Trial lecture
Place: Auditorium 1, Helga Engs hus
Time: 10:00 - 10:45
Title: Analysing causal relationships using comparative research designs: alternative strategies and their practical relevance in education
Public Defence
Place: Auditorium 1, Helga Engs hus
Time: 12:00 -
Adjudication committee
- 1st opponent: Professor Jan Löfström, Department of Teacher Education University of Turku, Finland
- 2nd opponent: Universitetslektor Malin Tväråna, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningssociologi, Uppsala Universitetm Sverige
- Chair of committee: Professor Kirsten Sivesind, Institutt for pedagogikk, Universitetet i Oslo, Norge
Chair of defence:
- Professor emeritus Andreas Lund, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
- Supervisor: Professor Kirsti Klette, Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway
- Supervisor: Anders Stig Christensen, UCL University College, Odense, Denmark
Summary
Summary This thesis investigates the extent and character of teaching practices in social studies at the lower-secondary level in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden related to higher order thinking and teachers’ and students’ recontextualization practices by making connections between and integrating different forms of knowledge and classroom discourse. To investigate these issues, I analyzed video recordings from 80 social studies lessons in lower[1]secondary school using two standardized observation manuals and a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches.
The thesis was written as part of the Quality in Nordic Teaching (QUINT) Centre, the LISA Nordic study, and the sub-group Quality in Social Science Teaching (QUISST). The thesis responds to calls for larger classroom studies and comparative Nordic perspectives in social studies didactics in the Nordic context. In addition, it contributes empirically to the ongoing debate on powerful knowledge.
This thesis includes three articles. Article I investigated opportunities for students to engage in higher order thinking in social studies (Newmann, 1990), focusing on teachers’ representation of content knowledge and promotion of analytical and high inference thinking through challenging tasks and activities. I found that teaching associated with higher order thinking could be divided into partially overlapping types. The prevalence of the types in our data varied across the observed lessons in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
Article II investigated how teachers and students connected disciplinary knowledge to contexts outside the classroom. The findings revealed that teachers and students often connected disciplinary knowledge to students’ experiences, lives, or wider societal issues. However, they less often explored the deeper implications of the connections. From a powerful knowledge perspective, I suggest that exporting the implication of connections is a key part of learning necessary for students to recontextualize and establish interactions between knowledge from horizontal and vertical discourses, which opens up possibilities to elicit change.
Article III investigated the extent to which and how teachers implemented classroom discourse, such as discussions and debates. I found that teachers implemented classroom discourse for both democratic and disciplinary purposes. They used metatalk practices, which are talk about talk, to clarify students’ ideas and to highlight the democratic value of discussions and debates. However, by framing participation in discussions as a democratic end and citizenship participation in itself, it became divorced from the institutional and instrumental features of democratic politics.
In summary, this thesis demonstrates possibilities for establishing a balance between different forms of knowledge and social studies purposes in naturally occurring social studies teaching in a sample of lower-secondary classrooms in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.