‘Sociability before individuality’: lesson structure in lower secondary classrooms

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the research field of classroom research by offering an empirical analysis of classroom instruction on the level of lesson structure. The research questions are: What are the typical combinations of instructional activities in the lessons of eight teachers in four Norwegian Secondary schools? And how can the content-treatment of these structures be explained considering relevant pedagogical traditions? The method of the study is qualitative non-participatory observation in four Norwegian Secondary schools, with a total dataset of 79 lessons. We found that the most typical combination of instructional activities in the data was the plenary conversation-seatwork-structure. When the content-treatment was analyzed, an ‘expository-practice’-structure was revealed. This lesson structure is explained by the influence of progressive-constructivist pedagogical theories in Scandinavia, foremost Bildung-centred general didactics and Vygotsky-inspired socio-cultural theory. From the perspective of the hidden curriculum, we call this discourse ‘sociability before individuality’.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesson structure
• classroom research
• instruction
• educational theory
• lower secondary schools

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Norwegian Research Council and The University of Agder.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Norwegian Research Council and The University of Agder.

Notes on contributors

Ilmi Willbergh

Ilmi Willbergh is Professor at the Department of Education, at the University of Agder, Service Box 422, NO-4604 Kristiansand, Norway; e-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests centre on general didactics, philosophy of education and classroom studies. She has recently published in international research journals on the concepts of competence and Bildung, exemplary teaching and curriculum research.

Turid Skarre Aasebø

Turid Skarre Aasebø is Professor at the Department of Education, the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway; e-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests centre on classroom research and student cultures, particularly construction of gender identities and how classroom cultures form the conditions for learning and meaning construction, as well as didactics and how student subjectivities are constructed in classrooms.