Handledarens stödjande arbete i APL-uppgifterna för åk 1 : Med fokus på elevens lärande

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay is to examine the supervisor’s view on the structure and content of the tasks given to students during their vocational training. The investigation could be of help for teachers when devising new vocational training tasks. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with five supervisors, all of whom work at preschools. The supervisors were asked to grade all the vocational training tasks on a scale from one (easy) to five (difficult). The results were then used as a starting point for a discussion with the supervisors about their grading of the tasks. When devising vocational training tasks, one of the foundations is the knowledge requirements as expressed in the syllabus, and how they are reflected in the vocational training. An important aspect of the student’s learning is the supervisor’s ability to clarify the goals and criteria of vocational training. The supervisor plays an important role and is responsible for the student’s vocational training period. This study has given me a better understanding of the supervisor’s view on the structure of the vocational training tasks and I have been given many useful suggestions as to how it can be improved to strengthen the quality of the education. The Swedish Schools Inspectorate carried out an investigation in 2011 and noticed shortcomings in the grading of the vocational training, which is interesting and relevant for my study. The supervisor assesses the student’s performance during the vocational training according to a certain scale of grades. The findings suggest that we need to revise the structure and assessment of the vocational training tasks. At the upper secondary school used in this study, the tasks are devised in a way that makes it difficult for the supervisor to support the student in his/her learning process, because the tasks are too numerous and the instructions contain many ill-defined terms. The supervisors also want closer contact with, and visits from, the upper secondary school teachers, so that both the former and the students can receive more feedback and better support.