Akershus University College, Nov 2007, Carn conference AKERSHUS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Research based...

Akershus University College, Nov 2007, Carn conference

AKERSHUS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Research based implementation of the new corriculum frame work in

vocational education – with focus on relevans

Ellen Bjerknes, Hilde Hiim, Trond Smistad, Jan Stålhane and Grete Haaland Sund

Carn conference, 09.11.2007


The project: KIP - AF



• Teachers from 60 high schools

• All the 9 vocational education programs

• 14 action researchers

• Combined with studies in vocational pedagogical innovation 15 – 60 sp

• 40 masterstudents



Differenciation based on individual interests

1. Wide introduction to a task or a common learning goal

2. Basic excersices

4. Sharing of experiences, reflection, evaluation and mutural learning

3. Work chosen by the individuals, based on the individuals interests and their plans for the future

5. Individual reflection and evaluation of learning prosess and result



Categories for analysing the findings

• Relevance

• Meaning

• Participation

For all the projects in KIP - AF



Problem and Research issue

• How can we develop a relevant vocational education for the individual, the trade and the workplace?

• How can a relevant vocational education be realised through an action research cooperation between action researchers, teacher educators, teachers and students



Main goals• Contribute to development of a vocational education, relevant for the

trades, the companies and the individuals within all the nine vocational programs at High school level

• To document different interpretations of the national corriculum, and how this is implemented through a systematic developing prosess, where teachers do reseach within their own daily educational work together with their colleges and students, supported by action reseachers/ teacher educators

• To document vocational didactic knowledge about what is the content and didactical strategies and methods in a relevant education in the nine vocational programs.

• To develop teachers’, leaders’ and teacher educators’ competence conserning innovation, development projects concerning school/organisation development and pedagogical action research



Common method in different waysPROGRAM- Charing experiences- common reflection- Wanted topic (from the participants)- Concretize plans for the next period

WORK BETWEEN THE PEDAGOGIC WORKSHOPSThe participating groups plan, make the changes and evaluate their work in their own way, within the common frames in the project.



Background

• Lack of relevance is a main challange in the Norwegian vocational education, especially in the basic year

• Result: demotivation, studets experience of meaningless and nonrelevant education and drop-outs



Relevans – the three perspectives

• The individual perspective

• The trade and business perspective

• The society perspective



Tendencies one year after – problems in KIP-AF

• Mandatory modules for all the students

Basicgroup

Basicgroup



- Common strategy in KIP – AF: differensiation based on individual interrests

Basic group



• Dokumentation and use of ICT on the premises of the individuals and the trades

• Integrated connection between– The different subjects within the spesific level

of the vocational education– The three different levels in the vocational

education



• Competence concerning the whole working prosess


Cooperation Creativity

Independence and responsibility

EffectivnessInvironmentally consciousness Order

1. Defining the work

2. Planning 3. Producing 4. Evaluation 5. Learning

NEXT WORK


Challenges• Theese problems are connected to a traditional

understanding of the term knowledge, where vocational knowledge more or less is understood as the use of theory

• KIP – AF will meat theese challenges in different ways, by developing strategies and methods for relevant education for both the individuals and trades



METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES IN A STRATEGY

FOR TEACHER RESEARCH

A main concern in our project is that teachers learn to lead and document educational change.



A pragmatic perspective on teacher knowledge and research

Vocational and professional concepts are developed through primary experience with and reflection on occupational functions or tasks.



A main occupational function in professional teacher work

- may be defined as “cooperation on planning, carrying through, evaluating and critically analysing teaching and learning processes”, or “didactics”.

Educational action research may be seen as systematic research in this task.



The research question may be formulated as a question of how:

“How can education that is relevant to pupils’ occupational interests and to the professional needs of the occupation be developed?”

The point is to develop examples that show how.



A pedagogic (didactic) model of reflection on educational work:



The model functions as a common set of educational concepts for teachers and pupils. This makes it easier to make common decisions on educational work. (Structured in circles of plans, experience and reflections)



• In a practical, vocational tradition of knowledge there has been no division between knowledge and action, between work and concept.

• Knowledge is expressed in work – for instance in the process of how educational work is carried through.



• Research aimed at the development and documentation of teacher knowledge must show essential tasks in educational work, how the work is performed, and how it is experienced.

• The issue of teacher research may be seen as improving parts of the work that do not function adequately, and as documenting improvement processes.

• In documentation, teacher experience and practice must be expressed in accordance with the way it shows itself in daily work.



• Teacher research should clarify central phenomena in professional teacher practice, through a circular structure where for instance the concept of “relevant vocational education” is made gradually more explicit and concrete through dealings with daily challenges over time

• The aim of teacher research is to describe and show examples of action, reasoning and reflection.

• It is necessary to express the multitude aspects of experience – understanding, actions, feelings, values…

• General concepts, for instance of relevance, have meaning related to contextual descriptions.



A critical perspective on teacher knowledge and research

• Hermeneutic approaches have been criticized for a lack of distinction between interpretations induced by habit and power, and valid interpretations of e.g. education.



• A main purpose in teacher work and research may be seen as organizing and showing examples of education as a critical process.

• In this process, participants criticize pedagogical framework conditions, goals and objectives, educational content and subject matter, methods of teaching and learning, and forms of evaluation and assessment.



• From a critical perspective, education should be organized through wide frames, making it possible for teachers and pupils to influence and change structures and systems. Teacher research is not aimed at developing final interpretation systems or fixed procedures.

• Critique of curriculum frameworks as instruments of power in the educational system is important in our project.



• Action research inspired by Habermas has been criticized for a relatively one sided focus on verbal argumentation, and a relatively one sided cognitive approach.

• The critique is related to a division between understanding or plans on one side, and action on the other. Planning, organizing and argumentation may be more focused than the actual, lived experience of educational processes and work.



• According to Habermas, it is problematic to transfer general moral principles to moral action – it can be seen as a question of transferring knowledge to action. This implies a kind of split between theory and practice that creates problems in education and educational research.



• An approach more inspired by Wittgenstein is that the principle or concept primarily exits in it´s use.

• “Relevant vocational education” can only be understood through the experience of examples, showing its meaning.

• The teacher researcher may contribute to develop and document practical experience, and show possible interpretations of central educational concepts.



Three examples

• KIP – ØR

• KIP – PV

• KIP - Strømmen



KIP - ØR


KIP - ØR An educational action research project in the Øvre Romerike

region

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