Exploring how educators at the workplace inform their judgement of students’ professional performance

ABSTRACT

Vocational education aims at preparing students for their future as professionals; thus, students are often required to undergo a form of on-the-job learning. Assessment of professional performance during on-the-job learning is not based on single observations, but on prolonged participation at the workplace culminating in judgement by a workplace educator. However, little is known about how educators reach a judgement. This paper, therefore, aims at exploring how educators inform their judgements about students’ professional performance. We consider the workplace to be a participatory learning environment, which entails that judgement about professional performance should be made in relation to the community students participated in and that the educator from that community has a central role. Our study takes an explorative approach based on interviews and uses template analysis to generate insight. Findings revealed that educators use multiple strategies to gather and process information about students to inform their judgement. Findings also showed that assessment starts at the first meeting, when the educator forms a first impression of the student and judges whether or not the student is suitable for the job. Educators at the workplace also showed that they are aware of the context in which they form their judgement.

KEYWORDS:

• Workplace learning
• judgement
• workplace educators
• assessment
• inferentialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this study, we use inferences to explore how educators form judgements about students, but this is only part of how inferences play a role in knowing. In Making it Explicit (Brandom 1994) Robert Brandom explains that in communication we understand what the other says by making inferences about their reasons. We then respond and are subsequently capable of linking understanding to response and expressing this link. Knowing is then not only inferences one makes, but also entails the capacity to figure out and bridge the differences in individual inferences through communication.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. E. De Vos

Marlies de Vos is a PhD candidate at the Open University of the Netherlands. She conducts her research at the research group Vocational Education at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, where she is also a teacher trainer.

L. K. J. Baartman

Liesbeth Baartman is an associate professor at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. She works at the research group Vocational Education. Her main research interests are learning processes in vocational education and assessment practices throughout the curriculum and in relation to the school and work.

C. P. M. Van Der Vleuten

Cees van der Vleuten is a professor of Education, chair of the Department of Educational Development and Research, and scientific director of the School of Health Professions Education, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

E. De Bruijn

Elly de Bruijn is a professor at both Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and the Open University of the Netherlands. She is head of the research centre for Learning and Innovation in Utrecht. Her main research interests focus on learning processes in vocational education and the guidance by vocational educators.