Norwegian students were visiting campus this week and so the focus of this week was Norwegian aesthetics.
The school system in Norway differs to a great degree to our school system in Scotland. Norwegians stay in nursery till age 6, a year later than we do here and then spend 10 years at primary school. To complete high school only takes 3 years and the Norwegian government fund higher education for a further 8 years.
A massive reform in 2017 has meant that every teacher in Norway must have a masters degree. There is also much more focus on physical and outdoor learning – you CAN learn maths outside! The University of Oslo has made a variety of changes for the teacher training that focus more on the practicality of teaching such as how to manage the classroom and making assessments in the classroom (International Ed News, 2013). Comparing this with the Scottish education system which puts emphasis on attainment within numeracy and literacy.
Art is a compulsory subject from the start of schooling and as they move further up the school turn to crafts like wood carving. Dance and drama are combined with dance being a major part of school.
Our music workshop took place within the Mac Lab looking at the app Garage band.
We created an autumn soundscape composing our music, as well as trying out different loops and sound effects to get the sound we wanted.
This is a good resource that can be used within the classroom as it gets children thinking about different sounds and also enhances digital skills whilst exploring many experiences and outcomes. Children could record themselves telling a story and add their own sound effects, or make their own animation and add music. 
It is an app that the Norwegian students could use within their own teaching and could take some of the ideas learned in the workshop today and apply them in their own lessons.
We adopted the Norwegian focus of outdoor learning in our visual art workshop and were asked to create an intervention using natural materials. Art always has to have a problem to solve and by doing so equips pupils with the life they will need. “Years of research show that it’s closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity ” (Smith, 2009, n.p). Due to this our group created a barrier out of stones and then broke it down to create and solve the problem of breaking down barriers, promoting resilience.
We focused on land artists during our visual art workshop and when creating our intervention were inspired by Richard Long. He is a famous land art artist, whose main focus was creating sculptures out of stones.
Reference List
International Ed News (2013) [Online] Available: https://internationalednews.com/2013/07/11/teacher-education-in-norway/ [Accessed: 22nd October 2019].
Smith, F. (2009) Why Arts Education is Crucial and Who’s Doing it Best Edutopia [Online] 28 January, non-paginated Available: https://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development [Accessed: 22nd October 2019].
