Kerstin Sonesson
Title: The Fishing Game. An interdisciplinary learning activity as entrance to understanding the concept of sustainable development
Abstract: According to the Norwegian curriculum, schools in Norway will facilitate learning within three interdisciplinary issues, of which sustainable development is one. However, sustainable development is a challenging, complex, and theoretical concept with multiple dimensions, e.g., economic, environmental, and social dimensions. In Education, an interdisciplinary understanding of the concept is necessary.
The aim of using the Fishing Game, a board game, as a learning activity in teacher education is to develop students understanding of sustainable development and how the three dimensions are interacting in practice.
Research topic: The focus in the current research and development project is student active learning for sustainable development. The aim is to develop teacher students’ understanding and to explore how students are reasoning during the activity and how they, after completed the game, are reflecting on human use of fish stocks and other natural resources in the light of economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development.
Theoretical framework: Social constructivism, based on Dewey’s theories of how we develop knowledge and understanding through activity and experience.
Research design: A qualitative research approach with audio recording of group of students’ conversations during and after the learning activity, and phenomenographic analyse of transcripts. Groups of five students are playing together and receiving questions to discuss after two rounds of the game. In first round, the winner is the one with largest total caught of fish and students are not supposed to communicate. In the second round, students around a table are allowed to discuss strategies and are competing with other groups of students in the classroom. For further information in the game see www.wwf.se.
Expected findings: Increased knowledge on students learning and interdisciplinary understanding of sustainable development after the learning activity. The project is ongoing.
Sigrun Svenkerud and Lars Opdal
Title: Escape box as a starting point for knowledge on health and life skills for teacher students
Abstract: Målsetningen med studien er å undersøke et studentaktivt tverrfaglig didaktisk undervisningopplegg om folkehelse og livsmestring (kalt Escape box), i et samarbeid mellom lærerutdanningen og fylkets barne- og ungdomsombud. Problemstillingen er to-delt, knyttet til innhold og metodikk(didaktikk):
Hvordan oppfatter lærerstudenter temaet livsmestring og folkehelse gjennom bruk av et ferdig undervisningsopplegg som de får prøve ut?
Hvordan beskriver lærerstudentene sitt læringsutbytte av undervisningsopplegget rett i etterkant av gjennomføringen og etter 6 måneder?
Lærerutdanningen har mange instanser og institusjoner de kan samarbeide med, og som arbeider tett med praksisfeltet. Lærerutdanningen er kritisert for å være fjernt fra praksisfeltet og skolens støttesystemer, og dermed ikke gi studentene relevant og praksis-nær kunnskap. I faget livsmestring og folkehelse er skolens støtte- og samarbeidsinstanser sentrale.
Første del av undersøkelsen er gjennomført, studentene har hatt en økt med Escape box, og besvart en survey rett i etterkant. Det foreløpige resultatet viser at studentene knytter folkehelse og livsmestring tett opp til læringsmiljø og aktivitetsplikten de har som lærere for gripe inn hvis de får mistanke om eller kjennskap til at en elev ikke har et trygt og godt skolemiljø. Undervisningsopplegget knyttes i liten grad til livsmestringskompetanse utover dette. Andre del av undersøkelsen skal gjennomføres etter tre måneder, og resultatene fra denne surveyen skal gi kunnskap om læringsutbyttet over tid.
Giorgi Kobakhidze
Title: Cultural literacy: a case of multicultural Lithuanian school
Abstract: The increasing mobility of the modern world and related challenges arising from the co-existence of different cultures in a country’s socio-cultural environment reveal the importance of the development of cultural literacy in schools that should educate full-fledged members of the future harmonious society. The aim of this article is to reveal the peculiarities of cultural literacy development process and verify their efficiency in the 10 th -12 th years at a school with multicultural environment.
The development of cultural literacy and its peculiarities featured in researcher’s hypotheses were analyzed through the explanatory mixed method of case studying on the basis of different sources and the real-world context. The tool that was created (quantitative study) helped to determine the level of cultural literacy among the final year students in the school analyzed. Consequently, it was explained on the basis of qualitative analysis (semi-structured interviews with teachers) and its results.
The researcher’s assumption was supported by combining the survey results (high level of cultural literacy among the 10 th -12 th year students of the researched school) and analysis of case sources (interviews with teachers). This is how the research data presented in the article contribute to defining the cultural literacy development process, which points out two different aspects of reality: the students’ ability to be open-minded and the teachers’ ability to recognize different cultures. All of this enables the existence of two-tiered interdependent functions: the social functions of reading tradition and societal consolidation, which are inextricably linked to the application of linguistic skills in specific situations.