Project Directors:
Keywords:
The importance of student exposure to all aspects of the industry (AAI) has
been clearly emphasized in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Act of 1990. This legislation provides educators with opportunities
to design and implement AAI curricula. Unfortunately, even though AAI has
evolved from a rich historical and conceptual base, many educators have been
reluctant to incorporate AAI into their schools. To some degree, this
difficulty is being addressed by the AAI coalition project funded by the Joyce
Foundation. The coalition project objectives include documenting and
clarifying models in use to implement AAI; preparing a resource guide that
informs teachers, administrators, and policymakers about industry work; and
conducting workshops and disseminating findings.
The proposed project builds directly on the coalition project. Drawing from
the AAI implementation models and industry work guide produced by the
coalition, this project will focus on three areas: (1) identifying curriculum
practices and processes that focus on AAI in the long term (two to four years);
(2) preparing a practitioner guide that describes these long-term curriculum
practices and processes, the ways they are utilized, and under what conditions
they have the potential to be most effective; and (3) assisting educators at
selected school sites in the implementation of long-term AAI curricula.
Information about AAI curricula will be gathered via interviews with educators
at selected locations around the United States where AAI long-term curricula
are operational.
The analyses we complete will ultimately evolve into a practitioner guide.
The guide will describe what we have learned in the identification of long-term
AAI curricula that are of value to those who intend to implement AAI in their
schools. The guide content will include ways that AAI curriculum content may
be identified and organized and sequenced in meaningful ways. Once the guide
has been prepared in prototype form, it will be used in conjunction with our
AAI curriculum assistance activities. To accomplish this we will identify
three to four school sites that are ready to implement AAI curricula. If
possible, these sites will be located reasonably close to the Virginia Tech
site to reduce travel and time costs. In the selection of curriculum sites,
consideration will be given to collaborating with a school group or consortium
such as the Southern Regional Education Board's Schools That Work consortium.
During our assistance visits, we will provide educators with assistance in a
variety of AAI implementation tasks ranging from determining AAI curriculum
content and sequence to helping teachers decide how they can incorporate AAI in
their teaching.
Project outcomes will be disseminated in two different ways. At the
conclusion of year two, the prototype practitioner guide will be revised and
made available for purchase through the NCRVE Materials Distribution Service
(MDS). Further dissemination of the guide will take place as part of the
curriculum assistance activities. Additional dissemination will be conducted
through presentations at national conferences (e.g., AVA and AERA) and the
preparation of project-related manuscripts for submission to popular and
refereed journals.
In terms of intended audiences, the practitioner guide will be of primary
value to teachers of vocational and academic subjects in high schools and
technical and community colleges. However, it may also be used by
administrators, curriculum developers, and others who are responsible for
implementing AAI in their schools.
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