Exploring professional vision of vet students and tutors: noticing, evaluating and reasoning about practice

In dual vocational education and training (VET) programs, students learn across school and work contexts. Educators in both these contexts reside in different socio-cultural practices and can have different or even contradicting views on practice, influencing their guidance. In this study, we used the concept of professional vision to explore differing views on practice between participants with various educational roles, namely students, school teachers and workplace supervisors. In total, 11 students, 11 school teachers and seven workplace supervisors were asked to view the same set of five videos showing apprentices in the domain of underground infrastructure performing domain-specific tasks. Participants were asked to explain what they noticed in the videos and evaluate the apprentices' performance. The data analysis consisted of a mixed-method approach. We quantitatively compared how educational roles viewed and evaluated task performance, followed by a qualitative ventriloquial analysis of their reasoning. Our findings highlight the diversity in professional vision among participants. Participants focused on different elements of practice, evaluated the same elements differently and showed variations in their reasoning. However, this could only be partly explained by their educational role. These findings suggest a need to prepare VET students for the different views of practice they will encounter during their careers, ultimately forming their well-founded professional vision.