CTL: Research for better teaching in schools

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The strategic research area Excellence in Schools, which will be launched in January at the University of Gothenburg and Karlstad University, will bring together research in subject didactics, educational assessment and conditions for learning, and school leadership. Within CTL, the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Schools, researchers from different fields will work together with schools to develop and test teaching innovations and investigate their effects on pupils’ learning.

– This initiative provides a unique opportunity to create a new field of research that will contribute to pupils’ knowledge development in schools, says Angelika Kullberg, Professor of Subject Didactics and project manager for Excellence in Schools at the University of Gothenburg.

One reason for the initiative is the challenges facing Sweden in terms of pupils’ educational attainment. The latest PISA study showed that one third of pupils did not reach the basic proficiency level in mathematics and reading comprehension. At the same time, findings from practice-based research in the form of teaching innovations have not been systematically tested and scaled up for nationwide dissemination.

Three research areas come together

A key idea is to bring together three research areas: subject didactics, educational assessment and conditions for learning, and school leadership. Together, they will lay the foundations for a new field of research: subject-specific school improvement.

The research will focus on different school subjects: Swedish, mathematics, science and technology, social sciences, physical education and health, and home and consumer studies.

– Subject-specific school improvement means that the research focuses on the content of teaching and on how teaching innovations can be developed and implemented in schools. By combining the three research areas, the ambition is to produce more robust studies and have a greater impact on educational practice, says Angelika Kullberg.

Among other things, the research will investigate which teaching innovations strengthen knowledge development among different groups of pupils, how their effects can be assessed, and which factors determine whether a successful intervention also works when used on a larger scale. An important question is what role school leadership and organisation, as well as teachers’ professional knowledge, play in pupils’ knowledge development and educational outcomes.

From idea to use in many classrooms

Research within Excellence in Schools will be conducted in three stages. First, researchers and teachers will jointly develop a teaching innovation and test whether it has positive effects on pupils’ learning. It will then be systematically tested with different groups of pupils and at different schools. The third stage will examine how an innovation that has produced good results can be used on a larger scale.

– A teaching innovation could, for example, be a one-year teaching programme developed through practice-based research that has produced good results for pupils’ learning. The next step would then be to test the programme at several schools and with pupils who, for example, have different backgrounds and prior knowledge. This will provide knowledge about what needs to be changed before the programme can eventually be used on a larger scale, for example within one or more municipalities,  says Angelika Kullberg.

An important prerequisite is the close and organised collaboration with school organisers that the University of Gothenburg has built up over time. The ambition is to further deepen collaboration between research, education and school practice and to create knowledge together.

Four new researchers to be recruited

As part of the development of the research environment, the Faculty of Education is now recruiting four Assistant Professors in Education, Education Work, Health Promotion and Subject Didactics. The positions are part of the University of Gothenburg’s international recruitment initiative, the Gothenburg Global Scholars Initiative.

The new researchers will be affiliated with Excellence in Schools and CTL and will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the new research environment while also developing their own research.

– We hope that the new researchers will contribute different areas of expertise to our shared focus. In the longer term, they could become leading researchers in the new field that we are now building. CTL will offer an innovative environment characterised by collaboration and international contacts, says Angelika Kullberg.

Read more and apply for the positions within the Gothenburg Global Scholars Initiative.