Lessons from the welding booth: theories in practice in vocational education

Abstract

Educational research has for a long time, and from various angles, been criticised for fairly unilaterally researching teachers and their activities, rather than allowing them to be involved in the research process as such. In parallel with this, practice-based school research has been requested in research, and aiming for developing teacher's teaching on a scientific basis and putting theories into practice has been an area of focus in steering documents as well in research (cf. Brante et al. 2015; Carlgren 2017; Lo 2012; SFS 2010: 800). Over the past decade, however, one can see a development where teachers are increasingly involved in research, and where they, together with researchers, focus on issues that the school and its teachers have been involved in formulating (Ko 2018; Postholm 2018). In this work, action research studies in iterative circles such as Learning studies have been identified as effective approaches for teachers to change and develop their teaching practices, as well as improving student learning (cf. Marton and Ling 2007; Pang and Ling 2012; Timperley 2011). According to Lo (2012) theories need to be tested in practice in order to see how they can be useful for teachers to improve teaching and learning. Furthermore, Lo argues that Learning studies need to be developed in more subject areas than what has been previously been done and also stresses the

Introducing the object of learning in interaction: vocational teaching and learning in a plumbing workshop session

“…Based on CAVTA (Asplund and Kilbrink 2020;Kilbrink and Asplund 2018), the analysis has been divided into three parts (Examples 1-3), based on how the teacher orients to, and uses the surrounding physical context as semiotic resources (cf. Bezemer and Kress 2016;Goodwin 2000;Nevile et al 2014) in his teaching, when instructing the student about the task ahead, and as a response to the student's question about how to begin his work.…”

“…In this study, we focus on the critical aspect's right value as it emerges in interaction, specifying for example, when something is done in the right way (cf. Asplund and Kilbrink 2020). Variation Theory emphasises variation as crucial in order to discern the critical aspects and to help learners learn.…”

“…A common approach in teaching vocational workshop sessions is to start with a general introduction and then let the students engage in individual tasks, with the teacher going around giving the students individual feedback so that they can continue with their work (cf. Asplund and Kilbrink 2020;Besmond and Wood 2017;Gamble 2001). In vocational education in Sweden, it is also common that one teacher is responsible for several students achieving the goals of the vocational subject syllabuses during classes in the school's vocational workshop.…”

“…This means, what happens during the limited time in which the teacher and each student meet during a vocational workshop lesson is very important in several aspects. Hence, these meetings are vitally important for teachers and students to develop a common starting point for -or a shared understanding of -what is to be learned, how it should be learned, and why (Asplund and Kilbrink 2020;Marton 2010;Kilbrink and Asplund 2018).…”

“…Research has also shown the importance of adapting the teaching to the students' level and that teachers are aware of students' knowledge and understanding in relation to the learning content, in order to be able to support them in their learning processes (cf. Asplund and Kilbrink 2020;Hattie 2008;Lo 2012;Marton 2015). However, as far as we know, there are few studies focusing on what learning content emerges and how it is enacted in interaction when a vocational teacher and students meet during a single workshop lesson.…”