Elaine Munthe

Perceived Social Support at School and Emotional and Musculoskeletal Complaints among Norwegian 8th Grade Students

Abstract Results from the present study indicate that a majority of Norwegian 8th grade students experience satisfactory support from teachers and relations with peers. However, about 6% of the sample reported being harassed on a weekly basis. Moreover, results indicate that there is room for improvement, especially regarding the teachers’ emotional support of students, as well as their ability to prevent students from being harassed. Twelve per cent of the sample reported more severe emotional complaints, whereas 10% of 8th grade students reported more severe musculoskeletal complaints. Results showed significant associations of teacher support and peer relations with emotional as well as musculoskeletal complaints (EM complaints). Exposure to harassment at school and a perceived lack of academic support from teachers showed the strongest associations with EM complaints. Associations were stronger for students reporting learning difficulties than for students not reporting learning difficulties. This was...

The 1996 Norwegian Program for preventing and managing bullying in schools

The Norwegian Ministry of Education has recently initiated a new nationwide program to prevent and manage bullying in school. The Centre for B ehavioural Research. StavangerCollege. is responsible for the professional contents of the new programme. Both previous research and experience with the 1983 national campaign against bullying in school. comprise an important background for this new large-scale project. Research indicates that management is essential to reduce the prevalence of bullying. and the 1983 campaign showed that continuity was vital. The new national programme also focuses on the necessity of involvement from more people; school administrators. teachers. pupils. parents and a corps of resource people who can assist the schools in developing schoolbased action plans. A booklet for the teachers. a collection of articles for the parents. and a notebook of ideas on how the pupil councils can work to improve school and class climate and contribute to the reduction of bullying have been publishe...

Teacher education reform and challenges in Norway

Teacher education in Norway is nationally regulated and is currently undergoing extensive changes. This paper briefly outlines the various education routes for teachers and some of the ongoing work to improve teacher education, but concentrates mainly on the reform that has come the farthest: initial teacher education for grades 1–7 and grades 5–10. The background to this reform, the main changes made to teacher education through this reform and some of the challenges being dealt with are presented. Controversies abound in teacher education, and the one that is particularly brought to the forefront in this paper is the relationship between designing programmes that enable the development of skills and also enhance becoming a teacher: the character-forming significance of teacher education.

Mapping the quality of feedback to support students’ learning in lower secondary classrooms

Feedback, talk and joint activities that build on knowledge and shared aims are powerful supports for learning. However, several studies of lower secondary students’ perceptions of teachers’ support indicate low teacher support. To investigate the quality of learning support, a content analysis instrument (CLASS) was used in analyses of 56 video-recorded lessons from 28 teachers in four lower secondary schools. This has allowed for a mapping of dimensions of quality feedback interactions, and results show significant and very strong inter-item relationships. The lessons analysed are characterized by a positive climate, and teachers emphasize encouragement, but feedback is found to be more encouraging than learning oriented. The results support previous studies based on students’ perceptions, but provide insights into practices that are necessary if a goal is to influence teachers’ professional learning.

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers to Integrate Technology: An Analysis of the Emphasis on Digital Competence in Teacher Education Curricula.

This article focuses on integration of digital competence in curriculum documents for teacher education in Norway. A model inspired by the work of Zhao, Pugh, Sheldon and Byers, as well as Krumsvik and Mishra and Koehler, has been developed as an analytical framework. Teachers’ digital competence is here understood as comprising three knowledge areas: technology proficiency, pedagogical compatibility and social awareness. National guidelines and curriculum regulations, along with programme descriptions from 19 teacher education institutions, have been analysed using this framework. Results indicate that use of technology does not have a prominent position in curriculum documents. There are few binding learning outcomes for the integration of technology, suggesting that digital competence is still not regarded as an important component of teachers’ professional competence. By clarifying the content of the concept, ‘teachers’ digital competence’, this article aims to contribute to increasing teacher educators’ awareness of which areas of knowledge they integrate into their curricula, what the goal of this knowledge is and which strategies are best suited to help pre-service teachers acquire this knowledge.

Measuring Teacher Certainty

The concept of teacher certainty and one means of measuring this is presented and critically assessed in the following article. In this study teacher certainty has been operationalized as a second order latent variable with three first order latent variables consisting of four observed items each. The first order latent variables measure a teachers perceived didactic certainty, practical certainty and relational certainty. A clustered, yet random representative sample of 1153 Norwegian teachers in elementary and junior high schools took part in this study in spring 1998. The theoretical and empirical framework for analyses and discussion are confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and generalizability theory (GT). This combination is not usual, but is found to be fruitful. GT focuses on both the theoretical and empirical domain, making it necessary for the researcher to contemplate questions of substance in addition to statistical calculations. The measurement model described above is therefore arrived at through a theoretical and empirical review and reasoning and is then tested in LISREL. Results indicate a good model fit. GT provides additional information by estimating how well the scores can be generalized to the defined universe. In this article a major question is whether the design specified for the generalizability study should be mixed or random. The two possibilities are explored and, in this case, both g coefficients computed are regarded as good.

Perceptions of Learning Environment and On‐Task Orientation Among Students Reporting Different Achievement Levels: A Study Conducted Among Norwegian Secondary School Students

The aim of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of their learning environment and on‐task orientation across different achievement levels. Data were gathered in two independent cross‐sectional studies of Norwegian students in grades 8, 9, and 10 (n = 3453 in 2001 and n = 2987 in 2004). Students within the middle achievement levels reported more positive perceptions of learning environments than the high and low achievers. The amount of variance in on‐task orientation that was accounted for by the learning environment was higher for low achievers than for the rest of the students. Furthermore, students in the 2004 sample gave a more positive report of their learning environment and their on‐task orientation than students in 2001. Finally, we found that the improvement in the perceptions of learning environment was stronger for those students who reported low and high achievement than for the rest of the students.

Lesson study in field practice: a time-lagged experiment in initial teacher education in Norway

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the background for, the design of, and the implementation of Lesson Study in a teacher education program in Norway. Lesson Study was chosen as an intervention in an attempt to shift pre-service teachers’ focus from themselves to their pupils, attempting to strengthen their possibilities to learn more about the consequences of their instructional decisions for their pupils. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a time-lagged experiment where one group of second year pre-service teachers took part in their three-week field practice as usual (business-as-usual-condition), and one group, the following year, took part in Lesson Study cycles during their three-week field practice period. The students were recruited from four subject areas in both conditions: Math, Physical Education, Science, and English. Findings – The use of Lesson Study created more collaborative inquiry among the pre-service teachers. At its best, the pre-service teachers formulated ...