Soviet Education

ISSN: 0038-5360 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mres19

The Vocational-Technical Education Curriculum in

Secondary Vocational-Technical Schools

N. I. Dumchenko & A. P. Beliaeva

To cite this article: N. I. Dumchenko & A. P. Beliaeva (1977) The Vocational-Technical Education
Curriculum in Secondary Vocational-Technical Schools, Soviet Education, 19:12, 38-50

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RES1060-9393191238

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N. I. Dumchenko and A. P. Beliaeva

THE VOCATIONAL- TECHNICAL EDUCATION

CURRICUL UM IN SECONDARY
VOCATIONAL- TECHNICAL SCHOOLS*

In the new stage of social and scientific-technological prog-

ress, higher demands are made with regard to the vocational
training of workers and their educational and cultural level.
The worldwide, historic role of the working class is becoming
still more important under present conditions, growing both
quantitatively and qualitatively. Thus, workers comprised
more than 50 percent of the employed population of the USSR
in 1970, compared with a mere 12 percent in 1928. The num-
ber of workers employed in skilled and highly skilled labor is
rising significantly. Both the general education school and the
vocational school play an important part in the training of the
modern skilled worker and in his development as an individual.
The creation of a new type of educational institution - secon-
dary vocational-technical schools - was an important stage in
the improvement of the vocational-technical school. The peda-
gogical process in these training institutions is a complex one

*Russian text © 1975 by the USSR Academy of Pedagogical

Sciences. "Soderzhani e professional'no-tekhnicheskogo obra-
zovaniia v srednikh proftekhuchilishchakh," Sovetskaia peda-
gogika, 1975, No. 10.
The authors are affiliated with the All- Union Scientific Re-
search Institute for Vocational and Technical Education.

38
OCTOBER 1977 39

that takes place at many levels and requires the solution of

many pedagogical research problems. The problem of curricu-
lum holds a special place among these, since it is basic to the
solution of a number of other problems relating to teaching
methods and forms of instruction, the social education of pu-
pils, the grouping and classification of blue collar occupations,
the scientific organization of the teaching and social education
process, and the physiology, psychology, and economics of
labor.
An ever-increasing number of various types of institutions
have been working on problems concerning the curriculum of
vocational-technical education in recent years; an effort is be-
ing made to develop a comprehensive solution to the problem
of the curricular content of education through systematic in-
quiry.
The present article will attempt to examine the most impor-
tant didactic problems relating to the curriculum for vocational
and technical education in secondary vocational-technical
schools. The main didactic problem is to bring the curriculum
of secondary vocational-technical schools into line with the de-
mands of social and scientific-technological progress. Numer-
ous studies conducted by the All- Union Scientific Research In-
stitute for Vocational and Technical Education have brought out
the major trends of change in the nature and content of the la-
bor of blue collar workers. In connection with the intensifica-
tion of the worldwide, historic role of the working class and
the growth of its ranks in various branches of the national econ-
omy, mentioned above, we should also focus attention on in-
creasing the number of skilled and highly skilled blue collar
occupations, on integrating existing occupations, and on creat-
ing new mass occupations. In modern production, man's rou-
tine functions are transferred to the means of labor; a transi-
tion is made from physical functions to functions involving pri-
marily mental operations; with the further development of sci-
ence, technology, and culture, the functional content of the labor
of various groups of blue collar occupations shows more and
more common features. Trends toward change in the content
40 SOVIET EDUCATION

of the labor of skilled workers grow out of the further develop-

ment of the multibranch structure of the national economy, the
application of relatively similar means of labor, the standardi-
zation of machine components and similarity in their operating
principles, the standardization of technological processes, and
the scientific principles entailed in the production of the final
product. Therefore, in our opinion further analysis of the so-
cial consequences of the scientific-technological revolution
and its influence on the occupational skill structure of the work
force, and of the nature and content of labor, is one of the pri-
mary tasks for comprehensive scientific research. To improve
the curricular content of education and assure that curricular
documentation is worked out effectively, it is essential to deter-
mine the scientific principles of curriculum selection with due
regard to the prospective development of individual branches
of the national economy, and to create an ongoing system for
the collection of research and production-related information.
The collection of such information can be handled most com-
petently by the scientific research institutes of the branch min-
istries and agencies and submitted in the appropriate form,
volume, and content to solve problems of pedagogy and psy-
chology. The All- Union Scientific Research Institute for Voca-
tional and Technical Education has worked out a structure for
job descriptions and has elaborated methods for compiling
them (see The Structure of Job Descriptions. Methodological
Principles and Methods Used in Their Elaboration [Struktura
professional'nokvalifikatsionnoi kharakteristiki; metodolo-
gicheskie osnovy, printsipy i metodika ee razr abotki ], Lenin-
grad, 1973). The structure has been tested in practice in the
developing curricular documentation for the experimental
training of skilled workers in secondary vocational-technical
schools. This provides a basis for recommending the struc-
ture as the foundation for a system of selecting information on
the nature and content of the labor of blue collar workers and
as a seminal document for improving the curriculum of voca-
tional and technical education.
One principle followed in the new stage in curriculum selec-
OCTOBER 1977 41

tion is that pupils must be made to understand the scientific

principles of technology, production techniques, and the eco-
nomics of production. This makes it possible to inculcate pu-
pils with the ability to orient themselves in production work
that uses modern equipment, and with the ability to solve prob-
lems concerned with selecting an optimal technological process
and rationalizing it. In accordance with the rapidly changing
conditions and needs of production, a young worker training in
a secondary vocational-technical school must be able to up-
grade his skill level ani must be occupationally mobile. The
curriculum must be oriented toward solving an important so-
cial problem: the problem of shaping the individual worker in
communist society. Determining the demands that social pro-
duction makes on the skilled worker; studying the basic trends
of change in the nature and content of his labor; and analyzing
the curriculum of the mass vocational-technical school from
a historical and logical standpoint have made it possible to
bring out the basic trends of change in the curricular content
of secondary vocational-technical schools. First, there is a
closer relationship between general polytechnical and voca-
tional education; theoretical knowledge plays a greater part in
the general structure of education, and the role of engineering
and technical knowledge in the worker training program is up-
graded. Second, the body of knowledge to be learned is ex-
panded (as a necessary condition for pupils' more rapid mas-
tery of this knowledge in depth); the basic core of the voca-
tional-technical curriculum is stable, while the specialized
section is flexible, and the proportions between these two ele-
ments are optimal. Third, comprehensive, interdisciplinary
relations playa greater role in the construction of syllabuses
and curricula; emphasis is placed on the role of polytechnical
knowledge and skills engendered by scientific and technical fea-
tures common to the management of modern production pro-
cesses. And, finally, vocational and polytechnical skills are
combined closely in the development of production skills and
the mastery of an occupation, and the scientific principles of
production play a greater part in all school disciplines.
42 SOVIET EDUCATION

The relative proportions of the general polytechnical and

vocational curriculum are determined with due regard to the
demands of society, the level of development of science, and
the demands made by production on the worker in a given oc-
cupation. Because of the large number of blue collar occupa-
tions (over 6,000), determination of the didactic principles for
classifying and grouping occupations is indispensable for the
standardization of the curriculum and curricular documenta-
tion. Common scientific-technological, psychological, and
socioeconomic characteristics of labor; the content of the la-
bor of blue collar workers; and common didactic features in
the curriculum of future workers in different occupations form
the points of departure in solving this problem (see "The Didac-
tic Principles for Grouping the Blue Collar Occupations" [Di-
dakticheskie osnovy gruppirovki rabochikh professii], Nau-
chnye trudy, 1973, No.2 [Leningrad, VNII proftekhobrazo-
vanta]). Another important consideration is the optimal pro-
portions between various course cycles [tsikly] and school
disciplines in the syllabuses and curricula, based on their log-
ical and well-spaced construction and systematization in the
instructional material. To assure that school disciplines in
the general education, general technical, and vocational cycles
are represented in optimal proportions in the curriculum, it
is essential to secure scientific validation for the individual
course cycles and subjects, and their interfacing. The prob-
lem of interweaving the curricula of disciplines in all three
cycles is very characteristic of the tasks facing secondary
vocational-technical schools. At the same time, the underly-
ing system (logic) of individual school disciplines in the gen-
eral technical and vocational cycles interfaced with the system
of subjects in the general education course cycle must be given
scientific substantiation.
The raising of the scientific and technical level of the voca-
tional-technical curriculum, the accentuation of production
training, and improvement of the interrelation between theoret-
ical and production training and between teaching and social
education as a whole, are qualitative changes in this curriculum.
OCTOBER 1977 43

As we know, production training in vocational-technical schools

is at the same time both a school discipline and a training pro-
cess. The part played by production training as a school sub-
ject in the polytechnical curriculum is significantly enhanced
by the fact that it forms the foundation for the development of a
system of abilities and skills for skilled labor directly in pro-
ductive work. Accordingly, the production training curriculum
provides for completion of a set of projects that requires the
use of modern materials and mechanized and automated equip-
ment employed in various branches of production, and obser-
vance of the demands of various technological processes, as
well as the rules of safety engineering, sanitation, and hygiene.
This is required first and foremost by the need to train broadly
specialized blue collar workers.
The mastery of general education polytechnical knowledge,
abilities, and skills (at the ninth- and tenth-grade level of the
secondary general education school) is a new qualitative change
in the curriculum. Close combination of the general education
and vocational preparation of pupils in a secondary vocational-
technical school permits a significant rise in the general edu-
cational and skill level of young workers and makes it possible
to give them more lasting vocational and polytechnical knowl-
edge and skills. Experimental studies have shown that a cer-
tain reciprocal influence can be found between the general edu-
cation and vocational-teclmical curriculum. Given an optimal
relation between the two (establishment of intercycle and inter-
disciplinary ties, vocational orientation of instruction in the
general education subjects, and performance of a certain amount
of practical laboratory and integrated production training work),
a close combination of good general education and vocational
training is achieved.
To bring out the external and internal ties between general
polytechnical and vocational education, well-defined interaction
among the natural, social, and technical sciences must be es-
tablished as a foundation for objectively combining knowledge,
abilities, and skills into a system for training workers in sec-
ondary vocational-technical schools. The process of social
44 SOVIET EDUCATION

production, representing the unity of productive forces and

production relations, forms the basic stage in the development
of these interrelationships. The broadest approach to the inter-
relations of science is offered by philosophy, which explains
this phenomenon on the basis of the laws of nature and society.
V. 1. Lenin described this approach as follows: "mechanical
and chemical technology serves the aims of man because its
character (essence) consists in the definition of this technology
by external conditions (laws of nature)" (Complete Collected
Works [Polnoe sobranie sochinenii], Vol. 29, p. 170). The
other side of the philosophical approach is that ties between
the natural and technical sciences represent the most essential
stage in the transition from the ideal (science) to the material
(practice). Objective interconnections among the sciences are
theoretical prerequisites to determining the scientifically vali-
dated proportions of general education and vocational training
and in realizing these proportions in syllabuses and curricula
for secondary vocational-technical schools. Technology, which
is a feedback link between the technical and the social sciences,
occupies a special place in establishing ties among the sciences,
for technology unites both elements of the productive forces -
the physical and human elements - and on this basis creates
man's social living conditions.
When staff members of the All- Union Scientific Research
Institute for Vocational and Technical Education worked out
standard syllabuses and curricula for training workers in
twenty-six leading occupations in various branches of the na-
tional economy, it was shown that school subjects are usually
based on the same sciences. For this reason, major attention
is devoted to delineation of the principles of science, to the
structure of instructional material, to the logic behind the or-
ganization of the school subject, and to its relations with other
disciplines. The curricular content of subjects in the general
technical and vocational cycles, on the other hand, is based on
a group of sections from various sciences embodied in the
technology of concrete production. For this reason, questions
of the selection of instructional material and the organization
46 SOVIET EDUCATION

lathe operator; mechanic and monitor for metering instruments

and automatic chemical production equipment; crane operator
in metallurgical production; general tractor and farm machin-
ery operator; electrician servicing railroad signaling, cen-
tralization, and block systems; tailor for women's and chil-
dren's overcoats; painter-plasterer-tile layer) and examina-
tion of the curriculum in vocational-technical schools has
shown that the share of theoretical instruction is increasing
at the expense of production training. The level of theoretical
instruction rises proportionately with the complexity of an oc-
cupation; yet at the same time the amount of classroom time
allotted to the study of general technical and special theoret-
ical subjects is declining. In the latter subjects, individual
topics and sections are redistributed at the expense of general
education subjects; the body of knowledge to be assimilated is
expanded (especially in subjects in the general technical and
vocational programs); and the number of practical laboratory
projects is increased. Complex production training projects
are given a large place in production training.
Expansion of the body of knowledge to be assimilated calls
for an optimal increase in the volume of instructional material
(for each topic and in each lesson) and simultaneous study of
not one but several subjects comprising a segment of instruc-
tional material, without disrupting their interrelations and
mutual dependences. This requires the use of effective teach-
ing methods that permit the more successful development of
reasoning abilities and skills relating to active labor. It should
be noted that, notwithstanding a reduction in the time allotted
for study of subjects in the general technical and vocational
cycles, problems concerning the work load of pupils, instruc-
tors, and production training masters at secondary vocational-
technical schools are quite acute. The solution of these prob-
lems entails determining the most rational proportions between
general education and vocational training, eliminating duplica-
tion and material of minor importance, organizing general edu-
cation and general technical subjects with due regard to the
curriculum for various groups of blue collar occupations,
OCTOBER 1977 45

of general technical and special disciplines and production

training are even more complex. It is necessary to work out
principles for dividing these disciplines into topics and to de-
termine how instructional material can be grouped that assure
that knowledge is systematic and properly structured so that it
can be more rapidly assimilated in depth. Three course cycles
of subjects, each of which forms a logical whole, have been
worked out in the syllabuses. The course cycle is the largest
structural element in the syllabus; in turn, it forms a complex
subsystem of knowledge and skills. Study of questions con-
cerned with connections between the course cycles (intercycle
relations) has shown that they transcend interdisciplinary re-
lationships and are more general via-a-via these relationships.
Such relationships reflect the interface between science and
society, science and technology, technology and economic fac-
tors, man and nature, and man and technology, as well as be-
tween expedient human activity and objects, means, and prod-
ucts of labor. Such a complex system of relationships can
function successfully given their logical unity, continuity, and
supplementation within the structure of the syllabuses and cur-
ricula. On this basis, it is essential to bring order to the gen-
eral structure of syllabuses that manifest a certain degree of
contradiction in the structure of individual course cycles. The
aspect of intercycle relations discussed here must be studied
further.
Achieving an optimal relationship between the general educa-
tion and vocational training of pupils in secondary vocational-
technical schools also depends on rational ties between theory
and practice. In connection with the introduction of general
secondary education (at the general education school level)
into secondary vocational-technical schools, the amount of
classroom time spent in the study of theoretical subjects in
the general technical and vocational cycles has been reduced.
In the new syllabuses and curricula, the ratio of theoretical
to production training ranges from 1:0.7 to 1:0.8 (depending
on the occupation). Comparative analysis of syllabuses and
curricula for training workers in eight vocations (general
OCTOBER 1977 47

elaborating the scientific principles of vocational training, and

improving the organization of the entire teaching and social up-
bringing process. The problem of poly technical training and
the development of practical guidelines for implementing the
polytechnical principle of instruction occupy a special place.
Pupils already are taught the fundamentals of polytechnical
knowledge and sltills in the eight-year school. The system of
polytechnical knowledge and sltills in the secondary vocational-
technical school must be constructed on a deeper foundation.
Here, polytechnical knowledge and sltills are programmed into
the curricular content not only of general education subjects
and general technical and special subjects, but of production
training as well. N. K. Krupskaya wrote that the "system of
polytechnic education is not some kind of special subject of
instruction. It must permeate all disciplines. It must be re-
flected in the selection of material in physics, chemistry, nat-
ural science, and social studies" (Works [Sochineniia], Vol. 4,
Moscow, RSFSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Press, 1959,
p. 195).
The structure and curricular content of polytechnic education
in secondary vocational-technical schools are based on inter-
relations between various school subjects and pupils' labor, as
well as direct connections between these subjects and produc-
tion. The role polytechnical education plays in bringing out
ties between general and vocational education and between
course cycles and disciplines is raised accordingly. The tran-
sition from polytechnic education in the regular school to poly-
technic education in the vocational-technical school is very im-
portant in this process. V. I. Lenin first formulated the con-
cept of the transition from general polytechnic to vocational-
technical education in the article, "On the Work of the Peo-
ple's Commissariat of Education" (see Complete Collected
Works, Vol. 42, p. 323). Syllabuses and curricula for secon-
dary vocational-technical schools call for handling the transi-
tion from general polytechnic to vocational polytechnical educa-
tion by maintaining stable relations and continuity between them.
Two aspects of the system of polytechnic education - theoret-
48 SOVIET EDUCATION

ical and practical - are examined in the vocational-technical

curriculum. The first aspect is based on the study of all the-
oretical subjects. The second, practical aspect is tied to the
acquisition of practical knowledge in the assimilation of gen-
eral education disciplines and the subject "Labor Training" in
the eight-year school, and in the study of general technical
subjects and production training in the school. At the same
time, polytechnic knowledge and skills are manifested most in
the pupils' performance of joint production training projects.
It is our conviction that the structure of vocational-polytechnic
education in secondary vocational-technical schools must be
based on a developed theory of both the labor process and the
production process. In working out such theory, it is essential
to examine the structure, content, and classification of labor
and production processes, with regard to both their genesis
and their functioning. Such an approach makes it possible to
view both processes as whole, complex systems in which all
elements have stable, substantive relationships. The exclusion
of even one of the elements in this system destroys it entirely.
To enable a person to function and gain his bearings in the
entire system of concrete production, it is essential to impart
to him a knowledge of all elements in the labor and production
processes, in their natural interrelation, and to lead him
through this complete system. For this reason, all the ele-
ments identified in the labor and production processes must
be included in the labor or production training syllabuses (in
accordance with their true content, interrelationships, and im-
portance). In this regard, it is expedient to view the labor and
production processes as a category of occupational pedagogy.
The polytechnic and vocational curriculum must reflect the
logical structure of general labor and vocational training,
along with the genetic structure of these processes. The re-
sult is to create continuity and consistency in all structural
elements, reflecting functional relationships and the genesis
of the labor and production processes. Developing a classifica-
tion of labor and production processes to aid in selecting the
vocational-technical curriculum is very important here.
OCTOBER 1977 49

A number of systems of instruction have been advanced and

validated to a greater or lesser degree in recent years; this
has made it possible to achieve definite successes in production
training at secondary vocational-technical schools. We have
not yet determined, however, which of these systems is of gen-
eral or of specific importance, whether continuity and differen-
tiation are needed in the systems used in the general education
school and the vocational-technical school, whether these sys-
tems are optimal ones for solving problems concerned with
the training of skilled workers, and so on. All the questions
raised encompass to one degree or another the problem of
achieving continuity between the curricula of the eight-year
school and the secondary vocational-technical school. The
work experience of secondary vocational-technical schools
reveals important unresolved issues in regard to this problem.
They concern the organization of the syllabuses, curricula, and
individual courses; the development of the curriculum for poly-
technic education and for labor and production training; inter-
disciplinary relations; the vocational orientation of general
education subjects; elaboration of the logical foundations of the
major general education subjects (mathematics, physics, chem-
istry, and biology) with due regard to the specific character-
istics of education, training, and upbringing, and the organiza-
tion of the teaching and social education process in secondary
vocational-technical schools; and so forth.
Given the specific features of the training of workers in
vocational-technical schools, it is essential to organize further
work on the scientific validation of the following principles:
the occupational mobility of vocational- technical school gradu-
ates; the stability of the general core of the curriculum and the
flexible nature of the specialized portion of it; sequences in the
development of educational, practical, and production-related
skills in accordance with the logic of their formation; the tech-
nological consistency and continuity of labor operations in the
training process; and the establishment of complex interdisci-
plinary relationships.
The social education potential of each instructional subject
50 SOVIET EDUCATION

is very important for the all-around development of pupils of

vocational- technical schools. All school subj ects occupy a
proper place in the system for shaping the personality of the
future worker; their study helps pupils assimilate basic philo-
sophical ideas and concepts and creates broad opportunities
for the ideological, political, intellectual, moral, labor, mili-
tary-patriotic, aesthetic, and physical education of future work-
ers. In determining the leading ideas that pupils must learn,
it is essential to consider the methodological significance of
the investigated principles, their relationship with the curricu-
lum, their comprehensibility, and ties between the various
school disciplines. While the formation of a communist atti-
tude toward labor is given great importance, the curricular
content of school subjects must reflect the basic concepts that
reveal the content and basic nature of this process. The vari-
ous school subjects are equally important in shaping the prin-
ciples of a communist attitude toward labor, but, because of
their specific features, they offer different possibilities for
influencing the personality of the young worker. This will re-
quire the intimate combination of theoretical and production
training and the establishment of ties between general educa-
tion and general technical and special subjects. A communist
attitude toward labor is an integral quality that results from
the comprehensive influence of labor on the individual.