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2Faculty of Educational Sciences

University of Oslo

P.O.Box 1161, Blindern

N-0318 Oslo

Norway

E -mail: postmottak@uv.uio.no

Phone: (+47) 22 85 82 76

Web: www.uv.uio.no/english

Graphic Design: Shane Colvin

Photos: Shane Colvin, Alex Tufte

& Colourbox

Print production: CopyCat

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Oslo - Norways Capital City

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Norways Premier University

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About the Faculty

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Research

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Studies

3Words of WelcomeThe Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Oslo is the largest educational research institution in Norway, and one of the leading faculties in our field in Europe.

Education on all levels is an important driver for social, political and economic development and crucial for a sustainable and inclusive society. Our aim is therefore to offer our students the best educational programmes in in the country within the broad and complex field of educational sciences.

Our Faculty is an international organization with students and academic staff from around the world. In particular, when it comes to international collaboration we focus on long-term collaborative relationships that promote quality, stimulate academic growth and strengthen interaction between research and education.

We hope the pages that follow provide you with an overview of the Faculty and we encorage you to visit our website to find out more.

Sincerely,

Berit Karseth, Dean January, 2015

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5Oslo - Norways Capital CityOslo is the oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, and its history goes back 1000 years, when the first settlements were built at the inlet of the Oslo fjord.

Oslo has a population of nearly 600 000 inhabitants. The city centre is compact and has a wide range of cultural activities, fine restaurants, and a lively nightlife.

However, Oslo is also a place to leave the city life behind. It is the only European capital that boasts cycling, hiking, ice-skating, kayaking, sailing and skiing - all within its city limits.

6Norways Premier UniversityThe University of Oslo (UiO) is the highest ranked institution of education and research in Norway - and one of the Worlds Top 100 universities, according to the Shanghai World Ranking. With five Nobel Prize winners, UiO has a strong track record of pioneering research and scientific discovery.

As a classical university with a broad range of academic disciplines, UiO has research communities in most areas. Moreover, UiO currently has 8 National Centres of Excellence and a strategic focus on interdisciplinary research in the field of energy and life sciences in particular. As a broadly based, non-profit research university, UiO has access to good public funding schemes.

UiO offers more than 800 courses in English at all levels, includ-ing 40 Masters degree programmes taught entirely in English and several PhD programmes. UiO focuses on research-based education and attracts highly qualified students from all over the world.

As a part of its international strategy, the university works to establish closer, more ambitious ties with first-class international partners. As a result, UiO has an international campus where students and staff from 130 different countries constitute more than one tenth of the student population, one fourth of the PhD students, and one sixth of the acadamic staff.

The university also collaborates with the City of Oslo and national agencies in order to provide reception services for international students and researchers.

UiO facts and figures

Students 27 700

Employees 6100

Faculties 8

Museums 3

Library Holdings 3.6 million items

Operating Budget 850 million (USD)

Nobel Prize Winners 5

Shanghai Ranking #69 (World)

7UiO facts and figures

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9About the Faculty The Faculty of Educational Sciences is one of the largest institutions dedicated to educational research in Europe. The faculty is composed of three departments and two research centres with a total of nearly 300 employees and 3 300 students. We offer three different bachelor degrees and ten master pro-grammes, as well as Norway`s most prestigious teacher-training programme and several joint interdisciplinary programmes.

Our research portfolio includes education, special needs educa-tion, and curriculum studies, as well as related topics such as school leadership, virtual learning technologies, and new media.

Units at the FacultyDepartments

Department of Education

Department of Special Needs Education

Department of Teacher Education and School Research

Centres

Centre for Educational Measurement (CEMO)

Centre for Professional Learning in Teacher Education (ProTed)

Research Schools

National Graduate School in Educational Research (NATED)

Supporting Units

Section for Research and Mediation Support (FFS)

The Centre for Educational Measurement at the University

of Oslo (CEMO) is an international research unit which conducts

research in educational measurement in all levels of the education system.

CEMOs mandate is to develop national competence by disseminating

knowledge about educational measurement to stakeholders and teaching

of Master and PhD students.

For more information: www.uv.uio.no/cemo/english

New Centre

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ResearchOur research areas cover a substantial part of the broader field of

educational sciences. This includes research on digital learning environ-

ments, research on leadership of educational institutions and research

on professional learning and knowledge management within both

private and public sector institutions.

Within this broad spectrum of research areas, the faculty has particular

competence in the following areas of expertise:

Classroom research and subject didactics

Educational leadership, school reform and education

governance

Comparative and international educational research

Humanities studies in education

Higher education and professional learning

Modern childhood and research on young individuals

Language development, text comprehension, and literacy

Special needs educational research

ICT and learning

Our academic staff is organized in research groups consisting of

both senior and junior researchers, as well as graduate students.

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Selected Projects

Studying computer and information literacy

International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is the first international comparative study of lower secondary students computer and information literacy, and was carried out for the first time in 2013. ICILS is organized by IEA (The International Association for the Evalua-tion of Educational Achievement). The Department of Teacher Education and School Research and The Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education were responsible for the study in Norway. A computer-based assess-ment is used to evaluate students abilities to collect, manage, evaluate, and share digital information, as well as their understanding of safe and responsible use of digital information. In addition to the student test, a questionnaire is administered to students, teachers, ICT-coordinators and principals.

Results from ICILS 2013 show that Norway is among the highest achiev-ing countries on the digital test, with 30 percent of the students demon-strating good to very good digital skills, while 24 percent show very weak ICT skills. Norwegian teachers report positive attitudes toward ICT use in teaching. However, results indicate sparse use of ICT in schools.

Project: International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) Supported by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training

Contact: Researcher Inger Throndsen inger.throndsen@ils.uio.no

Supporting second-language learners

This project builds on a conceptual model that considers bilingual text comprehension as a multidimensional and dynamic construct and addresses how the emergent literacy growth of bilingual learners may be effectively promoted in preschool. The main aims of the project are:

1. To determine the immediate and long term effects of a shared book reading intervention designed to enhance bilin-gual learners` comprehension of text.

2. To explore the growth of different language skills hypoth-esized to affect text comprehension and their relative role in predicting text comprehension.

The project also has two secondary objectives, firstly to develop knowledge with implications for professional development ad-dressing how preschool teachers may aid in preparing bilingual learners for future learning and text comprehension. Secondly to disseminate the knowledge gained from the project to the research community, policy makers, educators and parents.

Project: Teaching for text comprehension: Supporting young second-language learnerstext comprehension in urban multiethnic pre-schools in Norway. Supported by the Research Council of Norway

Contact: Professor Vibeke Grver vibeke.grover@iped.uio.no

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Educational resources in the classroom

The research project ARK&APP investigates the use of educational resources in the planning, conducting, and evaluation of teaching in four school subjects; Mathematics, Natural science, English (as a foreign language), and Social science.

The project draws upon quantitative as well as qualitative data. Two national surveys are conducted. Here, school owners, school leaders, and teachers are asked about their choice of teaching resources, and in their practices as teachers in specific subjects. The 12 qualitative case studies observe how educational resources are used during lessons, with particular attention to how different resources generate engagement in different forms of student-teacher interactions. In each case, a pre-/posttest is conducted to map the students learning.

Project: Ark&app Supported by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training

Contact: Postdoctoral Fellow ystein Gilje oystein.gilje@iped.uio.no

New knowledge about treatment of language impairment

Associate Professor Janne von Koss Torkildsen at the Department of Special Needs Education and colleagues at the University of Arizona have conducted a study with notable results for the treatment of peo-ple with language difficulties.

Language impairment is common, affecting approximately 7% of pre-school children, and may lead to significant challenges in education and working life. Many language impaired individuals have difficulties with the understanding and production of grammar. Current interven-tions focusing on grammar typically take months to produce modest results, and there is thus a great need for more effective treatments.

The study investigated the effect of introducing people with language impairment to a large variety of words that followed a linguistic rule. This approach differed from traditional treatments, where clients are usually exposed to few examples of each rule which are repeated many times. The results showed that the participants who were given highly variable input learned entirely new grammar in minutes. The secret lay in the great linguistic variations that these participants were exposed to. A comparison group who was exposed to a more tradi-tional approach with few examples and many repetitions, did not learn the grammar.

Article: Exemplar variability facilitates rapid learning of an otherwise unlearn-able grammar by individuals with language-based learning disability. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(2), 618-629.

Contact: Associate Professor Janne von Koss Torkildsen j.v.k.torkildsen@isp.uio.no

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Mentoring beginning teachers

This project explores how contextual factors influence the situation of beginning teachers in Nordic countries. Beginners often experience a demanding work environment and a lack of organized support at the start of their professional career. Not surprisingly, there are high levels of attrition among newcomers to school teaching.

For demographic reasons, many teachers will be retiring during the coming years. A low recruitment and/or retention rate of beginning teachers may lead to a shortage of qualified staff in Norwegian schools.

Mentoring schemes for beginning teachers may have a positive im-pact on teacher commitment and retention, classroom instructional practices, and also indirectly on student achievement. This project will explore how national mentoring schemes in the Nordic countries, school management, and school organizational contexts influence beginning teachers commitment, retention, and feelings of mastery and support during their first year of teaching. Also, the project seeks to develop new knowledge with relevance to teacher educa-tion, mentoring, policy-making and educational research.

Project: NORDMENT: Mentoring beginning teachers in Nordic countries

Contact: Professor Eyvind Elstad eyvind.elstad@ils.uio.no

Evidence-based practice in education: functions of evidence and causal presuppositions

Is the move to evidence-based practice (EBP) in education to be celebrated or deplored? In this project, Tone Kvernbekk uses system theory, causal theory and argumentation theory to work out a balanced perspective on this controversy. The author uses argumentation theory to argue that evidence in EBP has an indirect, as opposed to an assumed direct, function. This indirect function contributes to making EBP much more complicated than advocates and critics alike tend to assume. The project mainly inquires into the causal presuppositions of EBP, using recent causal theory among other things to lay bare the basic structure of interventions. It is argued that causes should be conceived of as INUS-conditions; which contributes further to complicate EBP. Finally system theory is used to unearth problems which causal theory does not have the resources to unearth; for example entities that are not amenable to intervention and the overall importance of the pre-existing system and its conditions.

The project is finished and will be published by Routledge (2015), in the Routledge Research in Education Series

Book: Evidence-based practice in education: functions of evidence and causal presuppositions

Contact: Professor Tone Kvernbekk tone.kvernbekk@ped.uio.no

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Ph.D. ProgrammeA doctoral degree from the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Oslo gives plenty of opportunities, whether one wants to pursue a career within research or work outside the world of academia.

About 2/3 of all Ph.D - degrees within educational science in Norway are obtained at our Faculty. The Faculty has around 5 percent foreign candidates at any one time.

Within the programme, the candidates can specialize within Education, Spe-cial Needs Education, Language Education, Science Education, Mathemat-ics Education, School Development, and Learning and ICT. These specializa-tions lead to the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.).

Our programme requires a full three years admission period as a minimum requirment. For more information visit our webpage:

www.uv.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree

The National Graduate School in Educational Research (NATED)

The National Graduate School in Educational Research (NATED) is a partnership between six Norwegian universities and one university college. The school is coordinated by the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Oslo. Through a combination of network structures and thematic tracks, the school aims to provide PhD students with:

courses in research design, methodology and methods

specialized education and training in thematic fields, of which are central to educational knowledge

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Our faculty educates more than half of the

university-level students studying within the

field of educational research in Norway.

The student body at the faculty currently

numbers around 3300. The credit system

used for courses at the University of Oslo is

based on the European Credit Transfer and

Accumulation system. A full semesters work

load consists of 30 credits.

Internationalization of both study programs

and research has been an important part of

the overall strategy at the Faculty of Educa-

tional Sciences for several years. Moreover,

we are now representing The University of

Oslo in an international consortium be-

hind The Master in Education Policies for

Global Development (GLOBED). Starting in

September 2015, GLOBED will constitute a

solid and coherent international educational

programme in the areas of global education

policy and international development.

StudiesThe faculty offers several international

two-year master programs that attract

students from all over the world. Further-

more, the faculty has extended interna-

tional cooperation through numerous

bilateral exchange agreements, both

within the Erasmus+ program and bi-

lateral agreements outside Europe. Our

partners include the University of Califor-

nia Berkeley, ENS de Lyon, Humboldt-

Universitt zu Berlin and The Institute of

Education at University of London.

International exchange students can

attend for one or two semesters, as well

as take part in both bachelor and master

courses that are taught in English.

For more information please visit

our webpages:

www.uv.uio.no/english/studies

English language programmes:

Master degrees

Higher Education

Comparative and International Education

Special Needs Education

Special and Inclusive Education (Master - experience based)

Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED)

Norwegian language programmes:

Bachelor degrees

Pedagogy

Special Needs Education

Master degrees

Pedagogy

Special Needs Education

Educational Leadership

Teacher Education Programme (5-year integrated Master degree)

The Faculty also offers a one year course in Practical Pedagogical Education, as well as several part-time and remote learning programmes which are primarily oriented towards graduates and teachers.

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Faculty of Educational Sciences University of Oslo

P.O. box 1161 Blindern 0318 Oslo

Norway

www.uv.uio.no/english