Using Cognitive Structures and Cognitive Dispositions to Analyse Values in Vocational Education

Abstract

This paper conceptualises value positions in education in terms of cognitive dispositions derived from critical theory and cognitive structures derived from cognitive science. Categorisations of value positions in general, adult and vocational education are analysed for commonalities and differences and it is argued that these categorisations need to be understood in terms of both cognitive dispositions and cognitive structures. This argument is synthesised from the inadequacies of existing taxonomies of curricular orientations where they tend to confine the treatment of cognitive structures to a single category of value positions, even though all categories either explicitly or implicitly rely on attaching importance to various cognitive structures. The conceptualisation of values in terms of both cognitive dispositions and cognitive structures is applied to various vocational educational goals, including contemporary governmental goals. The utility of this framework in examining such goals is discussed.