LISA Nordic Study

LISA Nordic Study is a large-scale video study, investigating the quality of teaching in Nordic classrooms. The project is set in lower secondary school (grades 7–9 in Sweden, Denmark and Finland and grades 8 – 10 in Norway and Iceland), targeting instruction in language arts, mathematics, and social science in all the five Nordic countries.

Photo illustration: LISA Nordic Iceland: Class situation. Credit: Astrid Roe
Photo: Photo illustration: LISA Nordic Iceland: Class situation. Credit: Astrid Roe

Aim

There is a growing consensus among researchers that teaching quality is of greater importance to student learning than practically any other factor. However, assessing the relative contribution of different instructional factors has proven to be challenging, both methodologically and theoretically. The challenges concern sample requirements, integration of different types of data, cultural bias, and analytical focus. The LISA Nordic study investigates the potential of an elaborated conceptual framework to provide a deeper understanding of the Nordic school as a teaching and learning environment.

The specific research aims guiding the study are:

  1. To develop and validate analytical instruments for measuring teaching quality within a Nordic context.
  2. To understand in what ways different instructional practices in language arts, mathematics, and social science contribute to student learning.
  3. To integrate observational data with student evaluations of teacher practice in order to contribute to the theory development of teaching quality.
  4. To build a comparative empirical understanding of contextual similarities and differences in Nordic schools.

Design

LISA Nordic is a large-scale observation study, drawing on videotaped lessons from more than 150 different classrooms in all the five Nordic countries, survey data of student perceptions of the teaching quality, and copies of students’ work in each classroom. Four consecutive lessons in each of the three different school subjects (language arts, mathematics, and social science) are video recorded.

The analyses include both cross-comparative and aggregated statistical analyses of different instructional features as well as correlational analyses of observational data and survey data.

This project is part of Theme 1 ‘Studying Teaching Quality’ within QUINT.

 

Published Mar. 25, 2019 1:39 PM - Last modified Feb. 18, 2022 1:52 PM

Contact

Principal Investigators

Professor Kirsti Klette
University of Oslo
Department of Teacher Education and School Research

Professor
Michael Tengberg
Karlstad University
Department of Educational Sciences

Participants

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