We congratulate SLATE PhD fellow Kjersti Nedland Røneid with the first presentation of her research, entitled Technology supported learning designs – how do student teachers plan student activity in lessons?

The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) Congress 2023 was arranged by OsloMet from the 15-17 March.  The theme of the conference was Digitalization and Technologies in Education – Opportunities and Challenges.

In this short paper Kjersti presented preliminary findings from a case study following 8 third-year teacher students who used the ILUKS Planner—a digital learning design planning tool developed at SLATE by Kristin Børte, Helene Eide, Gleb Belokrys and Martin Heitmann—to compose learning designs for student active learning.

ILUKS: Innovativelærerstudenter: Undervisningsdesign for kunnskapsbasert studentaktivitet (InnovativeTeacher Students: Learning design for knowledge-based student activity), funded by HK-dir, is led by Senior Researcher Kristin Børte, Kjersti’s supervisor.

The conference program with abstracts can be found on the conference web page. Read Kjersti and Kristin's abstract here:

‍

‍Technology supported learning designs – how do student teachers plan student activity in lessons?

Kjersti Nedland Røneid, Kristin Børte

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 teachers tudents 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 (Børteet al 2020). However, using technology to innovate teaching and support SAL is difficult (Blikstad Balas & Klette 2020; Børte et al 2020; Lillejord et al2018).

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 describeactivities at organizational level, not what students are going to do in these activities. Findings also highlight 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 along 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 HigherEducation, 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.

‍