Journal Contents

all articles of volume 8 issue 3 | return to Journal Contents

Article of Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2013

Vocational education approach: New TEL settings-new prospects for teachers' instructional activities?

Authors: Raija Hämäläinen, Bram De Wever

Abstract: This study focuses on vocational education teachers’ instructional activities in a new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) setting. A content analysis is applied to investigate teachers’ and students’ interactions in a 3D game context. The findings illustrate that when teachers’ and students’ interactions are mediated by a game, teachers seem to apply different discussion activities to empower vocational learning than they do in traditional classroom settings. Additionally, the present study shows that teachers spontaneously develop new ways of supporting vocational learning processes. In more detail, two main types of instructional activities were identified: a “knowledge-providing” approach and a “joint problem-solving” approach. Additionally, findings illustrate how teachers using different types of instructional approaches are followed up with different processes by students. The article is concluded with a general discussion of the emerging challenges regarding the technological and pedagogical development of vocational education and teachers’ instructional activities in new TEL settings based on a more long-term design-based research project (ongoing since 2004).

Keywords: Vocational education, Teachers’ instructional activities, 3D game, Design-based research

Citation: Hämäläinen, R. & De Wever, B. (2013) Vocational education approach: New TEL settings-new prospects for teachers' instructional activities?. ijcscl 8 (3), pp. 271-291

DOI: 10.1007/s11412-013-9167-2

Preprint: haemaelaeinen_wever_8_3.pdf

About this article at link.springer.com [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11412-013-9167-2] including a link to the official electronic version.