The Double Heuristic Method: perspectives on how teachers deal with an alternative model for teaching in the VET sector.

The aim of this research has been to investigate how teachers in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Australia deal with the Double Heuristic Method (DHM) as an alternative model for teaching in the VET Sector. The context is set within a vocational educational landscape globally, highlighting approaches in the delivery of vocational education in the USA, European countries and Australia. In pursuit of these approaches, various typologies of competency-based training (CBT) are explored. The VET systems around the world have been undergoing a period of continuous reform, moving VET systems towards a more holistic approach of teaching and learning in higher education. In such a context, the Australian VET sector has been and continues to be faced with challenges in the implementation of the Australian Training Packages, the core curriculum for the VET sector. This inquiry has been implemented within an interpretive paradigm in seeking to capture teachers’ perspectives of using the DHM and to investigate how VET teachers deal with the pedagogical challenges in their work. Central to the research question is investigating how teachers deal with an alternative model of pedagogy, the Double Heuristic Model, from their own frames of reference, and as they experience it. Qualitative methods have been used for data collection and analysis. The primary source of data was a series of semi-structured interviews. The data analysis was based on the principles of grounded theory method as outlined in the work of Strauss and Corbin (1990) whereby participants are placed in a position to consider a phenomenon and how they make meaning of that phenomena. In pursuing this approach to methodology in the two years of data collection and analysis, all three types of coding were utilised: open coding, axial coding and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). As the Double Heuristic Method is a relatively new approach in vocational education in Australia, there has not been any prior research on its use in this area. Hence, this research contributes to developing new insights into teachers’ perspectives and responses to one approach in teaching the Units of Competency in the Training Packages in Australia, using an alternative pedagogical framework.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 201