Project-based vocational education and training: opportunities for teacher guidance in a Swedish upper secondary school

Abstract

Project-based vocational education and training (PBVET) is a way to conduct vocational education in Swedish construction programmes. The educational settings used include projects ranging from minor construction to advanced houses. Due to limited research on this kind of educational setting, it is important to further develop knowledge on affordances in a PBVET. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse teachers' perception on opportunities for teacher guidance provided in a PBVET. From this broad aim, the following research question is addressed: how do teachers view PBVET as (a) framing possibilities for their practice, (b) affecting students' learning and (c) presenting challenges in this learning environment? Adopted methods for this study are observations and interviews. Observations were made at a PBVET worksite, which were then used in stimulated recall interviews. The findings show that this PBVET affects both teachers' opportunities to perform teacher guidance as well as students' possibilities for learning. This appears to be related to the structure in this PBVET which can be seen as operating within different activity systems. Hence, an interaction between these systems is likely the most important issue that needs to be resolved when conducting vocational education as a PBVET.Keywords: VET and development; learning in the professions; vocational education and training; vocational and educational guidance; workplace learning Introduction Project-based vocational education and training (PBVET) is a way to conduct vocational education in construction programmes in Swedish upper secondary schools (Fjellström 2014). PBVET is based on the performance of one or several 'live' projects as the educational content in VET programmes. The educational content thereby varies at different schools depending on local conditions. The educational content is therefore connected to specific demands within specific projects. As a result of using various projects to conduct PBVET, each project can be seen as a unique educational setting. Despite that the projects differ from each other they are supposed to meet national goals in course syllabuses. As it is common in Swedish construction programmes to perform VET by using projects as the educational content, it is important to shine some light on how a live project can affect the possibilities for teacher guidance. The overall study is focusing on affordances for learning in a PBVET comprising students in the construction programme (Fjellström 2014), and vocational teachers in a Swedish upper secondary school. This study is

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