Instruction of craft techniques in sloyd

Fictional and concrete action as a communicative resource

Abstract

The starting point of this article is the communication of two sloyd teachers' communication with their students in grade 6 in the Swedish elementary school's sloyd classes. Video­recorded classroom observations as well as stimulated recall are used as methods of documenting the use of various communication forms and communicative resources. Sloyd is a communicative subject in several ways, partly through the possibility to both verbal and non-verbal instruction and observation of other’s actions, partly through the use of materials and available equipment in the classroom. The focus in the analysis work is of the sloyd teacher's different choices of communication forms and communicative resources in an instruction. The study illustrates the sloyd teacher's ability to create understanding through a didactic and conscious choice of communication form and communicative resource in the different parts of the instruction.