Embodied learning in vocational education and training

Researchers investigating learning from primary to higher education have emphasised the crucial role of embodiment in the process of developing knowledge, skills and expertise. In spite of this, the physical or psychomotor aspects of learning are vastly under-researched and undervalued in the literature on vocational education and training (VET). Such a marginalisation of embodiment and the physical is regrettable in that - in addition to its failure to sufficiently acknowledge defining features of much vocational learning - it serves to reinforce the notion that only the cognitive aspects of learning are of interest and value in vocational development. Such a partial and misguided conception contributes to the subordinate and second-class status of vocational studies against liberal/academic pursuits. It will be argued here that a re-examination of the role of the physical in VET can provide - not just a richer and deeper understanding of vocational learning - but also a means of enhancing the status of vocational pursuits within general education systems.