In recent Storting reports, public studies and evaluation programmes, there have been discussions about quality in schools and how pupil and student learning occurs.
In the White Paper to the Storting no. 31 (2007–2008) Quality in the Schools, there is concern “that the quality of key areas of Norwegian primary and secondary education is not good enough. The undermining of pupil skills is particularly serious, even as the requirements for competence continue to increase …”. The Official Norwegian Report NOU 2015:8, The School of the Future – Renewal of Subjects and Competencies and the Official Norwegian Report NOU 2014:7 Elevenes læring i fremtidens skole — Et kunnskapsgrunnlag [Pupil Learning in the School of the Future — A Foundation of Knowledge] (not available in English) is concerned with how learning happens, what promotes pupil learning, and in what ways pupils understand and participate in learning processes.
The White Paper by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research No. 16 (2017), Culture of Quality in Higher Education, highlights the need for research on the quality of teaching. The Professional Workshop, which is a venue for this research group, is specifically mentioned in part two of that document, which is not available in English (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017, p. 50). In 2014, the Professional Workshop was awarded the Education Prize by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education.
In this effort, there is a continual need for empirical research concerning the culture of quality in schools and in teacher training. It is significant that the scheme for continuing education of teachers is called Competence for Quality. Overall, one could say that the recent years’ national studies on pupil learning in the school of the future, as well as national initiatives to achieve a rise in competence in the schools, form a backdrop for classroom research on quality in teaching, which is this research group’s field of research.