Relating Academic and Vocational Education.

Overview & Synopsis

A review of the literature for the approximate decade from the late sixties to the early seventies shows that the division between academic and vocational education is not considered an advisable one. A need for interdisciplinary integration is expressed together with brief examinations of such attempts. There is a pattern revealed in the literature relating academic and vocational education: first there is a merging of courses within vocational service areas, then an integration of the vocational fields themselves, and finally, an integration of vocational and academic education programs through interdisciplinary programs. Selected program descriptions, research reports, and curriculum guides and manuals identify approaches used. The most promising is the Comprehensive Career Education Model. Together with the four U.S. Office of Education models (school-based, employer-based, home/community-based, and residential-based) a significant social movement is formed. The literature cites numerous examples of programs in various areas using those models. In the future, the process approach will replace old approaches to education. A seventeen-page bibliography concludes the document, including information on ERIC document numbers where available. (AG)