PLAC: Professional Learning in Assessment Communities

Research – Department of Teacher Education

PLAC: Professional Learning in Assessment Communities

The Professional Learning in Assessment Communities (PLAC) research group investigates the nature of assessment communities in schools and contributes to practitioners' professional learning and development. By evaluating policy issues and critically engaging with questions of assessment practices and data use in education, participants seek to understand how assessment communities are established, maintained, and further professionalized. Understanding and improving capacity building for professional learning is a key objective. The research group regularly collaborates with researchers across the globe, including research networks such as EARLI SIG 1 Assessment and Evaluation and AERA Division H: Research, Evaluation, & Assessment in Schools

Current activities

The research group is currently engaged with several projects:

AI LEARN: AI LEARN will address the complexity of hybrid intelligence by conducting theoretical and empirical work on how humans interact with AI and by developing interdisciplinary insights and knowledge to foster responsible and trustworthy human-AI interactions aligned with Nordic socio-cultural values.
Final Assessment: On behalf of the Directorate for Education and Training, the Writing Centre is investigating how practices and processes in final assessments reflect the intentions of the curriculum and how these are translated into classroom practice.
Long-term Assignments: The pilot of long-term assignments is part of a broader initiative by the Directorate for Education and Training in the field of assessment. he Norwegian Writing Centre is acting as a research partner for the pilot. An important question in the pilot is whether long-term assignments can give students a greater opportunity to demonstrate their competence in line with LK20 compared to a traditional exam.
SKUF (information only in Norwegian): School development and teachers' professional learning require collaboration across disciplinary subjects and institutions involved in education. The research group SKUF (School University as Frontiers) aims to explore models for school development where schools and universities collaborate. What significance does this collaboration between school and university have for teachers 'and leaders' professional development and how this is expressed in the teaching of students in schools?
Assessment during Covid-19 (PDF): During the schools’ lock-down spring 2020, the conditions for teaching, learning and assessment changed. In Norway, schools were closed, and all school activities took place online. Moreover, all final exams were cancelled in upper secondary schools. The purpose of the research project is to understand how pupils, teachers and school leaders have experienced the home school's assessment and teaching methods.
SKUV, a project involving 20 upper secondary schools in Norway aiming to strengthen teacher assessment literacy, particularly in vocational education and learning (VET). (Lise Vikan Sandvik)
PLUSS: Aim is to create professional learning partnerships between school-based mentors and university teachers, where mentors and university teachers share a common understanding of the teacher education curriculum, and share information about teacher student learning as a starting point for researching and developing teaching practices for teacher students (Alex Strømme)
HeadsUp: Heads Using Professional Learning Communities (ERASMUS+) HeadsUP introduces professional learning communities (PLCs) for the development of heads and the improvement of their leadership skills, in order to support teachers in developing their own practice within learning groups. The manual. (Anne Berit Emstad)
Going Gradeless: Going gradeless in upper secondary school. Exploring how reduced grading affects communities in Norway. Funded by the Research Council of Norway. (Henning Fjørtoft)
MUVO: Middle management in development work in upper secondary education. (Anne Berit Emstad)
RECITE: Research Sirculation in Teacher Education (ERASMUS+). The aim of RECITE is to highlight a range of responsible practices in the production and circulation of research within teacher education and to create effective strategies for research governance, which can be adopted in the partner organizations and beyond. (Lise Vikan Sandvik)