Becoming A Caregiver- Health Care Teachers´ Descriptions Of Their Teaching

Author(s):

Eva Eliasson(presenting / submitting)Helena Rehn(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 06 B, Subject Integrated Teaching and Vocational Training

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

15:30-17:00

Room:

B016 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Meinert Arnd Meyer

Contribution

Studies have revealed that persons involved in health care mean that the most important skills for caregivers are related to communication, ethics, attitude and empathy to caretakers (Eliasson & Rehn, 2013, Thörnquist 2004).

On the basis of this background the aim in the text is to explore how health care teachers in Sweden talk about the acquisition of vocational knowing at upper secondary school, and how they describe their teaching to develop caring dispositions.

Håkansson and Sundberg (2012) claim that most researchers today agree that the teaching methods are not the key to learning. What matters is instead the use of teaching methods related to central didactic principles that support students’ learning. The intention in the text is to identify underlying didactic principles, expressed in the speech of the teachers. In the analysis of the text, comparisons to actual research of effective learning are made. The results are also finally analysed from a socio-cultural perspective of learning using concepts as mediating tools and communities of practice.

Method

Qualitative interviews with 17 health care teachers, working with teenagers or adults in upper secondary school, are used as a method (Rosenberg, 2012). The criterion for selection of informants has been diversity in professional background, age, sex, years in profession and school forms. The intention was to get a broad view of conceptions. Strong themes as well as marginalized themes are visible in the text. In processing the material, differences and similarities are highlighted to discover patterns and themes (Watt Boolsen, 2007).

Expected Outcomes

The results show that the dialogue is central in the acquisition of vocational knowing. Dialogues are often mentioned when it comes to developing abilities like empathy, ethics and a good attitude. “Dialogue” is a positively charged word that embodies social ideals, contrasting words as aggressiveness, hostility and prejudices (Wierzbicka, 2006). Dialogue can be seen as a learning method that matches the desirable outcomes. Another strong theme is the connection to working life. The teachers try to link the teaching to working life by using examples from their own practice, a teaching method often used by vocational teachers (Robson et al, 2004; Kemmis & Engström, 2011). Variation in teaching methods is necessary to keep the students’ attention. Lectures, films, practical sessions, narratives, role playing, discussions etc. are mentioned as various ways to make the learning interesting and motivating. Other themes are the creation of a good learning environment, development of language skills and the adaptive, flexible teacher. As a summary the main didactic principles are dialogicity, concretion, variation/flexibility and relation-building. Actual research (Hattie, 2009; Gayle, 2006; Håkansson & Sundberg, 2012) supports the ideas of the teachers, but the strong emphasize on formative assessment and self-evaluating in research are missing themes in the teachers’ descriptions. There is also a weak connection to reading texts as a learning support. One can thus raise the question if the focus on emotions overshadows scientific knowledge and understanding. In a socio-cultural perspective you can understand the principle of concretion as a way to invite the students behind the scenes (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Mediating tools as narratives, dialogues and modern techniques are used to start a process towards professional thinking. By using varied tools the teachers try to bridge the institutional school setting and approach a bit of authenticity.

References

Eliasson, Eva & Rehn, Helena (2013). A caring disposition and subordination. Healthcare teachers conceptions of important vocational knowing. Paper to the European Conference on Education Research (ECER), Istanbul, Turkey, September 10-13, 2013. Gayle, Barbara Mae (red.) (2006). Classroom communication and instructional processes: advances through meta-analyses. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hattie, John A.C. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Håkansson, Jan & Sundberg, Daniel. 2012. Utmärkt undervisning. Framgångsfaktorer i svensk och internationell undervisning. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur. Kemmis, Roslin Brennan (2012). Yrkesutbildning och yrkeslärare i Australien. I: Lärare och lärande i yrkesprogram och introduktionsprogram, red, Henning Loeb och Korp, 215-229. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Lave, Jean & Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robson, Jocelyn & Bailey, Bill & Larkin, Shirley (2004). Adding Value: investigating the discourse of professionalism adopted by vocational teachers in further education colleges. Journal of Education and Work, 17:2, 183-195. Rosenberg, Alexander (2012). Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Boulder: Westview Press. Törnquist, Agneta (2004). Vad man ska kunna och hur man ska vara. En studie om enhetschefers och vårdbiträdens yrkeskompetens inom äldreomsorgens särskilda boendeformer. Akademisk avhandling. Stockholm: HLS Förlag. Watt Boolsen, Merete (2007). Kvalitativa intervjuer. Forskningsprocess, människa, samhälle. Malmö: Gleerup. Wenger, Etienne (1998). Communities of Practice, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). The concept of ‘dialogue’ in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Discourse studies, 8 (5), 675-703.

Author Information

Eva Eliasson (presenting / submitting)

Stockholm University

Stockholm

Helena Rehn (presenting)

Stockholm university

Department of education