Learning in interaction in diverse settings

The group studies learning in interaction in and outside of the school to develop existing expertise on the field. The group is interdisciplinary with an interest in learning as a social phenomenon.

The group focuses on developing existing expertise in the field of classroom research and research on learning in interaction. The group is focused on research that studies interaction and social practice using video (combined with interviews or other ethnographic methods where it is natural).

The field of practice can be kindergarten, elementary school, upper secondary education or teacher education in and outside the classrooms, and all subject areas are of interest. That is, the group is interdisciplinary and common ground for researchers within the group is an interest in learning as a social phenomenon.

The goal is to develop expertise in the field and new methods that can be used. This includes starting up and maintaining a Videolab for video and classroom research, which includes modern video and audio equipment, as well as expertise in using it. This equipment and expertise can be used by all group members or projects that need it. The Videolab is also relevant for teaching both students and other employees in doing video-based studies. The Videolab is currently in use by both master and doctoral students who require the expertise provided by both staff and equipment.

The group's members work on both their own and joint projects that revolve around everything from STEM subjects and place-based learning to learning in and through mobile interaction and video games. The group has carried out several projects and has several ongoing projects, everything from PhD projects to international research projects.

Current research projects

  • STEM-Learning in Newton Rooms: Students' Learning in Group Work; Process, Content and Social Organisation

    The project is led by Wenche Rønning. 

    Primary objective: To develop knowledge about how group work in an activity-rich and inquiry-based learning environment can be supported to achieve students' deep learning in STEM.

    The secondary objectives of this research are: to understand how roles and knowledge are constructed and negotiated in the social interaction of group work, and how this process affects student-student cooperation and deep-learning opportunities; to identify how content, resources, and tasks in Newton-modules can be best designed to support deep-learning processes; and to determine how school activities, both before and after Newton-Room visits, can enhance Newton-Room group work and deep-learning potentialities. 

    Partners:
    FIRST Scandinavia and its Newton Network 
    The Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) at Kiel University
    The Institute of Teacher Education at University College Copenhagen (UCC) 

    Website:
    STEM Education in Newton Rooms

PhD projects

  • PhD candidate: Hedvig Flaten Lie

    The research project examines whether guided play can contribute to meaningful writing training in primary education. What resources do the students use in their texts, and in what way do the texts become relevant in their play? How do students interact with each other and the writing material? This qualitative study is based on video observation in classrooms, interviews and student text analysis.

  • PhD candidate: Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas

    Through this PhD project we seek to understand how children experience and create meaning through their encounters with nature in the school garden, and how teachers through their practice can shape such encounters. By using qualitative methods we want to shed light on how the school garden can contribute to the achievement of goals in LK20 regarding, among other things, students' exploration, nature experience and enjoyment of nature.

  • PhD candidate: Senja Celius

    The main idea in this project is to investigate how teachers plan, carry out and reflect on tasks where pupils work in groups, and how the tasks potentially can facilitate in-depth learning. The project is Lesson study inspired and uses video to collect data that teachers can use to reflect on and change their practice. The project is an integral part of the project "Science and technology in Newton rooms: Student learning through group work. Process, content and social organisation', which is a project funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

  • PhD candidate: Sandra Nystø Rahka

    This research project focuses on conditions for Sami education. Based on typologies about bilingual education models, I look at the development of the curricula in Sami from 1974 to 2020, with a focus on the introduction of strong language education models in the national curriculum framework for the Knowledge Promotion in 2020. What challenges and opportunities do the schools see with this, and how can strong language education models strengthen Sami education, are central questions in this project.

Completed projects


  • May Line Tverbakk     (PhD project)

    This study is a comparative investigation of special educational needs practices for preschool children with language difficulties in Norway and Belarus. The overall aim is to deepen understanding by providing thick descriptions, expand knowledge by contributing new comparison and thus gain a nuanced insight into the SEN practices for preschool children with language difficulties in Norway and Belarus. 

    The theory of practice architectures developed by Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008) is used as both a theoretical framework and an analytical tool to synthesise, illustrate and compare the results from the cases studied, as well to obtain a comprehensive, and nuanced picture of the SEN practice in Norway and Belarus. The discussion furthermore reflects upon different contexts which prefigure, form and inform SEN practice in Norway The aim of the study is to investigate how teachers interpret and reflect about their responsibility for teaching reading, and how they actually teach reading to their students in the three selected subjects, Norwegian, science and social science. In 2013, the National Curriculum underwent a revision, aiming to state more clearly for teachers their responsibility for teaching the skills in their subjects. The present study has used video observations and qualitative interviews. Results indicate that teachers view reading skills as important. However, both expressed through their beliefs and through their actions, there is a focus on knowledge acquisition as the objective for reading, and less, if any, focus on objectives regarding the actual reading process and progress in the development of pupils' reading skills and how these contexts can influence, enable and constrain the practices studied.

  • How do we construct identities when we play videogames? How does this affect the gameplay experience and are there any connections to learning? These are the kinds of questions we are interested in.

    We base our research on video data on esport students playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Our material is collected in 2017-2018 and consists of screen recordings of a number of students playing in two different teams. The data is collected in collaboration with the esports program at the vocational school Prakticum, however the aim of the study is not to evaluate their program.

    Blog article: Current research on CS:GO and identites.

  • eClassroom Tandem aims at developing Classroom tandem as a model for language learning and teaching for virtual learning environments, including real-time digitally mediated interaction.

    Finland is a bilingual country with two official national languages, Finnish and Swedish.

    Blog article: Projekt Eklasstandem.

  • The project is led by Wenche Rønning.

    The goal is to develop a research foundation for a main project focusing on the implementation of a new Sami curriculum from autumn 2020.

    Partners:
    Sámi University of Applied Sciences
    UiT, the Arctic University of Norway
    University of Edinburgh

  • Theoretical and Practical Perspectives.

    The anthology provides new insights into inclusion and inclusive education for children with special educational needs (SEN ) in the very different contexts of Northern and Eastern Europe. The anthology has been inspired by, and prepared as a result of, collaboration between Northern and Eastern European researchers, and it intends to bring together academic input from researchers working on a wide array of issues related to educational research and practices for children with SEN.

    Cooperation between universities from 10 countries.

  • Research fellow:
    Julie Lysberg

    The aim of the study is to develop research-based knowledge about teacher interactions with knowledge in school-based professional development work and generate knowledge about key factors that support teachers development and learning, for better support students' learning processes.

    In this project Lysberg therefore zooms in on meeting arenas that have been established with a view to strengthening teachers' professional development, meetings where teachers interact with knowledge work within the framework of school-based development work. The results of the study will complement and supplement the current knowledge base on teachers' professional development.

  • Research fellow:
    Ingrid Elna Elden

    The aim of this study is to explore teachers’ subjective experiences of their role as teachers for newly arrived immigrants, receiving lower secondary education. The group of students is heterogeneous (with regards to age, competence, qualifications, goals and background). The students also have various needs concerning their situation as newly arrived in Norway.

    Through video-stimulated recall and semi-structured lifeworld interviews, six teachers reflect upon their practices. The results of the analysis will be analysed from an intercultural pedagogical perspective and the lens of the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014). This project may shed light on how practices and arrangements influences the education in a globalized world.

  • Research fellow: Leonie Isabelle Johann

    Students' understanding of abstract scientific phenomena using the example of the multidisciplinary phenomenon of the cell membrane – Identification of educational challenges and their treatment in biology classrooms at Norwegian Upper Secondary Schools.

    Identification of educational challenges concerning the phenomenon of the cell membrane as a key component in many physiological processes in eukaryotes, and their treatment in biology classrooms at Norwegian Upper Secondary Schools – Students' understanding of abstract and interdisciplinary processes at the cell membrane.

    The aim of the PhD project is to suggest adequate teaching and learning strategies that promote understanding of the phenomenon of the cell membrane. Different kind of learning and teaching obstacles within life science education are in this regard very well documented in a number of science education publications worldwide. However, little is known about learning obstacles concerning cell membranes.

    Through the project, Johann wishes to contribute to existing research in molecular life science education, in particular in order to diminish the discovered gap between research and actual classroom practices (Anderson and Schonborn 2008). Empirical data gained through variable qualitative research methods at Norwegian upper secondary schools will be the basis for my study framed by amongst other the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) and the Model for Educational Reconstruction (Kattmann, Duit et al. 1997).

  • Research fellow:
    Anne Grethe Baustad

    Using the Caregiver Interaction Profile Scales as framework for in-service professional development in Norwegian ECEC: Raising Awareness and Inspiring Change.

    This PhD project is part of the national project "Gode barnehager for barn i Norge (GoBaN), where, for the first time, researchers are examining quality in Norwegian ECEC. It aims to develop knowledge on how the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales, together with collective video feedback, can support and enhance Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC) staffs' awareness, reflection and motivation for interactional strategies likely to foster both children's well-being and broad development. Preliminary results suggest that the CIP scales tool, together with video feedback, has the potential to contribute to raising the staffs' awareness about interactional strategies in ECEC, but more in-depth analysis is needed.

    Publications:

    Baustad, A.G., Rønning, W., & Bjørnestad, E. (2018). Norwegian ECEC staffs thinking on quality of interaction. Early Child Development and Care. Published online: 12 Dec 2018.

  • The project is led by May Line Tverbakk

    The project is financed by the Norwegian Research Council and is a collaborative project between Nordland County Council, Nordland Research Institute and Nord University. The background for the project is an aim to strengthen the teachers' competence in scientific method and critical thinking in light of the changes that follow from the Knowledge Promotion Reform. Competence development is provided through an in-service education course for teachers in upper secondary schools in Nordland, where teachers plan, carry out and evaluate student projects that the teachers work on in the classroom. Nord University is responsible for the development and implementation of the in-service education course. The project was in an initial phase in dialogue with the schools to map needs in order to be able to tailor a plan that was adapted to the schools' and teachers' needs. Nordland Research Institute was responsible for the mapping, in close dialogue with the project manager and other project partners. The in-service education course will be followed through a process evaluation which aims to capture the course participants' experiences, as well as document how the teachers use the knowledge in the student-directed work.

    Website (in norwegian): https://www.nfk.no/tjenester/skole-og-opplaring/prosjekter

  • The project is led by Fredrik Rusk.

    The objective of the research project is to deepen our knowledge of digitally mediated social interaction within contemporary lower secondary students' (15-year-olds) everyday lives in- and outside of schools, across communities of practice, time and space, and seek as to how the technological affordances contribute to identity construction and learning practices, with a focus on language use.

    Partners:
    Åbo Akademi University
    University of Oslo
    Karlstad University
    Quality in Nordic Teaching (QUINT)
    Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo
    University of Jyväskylä
    University of Salford, Manchester, UK
    HUMAN (Hacettepe University Micro-Analysis Network) Research Centre.

  • Stipendiat: Trine Telnes

    Dette ph.d.-prosjektet er et studie av barnehagelæreres profesjonspraksis, og er tverrvitenskapelig på tvers av forskningsfeltene barnehagepedagogikk og praktisk profesjonskunnskap.

    Prosjektets forskningsfokus vil være barnehagelærere, og deres profesjonspraksis i ledelse av læringsprosesser med de yngste barna (0-3 år), og har som mål å finne ut av hvordan barnehagelærerne jobber med å stimulere de yngste barnas læring.

    82,5 % av landets ettåringer har plass i barnehage (Statistisk sentralbyrå, 2018), og en stor andel barnehagelærere har i stillingen som pedagogisk leder ansvar for en gruppe med barn i alderen 0 til 3 år. Småbarnsgrupper er den lærings- og ledelseskonteksten prosjektet har fokus på, da det er et uttalt behov for mer kunnskap omkring de aller yngste barna i barnehagen, og hvordan ulike ledelsespraksiser påvirker deres læringsprosesser i barnehagen. Dette behovet kommer bla. frem av SINTEFs rapport «Ledelse i barnehage og skole : en kunnskapsoversikt» (Mordal, 2014).

    Datainnsamlingsmetoder som vil anvendes er deltagende observasjon, video-observasjon, og stimulated recall intervju med barnehagelærere.​

Partners

Contact person
Employee photo: Wenche Rønning
Leader of the research group

Wenche Rønning

wenche.ronning@nord.no