INRP - Affichage d'une contribution

La 6ème Biennale

Contribution recherchée

Atelier : Comment les analyses de la pratique dans la formation renouvellent-elles les questions de l'identité et de la culture ?

Titre :	From practice to prose. On the role of language in learning processes among carpentry students in upper secondary school in Norway
Auteurs :	BERG Tove

Texte :
In my paper I present some methodological aspects and preliminary findings from an ongoing study. The overall research problem is : What is the role of written language in vocational education and training ? This does not imply that the role of oral language is neglected ; on the contrary, the interplay between oral and written communication is highly interesting and taken into account. The study compares two vocational programs, health and social studies on the one hand and carpentry on the other. In this paper I focus on the carpentry class I have observed over a period of six months. The material for the study is, besides observation and interview data, samples from the written study and test material used in the classroom and workshop (textbooks, handouts, tests and exams, including student papers). As concerns the classroom research, the method is ethnographic. For analysis of the textual material, critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995), literacy (Barton 1994) and communication theory (van Dijk 1993) are applied. Bruner's (1996) two broad ways of organizing knowledge are illuminating : narrative thinking and logical-scientific thinking. According to Bruner they have varied modes of expression in different cultures, and they are cultivated differently. Adapting Bruner's terms, I refer to two broad modes of expression as logical-scientific and narrative discourse. From the classroom research I present some of my preliminary findings : The carpentry training, although practical in the way it was organized, carried a heavy load of written instructions and reading material. For students' writing assignments high standards were set. Oral narrative appeared to play an important role in the socialisation of the apprentices.

Texte :

In my paper I present some methodological aspects and preliminary findings from an ongoing study. The overall research problem is : What is the role of written language in vocational education and training ? This does not imply that the role of oral language is neglected ; on the contrary, the interplay between oral and written communication is highly interesting and taken into account. The study compares two vocational programs, health and social studies on the one hand and carpentry on the other. In this paper I focus on the carpentry class I have observed over a period of six months.
The material for the study is, besides observation and interview data, samples from the written study and test material used in the classroom and workshop (textbooks, handouts, tests and exams, including student papers). As concerns the classroom research, the method is ethnographic. For analysis of the textual material, critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995), literacy (Barton 1994) and communication theory (van Dijk 1993) are applied. Bruner's (1996) two broad ways of organizing knowledge are illuminating : narrative thinking and logical-scientific thinking. According to Bruner they have varied modes of expression in different cultures, and they are cultivated differently. Adapting Bruner's terms, I refer to two broad modes of expression as logical-scientific and narrative discourse.
From the classroom research I present some of my preliminary findings : The carpentry training, although practical in the way it was organized, carried a heavy load of written instructions and reading material. For students' writing assignments high standards were set. Oral narrative appeared to play an important role in the socialisation of the apprentices.