Ett år med arbeidslivsfaget

A new practical subject – Arbeidslivsfaget ("working life course")– was introduced as an option for a selected number of lower secondary schools in 2009 and 2010. It is a practical oriented course where students are to learn developing products and services and get early experiences with working life and practical training. The subject is linked to the vocational education in upper secondary school. One goal is to give students who want to work practically an opportunity to explore their interests for vocational training. Another goal is to offer an alternative way to enhance academic motivation, as well as to develop basic skills. Students can themselves choose the subject, as an alternative to learning a foreign language. NOVA – Norwegian Social Research – are commissioned by the Directorate of Educational and Training to evaluate the attempt to implement this subject in the 119 schools starting the course in 2010. These schools will be followed until 2013. During the evaluation period we shall identify organizational challenges and opportunities associated with the implemention of Arbeidslivsfaget, and how managers, teachers and students experience the subject. The evaluation shall also examine the characteristics of students who choose Arbeidslivsfaget, and will shed light on whether Arbeidslivsfaget fulfill the goal of enhancing students' academic motivation and developing basic skills. The evaluation will be completed by a final report in autumn 2013 after the students have finished working the subject three-year course of training. In this second project report we examine how students who have participated and the teachers who have taught in Arbeidslivsfaget experience this new subject after one year’s experiences. The report answers three main questions: 1) What are the characteristics of teachers and students who participate in Arbeidslivsfaget? 2) How is the subject implemented and practiced in the schools - it is a practical subject? 3) How do students and teachers themselves evaluate Arbeidslivsfaget – what are the learning outcome for the students? The report is based on two major surveys with high response rates aimed at teachers and students who have participated in Arbeidslivsfaget, as well as on qualitative data collected through observations and interviews in six of the participating schools. The findings show that we are dealing with a subject that is strongly desired by both school leaders, teachers and students. In most schools, Arbeidslivsfaget has been practiced as a training program where students are given practical work - with a diverse set of tasks and learning goals, which for most of the students are perceived as more relevant, interesting and useful than the tasks and goals they are faced with in most other subjects. When students even get to choose to participate in such studies, it is more than eight out of ten who state that this is the best course they have at school and the vast majority especially like the way it is being worked on. The teachers express a strong enthusiasm for the subject and many are happy with how it worked for the students.Although the main story in the evaluation of Arbeidslivsfaget so far is a success story, we are still cautious about drawing the conclusion that the subject will solve all problems in secondary schools and that it will work equally well in all schools. For the first point, we report on some of the challenges and tensions that exist in the subject, both related to students' expectations of more direct experiences out in the workplace, to the acquirement of basic skills and enhancement of motivation for academic learning and challenges for teachers in how to assessment and examination. We also raise the question of whether the subject is better suited to boys than girls. A second point is the uncertainty related to the transfer value of the evaluation results, due to self-selection of schools, teachers and students