The course introduces theories on socialisation and individualisation and develops the students’ ability to analyse issues relating to upbringing and education. Moreover, the course should contribute to developing the students’ research-related skills when working with theory and empirical data.

The objective of the questionnaire is to train the students’ metacognition. In other words, their thoughts regarding how they are thinking. My wish was to plan teaching activities which challenge the students’ understanding. I wanted to ensure that the teaching does not only act as a continuation of the understanding developed by the students during their own practice, but contribute to rendering this understanding more critical, theoretical and academic.

Through the exercise, the students externalised their own understanding and viewed this from a theoretical perspective in the course. In doing so, they exemplified the difference between a professional understanding of inclusion and inclusion understood from an academic and theoretical perspective. I believe that I was able to discuss the fundamental aspects of this with the students; that when studying educational sociology, they should be careful not to maintain the definitions and understandings derived from their professional degree programme and their own practice.

This approach is time consuming, so it is unlikely that this exercise can be repeated several times in a module. It is therefore important to focus on a general aspect in the type of learning aimed for so that this can be used as an example when lecturing on other subjects.