Jennifer Maria Luoto

• Klette, Kirsti; Blikstad-Balas, Marte; Luoto, Jennifer Maria; Tanner, Marie; Tengberg, Michael; Slotte, Anna; Roe, Astrid & Sahlström, Fritjof (2018). Justice through participation: student engagement in Nordic classrooms. Education Inquiry.  ISSN 2000-4508.  9(1), s 57- 77 . doi: 10.1080/20004508.2018.1428036 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  In this article, we approach large questions regarding justice and equality in the Nordic classrooms. A substantial body of previous research emphasises the importance of student engagement in teaching and learning. Drawing on video data from Norway, Sweden and Finland, we focus on whole-class teaching, i.e. situations in which the teacher addresses the class from the front of the classroom, to investigate justice trough participation. We have approached our topic through two concerns: student participation in classroom discourse and student engagement as providing access to content. Our findings seem to pose some serious challenges for the Nordic welfare society vision of classrooms as core societal hubs for justice and equality. While whole-class teaching is one of the primary tools available for attempting to achieve justice and equality for all, this interaction format seems to contain inherent constraints that do not support equitable student engagement. Further, the way the Nordic classrooms have responded so far to the massive digitisation in their societies seems to pose serious questions rather than provide comforting answers.

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• Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2019). What shapes classroom discourse in the mathematics classrooms? A study of instructional practices, meta-rules and teacher perspectives. Show summary

  This study combines teacher perspectives with observed practices to gain understanding of what shapes student opportunities to participate in classroom discourse in four Finnish lower secondary mathematics classrooms. Opportunities to participate in discourse are analyzed with three different lenses; teachers’ instructional moves, meta-discursive rules, and teacher perspectives. The data consists of video-recordings from a week of instruction in four 9th grade math classroom and teacher interviews. The analyses show how meta-discursive rules of discussion together with instructional moves shape what kind of opportunities students have. Some teacher moves and meta-rules enable participation while other constrain opportunities to participate. The teachers however mostly see student attributes as constraints for participation. Another key finding is that the teachers vary in what they perceive as ‘participation’, and how they engage students in discourse align with their views of participation and student needs. The present study thus problematizes the relationship between teachers’ enacted practice and their perspectives, which previous research often has found to disagree. The study intends to raise awareness among teachers and teacher educators of how instructional practices, meta-discursive rules and teacher perspectives of student talk relate to student opportunities to engage in content related discourse, which may limit or enable learning opportunities.

• Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2019). Opportunities For Student Participation In Discourse In Secondary Mathematics Classrooms In A Finnish Context: Teachers’ Perspectives and Instructional Practices.
• Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2018). Symposium on researching the quality of mathematics teaching. Experiences from the LISA project:Methodological challenges with assessing instructional quality in Nordic mathematics classrooms.
• Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2018). What characterizes classroom discourse in Norwegian and Finnish-Swedish secondary mathematics classrooms?.
• Stovner, Roar Bakken; Nortvedt, Guri A.; Buchholtz, Nils & Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2018). Symposium of Researching the Quality of Mathematics Teaching.
• Luoto, Jennifer Maria; Klette, Kirsti & Blikstad-Balas, Marte (2017). Mathematics Instruction in Norway and Finland: Representation of Content. Show summary

  Results were presented from an ongoing video-study of a sample of Norwegian and Finnish secondary mathematics classrooms. Key findings were that in both context teachers focus mostly on procedural explanations and give less attention to conceptual understanding. However we found that teachers' representation of content in the Finnish sample to a higher degree explicitly tied old and new mathematical content and framed the content as learning goals.

• Solberg, Mina; Brevik, Lisbeth M. & Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2017). MA thesis: The Differentiated English Classroom. Teachers' approaches to differentiated instruction in group lessons in lower secondary school.
• Solberg, Mina; Brevik, Lisbeth M. & Luoto, Jennifer Maria (2017). Om å differensiere engelskundervisningen. Bedre Skole.  ISSN 0802-183X.  2, s 70- 75

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