Underveisvurdering i den særskilte norskopplæringen. En casestudie av en innføringsklasse på ungdomstrinnet

Abstract This master’s thesis explores assessment for learning in the adapted education in Norwegian. In accordance with the regulations to the Education Act, all pupils have the right to assessment for learning, and this assessment must be an integral part of the education (Forskrift til opplæringslova, 2020, §3-10). The assessment regulations specify this by establishing four principles for assessment for learning. These are that the pupils must participate in the assessment of their own work, understand what they are to learn, receive information about their performance and receive guidance on how they can increase their competence. After the introduction of LK20, the curriculum in basic Norwegian for linguistic minorities also has a section on assessment for learning in which the four points from §3-10 are reflected (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2020). Nevertheless, little research has been done on how teachers conduct continuous and integrated assessment for learning of students who learn Norwegian as a second language (Monsen, 2015; Randen, 2015). It is therefore important to investigate this. Through observation of and interviews with two experienced teachers in an introductory class at a lower secondary school, the thesis examines how the teachers facilitate the realisation of the four principles in §3-10. The results show several interesting findings. The teachers work both systematically and spontaneously to develop the students' assessment competence by giving them a framework and a language for assessing themselves and others. Nevertheless, the teachers find it challenging to make it clear to the pupils what they are going to learn before the pupils are at a sufficient level in Norwegian. The teachers' resource view on the pupils' linguistic and cultural background means that the mother tongue is used in the teachers' assessment work, for example by including bilingual teachers and mother tongue teachers in the assessment and by letting pupils with the same mother tongue support each other’s learning. The most interesting finding, however, is that the feedback pupils receive on both what they master and how they can work to increase their competence, is characterised by being short, praising and somewhat non-specific. This seems to apply especially to feedback given to pupils at a lower level in Norwegian. The findings suggest that there is a need for more thorough investigations of how teachers can ensure that all students who receive special Norwegian language instruction receive assessment for learnin