Cognitive activation in VET-classrooms – Findings of a video study in Switzerland

Empirical research has shown that for the acquisition of competences, the cognitive activation of the learners is highly important. However, research on commercial vocational education and training (VET) primarily focused on teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Among others, his raises the question how VET-teachers tap the potential of cognitive activating activities in lessons they taught. Referring to this question, the presentation is focused on “Economy and Society” (E&S), the core subject of commercial vocational training. Reported are results that are based on video data from the Swiss Leading House LINCA. It was collected from nine classes, each taught in three consecutive E&S lessons while the teacher’s teaching was videographed. The analysis of the video data consisted of event sampling codings which covered measures for the potential of cognitive activation at six different levels of quality (from simply remembering up to transferring knowledge). The results show that the cognitive activation in E&S lessons are primarily based on impulses from the teacher, not on those from the learners. Overall, the cognitive learning activities are initiated at a rather low cognitive activation level, e.g. activation of prior knowledge, knowledge organization and knowledge explanation. Furthermore, while in teacher-learner interactions the cognitive activation in 62% of the events relates to activating (pre-)knowledge, in 48% VET-teachers used their inputs simply for explaining the lesson’s content. In accordance with the qualification hypothesis, such results provide the opportunity to shape teacher education as well as advanced training with experienced teachers in consideration of this empirical evidence