Classroom interaction for enhanced student learning (CIESL) - Implementing research based knowledge regarding teacher-student interaction

The main goal of the CIESL study was to better understand how a national initiative on developing lower secondary schools was implemented in classrooms and how teachers? and students? learning processes are linked and how these processes contribute to student learning. As expected by the relatively short intervention period (one and a half academic year), most teachers did not improve in classroom interaction throughout the intervention. However, one-third of the teachers reported an increase in their instructional support to students. For students, a group of about 10 percent reported increased teacher support throughout the initiative. Interestingly, the group of students that perceived more support from teachers reported lower initial motivation and higher level of problem behavior (e.g. disobedience, bullying, off-task behavior) than their peers. Accordingly, students that reported increased teacher support was among those of risk of failing school. Given that previous research indicate that a school-wide intervention, as the initiative in question, takes 3-5 years to implement, the full effect of the initiative may not be achieved at the end of the schools participating in the initiative. An integrated mixed methods (MM) design in which the mixing of QUAL(itative) and QUAN(titative) approaches occurred in an interactive manner was applied to address the research questions. The QUAL and QUAN data were collected concurrently. There were three parallel aspects of the design: the effectiveness study, the implementation study and the selected case studies used to address the implementation of classroom interaction and student outcomes in greater depth. A longitudinal QUAN survey study where all teachers and students at the participating schools were invited to participate, was implemented. This approach provided an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of the intervention on student outcomes as well as teachers' implementation of high-quality classroom interaction practices in a larger sample of classrooms. Additionally, a case study group of 4-9 teachers at each school was invited to participate in classroom observation in a class they were teaching, focus group interviews and digital learning logs. Sixteen articles in international scientific journals were published at the end of the project, and six more are submitted or in progress. The project has an extensive database that allow for more publications in the future. Moreover, a scientific book on implementation has been published, and a second book discussing findings will be published in spring 2020. A PhD thesis is ready for submission, and another using data from the project is in progress, planned to be submitted in 2021. The project has an active web-page were videos, articles for practitioners, informative descriptions, findings etc are posted. A Facebook page was developed to inform about the project, it?s activity and to communicate with participants in the project. The web-page and the Facebook page will remain active as long as there are new publications in the project. As expected by the relatively short intervention period (one and a half academic year), most teachers did not improve in classroom interaction throughout the intervention. However, one-third of the teachers reported an increase in their instructional support to students. For students, a group of about 10 percent reported increased teacher support throughout the initiative. Interestingly, the group of students that perceived more support from teachers reported lower initial motivation and a higher level of problem behavior (e.g. disobedience, bullying, off-task behavior) than their peers. Accordingly, students that reported increased teacher support were among those of risk of failing school. Given that previous research indicate that a school-wide intervention, as the initiative in question, takes 3-5 years to implement, the full effect of the initiative may not be achieved at the end of the schools participating in the initiative. Results based on observations, indicated that the variation in teaching quality understood as the interaction quality between teachers and students in Norwegian classrooms are substantial. Moreover, the results also indicate that Norwegian teachers are skilled in key dimensions of emotional support and classroom interaction that has been high on the political agenda and as a result highlighted in teacher education and professional development. The quality of dimensions imperative to the implementation of the new national curriculum from 2020 (e.g. deeper understand, problem-solving, analysis, critical thinking, and meta-cognition) are generally on the lower side. The project was a collaboration between the Department of Education at the University of South-East Norway, and the Department of Education and Sports Science, and the Norwegian Center for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education, University of Stavanger.

The project has led to increased knowledge both in research methods and in the field of classroom interaction. In particular, the knowledge in mixed-methods studies has increased among the research group members. Moreover, the study has led to new knowledge on the variation in teaching quality in Norwegian classrooms. Variation in classroom interaction quality may result in students missing opportunities to reach their learning potential and in subsequent personal and social implications. Implications of the results are disseminated to practitioners through professional development, seminars, guest lectures, media etc. The findings have been imperative to the development of an individual video-based coaching intervention for teachers, the Video-based improvement for teachers (VITE) intervention. VITE was piloted spring 2019 with promising results. The coaching intervention may be an important support to teachers and schools in the implementation of the new curriculum from 2020.

The proposed project aims at gaining knowledge on teachers' implementation of classroom interaction when participating in a governmental initiated intervention on classroom management, and how teachers' learning are linked to student learning and outcome . Moreover, we intend to investigate how organizational factors promote or hinder teachers' implementation of classroom interaction skills and subsequently student outcome. Knowing what needs to be done is different from knowing how to do it, and both typ es of knowledge are critical to developing stronger research-practice connections. Much has been written about "what works" in classroom interaction; much less has been written about how teachers implement knowledge into practice. A mixed methods design i s applied in order to shed light on the research questions.The study has three parallel aspects: The effectiveness study (teacher and student survey), the implementation study (teacher survey), and the selected case studies(classroom observation, teacher and student interviews) to address the implementation of classroom interaction and student outcome in more depth. Although a complex research design, this diverse approach to data collection provides greater opportunities for mapping, analyzing and interp retation, allowing for more holistic understandings of the research area than would have been gained if relying on a single paradigm or approach. To enhance quality and generate new insights into the field we will cooperate with international colleagues w ith extended expertise in the field. National Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education (NCLB) has a mandate to support teacher education institutions and schools nationally.Findings will be utilized in this. Examples are the de velopment of an online video library that highlight high-quality teaching, and the development of web-mediated coaching to support teachers' and teacher students' training of classroom interaction skills.