ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical discussion of the processes and outcomes of the guided learning of vocational practice. It proposes that the vocational practice individuals have to learn has social origins and that the processes of learning this practice are also social. The chapter discusses conceptual bases for guiding learning in terms of how access to guidance and participation in activities are central to learning vocational practices. It discusses considerations for curriculum in terms of goals, enactments and participative experiences, followed by the views of those proposing pedagogical principles from a guided learning perspective. The chapter illustrates how a vocational practice can be learnt through the direct guidance of a more capable partner, assisted by contributions from the social and physical environment and the enactment of the 'learning curriculum'. Individuals learning are shaped by both the immediate social practice they engage in and the legacy of previous social practices that comprise their personal histories and also their cognitive experience.
