effective learning outcomes of the practice-based and highly interactive PjBL activities. Besides, teachers generally lack enterprise experience, as they are not familiar with real product design and development procedure. This will result in teachers  not being able to help students to set up projects with educational value by selecting a significant professional work task from the perspective of overall connection, or guide students in the subsequent PjBL process to align with the actual development of enterprise projects (Gong & Ding 2007).

4.2 Project design lacks multiple Levels and seperated from reality

Various student sources in Chinese higher vocational colleges such as secondary vocational students, high school students, retired soldiers, farmers directly lead to the diverse basic knowledge level and to a discrepancy aptitude in the ability to learn among students in the same class (Gong & Ding 2007). However, in reality, the designed project, not in accordance with this fact, is simply based on the same level and curriculum content (Zhao 2015). A project does not need to be highly complicated and complex but the simple and quick project may not be enough to provide students with a constructive investigation, which involves their new understandings and new skills. Project design should connect with the actual production and potentially have multiple levels, which could be reached in multifarious ways, making the solutions vary from person to person. This design goes beyond providing simple answers or products for the final presentation that would eventually lead to drive students’ in-depth inquiry, foster their creativity as well as capabilities for critical thinking (Liu 2016; Sun 2014; Tu & Chen 2008; Zhao 2015). Moreover, the project refers to the task of producing a specific meaningful product not only with the aim of education that enable teachers to fulfill the curriculum demands but also with practical application value (Albion 2015). According to Gong and Ding (2007), when designing a project, teachers often think more about whether the project links to curriculum or reflects essential content – covering the knowledge and technology to be mastered. Without considerations about whether the project is suitable for current production and actual life or whether it meets the actual needs and development of the enterprise, it is often difficult to inspire students’ interest and innovation to achieve good learning outcomes (Liu 2016).

4.3 The Absence of a developed rubric for assessing Student skills

Assessing the effectiveness of PjBL can also be a challenge and the absence of rubrics make teachers unclear how students’ tasks will be assessed and evaluated (Xun 2009). The project teaching method first presents a large case to the students, and at the beginning, students have no idea where to begin. Therefore, if we use the traditional evaluation method, the initial teaching effect is difficult to present or there is no obvious progress. Furthermore, it is not easy to determine each student’s score for a group project because individuals’ degree of participation and effort is different (Xun 2009), so developing a scoring rubric is crucial for assessing students’ learning Outcomes.

Artificial criteria is normally employed to judge regular classroom learning, however, as an authentic experience, PjBL takes place beyond the classroom walls, and the products are demonstrated to a real audience, so, in order to get external perspectives, it also needs to be judged against public authentic criteria that may involve outside experts. Cai (2010) points out that the project teaching should be based on the developmental evaluation (DE), and adopt a diversified evaluation method, respecting students’ differences in individual development and uniqueness; evaluating students’ knowledge, abilities and emotions objectively, fairly and impartially in the entire learning process.

The representative rubrics of assessment in PjBL is 4 C’s (refers to “creative/critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity”) created by Buck Institute for Education, and these rubrics are used to grade the intangible skills and enable teachers to assess students much more objectively and simpler (Clark 2017, 7). Besides, students also have opportunities to evaluate their own learning, sum up experience, and critic, review or grade the work of a peer. This self-evaluation, self-perception as well as peer assessment can contribute to finding inadequacy and practicing their critical-thinking, which may also help them get ideas for enhancing their own work. All in all, the goal of these evaluations should be centred on the revision and improvement of the Project.

4.4 The teacher is not Aware hat he/she has a different role (role conversion)

Literature shows that traditional, teacher-centred styles are still dominant in the actual practice of PjBL (Xun 2009). Teachers occupy an excessive proportion in the implementation of the project (Cai 2010) and give students less control and less ownership so that students do not have sufficient autonomy to prepare for, engage in and/or manage “their own acquisition of learning” (Warren 2016, 34). Although students participate in the project, they are not active enough. Thus, teachers need to make adaptations to PjBL approach and shift from directing instruction of traditional classroom to facilitating it.

According to Zhang (2013), there are three critical stages in a PjBL process: 1) project design; 2) project implementation; and 3) project evaluation. At every stage, the teacher plays different roles in terms of guiding students. The teacher should be knowing more at the pre-project stage, challenge and inspire the student to propose a project, and formulate their project objectives. At the during-project stage, the teacher must be more like a learning facilitator, a consultant, or a co-learner, they counsel students, encourage them to learn how to use their knowledge to deal with the problems with promoting their innovation, imparting a sense of ownership to students, and intervening if students’ direction deviates from practice. At Post-Project Stage, the teacher’s role is to serve as a commentator and appraiser. Since the PjBL basis lies in its real-world application and authenticity, teachers ought to combine both private and public evaluations, collect and analyze feedback from students’ self-reflection, mentors’ comment as well as public critiques to get wider perspective (Zhang 2013).

5 Recommendations

In response to the above problems, the following measures are proposed to enhance teachers’ competencies of managing PjBL activities:

5.1 Provide on-site PjBL training

School authorities should invite experienced and expert PjBL practitioners from domestic or overseas to conduct on-site guidance and training to educators and college teachers who are longing to employ such an approach in their courses, which include introduction of the key principles of PjBL, criteria for good projects, common application challenges, sharing case studies with high-quality implementation of PjBL, etc. Staff training on the use of PjBL should focus on how to switch the role from content-delivering lecturers to content-guiding facilitator, when and what specific type of scaffolding students need to practice into PjBL，(scaffolding refers to “the tools, strategies, or guides that enable learners to reach higher-levels of understanding and performance than would be possible without them,” Ertmer & Simons 2006, 44), what are effective rubrics for evaluating student projects, as well as how to give students more autonomy, and listen to students’ needs to best facilitate their learning. This specific training will help teachers with insufficient knowledge of PjBL approach and with limited relevant experience in PjBL application to deepen their understanding of PjBL, learn how to adopt this approach to develop their own curriculum and raise the teaching quality.

5.2 From on Campus PjBL Team 

Teachers from different expert fields or different departments cooperate with each other to create a PjBL team in their school based on PjBL’s multidisciplinary characteristics. Set aside some time before the PjBL starts for individuals to get to know each other and one another’s subjects to create a positive and harmonious working condition. To do so they can learn other perspectives concerning the application of PjBL, get the opportunity to (brainstorm) provide, discuss and debate idea on how to overcome PjBL implementation obstacles in an efficient and effective way, then take away representative ideas and views for their own PjBL execution and to reflect on. Overall, the collective knowledge, skills, expertise, and experiences from the PjBL team may lead to better decisions, more productive solutions that make teachers feel more confident in their PjBL implementation.

5.3 Strengthen cooperation with Enterprises

School administrators should strengthen contact and cooperation with enterprises and establish the corresponding regulations and rules, which allow and encourage in-service teachers’ rational flow between enterprises and schools on a regular basis to augment practical skills, gain enterprise-based expertise and accumulate experience. This cooperation not only enables teachers to work with employers, for example, through “professional development placements” (PDPs) (Ireland, Golden & Spielhofer 2002) to keep subject knowledge up to date and keep abreast of new technology and practices but also create opportunities for teachers to seek support from production and research departments, understand market potential and demand, make the project design more realistic and suitable for current production and actual life. More importantly, introducing enterprise projects into their school’s curriculum is also an effective, practical approach to help them create a learning context-based on the actual needs and development of the enterprise.

5.4 Continuing professional development (CPD) on PjBL

Once in-school PjBL specific training has been provided, the comprehensive CPD on PjBL will also be necessary to support those who begin to apply PjBL to systematically maintain, grow and broaden their PjBL knowledge, up-to-date skills, and practice.

Teachers’ CPD on PjBL can be realized through the following activities such as:

• reading, reviewing, and summarizing PjBL books and articles written by experts to upgrade Knowledge;
• learning from recommended PjBL websites, case study videos, materials, and resources to widen the Vision;
• sustained school support (e.g. offering train-the-trainer PjBL workshop on campus, arranging in-school meetings where teachers           can discuss PjBL issues with peer implementers, providing financial support and encouraging teachers to attend PjBL conferences)       to equip them with capability on the basis of PjBL, etc.

6 Conclusion 

The provision of interdisciplinary knowledge, the reposition of teachers’ roles as well as the preparation for corresponding practical experience and application skills, are proposed to improve abilities to guide students in the PjBL process and enhance teaching effectiveness. This paper focused on implementation obstacles of PjBL activities on the part of teachers. Actually, how to run a PjBL smoothly and effectively not only depends on the teachers’ interdisciplinary competency, practical knowledge, work experience, and employed approach and method but could also depend on a number of other factors. These are including the students in the class (for example, if these students have the capacity to use digital technology as a tool to search relevant knowledge and practical solutions scientifically, timely and systematically), the equipment involved, as well as the surrounding Environment.

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Citation

Liu, H. (2019). Barriers of Project-Based Learning in Teaching and Learning of Chinese Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): A review. In: TVET@Asia, issue 12, 1-14. Online: http://www.tvet-online.asia/issue9/author_second_tvet9.pdf (retrieved 30.06.2017).