Professional Development for Teachers, three in one – a Kinderegg

A teacher training programme for workplace-based learning where profession, authority and academia interact

Stockholm University, Sweden

Katarina.Sipos@edu.su.se    Maud.Baumgarten@edu.su.se

Background

Critical discussions in the Nordic countries and EU reveal how teacher training is organized but also how recurrent teacher training actually contribute to increased quality in teaching, hence students' learning. In addition to these dimensions, in times of limited resources, the training of teachers can be streamlined - how can individual learning be exceeded, thus contributing to organizational change? One dilemma is that recurrent training of teachers often is organized so that individual teachers are sent on training. After the course, the teacher might experience increased self-confidence but the effects of the participation are conspicuous by their absence. In this paper, we will discuss an innovative design of a recurrent teacher training programme. A central component of this work is authentic interplay between profession, authority and the academia.

The empirical scene is a project with the training programme for workplace-based learning,WBL instructors in secondary education. In Sweden, vocational education (VET) at secondary level is organized so that the formal education has educational responsibility. Since the latest reform GY -11, the school-based VET also includes workpractice. The students in VET should undergo at least 15 weeks of workplace-based learning or 50% of the training period in apprenticeship. To organize for closer cooperation between school and work requires new skills of its instructors. The National Agency for Education has been instructed to remedy the lack of quality in vocational training. One step is to educate WBL developers to support the work in the schools. The National Agency for Education invited Stockholm University 2013 to plan and conduct an education that would be relevant to vocational teachers in managing new demands. The interplay between several contexts is a question about coordinating different knowledge traditions.

The purpose of the paper is to highlight some outcomes in the project. A point of departure is the methodological approach used to design and implement the WBL programme –on going learning evaluation through follow-up research. Inspiring theoretical roots are social constructivism (Berger & Luckmann, 1966), but the focus is on methodological standpoints in line with the traditions of the discourse joint knowledge.

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