The use of tools in vocational education

The article is about the various ways tools can be used in the interactions between teacher and students during workshop sessions in vocational education. Through video observations in classrooms, we investigate how tools are used as objects of learning in four technical vocational programs. The theoretical foundation of the study is the variation theory of learning. In the video-recorded lessons, situations where tools have been foregrounded in the interaction between students and teachers have been categorised in relation to the research question: In what different ways is the use of tools foregrounded as an object of learning in vocational workshop teaching? The result points to four categories about 1) finding any object to solve a task, 2) contributing to the understanding of using a specific tool for a specific task, 3) understanding the complexity of using tools to solve a task and 4) creating and recreating a tool to complete a task. Theconclusion is that there are different kinds of learning content and abilities related to tools which can be understood in the enacted vocational workshop teaching. Our study shows that tools are dynamic, created, and shaped in various contexts, and the use of tools as an object of learning often spontaneously, in different teaching situations and interactions between teachers and students. The vocational students get different opportunities to learn to use tools in different ways in here-and-now situations based on the requirements of the vocational work.