Thematic assignments making vocational concepts visible during students’ work placements in Norwegian vocational education

Abstract Many students in vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Norway fail to see the connection with the school-based curriculum content they explore and learn and the tasks they perform during work placements. Consequently, the relevance of various vocational concepts remains invisible when conducting tasks at work, hence student motivation for learning may decrease and students’ understanding accordingly. This study examines how thematic assignments, designed by a team of experienced vocational teachers in Norway, who teach the subject vocational specialization, foster students’ boundary learning and contribute to students’ knowledge development of vocational concepts. The research focuses on the thematic assignments, the boundary objects, helping students to navigate between the school and the workplace. The thematic assignments serve as shared references that bridge these two learning contexts. Semi-structured observations were made of students, teachers, and supervisors in the workplace, and interviews were conducted with teachers and supervisors to gain insight into practices and personal perspectives. The findings indicate that the teachers’ joint design and their individual student adjusted use of the thematic assignments, helped students to ‘see’ the vocational concepts in practice and to stress their importance and necessity to learn. An additional result is that the assignments worked as an anchor for improved communication and collaboration among all parties involved.