Sommarhögskolans verksamhet
Ur ett learning-by-doing och elevperspektiv
?Learning by doing?Learning responsibilityPupils perspectiveSummer AcademyElevperspektiv?Learning by doing?Sommarhögskola ? SHSStudieansvar
This paper is written to take a close look at teaching methods used at the Summer Academy (SHS), which is held at Södertörns Högskola in Stockholm. SHS is a subdivision of the institution of teaching education, which annually, during summertime, offers an eight-day program for pupils between 13-15 years of age, from different schools located in socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs of Stockholm. The intention of SHS is to give the participating pupils an insight into higher education, especially that of university. The purpose of the activities, such as field trips, guided tours and corporate visits, is to make pupils aware of their own responsibility for their educational situation through different methods of knowledge transfer, to diversify the means of the education, and to bring awareness to the array of possibilities which they have access to within the Swedish system of tertiary education.The study is based on six deep-interviews, three with pupils and three with student mentors. Together with 131 surveys from the course given during the summer of 2014, and theories of John Dewey on ?Learning-by-doing?, the results show that pupils participation in SHS give them a better understanding for, and knowledge about their own educational responsibility.Another question this paper seeks to address is how significantly the SHS program is changing the pupil?s experience of education in general and their view upon higher education specifically. Throughout this process, the aim is that the pupils will have gained a deeper understanding for the differences in educational form, the pupils own responsibility for shaping their future and how they themselves can take charge of their educational choices. After having participated in the SHS program, the pupils have made mature and insightful choices for their future education, where an academic choice is closer to hand than prior to the program.