SHARING KNOWLEDGE  FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING TEACHERS

Vocational training education provides numerous challenges in the field of teacher training programs. Our professional competence as teachers will result in skillful students ready to perform their duties successfully. Therefore, some of the tasks which can help teachers improve their teaching methods are:

·         Analyze how procedural knowledge is taught, so it becomes even more challenging for our students.

·         Build a more meaningful learning process reflecting the professional reality that our students will face. We cannot overlook this challenge, especially in the light of the difficult labor market situation.

·         Develop cross-curricular capacities that help show the students’ abilities. These capacities should be developed through the use of new technologies and procedures  related to students’ professional skills, such as assertiveness workshops, creativity workshops, implementation of lean manufacturing, etc.

It should be noted that this vast amount of information cannot be handled by a single teacher, we need to work cooperatively in order to achieve the best results.

Institutions such as CEFIRE in the Valencian Community offer courses which can meet most of our needs; however, we can also request our CEFIRE to design courses that suit the demands of professional modules, which usually involve a high degree of specificity (unless they are cross-curricular courses which are intended for teachers of different modules).

Erasmus+ is also a great opportunity to share knowledge, especially in modules which encourage mobility of professionals across Europe.

Certainly, different resources such as: cooperative learning among teachers from the same field of knowledge, the promotion of discussion topics in social networks or blogs where teachers can share information about their experiences, the establishment of seminars or work groups on CEFIRE platforms where teachers can seek advice, the implementation of projects, or the way new challenges are faced, can serve as examples for a better approach to regional educational reality, to help teachers research different topics and also due to the ease of use of these resources.

MEANINGFUL LEARNING AND CLIL-BASED LEARNING AND TEACHING IN A VOCATIONAL TRAINING HEALTH MODULE

Any Vocational Training health module involves a high degree of hands-on training. For this reason, our core teaching task should aim at acquisition of procedural habits through practical seminars and/or laboratory protocols.

Vocational Training is the area where we, as teachers, need our students learn to learn, i.e., we must promote previous knowledge learning so that the student becomes the central role in their learning process. This process is achieved through assessing previous knowledge, instilling some basic knowledge and providing tools and bibliography so that students can broaden their knowledge. Vocational Training is where the four Delors mainstays are more clearly underpinned,  say, learning to know (through acquisition of basic comprehension tools), learning to do (providing content applicable to Vocational Training reality), learning to be (developing autonomy, judgement and personal responsibility) and learning to coexist (dealing with respectful attitudes, teamwork and critical thinking)

The underlying problem is that in Vocational Training there is a wide heterogeneity in terms of command of English language. Unless our students obtain a relatively high score in an initial placement test to evaluate knowledge of the foreign language, we will only be able to perform reading comprehension activities. However, speaking and listening skills can also be developed through presentation of basic classroom language and the use of cooperative learning between students with a high command of English and those with a lower level.

A large number of the tools we will offer students to increase their knowledge will be websites, blogs and podcasts, some of them in English as they come exclusively from English sources. In this sense, in order for students to be able to understand these sources, our goal will be to display diagrams with specific vocabulary or sets of guidelines to follow a protocol, all of these including the Spanish equivalent of specific terms. At this point, we can show scientific papers which include key vocabulary. Thanks to the tools we have offered, our students will be able to understand scientific papers in the field of health. For the purpose of assessing the quality of our material, student’s reading comprehension and quality of our teaching, we will develop a rubric. This rubric will help us evaluate if our students, with a score of 2 (complete), 1 (partial) and 0 (null):

1.       Have understood the text and the theoretical contents

2.       Have acquired practical skills related to the content of the text

3.       Have become aware of the importance for society of the topic of the paper

4.       Have achieved a specific competence to acquire knowledge included in the text

In point 1 (even in point 2) we will only reflect the reading competence; however, points 3 and 4 will require the development of interactive listening and speaking skills in the form of a discussion. This will be performed either in the foreign language or in the mother tongue of the students according to the circumstances of the group.

NURSING STAFF VOCATIONAL TRAINING DEGREE

Read the following text and answer the questions below

Working with patients

     The expertise and training of the nursing staff must be as efficient as possible at all times, especially when human lives are at risk, which is the case of hospital healthcare. Citizens must therefore demand that hospital personnel are highly qualified and professional for the benefit of society.

     The nursing staff should also understand what emotions an inpatient can feel when he/she is having a long stay in hospital following an operation, so that the recovery process is as smooth as possible. This is in addition to emotions directly connected with their disease and the associated pain or inconveniences. This will indeed help minimize pain. Patients find themselves in an unknown place, away from their usual environment and dependent on others to a certain degree. For this reason a positive therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient will improve the recovery of the patient’s health.

     Therefore some key details must be considered. For example before admission, the room must be clean and nurses must be polite and kind to the patient. We should not forget that the patient will recover more quickly if he feels like at home.

In short, healthcare staff always have to bear in mind that they deal with people and they must behave accordingly. They should not forget that each patient has their own background and experiences that have shaped them through life.

Fulgencio Sánchez Gimenez. Working with patients

1.  Which of these ideas best summarizes the text?

a)  Patients in a hospital must be nice to nurses if they want to have a successful recovery

b)  The experiences in a patient’s life can put a patient at risk after an operation

c)  Hospital personnel should consider the background of each individual patient and make their stay as comfortable as possible.

2.  Why should hospital staff be highly qualified?

a)  To ensure that rooms are clean and tidy

b)  To have a quality healthcare system that minimizes risk

c)  To connect with the patient’s emotions

3.  Nurses should deal with patient’s emotions because

a)  They need to send patients home in a short time

b)  The recovery process will be easy and less painful

c)  Most of them want to become therapists

4.  The word inpatient in the second paragraph means

a)  A person who is in hospital

b)  Someone with very little patience

c)  A patient who has gone home after the operation

5.    In the last paragraph, the word accordingly means

a)    In a different way

b)    In a similar way

c)    As expected

CAN DO STATEMENT Reading (B1): I can identify the main conclusions in clearly written argumentative texts related to the function of nursing assistant.

LANGUAGE PASSPORT Fulgencio Sanchez Gimenez
Mother tongue(s)	Other language(s)
Spanish	English French Valencian

Replace with language
Self-assessment of language skills
Understanding			Speaking			Writing
Listening	Reading		Spoken interaction	Spoken production		Writing
I can understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. I can understand the main point of many radio or TV programmes on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery is relatively slow and clear.	I can read articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular attitudes or viewpoints. I can understand contemporary literary prose.		I can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. I can enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events).	I can connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events, my dreams, hopes and ambitions. I can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. I can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and describe my reactions.		I can write clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects related to my interests. I can write an essay or report, passing on information or giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view. I can write letters highlighting the personal significance of events and experiences.
Title		Awarding body			Date		Level*
B1 English B1 French B1 Valencian B2 English C1 Valencian Proficiency		Official Language School Official Language School Junta Qualificadora Coneixements Valencià TOEIC Junta Qualificadora Coneixements Valencià Valencian Catholic University			12/6/2000 15/6/2000 20/6/2009 20/11/2015 28/11/2015 7/4/2016
Linguistic and intercultural experience
Description					Duration
English: Hotel receptionist in London One-month holiday in Malta Presentation of scientific paper for Maxilaris Journal French: International cycle races Valencian: Exposure to language in native region					2 months 1 month 1 article 10 races 11 years