Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore opportunities to develop higher-order thinking for students in social studies, with a focus on teachers' content coverage and support for engaging in social studies analysis. Design/methodology/approach: A video study using naturalistic classroom observations of 80 social studies lessons was conducted…

This study examined the association between observers and students' reports of instructional support at the classroom-level, and whether students' off-task behavior predicted their perception of instructional support over time. The sample consisted of 1306 students and 79 teachers. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling was applied to the…

Teachers worldwide are challenged to adjust their teaching to meet students' needs for deeper learning. The lack of mutual understanding among researchers, policymakers and teachers tends to blur the discussion on how to enhance deeper learning through teaching, which further challenges teachers in making changes in their classroom practices. This…

Bullying-related phenomena are reported as growing problems in early childhood education and care (ECEC), which calls for structures for teachers' handling of these problems. Using an approach that emphasises bullying as a social, socially situated and contextual phenomenon, we investigate how such an approach can facilitate a positive change in…

The quality of teacher-pupil interactions is important for pupils' learning and engagement, and teachers play an important role in facilitating learning. Tablets are often used in primary education. This study evaluated the quality of teacher-pupil interactions during first-grade lessons, with and without tablets, during a typical school day…

Neoliberal ideology has transformed higher education timescapes in profound ways. However, research has given limited consideration to how pedagogical practices can create a space for students to reshape these timescapes. By drawing upon empirical material, I will first explore how students reflect upon timescapes in an interdisciplinary course.…

The idea of the classroom as a 'safe space' has been popular in education for at least two decades. More recently, the term has also been used by religious education scholars not least in the wake of the use of the term in the influential Council of Europe publication 'Signposts'. In this article, I want to question the usefulness of the term…

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the educational system is going through significant changes. The educational system influences the students' attitudes, and one wants the educational system to support the young democracy. In this study, student-centred learning (SCL) is seen as a first step to learning, but also to participation and engagement as a citizen.…

Mobile learning (m-learning) environments open a wide range of new and exciting learning opportunities, and envision students who are continually on the move, learn across space and time, and move from topic to topic and in and out of interaction with technology. In this article we present findings from a study of how students manoeuvre and study…

This study explores how kindergarten spaces and materiality can be vital for children's exploration of participation and how the physical environment enables children to interact and position themselves in play and meaning making. Methodologically this study is based on ethnographic fieldwork with two groups of 2- to 5-year-old children in two…

This article focuses on how kindergarten can encourage children's participation based on the idea of democratic community. The Norwegian Kindergartens Act emphasises children's right to participate and kindergarten is seen as an arena for learning. We discuss planned conversations between pre-school teachers and children during ongoing…

By the turn of the century Norwegian educational practice was supposed to be changed through reforms and investment in technological equipment. Supported by research, the aim was to change practice in the direction of learning activities that could support learning understood as productive interactions. Few teachers and teacher educators…

This volume presents the latest research from internationally recognized researchers and practitioners on language, literacy and numeracy, cognition, and social and emotional development of deaf learners. In their contributions, authors sketch the backgrounds and contexts of their research, take interdisciplinary perspectives in merging their own…

My specific teaching and research interest is drama in the classroom--drama as a teaching and learning medium to fulfil a curriculum demand for student-active, creative and aesthetic learning processes. In this article I will focus on the challenges and possibilities that exist in Norwegian classroom drama. The article is based on my latest…

Reports on European preschools and child care arrangements considering particularly teacher-child ratios, school entry and amount of playground space available. (MS)