Eric review: integrating academic and occupational instruction.

"New vocationalism," the concept of integrating occupational and academic courses in order to enrich both liberal arts and vocational programs, attracted a great deal of attention during the 1990s. However, a number of barriers, such as faculty resisitance and a lack of institutional resources, have prevented widespread implementation. This article describes several case studies and pilot projects underway at community colleges and discusses the obstacles to implementation as well as proven strategies.

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Among leaders in the field of occupational education, the decade of the 1990s was filled with discussions of the "new vocationalism"--the concept of integrating occupational and academic courses. Although such pleas have been made for decades, this new emphasis resulted from the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, which criticized occupational education for focusing students too narrowly on low-skill, entry-level jobs. In response to that criticism, the National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education (NCSVE) in 1984 defended vocational education, but also noted that, "What is really required today are programs and experiences that bridge the gap between the so-called `academic' and `vocational' courses. The theoretical and empirical aspects of academic courses and vocational courses must be made explicit and meaningful" (cited in Roegge & Ferej, 1995, p. 14). A few years later, a document produced by the William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family, and Citizenship (1988), The Forgotten Half, asserted that one half of the students graduating from high school would not complete college but would need some advanced training to succeed in their jobs.

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984 and its subsequent reauthorizations called specifically for the integration of academic and occupational education, as did the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. The SCANS Report (Secretary's [of Labor] Commission on Achieving Necessary Skill), What Work Requires Of Schools: A SCANS Report For America 2000 (1991), asserted that what employers require of schools is to teach the students thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to succeed in the workplace. In addition, the legislation for TechPrep also focused on the integration of academic and occupational education to prepare the kinds of thinking, decision-making, problem-solving technicians that the advanced U.S. industry would demand in the future (Pisapia & Riggins, 1997).

Given all these proclamations and pieces of legislation issued during the past 15 years, have occupational programs in the community colleges actually integrated academic and occupational education? This ERIC review looks at the progress made, focusing particularly on literature since 1995. For convenience in this review, the acronym AOI will substitute for the rather cumbersome term "academic and occupational integration," but it is not an acronym that appears in the literature.

Proven Pedagogical Strategies

The AOI concept is not new. As early as 1916, John Dewey argued for educating through the occupations. In the 1920s, Leonard Koos (1924) proposed that occupational efficiency and civic and social responsibility should become the guideposts for the curriculum in the newly formed junior colleges. Walter Eells (1931) and Jesse Bogue (1950) proposed similar ideas. In the 1990s, W. Norton Grubb took up the torch of the AOI concept. In 1992, he and Kraskouskas outlined the basic eight models of AOI in community colleges:

1. General education requirements that simply add academic courses to occupational programs.

2. Applied academic courses in which the abstract concepts of the academic discipline are applied to occupational examples and applications. One example is a physics course that uses industrial examples to illustrate basic concepts.

3. Cross-curricular efforts that incorporate academic skills into occupational programs. The most popular of these is Writing-Across-the Curriculum, in which students are required to write in classes other than English.

4. The infusion of academic modules in expanded occupational courses. This would include teaching algebraic equation manipulation in a basic electricity class as an application of Ohm's law.

5. Multidisciplinary courses combining academic perspectives and occupational concerns. These might include a hybrid history and electricity course, or a conversational Spanish class that focuses on medical terms and traditional healing practices of Hispanic people.

6. Tandem and cluster courses and learning communities. In these, students are enrolled in two or more of the same classes, and their teachers attempt to collaborate or relate the material. For example, an electronics class may require a term project that the students will write about in their writing class.

7. Colleges-within-colleges. These go a step beyond learning communities. In the college-within-a-college, the students as a group take a prescribed set of courses in a specific order within the college. This generates a sense of community among both students and faculty, particularly allowing collaboration to flourish. How ever, in most community colleges, the students need more flexible scheduling, and thus, the college-within-a-college concept is rare.

8. Remediation and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs with an occupational focus. The purpose of these classes is to relieve the "skills-and-drills" approach so often found in remedial classes. As students practice their reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, they are also acquiring some basic occupational skills.

In practice, three strategies have been the most frequently implemented: infusion, applied academics, and learning communities. Another pedagogical strategy that became popular in the late 1990s is work-based learning, which refers to students learning on the job in supervised internships and apprenticeships (Badway, 1998).

Case Studies and Pilot Projects

Many documents report on the status of the AOI projects at individual institutions and in various states. Plans and pilot projects are frequently described, but few projects are reported in detail when completed. Some states such as Illinois and Michigan have attempted statewide efforts at AOI, while in other states, single institutions have initiated AOI pilots. In general, most of the participants in these projects are enthusiastic and optimistic about the potential for AOI, although they have all encountered obstacles in implementation. Following are examples of programs that have been implemented in community colleges.

Walling (1995) reports on the Allied Health Certificate Program at Massachusetts' Bunker Hill Community College where academic and vocational education have been successfully integrated since 1986. The program has a 90% retention rate even though more than 50% of its students are on welfare. The program includes individualized career planning, the use of student portfolios, hands-on activities and role playing, and employment skills training.

Teahen (1996) describes the Michigan Community College Integration Project, which began as a presentation at the Trends in Occupational Studies Conference in Grand Rapids in 1994. The presentation addressed how general education could contribute to the development of workplace skills. The presenters were challenged to set up pilot projects at community colleges in Michigan. In another report on the Michigan project, Jacobs and Teahen (1996) describe the four projects. At Delta College, a learning community of three courses was created for nursing students, consisting of Introduction to Health Care, Health Care Ethics, and College Composition. The students were concurrently enrolled in all three classes and the teachers attempted collaboration on many projects. At Henry Ford Community College, collaborators from physics, English, and electronics received an NSF grant to create a technical physics course. In the five-credit hour course, each module was framed within an industrial situation. Two other community colleges developed hybrid courses. Teahen (1996) says, "It is said that integration is less about what is taught than how it is taught. It is outcome driven. It is performance based. It builds on connections ... in a context that matters or excites" (p. 14). In the Michigan project, faculty discovered that multiple learning goals could be accomplished through collaboration; that they needed to emphasize not only what the students must know, but also what they must do; that they appreciated the depth, breadth, and value of the skills of other faculty and the rigor and integrity of their disciplines; and that enthusiasm and energy rose among teams.

Bragg, Reger, and Thomas (1997) surveyed administrators and faculty at 47 community colleges in Illinois. In telephone interviews, representatives of 38 of the colleges said their institution offered academic courses in writing, math, and science specifically for career students. In all, 8 offered linked courses, 10 had learning communities, and 37 sponsored work-based learning, such as internships. The authors note that "a healthy respect for a connection between academic and occupational education is crucial" (p. 3) to the success of AOI programs. In addition, participating teachers felt that they had benefited from the collaboration because they were able to develop more instructional strategies for teaching their material.

McBroom (1996) relates the AOI experience of the Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. TVI required general education courses for its associate degree programs, but there was not much talk or collaboration between the technical and the general education faculties. The general education faculty, coming as they did from an academic background, were rather isolated within TVI and did not understand the technical interests and goals of the TVI students. Therefore a project was initiated to foster collaboration between the technical and general education faculties. Mini-proposals to work together were solicited, funded, and implemented. The faculty developed course materials with occupational examples for use in the general education classes. The project was funded for two terms. Outcomes were not formally assessed, but faculty reported it as a positive experience and expressed regret that funding and release time would not continue.

Grubb et al. (1996) discovered that TechPrep had not made significant changes in community colleges, but they uncovered a few exemplary programs. At Fayetteville Technical Community College in North Carolina, 4 teams of 6 instructors each designed 50 curriculum integrated activity guides for 16 separate technical courses. Nashville State Technical Institute used a "Humanities Across the Technologies" program. For example, in a drafting class, the students could discuss whether the designer of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in a high wind, should be criminally prosecuted. Technical teachers required oral presentations of all students as well. The authors noted that these innovations took place because of the efforts of enthusiasts, innovators, and committed people--often with little or no institutional support.

Beckstrom (1998) reported that AOI has been successful at the Weekend College at McHenry County College in Illinois. Students have been empowered "beyond the primary intent of the occupational field" (p. 7). By thinking about their occupations, they have come to a greater understanding of their general education. "Our success has been that students have attained levels of awareness far beyond the mere content of a particular curriculum" (p. 10).

Perin (1998) studied seven community colleges in the Northeast and the Midwest. She chose sites that offered good selections of integrated occupational courses in allied health, technology, and business. She noted that it was difficult to find colleges that were actually offering classes, although many planned to do so. She studied 33 classes, observing 25 of them, and interviewing faculty, students, and administrators on each campus. She discovered that integration usually took place in general education courses--not occupational courses. English was the basic skill that joined them. The focus, however, seemed to be more on remedial needs, meaning that the integrated courses were actually "remedial education in disguise" (p. 35). The occupational courses were not student-centered nor infused with academic material.

International Interest in AOI

The concept of AOI is not limited only to the United States. Njerve and Sandvik (1997) describe a different approach used at Agder College in Norway. What is unique about its approach is that teachers are introduced to the concept during their teacher education coursework. The goal is to mix academic and vocational teachers together during their training so that they respect each other and are open to collaboration later. The program at Agder used colleague counseling to critique each other's performance in the classroom. The participants found that collaboration was time consuming, conflict producing, and frustrating, but in the end, useful. They began to understand and respect each other. Perhaps AOI would be more successful in the United States if academic and occupational teachers had to collaborate during their preservice training.

In Taiwan, educators are moving to integrate academic and vocational education (Wu, 1996). Taiwan has a higher proportion of students in vocational education than other countries do (67% in Taiwan compared with 22% in France, 11% in Great Britain, and 18% in Korea). The goal of this integration is to keep the options open for students who do not want to commit so early to either a vocational or academic track. The benefit is that "students who are vocation bound can get more fundamental knowledge to strengthen their basic abilities, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, problem solving, and employment skills, while other students can better explore their career experiences through occupational subjects" (p. 4). Wu notes, however, that this new approach takes a lot of faculty time and demands reorganization of both the programs and the facilities.

Barriers to Implementation

Overall, researchers uncovered many plans for AOI, but few courses in operation (Perin, 1998; Badway, 1998). Grubb et al. (1999) note that "[AOI] has received new impetus from federal vocational funds since 1990-though most colleges seem unaware of legislative requirements" (p. 246). Hoachlander (1999) notes that "remarkably little integration [is] going on, in either vocational or academic classes" (p. 1). Very few details of what teachers actually do in the classroom are available, only general descriptions of classes. And quantitative evidence that AOI courses are superior in any way is nonexistent, although the few true practitioners are very enthusiastic about the motivation and enthusiasm of their students. Badway (1998) notes that there is "no rubric to distinguish colleges making substantive reform from those using new technology to describe status quo practices" (p. 133).

Researchers report various barriers to true AOI implementation: faculty resistance, transferability, lack of uniformity, need for training, the need for funding and release time, and negative perceptions.

Faculty resistance. Faculty are often quite comfortable teaching the way they have always taught, even if they have not been particularly successful. Teaching has been a solitary task for them. When they close their classroom doors, they are the rulers of the classroom. They seldom have discussed their teaching techniques with others, particularly those outside their discipline. The idea of collaborating with others means they would have to subject their teaching strategies to the scrutiny of others. Also, both academic and occupational teachers may be reluctant to work together because they view each other as unreceptive to and possibly unfamiliar with their materials and standards.

Transferability. Many occupational students do go on to pursue baccalaureate degrees. However, courses that are labeled "applied" or courses that have unusual titles are often rejected for transfer. Hybrid courses that combine occupational and academic material (for example, the electricity-history class) do not fit in with the general education requirements of most baccalaureate colleges or are perceived as being less rigorous than college-level courses. Some community colleges have circumvented this problem by labeling their integrated courses with traditional names, but indicating in the course schedule that this section is recommended for particular occupational students. A different problem with transferability is that some courses appear to be developmental (Bragg et al., 1997).

Lack of uniformity. Teachers who collaborate may experience conflict and frustration because they do not agree on the standards for student work. Academic teachers may feel that their high standards are being questioned by occupational teachers. Another problem may be caused by turnover, due to new instructors' lack of engagement in or understanding of the collaborative process (Perin, 1998).

Need for training. Both occupational and academic instructors need outside training or experience to truly integrate coursework. Both groups of teachers may need to visit industry for examples of how to integrate material. Since both groups have specialized in their educations and careers, they may be unfamiliar with the technical and academic demands, standards, and expectations of industry. The two groups will need training in why and how to collaborate.

Funding and release time. Developing new courses, particularly in collaboration with others outside one's field, takes time. At the community college, most full-time instructors already teach four or more classes each semester. Occupational instructors may be teaching 25 or more hours a week. To develop new materials, release time is desirable, which means that more faculty will need to be hired to cover existing courses. Often colleges get outside grants to fund these projects for a year or two. But once the funding disappears, teachers are expected to continue on their own time. A new course, however, must be tested and fine tuned over several semesters. In addition, if these AOI efforts are to become a workable alternative paradigm (as envisioned by Grubb and Dewey) rather than simply a teaching technique chosen by individual teachers, then many courses need to be revamped. Most community colleges have simply not made a long-term commitment to funding this change (Brown, 1998; McBroom, 1996).

Perceptions of course quality. AOI courses are often seen as remedial education in disguise (Perin, 1998; Bragg et al., 1997). A lingering belief exists that occupational students are somehow not as academically able as the baccalaureate-bound students. Despite the glowing reports from teachers who have actually implemented AOI in their classrooms, the perception continues that AOI is fundamentally remedial, a technique for getting vocational students to swallow larger doses of general education that they somehow missed earlier. Higginbottom (1994) argues that AOI "technicizes general education" (p. 279). He asserts that AOI culls "from the broad array of possible humanities learning outcomes only those which suit the workplace" (p. 285).

Overcoming the Divide between Academic and Occupational Education

Aside from the barriers, most researchers report excitement among faculty about the possibilities of AOI. In a case study of 33 integrated classrooms in seven community colleges, Perin found that "Faculty motivation increased. Integration paved the way for intellectual and personal communication in a normally isolating profession.... many thought that the effort was validated by gains in student motivation and performance, and, in turn, retention." (Perin, 1998, p. 25). Nevertheless, "The historic divide between occupational and academic education ... seemed to be alive and well" (Perin, 1998, p. 20).

This divide seems to be at the heart of the issue. The unwillingness of academic faculty to collaborate with occupational faculty, the unwillingness of many baccalaureate institutions to accept for transfer any course that might be labeled "applied," and the unwillingness of institutions to commit time and resources to develop integration are largely the result of a belief that occupational education is somehow inferior to academic education, and that students who are drawn to occupational subjects are less academically competent than those drawn to academic subjects. Like most prejudices, however, this one is not grounded in fact.

In 1996, Grubb wrote a widely cited article, "The New Vocationalism," outlining the form AOI could take in high schools. In it he calls for massive restructuring of high schools, lauding innovations such as magnet schools, career clusters, and learning communities. Although many writers cite this article, seemingly in agreement, most of them seem to miss Grubb's major point: most attempts at AOI result in continuing the "separation between academic programs and vocational programs" (p. 539). Grubb argues that AOI is not only a method to improve occupational programs, but is also a method to improve all of education. He points out that John Dewey believed that "education through occupations consequently combines within itself more of the factors conducive to learning than any other method" (cited in Grubb, 1996, p. 540). Grubb claims that using the occupational focus can minimize the differences between the college bound and the noncollege bound. "Thus in its broadest and most Deweyan form, `education through occupations' can incorporate the entire range of political and moral purposes, rather than simply assume that the needs of employers are paramount" (p. 540). Few if any authors address this major philosophical thesis. Instead, they focus on using AOI as a way to help occupational students, but not as a means of educating all students.

The evidence from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York (FIT) affirms Grubb's thesis. In 1991, the president of that institution at the time, Marvin Feldman, testified at a public hearing before the New York State Assembly Committee on Higher Education (Feldman, 1991). FIT has one of the highest student retention rates of any community college in the country, graduating more than 62% of those enrolled. (Nationwide, community college retention rates average 35%.) Feldman identifies the secret of FIT's success as "vocational and technical education, delivered to students right up front from the first day they arrive on campus" (p. 4). FIT uses technical training to teach the other disciplines such as reading, writing, math, and critical thinking. The curriculum does not proceed from general to specific; instead students begin in their specialty. "[T]heir enthusiasm for their major courses is a strong motivation for keeping them in school" (p. 5). Feldman believes that liberal arts and occupational education complement and enhance each other. "Our culture exists in the things we make, and not apart from them" (p. 10). He says that no one has ever suggested that learning one skill would prevent a person from being able to learn another. He proposes that learning one skill will actually enhance the ability to learn others. FIT offers baccalaureate and master's degree programs also, but requires that all students first earn an associate degree as a foundation for their higher level programs.

Brewer (1999) notes that the "integration of academic and occupation education reinforces the shifting paradigm from teaching to learning and requires that students become active participants in the construction of their own knowledge" (p. 1). Similarly, in my 17 years of teaching English at a technical college where we traditionally did AOI, I have discovered that students are much more motivated to write and give speeches on topics that mean something to them, that are something they truly want to communicate. It takes work on the part of both the technical and the general education faculties, but both sides benefit from gains in knowledge and experience. Auto mechanics teachers discover that good writing is not just about putting commas in the right place, while the English and math teachers discover that troubleshooting a carburetor requires complex thinking skills. The students benefit because they sense the unity among the teachers and within the integrated curriculum. They begin to respect and gain competence in the academic subjects as well as in the technical.

The integration of academic and occupational instruction is not a fad; it has been proposed by many respected educators during the past century, and it has been proven by many pilot projects in various settings across the United States. Teachers have uniformly reported increased enthusiasm among both their peers and students. However, rarely has AOI become more than a pilot project because its implementation demands time, money, and faculty dedication. What seems to be lacking in the studies is the reporting of student outcomes. Perhaps if pilot projects would report not only the increased enthusiasm, but also measurable outcomes, then more institutions would be persuaded to dedicate the resources to effect more sweeping and permanent changes to incorporate AOI.

References

Badway, N. (1998). Extent, quality and access for integrated curriculum in community colleges. Journal of Vocational Education Research 23 (2), 133-45.

Beckstrom, E. S. (1998). Extending the reach. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Phoenix, AZ. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 427 209)

Bogue, J.P. (1950). The community college. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Bragg, D. D., Reger, W., & Thomas, H. S. (1997). Integration of academic and occupational education in the Illinois community college system. Springfield, IL: Illinois Community College Board. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 418 757)

Brown, B. L. (1998). Academic and vocational integration. Myths and realities. Columbus, OH: Center on Education and Training for Employment, Ohio State University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 424 400)

Brewer, J. A. (1999). Integration of academic and occupational education in community/technical colleges. ERIC Digest. Los Angeles: ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 425 786)

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy' and education; an introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Eells, W.C. (1931). The junior college. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Feldman, M. (1991). The community college and vocational education: Issues of access and retention. Testimony before the New York State Assembly Committee on Higher Education Public Hearing (Albany, NY, November 14, 1991). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 341 412)

Grubb, W. N. (1996). The new vocationalism: What it is, what it could be. Phi Delta Kappan 77 (8), 535-36, 538-46.

Grubb, W. N. & Kraskouskas, E. (1992). A time to every purpose: Integrating occupational and academic education in community colleges and technical institutes. Macomb, IL: NCRVE Materials Distribution Service. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 350 405)

Grubb, W. N., Badway, N., Bell, D., & Kraskouskas, E. (1996). Community college innovations in workforce preparation: Curriculum integration and TechPrep. Mission Viejo, CA: League Publications. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 405 021)

Grubb, W. N., Worthen, H., Byrd, B., Webb, E., Badway, N., Case, C., Goto, S., & Villeneuve, J. (1999). Honored but invisible: An inside look at teaching in community colleges. New York: Routledge. pp. 269-275.

Higginbottom, G. H. (1994). Workplace utility and the humanities: General and occupational education in the community college. Journal of General Education 43 (4) 273-88.

Hoachlander, G. (1999). Integrating academic and vocational curriculum--Why is theory so hard to practice? Centerpoint 7, September 1999. National Center for Research in Vocational Education, Berkeley,CA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 433 454)

Jacobs, J., & Teahen, R. C. (1996). We're doing it: Michigan models for academic and occupational integration. Paper presented at Workforce 2000 Annual Conference on Workforce Training of the League for Innovation in the Community College, Orlando, FL. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 399 997)

Koos, L.V. (1924). The junior college. (2 vols.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.

McBroom, G. (1996). Liberal arts vs. vocational education: An Olympian balancing act. Paper presented at the fifth annual International Conference for Community College and Technical College Chairs, Deans, and Other Organization Leaders, Phoenix/Mesa, AZ. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED394580)

Perin, D. (1998). Curriculum and pedagogy to integrate occupational and academic instruction in the community college: Implications for faculty development. New York: Community College Research Center, Columbia University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 428 793)

Pisapia, J., & Riggins, E. (1997). The integration of academic and vocational education. System design. Richmond, VA: Metropolitan Educational Research Concortium. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 404 440)

Roegge, C. A., & Ferej, A. (1995). But I've been doing this for years: Informal integration of vocational and academic education pilot test report. In Integrating academic and vocational education. A resource guide. (pp. 1-23).Tallahassee, FL: Florida School-to-Work Joint Services Office. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 414 425)

Teahen, R. C. (1996). Curriculum models: Integration of academic and occupational content. Traverse City, MI: Northwestern Michigan College. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 399 998)

Walling, S. (1995). Integrating academic and vocational skills. Paper presented at the Annual Professional Development Conference (1st, Roxbury Crossing, MA, June 3, 1995). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 387 150)

Wu, R. T. (1996). Comprehensive high school: An effective way to integrate academic and vocational education in Taiwan, Republic of China. Paper presented at the American Vocational Association Convention in Cincinnati, OH, December 7, 1996. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 404 545)

Carolyn M. Prentice previously taught at a technical college for 17 years and is now a doctoral student in the department of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. [e-mail]