This study aims to provide insight into the learning processes that take place when vocational student teachers work with multimodal digital logbooks at the campus and between school and placement. The study will highlight vocational student teachers’ experiences of using logbooks between university and practicum as well as between school and pupils’ practicum. It will also highlight how student teachers learn when working with logbooks. The data consist of transcripts from eight interviews with vocational student teachers about their experiences of working with a digital, multimodal course logbook in their placement course and 19 essays about working with digital, and sometimes multimodal, logbooks between secondary school and practicum. A thematic analysis was conducted based on the key concepts in a previously developed model (Kilbrink et.al., 2021) to find out how student teachers experience the use of digital multimodal logbooks and their own learning processes during it. The analyses also show that both kinds of logbooks worked well for the students as a means of both advancing and showing their professional development. There are as many learning examples as there are essays, and the student teachers learn from failure as well as success. When the Identification model is applied to the data, pedagogical aims seem to play a greater role than the choice of digital technology. In addition, how the technology is used becomes a crucial factor for which level of communication is reached. By using the Identification model to analyse vocational student teachers’ experiences of using digital, multimodal logbooks as boundary objects between university and practicum as students and between school and practicum as teachers, as well as their experienced learning processes in relation to the use of the logbooks, the study provides insight into some of the learning processes that take place across learning institutions and practicums.

I yrkesutbildning talas det ofta om klyftor, mellan det lärande som sker på skola/universitetet och det lärande som sker i Arbetsplatsförlagt lärande (APL) eller Verksamhetsförlagd utbildning (VFU). Användandet av digital teknik kan vara ett sätt att överbrygga sådana klyftor. Tidigare studier visar att digital teknik kan öka insynen i elevers eller studenters praktik (Cattaneo & Aprea, 2018; Enochsson m fl. 2020; Kilbrink m fl. 2021; Motta m fl., 2014; Schwendimann m fl., 2015). I föreliggande projekt fokuserar vi på yrkesutbildningen till lärare och att belysa lärarutbildarnas eget lärande och hur deras läraridentitet utvecklas och transformeras när de arbetar med digital teknik för att koppla samman olika lärandearenor.

Under sin VFU i en kurs på en yrkeslärarutbildning har studenterna fört en multimodal digital loggbok kring några på förhand bestämda uppdrag, som hänger samman med aktuella kursmål. I projektet har upprepade intervjuer genomförts med lärarutbildarna om deras erfarenheter av att införa och låta studenterna arbeta med loggböckerna, i syfte att koppla samman lärandet mellan den universitetsförlagda delen av kursen och VFU.

Av resultaten framkommer att loggboken fungerar som en bro mellan universitetet och VFU. Samtidigt som lärarutbildarna får större insyn i vad studenterna gör och lär sig på sin VFU får de också större insikt i den verksamhet de utbildar sina studenter för. För även om många lärarutbildare själva har en lärarutbildning är det ofta ett tag sedan de själva var verksamma i skolan. Resultaten visar också att då lärarutbildarna reflekterar över studenternas lärande och den nya teknikens roll så sker ett lärande även hos dem. 

This study explores the interaction between students and teachers in subject-specific

vocational education, specifically focusing on the hair and make-up stylist classroom

within the handicraft programme in Swedish upper secondary school. The aim is to

understand the role and significance of the mirror in enabling teacher-student

interaction and mutual understanding. By integrating Conversation Analysis and

Variation Theory into a unified approach (CAVTA), the study seeks to provide

comprehensive insights into the ‘what’ and ‘how’ aspects of learning. CAVTA enables

the identification of the visible content in teaching and how it manifests in the staged

vocational education setting. The findings reveal the teacher’s strategic use of the mirror

to emphasise critical aspects of the Object of learning, in this study referring to the

application of eye shadow. This utilisation of the mirror serves as a valuable teaching

tool in the interaction between the teacher and student.

In the vocational education classroom settings, teaching and learning are done in interaction between teacher and students. This study is a part of a larger VR-funded project (dnr 2017-03552) which explores vocational learning in technical upper secondary vocational education. In our study we aim to shed light on how learning takes place in a vocational classroom at the handicraft programme (hair- and makeup stylist) in actual teaching situations. When studying how learning takes place in a vocational and educational training classroom, we can reach more in-depth knowledge about the teacher-student interaction in a narrower scale.   

The purpose is to contribute with knowledge regarding how learning takes place and can be made visible with support of the concepts critical aspects features within variation theory (cf. Marton, 2015) and how learning is done in interaction (Sahlström, 2012) between the teacher and the student(s) in the learning settings.    

Methods/Methodology

Our empirical data consists of video material of lessons in the Handicraft programme. Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory (CAVTA) are the basis of this study described by Kilbrink and Asplund (2020). To reach a more comprehensive knowledge of the what- and the how-aspects of learning, Conversation analysis and Variation Theory are merged into one common approach (cf. Emanuelsson & Sahlström, 2008). CAVTA is used as the analytical tool when analyzing the video material. 

Expected outcomes

In the data we can see that it takes about 3-7 rounds of interactions where the student gets guidance step by step, before the student reach the learning content regarding the whole makeup procedure. The teacher comes back to the students learning process and negotiates continuously during the lesson. Learning occurs through negotiating when using artefacts, embodied movements, mirrors and tools.     

References 

Emanuelsson, J., & Sahlström, F. (2008). The price of participation: Teacher control versus student participation in classroom interaction. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52(2), 205-223. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313830801915853Kilbrink, N., &

Asplund, S.-B. (2020). “This angle that we talked about”: learning how to weld in interaction. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 30(1), 83-100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-018-9490-z

Marton, F. (2015). Necessary conditions of learning. Routledge. 

Sahlström, F. (2012). "The truth lies in the detail": On student and teacher epistemic-stance displays in classroom interaction. In B. Kaur (Ed.), Understanding teaching and learning: Classroom research revisited. (pp. 79-90). Sense publishers. 

In interaction between students and vocational teachers, technical artefacts constitute an essential part for the development of vocational students’ future professional knowledge. Although vocational learning has been an under-researched area, there has been an increased interest within the vocational education research to examine the teaching and learning processes that take place when vocational students and teachers interact in vocational school settings. The presence of physical objects such as tools, machines and material in the teaching and learning processes within vocational education, which encompass a central aspect of a vocational subjects’ specific characteristics, is a dimension which is often overlooked. In the Handicraft programme (specialization hair- and makeup stylist) at Swedish upper secondary vocational education, a large part of the practical work that students are engaged in is to view their work through the mirror. Therefore, the focus in this study is what learning content is made relevant when teacher and student(s) are interacting in front of the mirror. The data for the study consists of video recorded lessons from the Handicraft Programme, and the study is based on CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory). Based on CAVTA, the process of learning includes what is being learned and how learning is done in interaction between the teacher and student(s) in the authentic and enacted teaching session. At the conference, we will present results from detailed analysis of sequences when the teacher and the students interact in front of the mirror and what vocational knowledge is made possible to learn in these interactions.

The focus of this study is on two vocational teachers´ stories of grade assessment. The teachers are Leif and Johnny, who teach in the industrial technology programme in two different upper secondary schools in Sweden. The research method we use in the study is life stories. From the vocational teachers’ stories emerge different categories of assessment criteria that show different considerations, as compared to the national knowledge requirements, when grading students with one of the five pass grades. The categories for passing grades are: the grade awarded as a prize rating, the grade awarded as being an okay-guy, the grade awarded in advance, and the grade awarded as a last chance. The categories show that the vocational teachers Leif and Johnny, in their assessment documents, do not always comply with the requirements that the syllabus and steering documents put on the knowledge assessment. Leif and Johnny use different forms of knowledge measurements when grading their students with passing grades. The forms are based on their social relations with their students.

This article focuses on a learning objective, as part of a teacher education course at a Swedish university, where student teachers should be able to discuss their own professional development and identify further development needs. Since both research and policy documents highlight professional development as an important part of teacher education, it is important to study professional development from the perspective of student teachers. The theoretical starting point is Communities of Practice (CoP), and the study focuses on knowledge and learning within a social community. Ten subject teacher students and six vocational teacher students are interviewed about their descriptions of what the professional development for teachers in teacher educationmeans for them, which results in six prominent themes: 1) the developmentof identity formation, 2) the developmentof subject specific and vocational knowledge, 3) the developmentof leadership, 4) the developmentof relationship-building, 5) the developmentof knowledge about policy documents, laws, rules and regulations, 6) the developmentin relation to changes in the society.Despite common denominators in the students’ descriptions of professional development, there are also nuanced differences that can be understood by positioning actors about the (vocational) teacher education community. The vocational teacher students frequently connect their professional knowledge to industry and working life, whereas the subject teacher students often connect their subject knowledge to university courses and research. Both the vocational teacher students and the subject teacher students in the study describe that they need to stay up-to-date and continue developing their competence in pedagogy. However, the vocational teacher students specifically highlight the need for pedagogical knowledge within the school environment, rather than in the context of working life and workshop settings. This may be because some vocational teacher students are accustomed to training and teaching interns in these environments as part of their professional practice.

Ett återkommande inslag i undervisningen på Hantverksprogrammet med inriktning hår- och makeupstylist är att elever som läser programmet agerar kunder (modeller) när olika makeuptekniker ska utföras. I sådana situationer arbetar eleverna ofta parvis och de turas om att utföra makeuptekniker på varandra framför en spegel. Dessa situationer är, skulle vi vilja påstå, på många sätt unika för yrkesutbildningen i det att de kan sätta elever i undervisningssituationer där deras utseende kommenteras och bedöms utifrån estetiska förhållningssätt. I vår presentation riktar vi intresset mot sådana konkreta undervisningssituationer då lärare och elever på Hantverksprogrammet, med inriktning hår- och makeupstylist, riktar sin uppmärksamhet mot, och pratar om elevers ansikten i termer av färg och form, när elever utför olika makeuptekniker på varandra. Teoretiskt tar vi spjärn mot teorier som ser lärande som något som konstitueras i interaktion mellan människor, och mellan människor och artefakter i sina sammanhang (se exempelvis Sahlström, 2011). Genom analyser av videoinspelningar av undervisningssituationer i hantverksklassrummet visar vi vad som händer då lärare och elever hamnar i situationer då de pratar om elevers utseende.

Det empiriska materialet är hämtat från ett pågående VR-projekt (ref no 2017-00052) där vi studerar lärares och elevers interaktion kring specifika lärandeinnehåll i yrkesundervisning. Studien kan närmare beskrivas som en videoetnografisk studie (se Tverbakk, 2021) där vi videofilmat den undervisning som sker när lärare och elever hanterar praktiska lärandeobjekt, och analyserat den med hjälp av CAVTA som teoretiskt ramverk (Asplund, Kilbrink & Asghari, under utgivning; Kilbrink, Asplund & Asghari, 2021). Vi har följt fyra klasser från fyra olika yrkesprogram inom teknisk gymnasial yrkesutbildning där hantverksprogrammet, med inriktning hår- och makeupstylist utgjort ett av programmen.

I våra preliminära analyser av de undervisningssituationer då elevers ansikten pratas om i termer av färg och form kan vi se hur såväl lärare som elever orienterar sig mot det som det samtalas om som något potentiellt känsligt och laddat. Vi kan också se hur lärare och elever använder sig av flera olika kommunikativa resurser för att göra dessa situationer hanterbara, och hur detta sedan skapar möjligheter för lärare och elever att tillsammans och socialt etablera en gemensam förståelse för hur den specifika makeuptekniken ska utföras på den specifika elev som sitter modell.

References

Asplund, S-B., Kilbrink, N., & Asghari, H. (under utgivning). Teaching and Learning How to Handle Tools and Machines in Vocational Educational Workshop Sessions. Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Kilbrink, N., Asplund, S. B., & Asghari, H. (2021). Introducing the object of learning in interaction: vocational teaching and learning in a plumbing workshop session. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1-26.

Sahlström, F. (2011). Learning as social action. I J. K. Hall, J. Hellermann & S. P. Doehler (Red.), L2 interactional competence and development (ss. 43–62). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Tverbakk, M. L. R. (2021). Metodiske og metodologiske vurderinger ved bruk av videoobservasjoner i forskning på læringskontekster. I F. Rusk (Red.), Videoforskning på ulike læringsarenaer: Mangfoldig videodata i pedagogisk forskning og utvikling (ss. 19–36). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

This article focuses on vocational learning in technical vocational education in upper-secondary school, with a special focus on the object of learning to weld. A concrete teaching situation where the learning object to weld is the focus of the interaction between a vocational teacher and an upper-secondary student was documented by a video camera and then analysed from two different perspectives: a conversation analytical perspective and a variation theory perspective. The combination of the two perspectives allows a study of learning that deals with issues regarding both form and content, which may increase our understanding of vocational learning in technical vocational education in upper-secondary school

This article reports results from a Learning study in which two university based researchers collaborate with a vocational teacher at an upper secondary vocational school. During three iterative cycles, two different theories (Conversational Analysis and Variation Theory) have gradually been incorporated when teaching how to TIG-weld. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons the article explores how these theoretical perspectives (termed CAVTA) can be used together and integrated in practice when analysing the teaching and learning processes that take shape when teacher and students interact in relation to the object of learning to TIG-weld, and how these theories can be used as didactical tools. The analyses highlights concrete changes in the teacher’s teaching, and it is argued that the approach used in the study can lead to a development where we can find forms for teaching specific subject content within vocational education.

The importance of students developing the knowledge required to handle different tools and machines is specified in the curriculum of vocational education as well as emphasized in research. However, there are very few studies that focus on the learning processes that take place when teachers and students attend to tools and machines as a vocational learning content in workshop teaching sessions. This article aims to shed light on these processes by exploring how tools and machines are constituted through the interaction between vocational teachers and students in Swedish upper secondary vocational education. Leaning on the theoretical and methodological framework CAVTA (Conversational Analysis and Variation Theory Approach) when analysing video-recorded lessons, the study shows that the teaching about tools and machines takes place as a result of suddenly emerging problems that the students encounter. The study also shows that the teaching about tools and machines is conducted through the framing method of individualization, which leads to situations in which some students are given the opportunity to learn specific things about tools and machines, and others are not, even within the same session.

Context: This article focuses on teaching and learning processes in a vocational classroom in Swedish vocational education. There are few studies within the field of vocational education that have a focus on how vocational learning is done in interaction in the vocational classroom/workshop, and what vocational learning content is displayed in the interaction between teacher and student, and thus made possible to learn. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the future-oriented movements that take shape when a vocational teacher and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational plumbing school workshop settings. An increased understanding of these processes can help to improve the actual teaching of a specific subject content to support students in their vocational learning, aiming for learning a professional trade. Methods: The data consist of video recorded lessons from the Sanitary, Heating and Property Maintenance Programme in Swedish upper secondary school. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons the article explores the interaction between teachers and students in vocational school workshop settings using CAVTA. CAVTA is based on Conversation Analysis (CA) and Variation Theory (VT) and is a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used together and integrated to reach understanding of both how- and what-aspects of the learning process in practice, when analysing teaching and interaction. Findings: Findings show how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space with a vocational learning content of a more general nature. These general objects of learning are also related to work-specific vocational learning and knowledge in relation to the future profession, but on a more general level than the task specific vocational knowledge. Altogether, this illuminates how different layers of work-specific vocational learning are made visible in the interaction, and how they mutually contextualise each other in the here and now. Conclusion: This article illustrates that the specific and the general vocational learning content can complement each other and open up for a more in-depth vocational learning. In conclusion, this article emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life.

This presentation focuses on the future-oriented movements that take shape when vocational teachers and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational workshop settings. The data consists of video recorded lessons from four vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary school, and the analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach). By focusing on the longitudinal orientations towards a future doing that are set into play in the teaching situations, we will show how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space by a vocational learning content of a more general nature. We argue that the specific and the general vocational learning content does not necessarily have to be in conflict with each other in the teaching situation. Rather, they can complement each other and open up for more in-depth vocational learning. As such, our study emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life.

This presentation reports some preliminary resultsfrom the ongoing study Learning to weld in vocational education, funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research, with the overall aim to examine the relation between teaching and learning in vocational education with a specific focus on learning to weld. The study is conducted as an action-oriented learning study in which two university based researchers collaborate with a vocational teacher at an upper secondary vocational school, and it responds to the request for more practice-based school research aiming for developing teacher’s teaching on a scientific basic (cf Brante et al, 2015; Carlgren, 2017; Lo, 2014; Postholm, 2018;SFS 2010:800). Action-oriented learning studies in iterative circles, where teachers themselves have been involved in formulating the research questions, and where there is a strong focus on the object of learning (what the students are supposed to learn) have been proven to be effective approaches in which teachers can change and develop their teaching practices and their professional learning, based on a theoretical framework (Brante et al., 2015; Pang & Ling, 2012). Hence, learning studies have been emphasised as a solid base for teachers’ professional development as well as improving students’ learning (Pang & Ling, 2012). Learning studies have also been proven to be a fruitful tool for implementing and increasing our understanding of the use of theory in practice, but according to Lo (2012) there is a need to conduct learning studies in more subject areas than what has previously been done. One of these research fields where there is a lack of learning studies and where research that has a specific focus on learning content is sparse is within the field of vocational education. This is something that we will focus on in this presentation, in which we will highlight results from the process of three iterative cycles in which theories gradually have been incorporated in the teacher’s didactical approach when teaching how to TIG-weld.

In the study, the teaching, as well as the research, is planned, conducted and analysed in three iterative cycles inspired by the Learning study method (cf. Pang & Ling, 2012), and is based on two theoretical frameworks; Conversation Analysis (CA) (cf. Sidnell & Stivers, 2013), and Variation Theory (VT) (cf. Marton & Tsui, 2004). Our approach is in line with the content-centered CA-studies that aim to capture interactional practices linked to learning a specific content or practice (cf. Rusk et al., 2015). This means that our focus in our study is on how the teacher and the students orient to the specific object of learning (OoL) of how to TIG-weld, and how the teacher and students adapt and change their participation in the unfolding interaction regarding how to TIG-weld, and where the VT can help us examine the enacted OoL in great detail. 

The specific aim with this presentation is to examine how the teacher is orienting towards the learning content by exemplifying one of the critical aspects of the OoL – the melt - when teaching how to TIG-weld during the process of three iterative cycles. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons we will explore not only how the theoretical perspectives (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Analysis; which we have chosen to term CAVTA) can be used together and integrated in practice when analysing the teaching and interaction, but also how these theories can be used as didactical tools for teachers when planning, executing, and evaluating their own teaching.

Method

Our study is based on a close collaboration between two university based researchers, and one vocational teacher at an upper secondary school. The teaching that the vocational teacher conducts is planned, executed, and analysed in three iterative cycles, inspired by the Learning study method (cf. Kilbrink et al., 2014; Pang & Ling, 2012). Usually, a learning study has its theoretical base in the variation theory and a key feature in the method is the strong emphasis on the learning content (referred to as the object of learning). In a Learning study, the teaching of this OoL should be planned, executed and analysed in specific steps in iterative cycles; pre-testing, planning, teaching, post-testing, analysing and revising (Ko, 2018). In our study, however, the pre- and post-testing has been removed, and instead a CA approach has been added to the variation theory in order to analyse how welding competences are displayed, developed and learned in the actual teaching situations. Approaching the data from a CA’s understanding of participation and social organisation can help us explore the learning processes that take shape in the interaction from an emic perspective (Duranti, 1997). Furthermore, CA can also add another dimension of how the OoL can be varied in the interaction between the teacher and students when using different semiotic resources (cf. Asplund & Kilbrink, 2018; Kilbrink & Asplund, 2018). The teaching that has been conducted in the study has been planned by the teacher, in dialogue with researchers, and each cycle lesson (with three focus students participating in each cycle) has been video recorded. These recordings have been analysed by the researchers at a primary stage, then analysed by the researchers and the teaching vocational teacher together. Based on these analyses, primarily based on a CAVTA perspective, the teacher, together with the researchers, worked on new teaching strategies that were to be incorporated into the teacher’s didactic approach towards cycle 2. In the second and third cycle this process was repeated. In this presentation, based on the outcomes of these three cycles of teaching how to TIG-weld, we will focus on the teaching and learning processes that take shape when the teacher and students orient towards the melt as a critical aspect when teaching and learning how to TIG-weld.

Expected Outcomes

Through the detailed analysis of the interaction that take shape in the teaching, we can identify concrete changes in the teacher’s teaching when CAVTA is gradually incorporated into the teacher’s didactic approach. For example, we can see how the teacher, together with the students, through the simultaneous use of different semiotic resources actively works to try to establish a common understanding of what content is to be learned and how it should be learned (cf. Kilbrink & Asplund, 2018). The study’s approach also enables a teaching method where parts of a subject-specific content increasingly is made explicit during the course of the study and validated in the interaction, there and then. More precisely, in our presentation we will show how these processes are something that take shape in relation to the teacher’s and students’ orientation towards the melt, which in the interaction there and then, is made into a temporarily subordinate object of learning. The critical aspects of the melt are then oriented to and verbalised. We believe that our approach can lead to a development where we can find forms for teaching where specific subject content within vocational education - content which is sometimes a bit carelessly discussed in terms of “tacit knowledge”- not only can be communicated and made visible to both teachers and students in interaction here and now, but also made precise. Thus, our findings suggest that our approach is fruitful in order to develop the teaching, and it offers opportunities for methodological innovation.

References

Asplund, S-B., & Kilbrink, N. (2018). Learning how (and how not) to Weld: Vocational Learning in Technical Vocational Education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 62(1) 1-16. Brante, G., Holmqvist Olander, M., Holmquist, P-O., & Palla, M. (2015). Theorising teaching and learning: pre-service teachers’ theoretical awareness of learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 38(1) 102-118. Carlgren, I. (Ed.) (2017). Undervisningsutvecklande forskning: exemplet Learning study. Malmö: Gleerups. Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic anthropology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Kilbrink, N., & Asplund, S. B. (2018). “This angle that we talked about”: learning how to weld in interaction. International journal of technology and design education, 1-18 (doi: 10.1007/s10798-018-9490-z Kilbrink, N., Bjurulf, V., Blomberg, I., Heidkamp, A., & Hollsten, A. C. (2014). Learning specific content in technology education: learning study as a collaborative method in Swedish preschool class using hands-on material. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 24(3), 241-259. Ko, P. Y. (2018). Beyond labels: what are the salient features of lesson study and learning study? Educational Action Research (doi: 10.1080/09650792.2018.1530126). Lo, M. L. (2012). Variation theory and the improvement of teaching and learning. Göteborg: Acta universitatis Gothoburgensis. Marton, F. & Tsui, A.B. (Eds.) (2004). Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, N.J. Pang, M. F., & Ling, L. M. (2012). Learning study: Helping teachers to use theory, develop professionality and produce new knowledge to be shared. Instructional Science, 40(3), 589–606. Postholm, M. B. (2018). Teachers’ professional development in school: A review study. Cogent Education, 5(1), 1-22. Rusk, F., Pörn, M., Sahlström, F., & Slotte-Lüttge, A. (2015). Perspectives on using video recordings in conversation analytical studies on learning in interaction. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 38(1), 39-55. Sidnell, J. & T. Stivers (Eds.) (2013). The Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford, U.K.: Wiley‐Blackwell.

Transformation of welding teachers’ vocational knowing into subject-specific educational content is focused in this study. The article displays the process of a learning study, in which welding teachers make the sound visible as an aspect of making the correct settings in MIG/MAG welding and give the students’ the opportunity to display their understanding in the interaction. The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge regarding what happens when welding teachers in a learning study systematically transform subject-specific vocational knowledge to an object of learning in the welding method MIG/MAG. 

The data consists of the welding teacher team’s documented meetings and film material from teaching situations. The complexity of subject-specific education within VET is shown with the use of the transformation concept. 

Research regarding classroom pedagogy of subject specific contents in the field of technical vocational education is scarce, nationally in Sweden, but also in an international perspective. This paper presents results from a Swedish action research project and it aims at exploring the process of a learning study, which deals with the settings in MIG/MAG welding and the intervention of the new pedagogic approach CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach). The empiric material consists of video recorded welding education in a workshop and documented meetings in a welding teacher team. The theoretical toolbox of CAVTA permeates the teaching and learning processes as the teachers in the intervention try to implement patterns of variation in the planning, enactment and evaluation of the teaching and learning processes. In combination with the variation theoretic principles embedded in the teaching, ideas inspired by conversation analysis are implemented – the main element being an enhanced interaction, thus enabling for the students to display their understanding of the subject specific contents. The results show how CAVTA can be integrated in the teaching of settings regarding MIG/MAG welding, so that certain aspects of the object of learning is visualized. Furthermore, the findings show how the integration of CAVTA support the manifestation of a student’s understanding of the object of learning. How variation and the use of several senses and simultaneous different semiotic resources are activated as essential components in the teaching and learning processes, is made explicit in the paper. Plans for a recently launched research project including several different technical vocational education programs are also presented. The lack of classroom studies regarding technical vocational education calls for exploration in research, but should not avoid the ambition of development. This study captures the design and the development of a new pedagogic approach. Our hope is that the study will contribute to a growing body of knowledge within the field of technical vocational education and spur on further studies in this field of research. 

In vocational education, students learn in different school-based and workplace-based learning environments and engage with different types of knowledge in these environments. Students are expected to integrate these experiences and make meaning of them in relation to their own professional knowledge base. This study focuses both on what types of knowledge students learn in these environments and how they integrate these different types of knowledge. Individual and group interviews were conducted with students, teachers and workplace supervisors in a vocational programme in the Netherlands. Results show that students recognise the importance of vocational knowledge learned in school-based learning environments while they are in the workplace and vice versa, and continuously contextualise knowledge to make it applicable for new circumstances. Also, students learn differently at school due to their experiences in the workplace. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

In this chapter we describe a pilot survey on applying problem-based learning (PBL) in an undergraduate programming course. During the course the students have applied PBL as a complement to traditional teaching and learning techniques. The PBL problem in this survey combines both knowledge about programming and knowledge about databases. We argue that to handle programming the students have to learn programming according to the deep approach to learning in order to be able to apply their knowledge in new programming situations and contexts. The result from this pilot survey indicates from both a tutor and a student perspective that PBL could be one method to reach a deeper understanding on how to access databases in a programming language.

The aim of this paper is to describe the first cycle of a learning study in technology education, using a hands-on material, in a Swedish preschool class, i.e. pupils at the age of six. The study was conducted by three teachers and two researchers during fall 2011. Within a learning study, the pupils’ learning is in focus in order to find out the opportunities and obstacles in teaching. The teachers and researchers are working in close cooperation when planning, observing, analysing and revising a specific lesson in which a specific learning object is dealt with. The learning study described in this paper, was carried out with starting-point in the revised Swedish curricula, launched in fall 2011. The results show that the use of a hands-on material may obstruct the view of the learning object, if the pupils are not able to manage the material. The results also indicate that an unsupported practical oriented task could prevent the intended learning object to appear for the pupils.

In this paper, we discuss findings from two previous studies in technology education using the Learning study model and the Variation theory of learning. The Learning study is a collaborative approach where teachers and researchers work together in the classroom with the aim to enhance students’ learning concerning a specific content. In a Learning study, focus is on a specific “object of learning”, i.e. what the students are expected to learn. The aim of this paper is to show what knowledge concerning specific objects of learning in technology education is generated in a Learning study and to discuss the potential contribution of this knowledge to technology teaching practice. We will provide examples from two Learning studies conducted in primary technology education in Sweden. The findings from the studies are of two kinds; identified aspects of the object of learning that are critical in order to learn, and aspects that could be referred to the teaching of the specific content.

Today, many technology teachers in compulsory technology education teach design and design processes using a digital design tool, such as computer aided design (CAD). Teaching involving CAD is a relatively new element and not very much is known about what teachers intend pupils to learn in compulsory education. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate technology teachers' experiences in order to gain insight into their teaching practices involving CAD. A phenomenographic approach was used and twelve semi-structured interviews with lower secondary technology teachers were conducted. The interviews were analyzed and categories of description were hierarchically organized into the phenomenographic outcome space. The results show that teachers have different experiences of the intended learning outcomes when CAD is used in teaching, and four hierarchical categories emerged: (1) Handling the software, (2) Using ready-made models, (3) Manufacturing and creating printed models, and (4) Designing. The four categories describe teaching to use CAD and/or through using CAD. Further, the hierarchical categories indicate a teaching progression and the categories can be used as a basis for further discussions among teachers, teacher educators and researchers to develop CAD pedagogies within compulsory technology education.

In secondary technology education, models of artifacts, systems and processes, visualized and simulated through digital tools (digital models) are a relatively new element. Technology teachers teach digital models to meet syllabus criteria of digital competence, applicable to for instance problem solving and documentation using digital tools. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning how teachers use digital models in their teaching, what their intentions are, and what content they choose. It is known, though, that teachers’ experiences influence the teaching. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ experiences of teaching digital models in compulsory school, to contribute to more knowledge of teaching in this area. This study takes a phenomenological lifeworld approach, and 12 semi-structured interviews with lower secondary technology teachers form the empirical data. The data were analyzed thematically and the results are four themes of experiencing the teaching of digital models, indicating that technology teachers teach with different aims and purposes; Enhancing and integrating other subjects, Visualizing technology to the pupils, Enabling digital modelling, and Preparing pupils for the future. Further, the results also indicate that the content and methods of teaching differ and that teachers did not experience digital models as one single idea but as an amalgam of multiple ideas. These findings can be used as a basis for further research and development of teaching concerning digital models.

Modelling using digital design tools is a relatively new element in secondary technology education, though modelling using concrete material is common and has been practiced regularly. Many technology teachers now teach modelling using digital design tools, to meet the new criteria in the syllabus concerning problem solving and documentation using digital technology. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning how technology teachers teach modelling using digital design tools and how they choose content and present it to the pupils. It is known, though, that teachers’ experiences affect how they plan the lessons. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate technology teachers’ experiences to gain more understanding in this particular area of technology education. Taking a phenomenographic approach, twelve semi-structured interviews with secondary technology teachers were conducted. The results show that teachers have different experiences teaching modelling using digital design tools, and four categories have emerged: 1) Handling the software and using simple geometries, 2) Using ready-made objects from databases, 3) Manufacturing via 3D-printers, and 4) Design and problem solving. The results indicate that teachers teach modelling using digital design tools with different aims; the intended object of learning differs. The results also indicate that teachers experience that they lack knowledge of teaching modelling using digital design tools and therefore have difficulties teaching in this area, which can affect the pupils’ problem-solving skills. The results, described in this article, can be used as a basis for further discussion.

Models can be used for communicating and for sharing information. In technology education in Swedish compulsory school, pupils have long created models using simple materials to test their designs, such as cardboard and wooden sticks. Models have also been used by teachers to assess pupils’ technology knowledge in particular areas (Elmer & Davies, 2000). We live in a world where technology is highly developed, where digital technology plays an important role and where models are created in digital environments (Kress, 2010). Technology as a school subject undergoes the same development, which can be seen in the technology syllabus (Skolverket, 2011). However, there is a lack of research on technology teachers’ experiences of teaching modelling using digital tools. According to previous research, teachers’ experiences of a phenomenon (Marton & Tsui, 2004) along with their pedagogical and technological knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) affect how they plan their lessons. The aim of this pilot study is therefore to examine secondary school teachers’ experiences of teaching modelling using digital tools, thereby contributing to understanding this area of technology education. The study takes a phenomenographic approach (Marton & Booth, 1997) and is based on semi-structured interviews with teachers. The interviews are analyzed, focusing on how technology teachers experience teaching modelling using digital tools. Their different experiences are divided into categories. So far, four categories have been identified: a) Modelling using digital tools as inspiration, b) Handling the modelling software as the object of learning, c) Handling 3D printing as the object of learning and d) Modelling for teaching technological content. A tentative result is that teachers have different aims and purposes when teaching modelling using digital tools.

Many countries, including Sweden, teach gifted students in mixed-ability classrooms and teachers often need to differentiate their teaching. Gifted students have specific needs and for the subject technology these needs are described in terms of complexity, autonomy, support and authenticity (CASA-framework, Brink, submitted). How the subject technology can meet these needs is described using the CASA-framework, however, there is a lack of knowledge to what extend the subject actually offers CASA to gifted students.

Therefore, we conducted a content analysis on the three existing educational textbooks for lower secondary school (age 13-15) in Sweden. Krathwohl’s framework (2002) was used to capture the knowledge type and the cognitive processes involved in the text, tasks and other content in the textbook. 

Our preliminary results show that complexity is offered to some extent. Autonomy is addressed occasionally through home-assignments. Support is not made explicit and authenticity is apparent throughout all textbooks. However, tasks result in a school-related product and rarely impact the wider society outside school. At the conference, we will present an overview of our findings and show examples of where and how the textbooks meet gifted students´ needs. 

The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about the gaps vocational teachers identify between school and workplaces in upper secondary vocational education, and their experiences of using digital technology as boundary objects to bridge these gaps. This study builds on theories of boundary crossing and is carried out through in-depth interviews with six vocational teachers. For the analysis, a model is used, where the concept learning mechanisms is borrowed from Akkerman and Bakker. In our model, the learning mechanisms coordination, reflection and transformation represent three levels to which all the gaps identified by the teachers relate. The teachers’ pedagogical aims are qualitatively different on the different levels. At the basic level, coordination; gaps with the aim to control and to keep in touch with students in their workplaces, are identified, whereas at the next level, reflection; the gaps that need to be bridged, concern creating better conditions for the students to reflect on and connect with what they have learned in the different learning arenas. Those teachers identifying gaps on the most elaborated level, transformation, want to create a complete educational experience for their students, as they try to find a seamless way of crossing the boundaries between school and the workplace.

Digital technology has been found useful in bridging the gap between school and work placements. In earlier studies we have interviewed vocational teachers with creative ideas on addressing this issue, but they encountered obstacles and could not always proceed as they wanted. The aim of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the obstacles encountered by Swedish vocational teachers when using digital technology to bridge the gap between school and work placements. The study is based on a theoretical understanding of teacher agency, and also presents a hierarchical model developed from our research. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with five purposively selected vocational teachers. The teachers provided detailed examples of a range of problems stemming from structural, cultural and material aspects, and how these problems forced them to take steps backwards when trying to develop their teaching practices.