Digital tekstkompetanse og bruk av læringsressurser i ny grunnskolelærerutdanning (DigiGLU)

DigiGLU

The aim of this project is to improve Teacher education programs by exploring how communication and learning can be strengthened in the new primary school teacher education in Norway (GLU 1-7 and 5-10). Learning in a modern society is primarily mediated through texts, and in this project, we see literacy as a prerequisite for learning (Østerud 2004). This is reflected in the basic skills that are defined in the National Curriculum for primary and secondary schools (LK2006): oral expression, reading, expressions in writing, numeracy and using digital tools. Inspired by New Literacy Studies (Cope & Kalantzis 2000), the project will focus on the relationship between these skills, and how texts and mediating enter into the learning processes in different GLU subjects. The project will particularly focus on the use of new multimodal text forms in digital media.

The project will therefore pay particular attention to how digital learning resources are used and integrated with more traditional texts and forms of communication. Here, multimodal communication theory offers a fruitful framework of understanding. The literacy required to succeed in such learning processes can be theoretically described as "multiliteracies" Cope & Kalantzis 2000; Mackey 2007) and analyzed on the basis of the interaction between text reception (reading), text production (writing) and text reflection (Smidt 2006). For teacher students, who will facilitate learning through texts and media in schools, text reflection as an important aspect of their teaching profession. The literacy practices in GLU (mediated in digital media and more directly communicated in the classroom) will be analyzed as designs for learning, encountering the students’ designs in learning (Selander & Kress 2010; Sørensen & Levin 2014).

Research Question:

How are various text forms and media integrated in primary teacher education programs, and how can teacher students develop didactic understanding and reflection on how various forms of texts and mediations are integrated in the learning processes of different subjects?

GLU is in its third year, and thus starting to get some experience with how the new teacher education works, and how it is organized in regional teacher education institutions. In GLU 1-7 the compulsory subjects Pedagogy and Pupil-related skills (PPS), and Norwegian are responsible for anchoring the basic skills. In GLU 5-10 this responsibility is placed in the PPS, which is the only mandatory subject in this stream. Since PPS and Norwegian have a special responsibility for an overall reflection on literacy and learning, the project will follow these two subjects in GLU 1-7 and 5-10 over the two years duration of the project in order to see how the basic skills are practiced and reflected on, with particular focus on multimodal texts in digital media. With the aim of exploring literacy in different knowledge traditions, the project will also include other GLU subjects such as Social sciences, Natural sciences and English. The research will mainly be carried out at one institution, but comparable data for PPS and Norwegian will also be obtained from two other institutions. In order to identify and assess literacy practices and forms of communication in GLU data will be collected from mandatory student work, where we will analyze the texts that students read and produce, and assess them in relation to learning potential, and the interaction they enter into in the classroom and through digital media. The students' reflections on the texts, activities and learning processes will be investigated through focus group interviews.