January 1, 2021 Journal article Open Access

Amenduni, Francesca; Cattaneo, Alberto

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{
  "publisher": "Zenodo", 
  "DOI": "10.5281/zenodo.5760932", 
  "container_title": "Pathways in Vocational Education and Training and Lifelong Learning. Proceedings of the 4th Crossing Boundaries Conference in Vocational Education and Training, Muttenz and Bern online", 
  "language": "eng", 
  "title": "Digitally Enhanced Apprentices' Perception of Connectivity Across Learning Locations", 
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2021, 
        1, 
        1
      ]
    ]
  }, 
  "abstract": "<p>Summary</p>\n\n<p>When crossing the borders from educational to professional environments, VET apprentices can perceive discontinuities and contradictions between what they learn at school and in the workplace. This research explores whether a digital tool named e- DAP, designed as a space for reflective practices in VET educational systems supports apprentices&rsquo; perception of connectivity across learning locations. A group of 114 apprentices who used the e-DAP and a control group (CG) composed of 141 apprentices (CG = 141) completed a 15-items questionnaire which investigated the following dimension: 1. frequency of use of the e-DAP platform 2. mutual knowledge across locations, 3. explicit connectivity and 4. perceived usefulness of the tool. Participants were asked to express their level of agreement on a 6-point Likert scale on the items in sections 2 and 4 and on a 5-point Likert scale on the items in section 3. On average, the e-DAP users perceived the usefulness of the platform to be high (M = 4,55; SD = 1.12). The perception of connectivity resulted, in general, higher in the e-DAP group than in the CG. Specifically, mutual knowledge and explicit connectivity were perceived significantly higher. Frequent users (FU) of the e-DAP had a higher perception of explicit connectivity than low users (LU). This difference was even higher when comparing FU and LU according to their use of the e-DAP at the workplace. Results are in line with the expected learning path of the e-DAP, inspired by the Erfahrraum model. The more apprentices collect traces of workplace experiences through the e-DAP, the more VET teachers can support explicit reflection on practice at school. In future exploration, we are going to test the effect of the perceived usefulness of the e-DAP on apprentices&rsquo; perception of mutual knowledge and explicit connectivity.</p>\n\n<ul>\n</ul>", 
  "author": [
    {
      "family": "Amenduni, Francesca"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Cattaneo, Alberto"
    }
  ], 
  "page": "p.\u200939-44", 
  "volume": "April, 2021", 
  "type": "article-journal", 
  "id": "5760932"
}