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The LP-project
From
January 2003 until December 2004, a project called
the LP-project runs in 14 Norwegian schools. The project
has a "bottom-up"-profile, taking 300 teachers in the
project schools as its starting point. The teachers
organize themselves in groups and focus regularly on
important challenges and questions about how to
understand and manage problem behaviour and improve
the learning
environment for all pupils.
Some
of the areas focused on:
-
Relationship
between pupil and teacher
- Pupils’
roles and relationships between pupils
- Norms and
norm enforcement
- Teacher’s
ability to lead classes/groups and individuals
- Content
of the teaching and methods chosen, as well
as differentiated
teaching
- Cooperation
with parents
- Motivation,
mastery and demands
- Use of
various reward systems
A
system-theoretical approach
The
main objective of the LP-project is the development of a
learning environment that provide all pupils with good conditions
for both social and academic learning. The teachers
develop their competence in surveying and analysing
the learning environment in order to perceive the
connection between academic results and problem behaviour.
The project provides training for the whole school staff
in use of a model for analytic understanding and managing
learning and behaviour problems.
A
main issue in the project is a contextual perspective, but it
also takes into account the individual and the agent’s perspective.
These perspectives give a wider understanding when
it comes to developing good learning environment, as well
as reducing and preventing problem behaviour.
A research-based development
project
The
LP-project is a collaboration between several institutions
in Norway. The Norwegian Support System for Special
Education, represented by Lillegården Resource Centre, is
the major responsible institution in the project, and follow
up ideas and cooperation in teacher teams within the
project schools. Lillegården Resource Centre will make use
of the outcome of the work and the results from the ongoing
evaluation to develop a programme based on the results
from the project
period.
NOVA
– Norwegian Social Research – a national research
institute, is responsible for the evaluation of the project.
The project is funded by the Norwegian Board of Education
(from June 2004, Directorate for Primary and Secondary
Education), an executive body under the Ministry of
Education and Research, responsible for compulsory school
and upper secondary
education.
The LP-project will contribute
to:
- Less
problem behaviour and an improved learning
environment
Increased
competence for the school staff in
understanding and
managing problem behaviour
Increased
knowledge about problem behaviour and the
learning environment
Greater
awareness of one’s own practice
Clearly
defined demands on and expectations to pupils’
competence
Increased
competence in analysing and surveying
Increased
competence in assessing one’s own practice
Mediate
experiences and research results from the
project to other
schools
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