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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how critical aspects can be defined in a learning study on welding without conducting any pre-tests.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors focus on empirical examples from a learning study on welding conducted in six iterative cycles, with conversation analysis and variation theory approach (CAVTA) as a theoretical basis. The welding lessons have been video-recorded, and in the study, the authors analyze examples where the teachers try to identify critical aspects of a vocational practical object of learning in interaction. CAVTA permeates the complete process, where the analysis has been part of the iterative cycles and further developed when the six cycles were completed.FindingsThe results show how critical aspects can be made visible in the interaction between teacher(s) and student(s) in the enacted learning situation. In the process, the authors work with the three concepts expected critical aspects, displayed critical aspects and targeted critical features in relation to a vocational practical object of learning where conducting a pre-test to define critical aspects is not educationally possible.Originality/valueTeaching vocational practical objects of learning could be seen as something different from teaching other kinds of objects of learning and the use of the traditional pre-tests in learning studies may be problematic. From that follows, that other ways of finding the critical aspects for the students regarding a vocational practical object of learning might be needed. In this study, such a way is presented.

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.

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. Artikeln tidigare publicerad som manuskript i Brinks (2021) licentiatuppsats Modeller och modellering med digitala verktyg i högstadiets teknikundervisning.

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.

The specific focus of this article is how critical aspects of the object of learning to weld are made relevant in interaction between a vocational teacher and a student in the learning processes of welding as part of a Swedish upper-secondary technical vocational education programme. By intertwining variation theory with a conversation analytical approach, our analysis shows that the teaching focus alternates between the process as a whole and details about the welding process, and how the relation between the critical aspects are negotiated in the teaching situations. Furthermore, the teacher and the student together build up a common resource of experiences to which they can relate the parts and the whole, and the teaching becomes increasingly subject specific as the teacher and student build up more common experiences. The approach used in this article sheds light on the complexity of learning to weld, and also facilitates an understanding of welding as an object of learning as such.

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.

In vocational education, the learning content is often considered as concrete and specific, and the vocational learning involves physical work and interactions between participants and artefacts. Furthermore, one teacher has the overall responsibility for several students during classes in the vocational workshop at school, which means that the teacher has limited time for every single student and that the few minutes they meet become very important. However, the documented knowledge about how vocational learning is constituted in the vocational classroom and what learning content is focused on in the interaction between teachers and students is very sparse. In this study, we focus on how the enacted object of learning and its critical aspects are made relevant, when a student and teacher in a plumbing workshop session negotiate the conducting of a task in Swedish vocational education. This will be done by using CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach) to make a close and detailed analysis of video recordings of the interaction between the student and teacher when a task is introduced in the workshop session. The results show a complex process, where the teacher alternates between parts and wholeness, using several semiotic resources at hand when highlighting the learning content. Vocational Learning

Context: This article focus 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 consists 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 shows 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 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 learningto 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.

In this study children's learning of the concept, stability, during some building activities were investigated. It was also examined how a story can create meaning, having the children build for some animals in the story. Two preschool teachers and 10 children participated. Data consisted of video-recordings from activities with the children and was analysed through thematic coding. The findings showed that the children enjoyed to build and showed an understanding of how to build stable constructions, however without using the word stable. There were connections to the story and new stories were also made by the children during building activities.

One of the most important issues in vocational education is the interaction between learning at school and at different workplaces. Students need to transfer what they have learned in and between these different learning arenas. However, little agreement exists among researchers on how to conceptualise and empirically study transfer of learning. This article aims to enhance our understanding of this process in technical vocational education by adding a new perspective on transfer: the phenomenological lifeworld approach. Eleven interviews with students enrolled in the Energy and Industry programmes at a Swedish upper-secondary school were conducted. Three transfer themes emerged from the data: learning for new situations, variation and integration of theory and practice. The student perspective, based on the lifeworld approach shows that the different learning arenas – the school and workplaces – can complement each other. The learning arenas offer different opportunities for learning, and learning in both arenas is necessary in order to prepare for an unknown future, according to the students in this study.

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. Two vocational teachers’ stories of grade assessment on the industrial technology programme

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.

Discussions of technical and vocational education often concern various dichotomies that need to be bridged in learning. In this chapter, the dichotomizations between theory and practice, school an ...

In this study, teachers and workplace supervisors in two vocational programmes at a Swedish upper secondary school were interviewed about their experiences of what is important to teach and learn during vocational education. The interviews were analysed thematically by the qualitative method analysis of narratives concerning what the informants talked about concerning the educational content. The told experiences of educational content concern five themes: basic knowledge, assessment, different educations, interest and integration of theory and practice. These themes relates to different levels of knowledge, from basic knowledge to learning to learn. Read More: http://pubs.e-contentmanagement.com/doi/abs/10.5172/ijtr.2014.12.2.122

This article describes the process of a learning study conducted in technology education in a Swedish preschool class. The learning study method used in this study is a collaborative method, where researchers and teachers work together as a team concerning teaching and learning about a specific learning object. The object of learning in this study concerns strong constructions and framed structures. This article describes how this learning study was conducted and discusses reflections made during the process. Furthermore, we discuss how the learning study method could be implemented in technology education using hands-on material. Some of the results point to problems of delimiting an object of learning in technology education using hands-on material and the complexity in the relation between content and context in learning. The results also show benefits from the collaborative method where researchers and teachers work together with regards to specific learning content in the technology classroom.

This chapter is an empirical contribution to the discussion about theory and practice in technical vocational education. The concepts of theory and practice are often used and discussed in relation to teaching and learning technology (compare, e.g., Bjurulf & Kilbrink, 2008; Gibson, 2009; Hansen, 2000), but also in relation to learning a vocation (e.g., Bengtsson, 2010; Berglund, 2009; Goransson, 2004).

In vocational education, teaching and learning are expected to take place in the different learning arenas; schools and workplaces. In such a dual school system, the question of transfer is vital, i.e. how to use knowledge learned in previous situations in new situations. This article is an empirical contribution to research concerning transfer, by means of results from semi-structured group interviews with teachers and supervisors who educate students in the Energy program and the Industry program in Swedish upper secondary school. The interviews were analysed by analyses of narratives. The results show four themes of transfer in the interviews: (1) transfer of basic knowledge, (2) transfer of principles and skills, (3) transfer of written materials and real life and (4) transfer of experiences. The results also show three factors that are crucial in order to create possibilities for transfer: (1) communication, (2) financial resources and (3) reflection. These factors demand close cooperation between the teachers and supervisors during the students’ vocational education.

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.