A: The Fagerbakken Project: Investigating teacher cooperation about writing in and across disciplines - A case study from an upper secondary school
At “Fagerbakken” upper secondary school a group of teachers from a wide range of subject areas has cooperated about students’ writing for four years. The driving force has been to develop themselves as writing instructors and to arrive at some common standards across disciplines. The researcher following the project has two additional aims: First, to explore diverging norms and the way they are being expressed in text discussions, second, to investigate the role of the school leader.
Kristin Helstad
Collective knowledge building among teachers in upper secondary school: writing across the disciplines (PhD project)
Helstad sees the Fagerbakken project as an example of teachers’ professional learning. It focuses on two aspects: the interaction between the teachers and the cooperating writing researchers during text discussions, and the role played by the head of the school. In what way does she support the project, and what initiatives are taken to make it a concern of the school as a whole? The data are transcripts from meetings, interviews with teachers and Head of School, and students’ texts.
Karl Henrik Flyum
(see skrivekurs.uio.no/nettlogg)
Having specialized in the teaching of academic writing, Flyum’s contribution to the project has been along these two lines:
Rhetoric and the Literature of Science
Adaption of subject-specific genre knowledge from international rhetoric of science studies for use in the teaching of subject-specific writing in basic training as well as higher education.
Rhetorical Writing Training
Development of rhetorical exercises and exercise methods for teaching writing within different subject areas.
B: Writing Skills in Vocational Education and Training
Ellen Beate Halvorsen
How do teachers and instructors implement the development of students’ writing skills in selected vocational subjects? How do teachers of Norwegian in the same programmes direct their written assignment to make them meaningful?
The study includes both systematic studies of public documents, and also empirical studies of the school context and its extension; the training establishment, based on observation of the teaching and interviews with the teachers. The data are transcripts from meetings, interview with teachers and students, and samples of student texts.
C: Writing as a Basic Skill in Lower Secondary School
Anne Kristine Øgreid
The project aims at describing and analyzing students’ writing in three subject areas in lower secondary school: Natural Science, Social Science and Religion. In addition the project also aims at describing the challenges the teachers facing when collaborating on teaching students writing.