Individual teaching methods: Work plans as a tool for promoting self-regulated learning in lower secondary classrooms?

Abstract

To stimulate individualised learning and give students some autonomy and responsibility in relation to their own schoolwork, Norwegian teachers often use work plans as an instructional tool. A work plan is a document that describes different tasks students are supposed to complete within a certain time period, normally two to three weeks. This article explores whether the use of work plans can be used as a tool for promoting self-regulated learning (SRL). The analyses draw on data from the PISA' video study. The data include video observations from five lower secondary mathematics classrooms (15-year-olds). Our analyses suggest the teachers rarely provided explicit instructions, cognitive feedback or autonomy-supportive learning strategies.

Justice through participation: student engagement in Nordic classrooms

“…The increased access students have to content unrelated to the classroom has reduced classroom equality as students have chosen to remove themselves from the learning contex. As other studies suggest, individual choice by students in whole-class teaching has a tendency to increase rather than decrease difference (Österlind, 1998;Sahlström, 1999;Dalland & Klette, 2016). Furthermore, our analyses demonstrate that the new technological devices paired with traditional teaching may actually limit access, both to learning-relevant content and to learning-relevant discourse.…”

‘Sociability before individuality’: lesson structure in lower secondary classrooms

“…Scandinavian classroom research has detected an increase in the rate of seatwork versus plenary teaching (Klette, 1998;Eriksson, 1999;Eriksson and Heideman, 2013;Lindblad and Sahlström, 1999;Granström, 2003;Dalland and Klette, 2016;Bachmann, Haug and Myklebust, 2010). To reveal such an increase, or decrease, would require quantitative studies, and cannot be argued from qualitative studies of eight teachers in four schools, such as ours.…”

“…In Scandinavia, recent classroom research has documented an increasing rate of seatwork versus plenary teaching (Klette, 1998;Eriksson, 1999;Eriksson and Heideman, 2013;Lindblad and Sahlström, 1999;Granström, 2003;Dalland and Klette, 2016;Bachmann, Haug and Myklebust, 2010;Haug, 2012). Further, seatwork is linked to the increased use of student work plans Klette, 2014, 2016).…”

Fortellinger om gutters krise, jenters fremgang og skolens utfordringer med sosiale ulikheter

“…Phoenix (2003) argumenterer for at ikke alle elever er i stand til å benytte seg av mulighetene som nyliberalismen foreskriver. Internasjonalt fokus på «improving children's achievement but also on helping teachers become more professionally competent through school-based evaluations and action research» (Popkewitz, 2000, s. 18), manifesterer seg gjennom skolens deltakelse i internasjonale tester (PISA; PIRLS; TIMMS), i vektleggingen av kompetansemål (output) (Sivesind, 2013), i økningen av individuelt arbeid fremfor fellesundervisning (Bachmann et al, 2010;Dalland & Klette, 2016;Haug, 2012;Karseth & Engelsen, 2007) og i individuell ansvarliggjøring av deltakelse og laering. Det siste gis det beskrivelser av i flere etnografiske studier fra videregående skoler.…”