In Norway around fifty percent of the students who begin a vocational training have not completed the education within five years. This gives us reason to look into how the training is designed. Students in vocational education often experience common core subjects (language, mathematics, science, and social science) as particularly challenging, so the design and relevance of these subjects in vocational programs needs to be discussed. The empirical material presented in this article is findings from a qualitative study of five teachers teaching common core subjects within vocational education programs. The study examines the teachers' reflections about students in these programs. Analysis of the teachers' descriptions of their pupils, their experiences of organizational frameworks and their depictions of various educational measures they adopt to meet student challenges, illustrates that learning for students exceeds the idea of learning as acquisition of professional content. The findings show that there are challenges associated with the cognitive and the psychodynamic dimensions of learning. It is also suggested that the current common core curriculum affects the conditions for communication and interaction in learning situations. © 2016 Akademika Forlag. All rights reserved.
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