Vocational teacher's inclination to impart values in vocational training: The importance of pedagogical-didactical and psychological factors

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to present empirically tested model of the importance of vocational teachers' pedagogical-didactical and psychological factors for inclination to impart their value positions in vocational education. 346 vocational teachers from 27 vocational training institutions and colleges in Lithuania completed paper-pencil questionnaires. A correlation study was designed to determine the extent to which the pedagogical-didactical and psychological determinants are related to values education. The results of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated 7 significant factors on the inclination of vocational teachers to convey values to learners in vocational education and training. Teachers' efforts to provoke or cause emotions in students during didactical processes, as well as matching students' practical experience and open teaching strategies were identified as the most important pedagogical-didactical factors for teacher's inclination to impart values education. Teachers as pedagogical experts were more concerned with values education than were teachers as didactical or subject matter experts. Important psychological factors included vocational teachers' personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness as well as extrinsic social motivation that were significantly related to teacher's inclination towards values education. To our knowledge, this research is the first comprehensive attempt to evaluate the importance of pedagogical-didactical and psychological factors on the inclination of vocational teachers to convey values to learners in vocational education and training. In the future, longitudinal studies are needed to make causal inferences regarding the hypothesized relationships among the variables.