This paper reports on a research project where a digital learning design tool was developed to support teacher students’ learning through student active learning processes and enhance their understanding of teaching. Teacher students in Norway are expected to learn how to teach using student active teaching methods and work inquiry-based to improve their teaching. Teacher education must therefore prepare students this practice. The ILUKS Planner lets teacher students compose learning designs in a flexible and dynamic manner for their practicum. This study investigates how teacher students develop learning designs for student active learning (SAL) in schools using the ILUKS Planner.

In research several concepts are used to describe SAL, such as inquiry, collaboration and problem solving. Researchers have for decades argued that activity benefits students´ learning and promoted SAL as a favored approach to teacher-centered instruction. For digital technology to support SAL it must be aligned with teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, teaching methods (Tondeur et al 2017) and procedures for student active learning (Børte et al 2020). However, using technology to innovate teaching and support SAL is difficult (Blikstad Balas & Klette 2020; Børte et al 2020; Lillejord et al 2018).

This case study followed 8 third-year teacher students attending the course “Teaching design for student active learning”. Data was collected through observations, interviews, and students´ digital learning designs. Data was analyzed using content analysis and answered the research question how do teacher students develop student active learning designs?

Preliminary findings indicate that teacher students show a limited understanding of how they may facilitate student active learning in classrooms. Student activity is primarily described as group work, focusing on how to organize students in groups. Variation is highlighted in talk about student activity, but not reflected in designs. The learning designs describe activities at organizational level, not what students are going to do in these activities. Findings also highlights how students compose their learning designs, how constructive alignment is attended to in their designs, and how the use of the ILUKS Planner supports the students´ learning process.

Facing governmental and curricular expectations to increase the use of SAL and technology in education, this study provides knowledge about students´ use of a digital learning design tool and how it supports student active learning in teacher education.

Blikstad-Balas, M., & Klette, K. (2020). Still a long way to go: Narrow and transmissive use of technology in the classroom. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 15(1), 55-68.

Børte, K., Nesje, K., & Lillejord, S. (2020). Barriers to student active learning in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-19.

Lillejord S., Børte K., Nesje K. & Ruud E.(2018). Learning and teaching with technology in higher education –

a systematic review. Knowledge Centre for Education, www.kunnskapssenter.no

Tondeur, J., Van Braak, J., Ertmer, P. A., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2017). Understanding the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. Educational technology research and development, 65(3), 555-575.

This study-in-progress explores physical education teacher education (PETE) students’ use of tablets to create multimodal dance videos. It is interdisciplinary, including teacher educators of physical education (PE), Norwegian and professional digital competence (PDC). The study provides insights into how using technology might strengthen PETE students’ competences in teaching creative dance and developing PDC as future PE teachers.

PE teachers must facilitate varied activities promoting pupils’ motivation to engage in physical activities. However, many PE teachers focus on ball games and basic training, displaying a narrow understanding of the subject. Dancing is given very little attention, even if it is required in the curriculum and deemed to have great pedagogical potential. Consequently, PETE students need to develop their competence and confidence to engage in creative dance to implement the activity in their own teaching (Husebye & Karlsen, 2016).

Many young people are digitally competent and used to seeing and creating dance videos in their spare time. Digital competence is also a core quality for future teachers. This makes it interesting to investigate what happens when combining dance pedagogy with digital technology, by asking: How do PETE students use tablets and video in creative dance processes?

The study has a qualitative approach, inspired by short term design-based methodology. The PETE students first learned the core elements of composing creative dances, before learning about multimodal texts and using a video editor app for iPads.

Data comprises of video recordings of three groups (4 students per group, approximately 2,5 hours of video per group) documenting their planning and creation of the dance videos. Data is analyzed inductively, drawing on interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) to examine the students’ use of verbal and material resources when engaging in this aesthetic learning process.

Preliminary findings show that PETE students use the tablets to: i) “set the stage”, using the iPad as a point of reference determining how and where the dance movements take place, ii) “capture and develop ideas”, i.e. the students create short dance components which they record and combine to expand the dance routine and iii) “assess quality”, i.e. they look at the recordings to determine if the quality of the movements is good enough or if they must retake. Findings suggest that using technology reassure students about the quality of the creative process and make them proud of their dance. This might widen their understanding of the PE subject and confidence to include dance in their own teaching.

We believe our study is relevant for the NERA 2023 conference by providing new, interdiciplinary insights within the field of digitalization and technology in education.

References:

Husebye, B. N., & Karlsen, K. H. (2016). «Oj, skal vi gjøre dette i dag?» Lærerstudenter og lærerutdanneres meningsdanning i en estetisk workshop med fokus på skapende dans. Nordic Journal of Dance, 7(1), 28-41.

Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction Analysis: Foundations and Practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1), 39-103. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0401_2

Developing pre-service teachers’ understanding of computational thinking: A multiple case study

Rajapakse Mohottige, N. U. S.

Owing to its recognition as an important 21st century skill, computational thinking (CT) has moved up in the educational agendas of many countries in the world including the Nordic countries (Bocconi et al., 2016). In Norway, through the new curriculum “Knowledge Promotion 2020”, CT was introduced into several existing subjects including mathematics and science. This novel addition demands teacher education institutions to incorporate CT in their initial teacher education programs to provide opportunities for prospective teachers to develop CT skills relevant for their professional practice. The aim of this study is to explore how CT can be incorporated into existing mathematics and science courses and how that incorporation can contribute to develop pre-service teachers’ understanding of CT.

This study utilizes data collected for the larger design-based research project Mathematics, Science and Computational Thinking (MASCOT). In my study, I adopt a multiple case study design where mathematics and science are treated as two separate cases. Thus, a portion of data collected under one mathematics intervention and one science intervention at a Norwegian teacher education institution is used as data in this study. In the mathematics intervention, a combination of analogue programming and block-based programming activities were used. In the science intervention, pre-service teachers were given the group task to create a prototype of a “smart gadget” that can solve a problem in the context of sustainability. Direct observations were carried out and group work was video recorded in both cases. Four semi-structured focus group interviews with five pre-service teachers in each group were conducted in each case to explore how pre-service teachers developed their understanding of CT through the CT incorporated lessons.

The computational thinker model presented by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (2019) which is a translation of the Computational Thinker model developed by Barefoot Computing is used as the theoretical framework in this study. I use interaction analysis to analyse the video data and thematic analysis to analyse the interview data. Preliminary results show that through the mathematics and science interventions, pre-service teachers developed CT skills and acquired content knowledge in the specific subject. Pre-service teachers have apparently developed an overall understanding of the concept CT but lack a deep understanding of the individual components of CT and the interrelation between the components.

This study will contribute to knowledge on the strategies of incorporating CT into existing mathematics and science teacher education courses and how pre-service teachers develop CT skills through such inclusions. Thus, it will provide valuable insight to teacher educators in Norway and other Nordic countries when designing CT incorporated lessons in mathematics and science.

References:

Bocconi, S., Chioccariello, A., Dettori, G., Ferrari, A., Engelhardt, K. (2016). Developing computational thinking in compulsory education – Implications for policy and practice; EUR 28295 EN; doi:10.2791/792158

Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. (2019). Algoritmisk tenkning [Computational thinking]. https://www.udir.no/kvalitet-og-kompetanse/profesjonsfaglig-digital-kompetanse/algoritmisk-tenkning/

1. Research topic/aim

Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) open up new possibilities for bringing the world into the classroom. We draw on Biesta’s (2010, 2013) concept of unique beings coming to the world and explore the use of immersive technology as part of a strategy to deal with some of the main challenges teacher training for non-confessional religion education (RE).

The aim is to study how teacher education students in RE, through participating in the development and use of immersive digital learning resources, may combine developing their professional digital competence (Kelentric et al 2017) with their emerging competency as RE teachers.

2. Theoretical framework

As educators, we may not force subjectification onto our pupils (Biesta, 2010). Instead, teachers may confront pupils with the world in the classrooms, hoping that these encounters may lead to them coming to the world as unique beings. Therefore, it is important for education to stay connected to the world.

Non-confessional RE must constantly work to avoid the tendency to represent religion as a flatter, simpler and less real classroom version of itself (Jackson 1997). Immersive technology offers valuable opportunities to bring actual religious phenomena, such as buildings, items, and sites into the classroom in a close-to-real manner. In that way, more of the complexity of the world is brought to the pupils. In addition, the particularity of each example becomes inherently visible. The availability of 360-cameras and 3D-scanners also provide a high potential for linking what goes on in the classroom to the local environment of the school.

3. Methodology/research design

We explore using VR-technology as part of a student-active teaching method in the teacher training of RE. Students are interviewed in semi-structured qualitative interviews, focusing on their experiences from the project. Together with their written reports, this forms our data, which is analysed with a view to the research question: “How do students experience participating in the production and use of a digital tour of a local religious building in teacher training for RE?”.

4. Expected results/findings

Our preliminary analysis indicates the following findings:

- All 40 students were positive to using 360-tours in teaching.

- Students reporting that the 360-tours was a “very good supplement” to text books.

- Students using language commonly used in excursions, such as “walking” and “space”.

- Both students and pupils lacked an educational frame for their learning activities.

5. Relevance to Nordic educational research

Immersive technologies are quickly becoming more easily accessible, and increased usage in education is to be expected. Research that includes practical exploration and critical consideration on the implications, challenges, and possibilities for these kinds of technologies increases our chances of using them wisely. Even though such technology may be globally available, it is necessary to do research within our national and regional contexts, to make wise educational judgements locally.