Norwegian Lower Secondary School Research Articles

Digital ambitions vs. classroom reality in Norwegian lower secondary schools: What digital competencies are students developing over time?

Despite high political ambitions, the increased use of digital technology in lower secondary school has resulted in little indication of the advanced use of digital skills. Drawing on video-recorded lessons (N = 29) from five schools in Norway over time and across two national curricula, this study mapped the opportunities students had to develop digital skills in English classrooms. The findings provide nuanced insight into the instruction of digital skills in highly digitalised schools. Despite a slight increase in digital skills after the 2020 reform, our findings indicate that digital ambitions in the curriculum were not reflected in classroom reality.

Discontinuity, risk, patience, and appeal: existential aspects of practising in physical education

ABSTRACT Background For quite some time now, physical education (PE) scholars have expressed concerns about objectifying tendencies within the school subject of PE, calling for a fresh design that foregrounds students’ subjectivity and meaning-making, thereby acknowledging students as unique individuals rather than mere objects of educational interventions. Purpose In this study, we investigate teaching and learning in PE informed by The Practising Model (PM) (Aggerholm et al. 2018). The PM invites educators to be concerned with students’ subjectivity. As such, it represents a promising alternative to an objectifying and instrumental educational trajectory. However, this can also pose challenges for teachers and students. Therefore, we set out to answer the following research questions: (1) How can we understand the educational value of discontinuous experiences in practising, and (2) what are the implications for teachers? Theoretical perspectives Bollnow’s (1976) existential pedagogy provides the grounding for our investigation of discontinuous educational moments. Prange’s (2012) operational theory of education is included to interpret how teachers can bring forth and handle such moments, while Merleau-Ponty’s (2012) concept of sedimentation supports our analysis of students’ development. Methods Through an Interactive Action Research project, the first author of this article has followed a 10th-grade PE class at a Norwegian lower secondary school over two teaching units, each lasting for six weeks. Data material comprises observations of 21 PE sessions, three workshops between teachers and the first author, nine teacher interviews, 22 student interviews, and 21 student diaries. Data was analysed following Malterud’s (2012) framework for Systematic Text Condensation and produced two main themes: ‘I’m not the teacher who covers my students in bubble wrapping’ and ‘I have to work so hard with myself not to give up.’ Findings and discussions First, by discussing the teachers’ operational forms in pedagogy informed by the PM, we show how pointing as appeal, that is, appealing to, evoking, or (re)directing students’ attention, actions, or attitudes, enabled teachers to let go of control while still providing trust and responsible availability. This nurtured and supported students’ discontinuous experiences, allowing them to dwell on the challenge, endure the uncertainty, and continue their search for answers. The second main point concerns the students’ development of both new movement capabilities and a patient attitude. Practising constantly threw students back onto themselves, forcing them to face negativity, rethink the situation, take a stance, and continue from a different starting point. This contributed to the sedimentation of a new bodily attitude to the world. Consequently, we argued that an essential way in which practising contributed to continuous personal growth was through moments of discontinuity. Conclusion Overall, this study shows how practising can expand the classic pedagogy of continuity by providing the conditions for discontinuity as a subjective and existential element of education. This, we argue, can support students in discovering and developing new sides of themselves that hold significance both within and beyond the subject of PE.

Migrant students’ experiences with and perceptions of assessment in Norwegian lower secondary schools

ABSTRACT This study explored how 12 lower secondary school students with migrant backgrounds experienced and perceived assessment in Norwegian lower secondary schools. Interviews were conducted to understand their perceptions of assessments, of the feedback they received through these assessments, and of the ways in which their teachers adapted assessments and assessment situations to meet their individual needs. The students reported diverse experiences with the assessment criteria and formats and explained how their teachers’ adaptions made in the assessments and assessment situations helped them demonstrate their competence and made them feel included. The assessment aspects they perceived as challenging included demonstrating their knowledge using the language of instruction, understanding how to participate and using assessment to further learning. Our findings suggest that teachers must develop students’ assessment literacy by actively teaching them how to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through classroom participation and by explaining how feedback can improve their learning. Such actions will also help make assessment practices more inclusive and equitable.

Exploring experiences and challenges in implementing youth participatory action research in Norwegian lower secondary schools

ABSTRACT Most empirical knowledge on the processes and challenges of conducting youth participatory action research (YPAR) in the school setting stems from research in the US; only a few studies exist among European youth. In addition, what youth participation looks like in YPAR is rarely described. The present study investigates the experiences of implementing a Junior-researcher YPAR initiative from the perspectives of students and teachers in five ninth-grade classes in Norway. We also observed two of the classes throughout the process. The findings from interviews and observations showed that the Junior-researcher mostly promoted a sound experience of participation and knowledge production among the students. However, students and teachers were not familiarized with a YPAR designed to promote unstructured learning methods and student autonomy, or to limit teacher involvement. The present results illustrate some of the challenges youth participatory approaches may face in a school context.

Can dialogic eventness be created?

ABSTRACT Turning educational ideas into meaningful learning requires planning for uncertainty. This article presents Bakhtin’s key concept of eventness as an essential aspect of defining dialogic space. To Bakhtin an event is something happening here and now, with a degree of open-ended uncertainty tied to what will happen next. Acknowledging this uncertainty—or eventness—might help researchers and practitioners grasp and support the spirit of dialogue in activities aiming for genuine student participation, which is a core concept in recent curricular reforms in Norway. This article discusses eventness as a hub for dialogic principles, illustrated by examples from student group conversations on literature in Norwegian lower secondary school. The challenge of creating dialogic space is discussed with reference to Bakhtin’s general idea of authorship.

The affordances of an intercultural e-portfolio

Abstract This paper explores teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of an e-portfolio of intercultural competence (EPIC). The EPIC was implemented during an 8-week intervention carried out in a Norwegian lower secondary school. Data were collected from various sources (e.g., learners’ texts, focus group interviews), but this paper draws on the data from three individual teacher interviews conducted in the spring semester 2018. This study extends our understanding of the way an e-portfolio can be integrated into the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom as a tool for promoting intercultural competence. The findings underscore the affordances of the e-portfolio to track the learners’ reflections on their own complex selves and others; moreover, the use of the e-portfolio enabled the teachers to create flexible and varied learning spaces, which in turn provided opportunities for intercultural language learning. Pedagogical implications are provided on how foreign language (FL) teachers might support intercultural competence development through the use of the e-portfolio.

Mapping sustainability of professional development in four Norwegian lower-secondary schools

The aim of this study was to investigate how principals (n = 4) and teachers (n = 20) from four lower-secondary schools perceived and evaluated sustainable professional development processes in their schools. To understand their experiences and perceptions, interviews and focus group conversations were conducted at the end of a one-year research and development project and again two years later. All teachers had in common that they taught 9th graders (14–15-year-old students) in Mathematics. Findings indicate that at the end of the common project period, all the participating teachers state that they had experienced professional development. They had made changes to their teaching practice and were collaborating more with colleagues. After two years the teachers still state that the research and development project had contributed to their learning, but that their schools have not been able to maintain a context of sustainable professional development processes. The core finding from this study suggests that if professional development in schools is to be sustainable, teachers should have ownership, work in teams over time and gain necessary support by their leaders and external experts for facilitating the learning processes and to develop new knowledge. Both the principals and teachers in these four schools claimed that to maintain sustainability of a continuing professional development there is a need to find time and structures to reflect on teaching practices and student learning.

‘To be multilingual means … ’: exploring a participatory approach to multilingual identity with schoolchildren†

ABSTRACT This article presents an innovative way to engage schoolchildren in discussions on multilingualism and multilingual identity using research data they helped generate. Adopting an exploratory, participatory approach to research, our study uses digital data visualisations in interactive sessions aimed at engaging lower secondary students in identity formation and negotiation. The paper starts with a contextualisation of multilingualism and language learning in Norwegian education and the contributions of our study to relevant research in the field. Next, we discuss the epistemological and pedagogical implications of our participatory approach and its integration within the general mixed methods framework of the Ungspråk project, a three-year study that investigates different aspects of multilingualism in Norwegian lower secondary schools. The paper then focuses on the development of the main pedagogical tools used in the interactive sessions: digital visualisations based on data from an online questionnaire previously answered by participants. Particular attention is paid to the design of the visuals in promoting students’ engagement with the data and autonomy in interpreting research findings. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main findings from interactive sessions in which participants engaged in reflections on multilingualism and multilingual identity via interaction with the visuals, researchers and their peers.

Writer/reader visibility in young learner writing: A study of the TRAWL corpus of lower secondary school texts

A pervasive finding in learner corpus research is that advanced EFL learners tend to overuse interactional features of writer/reader visibility (WRV) in their written academic texts, including first- and second-person pronouns, I think, modal adverbs, modal auxiliaries, and questions. Very little research has been done on younger learners, however. The present study is a mixed-methods investigation of WRV features in argumentative and expository genres in the TRAWL longitudinal corpus of learner texts from Norwegian lower secondary school. Comparisons are made with more advanced levels (undergraduate university students) using the Norwegian component of ICLE, ICLE-NO. The results show that the TRAWL pupils use many WRV features in their writing, first-person reference being especially frequent (with I dominating). Compared to the advanced learners in ICLE-NO, the TRAWL learners overuse some, but not all, features. One explanation for the high frequency of WRV features in TRAWL is that the prompts – both argumentative and expository – often request a personal style. Some expository prompts and texts are more impersonal, but overall there is little distinction between the genres. The pedagogical implications are that instructors need to be more specific about genre requirements, and create more obligatory prompts that do not request a personal style.

Speech-to-Text Technology as an Inclusive Approach: Lower Secondary Teachers’ Experiences

Speech-to-text (STT) technology enables pupils to write using their voice. This qualitative study explores six teachers’ experiences with introducing STT technology in a whole-class environment at a Norwegian lower secondary school. The aim was to explore the benefits and challenges of using STT as an inclusive approach for writing instruction in lower secondary education. The teachers in the study stated that most of their pupils found STT useful when beginning longer writing assignments (for example, as an aid for brainstorming and drafting) and producing texts in foreign languages. Reported challenges were pupils distracting each other, inaccuracy of the technology, improper use, and pupils whispering because they were too embarrassed to speak out loud. The teachers’ views were initially consistent with a broad definition of inclusion, as they saw the educational opportunities of introducing STT to the whole class. However, after implementation they were concerned with structural challenges, including formal assessment of writing and individual adaptation of the curricula, which suggests a narrow interpretation of inclusion.

Teacher feedback on procedural skills, conceptual understanding, and mathematical practices: A video study in lower secondary mathematics classrooms

Feedback is a prevalent teaching practice in mathematics classrooms, but few studies have documented how mathematics teachers enact feedback in classrooms. We investigated how 47 teachers provided feedback in 172 mathematics lessons in Norwegian lower secondary schools. We analyzed the quality of feedback, the quantity of feedback, and whether the feedback addressed students’ procedural skills, conceptual understanding, or engagement in mathematical practices. Teachers spent large amounts of time providing concrete and specific feedback, most of it addressing procedural skills while conceptual feedback was less common. The study highlights details of feedback relevant for both pre- and inservice mathematics teacher training.

Framing policy problems and solutions in education policymaking: Pre-vocational education in Norwegian lower secondary school

This article investigates policymaking for Norwegian lower secondary education, with a focus on policy problems and solutions emphasising pre-vocational education. The data consist of official policy documents such as Green and White Papers, hearings, propositions to the parliament, protocols of parliamentary debates and votes in the parliament. The conceptual framework focuses on framing in policymaking and policy problems and solutions. Results reveal that dropout, difficulties in adapting education to the pupils and a gap between the content of schooling and the demands of the world of work are framed as the main policy problems. Different policy solutions emphasising pre-vocational education are presented as legitimised responses to these problems. The three policy problems can be defined as complex issues. Despite the proposed policy solutions, these are not enacted in the curriculum in line with the discussions and votes in parliament. This could be attributed to conflicting values and purposes of Norwegian education. These differences raise the question of whether the problems faced by Norwegian comprehensive schooling are taken for granted, as the proposed solutions appear to be insufficient in dealing with the defined problems.

The Conforming, The Innovating and The Connecting Teacher: A qualitative study of why teachers in lower secondary school adopt physically active learning

This paper explores why teachers adopt physically active learning (PAL). Data were collected through ‘go-alongs’ supplemented by individual interviews with 13 teachers in seven Norwegian lower secondary schools. Data were then analysed thematically. Results indicated that as well as to enhance their teaching and pupils' learning, teachers adopt PAL to adhere to school policy (The Conforming Teacher), to be an innovative educator (The Innovating Teacher), and, because it matches past positive personal experiences (The Connecting Teacher). The findings can be used to shape PAL teacher training programs to increase the likelihood of adoption.

Students' perceptions of teachers' feedback practice in teaching English as a foreign language

This study focused on the relationship of students' perceptions of teachers' feedback practice with students' perceived external goal orientation, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching. Data were collected from a student survey (n = 1137) administered to students in Norwegian lower secondary schools. Multiple regression and path analyses were performed. The results indicated that the students who were aware of learning goals perceived the teachers' feedback as more useful. Path analyses suggested that students' perceived self-efficacy and EFL teaching positively predicted their perceptions of teacher feedback practice when mediated by perceived external goal orientation and self-regulation.

A study of the texts in the TRAWL corpus of lower secondary schools reveals the visibility of the writer and reader in young learners' writing

According to the findings of one study that used a learner corpus, advanced students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) frequently make errors in the usage of interactional WRV components in their written academic papers. I believe inquiries, first- and second-person pronouns, modal adverbs, and modal auxiliaries are all included in this category of characteristics. The findings of learner corpus research lead to this widely accepted and acknowledged conclusion. On the other hand, there hasn't been much study conducted on elementary and secondary school students. The primary objective of this research is to study WRV characteristics in argumentative and explanatory genres within the TRAWL longitudinal corpus of learner texts from Norwegian lower secondary schools using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Expository, argumentative, and hybrid writing are all types of writing that fall under this category. ICLE-NO, the Norwegian adaptation of the exam, is utilized to compare levels that have progressed in their growth (undergraduate students at universities).
 According to the findings, students who take TRAWL are more likely to include WRV features in their writing, with allusions to first-person views being particularly widespread among these students' contributions (with I dominating). The students who are enrolled in TRAWL have less experience than those who are enrolled in ICLE-NO, and as a result, they commonly abuse a range of features. Nevertheless, this is not the case for every TRAWL student. The fact that the prompts, whether argumentative or explanatory, typically look for a personal style is one explanation for the high frequency of WRV in TRAWL. Other possible explanations include: The following are some more reasons that might be applicable: There are particular explanation prompts and messages that are less personal, but other than that, there is not much difference between the genres. Consequently, teachers must be more specific about the genres they want their students to generate and provide them with more necessary prompts without imposing any particular writing style on them. In addition, they will need to provide their students with more opportunities to write.

Exploring improvement in teachers’ instructional support: classifying and analyzing patterns of change in a national initiative on classroom management

ABSTRACT What teachers do in the classroom is a key determinant of student learning processes and outcomes. The current study explores the levels of and improvement in teachers’ instructional support throughout a school-wide initiative that aimed to develop classroom management in Norwegian lower secondary schools. The sample contained 227 teachers from nine schools. The results of growth mixture modeling (GMM) indicate that the majority of teachers did not improve. The teachers who did improve reported higher initial instructional support levels than the non-improving teachers. The improving teachers also reported higher job satisfaction and less stress from student behavior. No significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to emotional exhaustion and stress from workload. The study illustrates an approach relevant for evaluating improvement in teachers’ practice within specific interventions as well as in ongoing professional development. The results may have implications for the length, focus and content of professional development for teachers. The study provides knowledge that may be relevant to school and district leaders initiating improvement efforts in their school(s).

Friction in fiction. A study of the importance of open problems for literary conversations

The present paper is part of a multiple case study of literary classroom work at Norwegian lower-secondary schools (students aged 13–16) where three classes are invited to discuss texts presented to them as open problems. The first case study carried out showed that the text and the task had the power to attract as well as the ability to generate student engagement. The second case study identified varia-tion in student engagement based on a description of intensity and an analysis of students' discursive valuation mechanisms. Following those findings of engagement, there is a need to understand what it is about the three short stories involved―Raymond Carver's Little Things (Carver, 2004), Roy Jacobsen's Run for Your Life (Jacobsen, 2001) and Franz Kafka's Before the Law (Kafka, 2000b)―that may yield that engagement. The main finding made is that what attracts students' attention are different forms of friction that delays the unfolding of the motif or plot of the story. This friction can therefore also be seen as the basis for the engagement shown by students in conversations. The findings suggest that lower-secondary students take an approach characterized by substantial engagement to those aspects of the text that represent problems of high relevance even within the field of literary studies. At a general level, the findings of the study open up for a discussion about whether greater use should be made of the genuine problems of literary studies in order to create student engagement.

Teachers’ Experience in the Subject of Food and Health and the Promotion of Health in Norwegian Lower Secondary Schools

This study describes the teachers' experiences and views regarding the extent to which the subject food and health promotes health in lower secondary schools. The teachers wish to build their teaching on the pupils’ assumptions and references, but they find this problematical because they have little or no knowledge of their pupils. In addition to support from the homes, the teachers point to sufficient economic resources in the schools, as well as resources in the shape of time and collegial support, as important factors in the realization of the subject. Although the teachers feel that they have the support they need in their work, very few have the organizational structures to lean on in their work, so that cooperation is barely internalized. Health-promoting work should be anchored throughout the organization, to achieve sufficient strength and effectiveness. Structural relationships within the organization, through organization management, are important for the teachers' work with the subject. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.2.10

A Preliminary Validity of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System in Norwegian Lower-Secondary Schools

ABSTRACTObservations seem particularly susceptible to rater error due to the level of subjectivity involved in assessment. Thus, the present paper aims to investigate: (1) inter-rater agreement (IRA) using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System – Secondary version (CLASS-S) and (2) the CLASS-S factor structure in a Norwegian context. Inter-rater agreement analysis comprise percent within one (PWO). Confirmatory factor analysis are performed to analyze the factor structure. Certified trainers scored videotaped observations. The study indicates that an acceptable IRA can be achieved in a Norwegian setting, and it reports promising results regarding the structural validity of the CLASS-S.

Triggers and constraints of lower secondary students’ willingness to communicate orally in English in a CLIL setting in the Norwegian context

AbstractThis article reports on findings from a small-scale qualitative study performed in a CLIL setting in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The study explored the effect of a six-week CLIL intervention project combining history and English on 27 Norwegian ninth graders’ motivation to engage in classroom oral activities and, consequently, their willingness to communicate (WTC) orally, as well as factors triggering and constraining the students’ WTC in the CLIL lessons. Data were collected through classroom observations, teacher pre- and post-interviews, and student pre- and post-questionnaires. The findings revealed that the CLIL intervention had reinforced most students’ motivation and WTC orally compared to their regular EFL lessons. The study adds to the sparse CLIL research in Norway.