Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november An action research project for curriculum developement at Strømmen Upper Secondary school: : Partners: Teachers and pupils at study track Health and Social Subjects, year 1 Reasearchers/teacher trainers from Akershus University College,

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Background Problem i Norwegian Upper Secondary school, vocational tracks: High rate of drop out Lack of vocational relevanvce Lack of meaningsfulness

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Objectives: The project is part of the school`s strategy for: strengthen relevance and meaningfulnes develope teacher competance both as individuals and as team develope the school organisation as a learning organisation. to develop the entire educational programme of 4 years, including both shool -and workbased learning to spread experineces from one part and level of the school`s learning environment tol the rest.

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Production of learning tasks, and extracts from dialogues with participating teachers and pupils

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november The teachers formulated the following principles for curriculum development: Development from prior practice Learning tasks shall take occupational areas of the health/social world of work as a point of departure Adapted learning - each pupil shall experience a learning process adapted to their learning abilities and interests Each pupil shall experience relevances and meaningful learning processes The education shall be holistic and coherent The shool organisation must be charcterized by flexibilty, as to for example timeschedule.organising of teachers work etc

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Methodological approach Dialogue Work-shops and reflection sessions together with the participating teachers for analyzing, discussion and intepretation of curricula planning, implementing and reflection over teaching and learning sesssions. 1.The teachers plan, execute and evaluate their pupils learning activities. They also reflect upon their own teaching. 2: 1.The researchers facilitate and support the teachers`learning process. Included is presentations and discussions around central themes as differentiation, evaluation, new challenges for the teacher role, and principles for producton of learning tasks.

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november FOKUS: Endring fra tidligere praksis Synliggjøring av yrker innen utdanningsprogramm et i oppgaveteksten Tilpasset opplæring Relevans og mening Example of a learning task taking the world of work as a point of depa\rture. Developed autumn 2006

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Eksempel på oppgave utarbeidet av lærere på Strømmen videregående skole, tidlig høst 2006

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Feed back from teachers in a working session, october 2006: ”We talk a lot more about the different occupations this education qualify for.” When we have been working with communication, we try to relate this to communication in different occupations. When we are working with hygiene, we link this to what is nessecary in the different occupations regarding clothes, hair and skin In the years before this reform, we did nothing of the kind. Now thisis embedded in our daily activities.

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Main points from an evaluation dialogue with pupils spring 2007: They experienced a successful integration of practice and theory Teaching sessions and learning tasks were geared towards future occopations They learned a lot when they were allowed to cooperate and to give oral presentations They experienced improved reflection competence and that the different parts of the content were related. They learned ”best” when they were ” in practice”, but they also experienced that the subjects learned at school were useful when they were out in practice. They experienced and apprciated to be part of decision making

Ellen Bjerknes. Elisabeth Syverstad. Umeå, november Feed back from teachers to the way we work spring 2007 ”It feels good to have time to reflect upon what we are doing and to receive feed back that we are on the track.” ”Dialogues like this provide new energy”