Annlaug Flem

Inclusion in Norway: a study of ideology in practice

The purpose of this research was to examine how Norways ideology of inclusion is realized in Norwegian schools and school systems, and what factors work to support or hinder its implementation. Using semi-structured interviews, we obtained data from our informants at multiple levels in the Norwegian educational system in one municipality. Our data analyses focused on identifying themes that were shared by multiple informants, as well as retaining important points or perspectives from individuals. Generally all of the informants were positive towards the ideology of inclusion. The biggest difficulty facing its implementation seemed to be that of social integration. This was much more of a concern than curricular integration. Probably because of such challenges, schools still placed students in separate settings. Factors that affected inclusion included: characteristics of teachers, classroom environment, school climate, cooperation, support from people with competence, attitudes and resources.

Towards inclusive schools: a study of inclusive education in practice

The purpose of this study was to examine how one teacher manages to include students with special needs in an ordinary classroom. We describe how she attempted to achieve positive academic and social outcomes for students in the classroom, and especially how she handled a boy with impulsive and uncontrolled behaviour. Data collection was carried out by means of observations, video recordings and interviews. The theoretical framework was based upon sociocultural theory; and the main themes were cognitive learning processes, social learning processes and collaboration processes. Important concepts in this connection are caring, dialogue, scaffolding, other-regulation and self-regulation.

A social skills intervention programme for kindergarten children at risk of developing behavioural problems

ABSTRACT A programme for training social skills to a group of 6‐year‐old children was developed and evaluated. The group consisted of eight children, four boys and four girls; three of these were considered to be at risk of developing emotional and behavioural problems. The targeted skills were supporting, cooperating, establishing social contacts, participating, reducing aggression and handling conflict situations. The theoretical framework underlying the social skills intervention programme was based on cognitive‐social learning theory and scaffolding. The programme consisted of nine, 30‐35 minute, training sessions which were presented over a one and a half month period. Pretest/posttest assessment indicated that the intervention programme was effective in increasing some positive and reducing some negative behaviours. The sociometric assessment, however, showed few changes from pre‐training to posttraining.

Inclusive Practice: A Biographical Approach.

Abstract For the past decades, inclusive educational practice has developed to be a guiding political vision in Norway as in several other Western countries. In this article, we are concerned with how the ideal of inclusive practice is realized in one particular classroom. Ann is the homeroom teacher for a third-grade class and in her class she has two boys with severe behavioural problems. These boys are included in the ordinary classroom activities together with their teacher and classmates. The study focuses on one aspect of her inclusive educational practice as well as on how this has developed over time.

Cognitive and linguistic predictors of text comprehension

The problem was concerned with the extent to which cognitive/linguistic functions and domain-specific strategies could predict readers’ text comprehension when working with science texts. Six hypotheses were stated and tested in two prediction studies (N=101 eighth-graders), and one experiment (N=8 pupils of same age). Handal’s reading test was used for classifying pupils into good and poor readers. Two texts, one with a known subject and another with an unknown theme were imposed pupils as science reading tasks. Questionnaires and tests concerning cognitive and linguistic functions were used as independent variables in the prediction studies. Two different tests were used as independent variables (for text comprehension) in all of the three studies, and one additional criterion test (writing essays on main ideas in the texts) was applied in the experient. The experiment was organized as a 2x2 factorial design where text type and reading skill were the factors. According to the results, 5 of the 6 hypotheses could not be rejected, i.e., general concept information was the most significant predictor of science text comprehension. Furthermore, text based on a subject known to the reader always surpassed text with an unknown subject as to text comprehension. Similarily, across-domain strategies were more closely related to reading comprehension than domain-specific strategies.RésuméLa question posée était de voir dans quelle mesure des fonctions linguistiques cognitives et des stratégies dans un domaine spécifique pouvaient permettre de prédire la compréhension de textes scientifiques. Six hypothèses ont été formulées et testées dans deux études prédictives (avec 101 élèves de huitième année) et une expérimentation (avec 38 élèves du même âge). Le test standardisé de lecture de Handal a été utilisé pour classer les élèves en bons et médiocres lecteurs. Deux textes ont été utilisés comme tâches de lecture en science: un texte portant sur un sujet connu et un autre portant sur un thème inconnu des élèves. Des questionnaires et des tests concernant les fonctions cognitives et linguistiques ont été utilisés en tant que variables indépendantes prédictives. Dans les trois études deux tests différents ont été utilisés comme variables indépendantes pour la compréhension de texte. L’expérimentation une épreuve de rédaction écrite des idées principales des textes a été utilisée, en plus, comme variable indépendante. L’expérimentation a été organisée selon un plan d’expérience factoriel comportant deux facteurs: le type de texte et les compétences en lecture. Les résultats montrent que 5 des 6 hypothèses sont confirmées, l’information conceptuelle générale étant le prédicteur le plus signifiant de la compréhension d’un texte scientifique. Par ailleurs, a compréhension des textes concernant un sujet connu des lecteurs a toujours dépassé toujours celle des textes concernant un sujet inconnu. De même, les stratégies trans-domaines ont été plus étroitement corrélées à la compréhension de lecture que les stratégies spécifiques au domaine.

The effects of different tasks on children's process and product variables in writing

Abstract The main problem of the reported study was to examine the relation between writing tasks (pictures vs. texts) and childrens strategies used in the writing process, on one side, and their writing products (narratives), on the other. Twenty 12-year-old children were sampled randomly as subjects for the experiment. The experiment was organised as a 2×2×2 three-way factorial design with condition (task variable), group, and gender used as independent variables. After having examined the intercorrelations among a preliminary sample of dependent measurements the number of variables was reduced such that the final sample of dependent measures consisted of three groups of variables: 1) three general strategy variables (attention, feedback, and persistence), 2) six domain-specific strategies, and 3) five measures of the writing products used for the final data analyses. The results of the multivariate analyses indicated that tasks presented as text (input) had significant effects on concentration and persistence (general strategies) and on writing time, frequency of pauses in writing, time for long and short pauses (domain-specific strategies), whereas pictorial input had no substantial effects on the writing process variables under research. On the other hand, pictorial material had significant effects on two of the product variables: accuracy and formal aspects of the writing product. Few significant findings were caused by the group and the gender factors used in the study.

The Accidental Learner: Experiences from Participation in Classroom Research.

This paper brings into focus what can happen when a person is both a researcher and a teacher in two different classrooms almost at the same time. In the two classrooms project work is the subject of inquiry and the working method used. The aim of the research was to figure out how group work and collaborative processes function during project work, and to compose and present a kind of ‘thinking tool’ for other teachers to use when reflecting over their own teaching. Both the researcher and the informant maintain that they influenced each other. The paper also shows that the teacher/informant interactions in addition mediate the researcher’s work as a teacher.