Social constructivism and tourism education

There is general agreement that tourism education should strive to balance vocational and liberal characteristics of tourism in order to cultivate well-rounded and employable students. In order for students to be successful in the "real world", tourism educators strive to provide a space that nurtures critical and technical skills; knowledge of the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of tourism; and, the ability to translate the skills and knowledge in occupationally functional and relevant situations. The purpose of this paper is to critically explore factors involved in "successful" learning in tourism education by drawing from Vygostky's (1978) "situated social constructivism" learning model and examples from the author's own teaching.