Type of Organization: Governmental

Home Country: Norway

Overview

The Directorate is meant to be a driving force for quality development in Norwegian primary and secondary education. The establishment of the Directorate is part of the improvements in the national education administration and is one of the elements in a collected national strategy for quality development in primary and secondary education.

Some examples: Schools are being offered anti-bullying programmes such as Olweus’ “Programme of efforts against bullying and anti-social behaviour” and the anti-bullying programme called “Zero” from the Centre for Behavioural Research. These programmes have been prepared with state funds while schools cover the costs of implementation themselves. Almost 800 schools have made use of one of these programmes. Evaluation has shown that the programmes are effective and reduce the incidence of bullying in the schools where they are used systematically.

ConnectOSLO is a three-year research project with a broad approach to the whole of the pupils’ physical and psycho-social learning environment. The project is a further development and implementation of the EU project called “Tackling violence in schools”. The Department of Education in Oslo is making this project available to its schools, with guidance from the Centre for Behavioural Research (SAF). Today 30 schools are involved in the project and research shows that all of them have seen considerable improvements in the learning environment. The results also show a reduction in the number of bullying incidents.

“This is my choice” is a teaching plan about developing class environments and preventive work in primary and secondary schools. More than 21,000 teachers and 800,000 pupils in 1,066 primary and lower secondary schools and 2 upper secondary schools have used this programme since 1990. Broad research-based evaluation indicates that pupils in classes that have used the plan show more positive self-assertion, more empathy and better relations with their fellow pupils.

Peer mediation is a strategy for understanding and dealing with conflicts in schools. The Ministry of Education and Research has funded the training of mediators, the establishment of a network of resource personnel and the development of material. 644 primary and lower secondary schools and 90 upper secondary schools have made use of this programme (As of January 2001).

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