Towards a student-centered learning in innovative learning environments: A longitudinal study of played out practice and school organisation

This project investigates the implementation of a new innovative learning environment (ILE) in a selected municipality where the first phase of school development and change begun in 2019.

It focuses on the collective learning process of practice-takers (head teachers, teachers and students); how they learn, receive, and respond to the new school organisation and ILEs, but also how change is constructed from the perspective of practice-makers (local stakeholders).The aim is to explore (i) what kinds of practice play out in ILEs in terms of power and control, (ii) practice-takers perceptions of educational change and how it challenges previous traditions of organising schools, and (iii) how a concept of student-centred learning evolves over time.

A mixed methods approach will be applied.

Qualitative data (interviews and observations) will be collected, targeting teachers’ power and control distribution in the classroom.

Additionally, a student questionnaire (targeting involvement, cooperation, autonomy- and teacher support) as well as a teacher questionnaire (targeting psychological safety and team learning behaviour) will be utilized.

These multiple types of data will be collected in three phases and analysed in iterative steps, with the objective of both data comparison and data integration to paint a full picture of the process of change.

The final phase of analysis includes a longitudinal perspective, applying the CHAT framework to understand the change over time.