Vocational Knowledge in a Subject Integrated Form of Teaching at two Swedish Health and Social Care Programmes

Author(s):

Maria Christidis(presenting / submitting)

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

Purpose

The purpose of the licentiate thesis is to investigate what kind of vocational knowledge is produced in a subject integrated form of teaching in two Swedish Health and Social Care Programmes (HSCP), with special attention to texts used in teaching. This contribution focuses on the characteristics of subject integrated teaching in the two Programmes, and the usage of texts for this purpose.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework is based on a sociocultural approach where the main idea is that knowledge is produced and shaped within a social context (Säljö, 2000; Vygotskij, 1978). In order to describe the characteristics of the two cases of subject integrated form of teaching, concepts derived from Activity Theory (AT; Engeström, 1987) have been applied analytically, i. e. subjects, tools, rules, community, labor division, object/s and outcome. Special attention has further been put on texts as tools.

Method

Material and method Ethnographically inspired classroom observations at the HSCP were conducted during the fall of 2012, in teaching during second year. The reason for choosing the second year-level for observation was that the adjustment to subject integrated teaching in the student-group should be somewhat complete by then. The integration was performed through thematical units. In order to be included in the study, the unit had to comprise at least one vocational subject, in combination with other vocational subjects or with general school subjects. Two units from each school were included in the study. Data was collected over a period of one school-semester of teaching, during which classroom observations were made, field-notes were taken; audio-recordings were made, and material such as handouts were collected during teaching. Field-notes from informal conversations were also made, but at a later moment. Data processing Field-notes were categorized according to the concepts of AT. Audio-recordings were initially transcribed and then categorized in the same manner as the field-notes. The purpose with doing an AT-categorization was to create an overview of the parts that the teaching activity comprised, but also their dynamic relation to each other. The categorization of field-notes and sound transcriptions could then be combined to compare the overview, in search of regularities as well as irregularities. The field-notes and the audio-transcriptions were further combined in the construction of literacy-events, in hope of depicting a larger amount of the interaction during teaching based on texts (Heath, 1982, 1983; Karlsson, 2003, 2011).

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary results The thematic units had different compositions. In school A the units comprised of vocational subjects and general school subjects, while in school B the units comprised of vocational subjects only. In school A, the theme in each unit was processed from the perspective of each separate subject. The focus of the themes concerned vocational areas. The knowledge produced was concentrated on medical areas, such as anatomy, physiology and pathology. In school B, there was an agreement between the subjects concerning the focal point of the units, which was due to a common core content of ethical and moral character. Hence, the themes were processed in a homogenous manner. The texts that were used, as well as the way they were used reflected the character of the subject integrated teaching at each Programme. In school A, the content that was extracted from different types of texts applied to the subject that was currently taught. For instance, a fictional text could be used, during a lesson in Medicine, to highlight areas that concerned pathology. However, in school B, content that related to the theme was extracted for oral processing, rather than to the separate subject. Texts that were recurrently used during the units were handouts locally formulated by teachers. The handouts involved both vocational and school-based elements. The distribution between the elements reflected the combination of the subjects that comprised the theme unit. There were also other texts, such as textbooks, that were present during teaching and occasionally referred to, but not explicitly used for teaching.

References

Engeström, Yrjö. (1987). Learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-konsultit. http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Paper/Engestrom/expanding/toc.htm Heath, Shirley Brice. (1982). What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and School. Language in Society, Vol. 11, No. 1, Apr. 1982. Heath, Shirley Brice. (1983). Ways with words. Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Karlsson, Anna-Malin. (2003). Skrift och texter på bygget. En undersökning av vad och hur några byggnadsarbetare läser och skriver, verbalt och visuellt, i sitt arbete. Projektet Skriftbruk i arbetslivet. Rapport nr 2, 2003. www.nordiska.su.se/skriftbruk Karlsson, Anna-Malin. (2011). En arbetsdag i skriftsamhället. Ett etnografiskt perspektiv på skriftanvändning i vanliga yrken. Mölnlycke: Elanders. Säljö, Roger. (2000). Lärande i praktiken. Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Stockholm: Norstedts Akademiska Förlag. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Author Information

Maria Christidis (presenting / submitting)

Stockholm University & Red Cross University

Department of Pedagogics and Didactics

Stockholm

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.