VCE Vocational Major Help Guide
EP has recently created curriculum-aligned folders that follow the Vocational Major Literacy and Numeracy Study Designs for teachers to use with their students.
The folders contain a large number of ready-to-use resources to support the development of essential literacy and numeracy skills that students are able to transfer into lifelong learning.
How is this content aligned with the Vocational Major Study Designs?
The curriculum maps below outline the specific content that is relevant to each outcome from the two study designs. Each curriculum map outlines the specific key knowledge and skills that students need to achieve the outcomes presented in each of the four units.
All resources are linked directly to a preview of the EP Smart Lesson in the relevant Content Library, making it quicker and easier to find what you are looking for.
EP and Applied Learning
Here at EP, we understand that the teaching of the Vocational Major subjects is quite different to a standard VCE subject. The VCAA describes the teaching of the Vocational Major subjects to follow an applied learning methodology.
Applied learning is designed to teach students skills and knowledge in the context of ‘real life’ experiences. Students will be required to apply what they have learnt by doing, experiencing and relating acquired skills to the real world. This approach enables flexible, personalised learning where teachers work with students to recognise their personal strengths, interest, goals, and experiences.
The following image is provided by the VCAA that categorises applied learning principles into 5 areas. EP is able to support teachers in addressing each of these.
Motivation to engage in learning
- Ready-to-use resources provide teachers with content to engage students in demonstrations, activities, investigations and problem-solving activities.
- Content can be differentiated to challenge the student’s level of competence and support them to succeed and build self-efficacy. EP content can be assigned to individual students based on their needs and interests and lessons can be assigned in a variety of ways.
- Teachers are able to use EP Studio to edit lessons or to create their own to ensure what is learnt in the classroom is connected to scenarios and experiences outside the classroom and makes that connection as immediate and transparent as possible.
Applied learning practices
- EP’s robust assessment platform allows teachers to ensure that students are able to apply what they have learnt by utilising the learning cycle of doing, experiencing, reflecting and relating new knowledge and skills to the real world.
- EP content is created in a way that presents learning activities in different modalities to allow the greatest uptake of knowledge. Lessons are highly scaffolded using text, images, videos, simulations and animations to support a range of learning styles. Teachers can preview all content as a student to ensure its suitability before assigning.
Student agency
- Teachers are able to direct students through the content or they are able to access these resources independently to ensure students are moving towards being equal partners in determining the learning process as they develop greater independence and responsibility for their own learning.
- EP Assessments can be used to encourage students to identify and utilise individual strengths and reflect on each stage of their learning journey by viewing their results.
Student-centred flexible approach
- EP Assessments can be used to create a pre-test to determine the student's knowledge and skills prior to commencing the study and use this as the starting point for their learning. A post-test can also be conducted in order to compare student results to ensure that learning growth has been achieved.
- Extensive content selection is available both in the Vocational Major folder structures and the wider EP Content Library, along with the ability to edit or create content using EP Studio allows teachers to teach concepts in contexts relevant to the students’ backgrounds, interests and experiences
Assessment practice which promotes success
- EP Assessments provide teachers with the ability to use automatically marked quizzes as an assessment method that allows for incremental indications of success through in-depth data analysis of student results
- EP Assessments can be set over multiple attempts to afford students multiple opportunities for success and assessment