Paradigms of training

With thanks to John Clapton, YouthCARE

Our world has revolved for a long time around two distinctive types of training: knowledge-based training (in the universities) and skill-based training (for the trades).

It is interesting that in some respects the pendulum is now swinging somewhat the other way. Knowledge-based training in universities increasingly includes a focused practical and skill-based element, while vocational training programs increasingly incorporate a greater knowledge-based component. In the last thirty years, another model has also emerged, making a total of three. Each of these paradigms offers specific advantages over the other. Ultimately, each program will lean to one model over the others as a result of the interplay of competing values, knowledge of the practice, and an evaluation of the available resources.

The three basic paradigms

The first paradigm is strongly knowledge-based, as in the traditional university education. This is the kind of learning that explores knowledge and theory, research and descriptions of practice, as the basis of what is often an academic qualification.

People attend classes, read books and reflect together in appropriate forums, such as tutorials or seminars, on what these things mean in the academic context. Graduates from this kind of training model often enter the workforce with some trepidation about what it will be like in the real world, or overconfident about what they know. To solve this problem, these programs simply dumpedpeople into simple practicums.

The second paradigm is more focussed on competency, as in the traditional trades education. It can be based on an apprenticeship kind of model, where one learns the practice alongside one who knows how to practice. This is an on-the-job approach to learning.

The third paradigm, professional training, carefully combines both academic knowledge and skills development. Most modern university training for the professions have adopted this model. This is a relative newcomer in the educational world. (Most university-trained professions once trained professionals through the knowledge-based academic paradigm and periodically dumped students into unrelated simple practicums.)

It often develops competencies through an Action-Reflection approach, involves descriptions of actual practice, uses praxis studies, and examines case studies. The student is not only shown what to do and given an opportunity to do it, but is also guided through a process of guided reflection on how it went.