Rejecting the theory/practice dichotomy in youth and community work training

The authors draw on their research with higher education youth and social work training to reject the usual notion of an academic/vocational or theory/practice dichotomy, and instead propose that professional youth work training in higher education should be embedded within the lived experiences of the students and the communities in which they work. The qualitative measure they used was the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO taxonomy) developed by Briggs and Collis, which provides a model of progressive complexity and a systematic development from the concrete to the abstract. They hope that this will provide "one antidote to the currently dominant ideology that favours 'objective' measurable actions as the best form of professional training."