Norway: Primary Schools

I was able to visit TWO primary schools today in Oslo, Norway. In one school I followed a first grade teacher as she welcomed her students, went through their morning routine and then completed a writing lesson. The other school was a third grade teacher who was teaching math through an RPG (Role-Playing Game) and then I got to watch the kids practice their song and sdances for a summer parent recital happening later in the week.

Third grade classroom. Top left (going down): teacher helps students with RPG, beautiful soccer field, student cubbies, student desk and chair with foot rest (student backpacks are brought into the classroom and hung on the back of the chair to work out of all day (as there is no desk storage). The chairs are very heavy-duty and don’t fall over easily), Right: Teacher says goodbye to students leaving for the day — I loved that the teacher shook each child’s hand!

In both schools, students had significant amounts of freedom compared with American schools. For example, just as at Sandvika High School, these primary school students came and went to the bathroom, as needed, without asking permission first, and without interrupting instruction or overusing/abusing the privilege. Students were encouraged to be engaged but not always redirected when off-task during the lessons.

It seemed as if student engagement was achieved through innovative lesson design (as in the 3rd graders playing an RPG to reinforce math concepts related to graphs and charts) and that the goal of students regulating themselves and learning through natural consequences was just as present at the primary level as it was in the secondary level. The onus for learning and engagement is on the student — the idea seemed to be that it is their education, not the teacher’s, and so if students choose to read a book instead if pay attention, and thus miss instruction, they will struggle later and learn the lesson the hard way later on their own. I like the underlying message that as a child, it is okay, even expected, to make a bad decision sometimes and fail a little, because you can learn from your mistakes and become more self directed and successful in the future.

I do wonder a little bit, however, how far this philosophy would extend — would students ever be redirected for lack of attention during a lesson? Or is it the case that teachers are only concerned with intervening when there are behavioral disturbances?

A cute thing I noticed at both schools was that students removed their shoes before entering the classroom and went around in socks. When I asked about this practice, teachers referenced how people often remove their shoes upon entering a home; doing the same at school creates a cozier, homier, more intimate feel in the classroom.

The furniture was also fun (at least for mew, as a teacher geek). Each student had a cubby or drawer somewhere around the room and instead of lockers they had hooks and benches in an entry area. The first grade classroom had tennis balls on the bottoms of their chair legs, perhaps to allow them to fidget and bounce a bit? Or maybe just to avoid scraping noises when they push back from their desks?

First Grade Classroom — Upper left: students volunteer answers during their morning routine, Bottom left: student cubbies and classroom sink, Top Right: teacher teaching “station” with mini whiteboard and more cubbies, Middle Right: more student cubbies and art work (displayed on a SmartBoard), Bottom Right: view of the classroom before the students arrive (with another smartboard on the far wall — yep, 2 SmartBoards in one room, wow!) — each student chair has a built in foot rest so that their little feet don’t just dangle and they have a built in way to fidget a bit, and tennis balls on the legs (I assume to minimize noise?)

I also observed a student teacher who sat with a student who needed a bit of extra support with staying on task and organized / attending to task. I think that although they used a different term, her role was like that of our paraprofessionals.

Students with special needs are sometimes fully included in the general classroom and other times receive services in pull-out or self-contained classrooms. Again, while the terms seemed to differ, from what I gathered, one school I visited had an autism unit, a unit for students with moderate and severe disabilities, and perhaps something similar to a cross-categorical unit where students are included in the general classroom to different extents based on their specific needs.

Interestingly, I also learned that students in Norway often have the same teacher for at least the first 3 years of school, if not 4, 5, or 6 years! The teacher I spoke with told me there are many benefits to this system (building a strong relationship with students and families, knowing how to personalize instruction to students’ needs, etc.) but also some drawbacks (the difficulty of working with a student who you struggle to reach as a teacher for a number of years, or the challenge of having a child with behavioral issues in the classroom year after year; parents not wanting their child in the same class as other students for multiple years in a row, or even just the possibility that a teacher prefers teaching a certain age group but must be comfortable teaching all grades instead under this system).

This extreme looping felt like the primary school version of the extreme block schedule I experienced at the secondary level. It seems that one priority is the same across all levels of K-12 instruction in Norway: to spend significant amounts of time with the same (limited) group of students in order to build strong relationships, with the belief that this will enhance and further the learning of all. Not a bad philosophy!