Research group
Extended Classroom and Varied Teaching Methods Research Group
Research within the research group focuses on teaching and learning in different environments outside the classroom and the use of different teaching approaches. Furthermore, the research concerns various aspects of teaching and learning, and teaching methods, such as what the types of teaching/learning can entail, and why and how these teaching methods or activities are appropriate in certain contexts.
The term "extended classroom", refers to various learning arenas that are arranged outside the classroom, for example the school playgrounds, forests, school gardens, farms, downtowns, factories, or shopping centres. Varied teaching methods refers to different types of instruction, including problem-based learning, theme-based learning, project work, or entrepreneurship.
The research group develops teaching materials and knowledge in order to increase deep understanding of instruction and learning.
Anna Marie Holand, head of research group
Tove Anita Fiskum
Tone Stuler Myhre
Haakon Halberg
Tone Nergård
Hans Petter Andersen
Trygve Wicklund Skavhaug
Anne Kathrine Hundal
Magne Husby
Phalangchok Wanphet
Kåre Haugan
Mona Reitan Rosenlund
Rune Hjelen
Camilla Sandvik
Ninni Anita Rotmo Olsen
Grete Modell Grande
Knut Moksnes
Anette Bartnes Dalheim
Martin Stokke
Heidi Vinge
Kaja Skårdal Hegstad
Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas
Solveig Åsgård Bendiksen
Anne Margrethe Amundsen Steen
Silje Dybdahl
Astrid Junker
Leonie Isabelle Johann
Maren Berre
Anne Weidemann Skagseth
Beste Sabir Onat
Øyvind Johan Andersen
Berit Oksfjellelv
Kari Tande-Nilsen
Elisabeth Evjen
Ragnhild Forseth
Active research projects
Project leader for Nord University: Kåre Haugan
The project is a joint Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian initiative, with the overarching goal of focusing on climate change, sustainable local food production, and increasing self-sufficiency. The main idea is to combine modern knowledge and traditional knowledge in terms of food production and harvesting, where local food production and self-sufficiency are key elements.
Nord University’s contribution will be to develop a course and educational materials for establishing and operating school gardens. In addition, a course with accompanying teaching materials on traditional knowledge about food and harvesting from nature will be developed. The project also aims to conduct some research on traditional knowledge and local food production. Testing and implementation of the course packages will take place in collaboration with Bodø Municipality, which is a leading municipality in this field.
The project partners are three municipalities (Bodø-NO, Kalix-SE, Korsholm-FIN) and three institutions (Nord University-NO, Luleå University of Technology-SE, and LUKE-FIN), which together form a complementary and learning network to develop good solutions for the mentioned challenges. LUKE-FIN is the leading partner in the project.
Project website: Food education for the future - Interreg Aurora and Food education for the future – Interreg (site.nord.no)
Project leader: Mona Reitan Rosenlund
Hypathia in preschool is an exchange program aimed at developing mathematical and technical skills for children in preschool.
The project utilize the learning-training-teaching model, where the participating groups are associated with a science center or a university. A research study are connected to the project, where a case-study will be performed on the Norwegian group of participants, with both group- and individual interviews. The main research question is: How can our experience from collaboration with other countries on mathematics and technical skills influence own practice in preschool?
HandyKids fosters sustainable art pedagogy through workshops, promoting hands-on experiences with materials and tools.
Sustainability and loving care for our common vulnerable nature are highly valued in the subject of arts and crafts. Embodied learning is tightly connected to the exploration of sustainable materials and the skill “to be handy”. Research shows that there is a lot of thinking going on through the physical and “handy” experiences.
Embodied cognition proposes that human beings understand the physical world and the environment through interacting with natural and cultural objects, materials and tools. In parallel to this embodied learning, they also discover the terms connected to the objects, the materials and the tools. The real-world concrete experiences are intertwined with the abstract awareness.
In the aesthetic learning processes, there are not only the human beings who are active participants. Also the objects, materials and tools “come to life” when they are in use by the human beings. They got agency (Barad, 2007). An aesthetic learning process can be understood as actings (verb) and cuttings. The boundaries and characteristics of these events develop new agentic cuts. Such processes may lead to new understandings that continue, hopefully throughout life.
Team members: Solveig Åsgard Bendiksen, Rune Hjelen, Ninni Anita Rotmo Olsen, Yolanda Munos Rey.
Completed projects
Project manager: Anna Marie Holand
Aim: The study aims to contribute to increased understanding of one's own profession by cooperating with other professions and through the use of 21st Century Skills.Partners: Junior Achievement (Norway), Form the Future (England), Vifin (Denmark), Verdal municipality, Vejle municipality (Denmark).
The engaged pupil: Teaching that makes pupils wonder, explore and become active learners
Prosjekt managers: Tove Anita Fiskum, Dag Gulaker and Hans Petter Andersen
Aim: Provide teacher students and teachers with different teaching approaches that promotes wondering, exploration and activation in students.
A national research project 2019-2020
Project manager: Tove Anita Fiskum
Aim: The study aims to develop the work of the Predator Visitor Centres in Bardu, Namsskogan and Flå, and to explore how pupils can develop their knowledge and more nuanced perspectives of predators and predator conflicts.
Partners: Predator Visitor Centre Namsskogan, Bardu National Park Centre, Flå National Park Centre, Lierne National Park Centre.
The project is financed by the Norwegian Environment Agency.
2017-2018
Project manager: Tove Anita Fiskum
Aim: The study aims to develop the work of the predator visitor centres in Bardu, Namsskogan and Flå, and to explore how pupils can develop their knowledge and more nuanced perspectives of predators and predator conflicts.
Partners: Besøkssenter rovdyr, Namsskogan og Lierne Nasjonalparksenter.
The project was financed by the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Ph.d.-projects
PhD fellow: Tone Stuler Myhre
This PhD project investigates the development of second language spoken fluency in an outdoor context in Norway. It focuses on English as a second language and its aim is to explore if teenagers increase their fluent English production when they engage in oral activities outside the classroom.
PhD fellow: Haakon Halberg
The aim of this study is to explore how students at the upper primary level experience fictional texts in an interdisciplinary outdoor educational project about predators. The data collection is connected to the predator school in Namsskogan.
