Interactional Processes of Handling Errors in Vocational School: Students Attending to Changes in Vocational Practices

Abstract

Making errors is an inevitable part of work and learning situations. Recent research has shown that errors can provide important learning opportunities, in particular in education or training, where there may be ample time and support to learn from them. Yet, more knowledge is needed of how learning from errors is developed through interactional processes in a particular context. Adding to prior research of learning from errors in education, the present study is conducted in a vocational school context, where there may be opportunities to learn from errors conducted as students gain new experiences with the complex work processes of a vocation. Thus, this study aims to provide novel insight into how students’ learning from errors in school-based vocational training is developed. Findings from a 1-year field study of culinary vocational education show that teachers and students participate in learning activities of shared experience, improvisation, and reflecting on errors in ways, where the students learn to pay constant attention to the complex cooking procedures. The findings further demonstrate students’ transformed participation in challenging and error-prone vocational assignments as a central part of their identification with the culinary vocation.