Engl. transl.: Digitally supported professionalism and general education: report regarding the DUFA project

This Report has been created as part of the DUFA project (Digitally Supported Professionalism and General Education). The purpose of the DUFA project is to uncover how the use of IT and digital learning resources in upper secondary school can support professionalism and general education. The coverage was prompted by the Ministry of Education in connection with the upper secondary school reform, which was agreed on 3 June 2016, with effect from the school year 2017-2018. More specifically, the DUFA project has developed 10 exemplary courses that can show how people in different upper secondary school subjects and educational areas can act and think in relation to the problem of making digitalisation strengthen professionalism and general education. The purpose of the exemplary courses is thus to provide a concrete basis for inspiration. Description of the 10 courses is attached as an appendix. Two books on the DUFA project are being prepared. The first book was published in 2018. It provides an overview of digitization in relation to strengthening professionalism and general education. It is designed as a research overview and clarification of concepts, which provides a starting point and framework for creating digitally supported teaching courses in upper secondary school and thus in a Danish educational context. In the DUFA project, it served as such a starting point for 12 teachers, 6 from resp. Rødkilde - and Silkeborg Gymnasium, which were involved in the project and which all had to develop 2 teaching courses each. Book 2 (under preparation, to be published in 2019) operationalises research overview and concept clarification from book 1 into an analysis strategy, which is used as follows to analyze and discuss 10 exemplary digitally supported teaching courses. The 10 courses were selected from among all DUFA courses as exemplary and book 2 provides, on the basis of its concrete analyzes, a discussion of digitally supported professionalism and general education in the Danish upper secondary school. Although the 10 courses have been developed at 2 STX high schools, all the high school educations are addressed. Thus, the theories and models set forth in the report are directed toward high school as such. What is in focus is not special issues at STX, but whether different educational understandings and applications of digital technologies and media can support and strengthen professionalism and general education (that is the purpose of all the high school educations). In relation to professionalism, the focus is on three main disciplines - natural sciences, social sciences and cultural sciences. It is different how these are weighted in the upper secondary educations. At HHX, for example, social studies is highly valued, while there is only a little science. There is also a difference in the weighting in different fields of study. However, no upper secondary education or field of study has its main emphasis on professionalism outside the three mentioned professional disciplines. In relation to general education, the focus is on three dimensions, namely knowledge, attitude and existence. As will be seen from the report, these three general dimensions can be weighted differently in different educations, subjects and teaching courses, but all three are indispensable in any education that has general education as its purpose. Again, the focus is thus not on specific STX issues, but on issues that are relevant to the high school as such. What is analyzed, discussed and evaluated in relation to the 10 courses is therefore in all cases matters of relevance to general education in general and the above-mentioned general disciplines. The role of this report is to provide a brief and easily accessible overview. This means that if you want the full and deep overview, both theoretically as well as empirically and analytically, you must read the two books published by Unge Pædagoger as part of the series "Medialisation & teaching". First, the report summarizes the theoretical framework in the form of a model and associated analysis strategy. The empirical basis and the method used are then summarized, after which the report, based on the analysis strategy, provides an analysis of 3 of the 10 exemplary teaching courses (a course from each of the three main academic areas with which the report works). Subsequently, we show how the model and analysis strategy can be used as an evaluation tool, by evaluating the 3 exemplary teaching courses. Finally, a brief conclusion is made and the most important results of the DUFA project are pointed out.

The DUFA project shows that supporting digital education can make sense and students and teachers can benefit from it academically. "The developed DUFA model can thus be used both as a design model, to construct new courses according to, as an analysis model, to examine teaching performed with, and as an evaluation model, to prepare assessment and ongoing redesign according to." (p. 47, translated by the coder)