Open AccessIntroducing infrared cameras in the study of pigs’ physiology and health as cognitive apprenticeship in vocational education
Author(s) -
Jesper Haglund,
Frida Henriksson
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
action research and innovation in science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2626-9902
DOI - 10.51724/arise.38
Subject(s) - apprenticeship , vocational education , cognitive apprenticeship , cognition , perspective (graphical) , resource (disambiguation) , psychology , class (philosophy) , medical education , pedagogy , mathematics education , medicine , computer science , computer network , philosophy , linguistics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence
As part of a participatory action-research project, students at the vocational upper-secondary Natural Resource Use programme in Sweden were introduced to infrared cameras in their courses. Students were video recorded as they used infrared cameras in the investigation of pigs’ physiology and health in the school’s pig house and explained generated infrared images in whole-class dialogue, together with involved teachers and researcher. Students found that a pig’s injured leg has high temperature, but also, more surprisingly, udder abcesses with lower temperature than the surrounding healthy udder tissue. Students and teachers expressed excitement in explaining the results. From the perspective of seeing vocational education as a kind of cognitive apprenticeship, students’ investigations and dialogue with the teachers and researcher are characterised as an example of authentic activity in a community of learners, where expertise was distributed across all participants.