“Teaching skills in practice – innovation in Swedish education”

Swedish school culture is changing. More and more school leaders want to focus on the quality of teaching by observing it to see what it leads to and developing it together with the teachers.
Sweden’s new observation form Teaching skills in practice is now also receiving international recognition. The mastermind behind London’s schools’ turnaround from being the worst to the  the best performing schools in England, Professor Sir George Berwick, describes it as innovation for Swedish schools.

Read Professor Sir George Berwicks blog

Read more about the observation form – Undervisningsskicklighet i praktiken

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NEW! This is what skilled teaching looks like in the classroom

Pressrelease February 3rd, 2022

Now teachers and school leaders can see, discuss and together develop the qualities that build skilled teaching for learning.
BRAVOLesson launches Sweden’s first observation form which, with examples of concrete observable learning activities, describes different levels of teacher skills. The form is called Teaching Skills in Practice and is created and developed by Skolkompaniet and Fibbla Kompetens. It is based on their more than 1600 completed lesson observations and subsequent conversations with each teacher. It is also based on, among other things, the research that has been done on what students expect from their teachers as support for their learning.

Norrköping Municipality’s development teachers who support teachers at schools in the municipality are the first to choose the new observation form for their school improvement.

Read the pressrelease

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75 million lessons left until school is out for the summer next year (video)

What an opportunity! That is how many lessons, out of the total 100 million, that remain in Sweden’s primary and secondary schools after the autumn break. What if all those lessons can lead to X percent more learning for the students through a systematic focus on developing the quality of teaching in every classroom.

That’s how we think.
We are passionate about students’ learning.
Come along! (watch our video)

Contact us for a free 30-minute web demo and we will show you how you can think and work systematically with BRAVOLesson – app web video – to support lesson observations, peer learning among teachers, reflection and development.

PS. Calculate how many lessons remain at your school or in your municipality with what we call The Lesson Calculator

Good luck during the remainder of this academic year!
Mats Rosenkvist, BRAVOLesson

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An appetizer (video) – the benefit you get from our 8 lunch webinars

After part 1 of 8 in our series of 30 minutes lunch webinars
Theme: Equivalent leadership in all classrooms

Watch the video below. As a participant at our webinars, you can listen and also ask questions. After each webinar, you will also receive an email with a video with input to use internally at your school.

Co-organizers: Lärarnas Riksförbund teacher union and the National Federation of Free Schools

Sign up here for all the lunch webinars
Price: SEK 800 excluding VAT.
All revenues in full go to BRIS (Childens’ rights in society).

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Next lunch webinar is with John Steinberg on October 28 – mark that in your calendar
John Steinberg’s theme: The teacher’s body language – the path to trust
See you at 12.00-12.30 on the 28th. Welcome!

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Link to the video with Johan Alm from the lunch webinar

With kind regards!
Mats Rosenkvist, BRAVOLesson

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144.000 lessons in focus on Åmåls municipality’s schools

PRESS RELEASE – OCTOBER 1, 2021

Now a 2-year project focusing on the quality of teaching starts at all schools in Åmål. Kent Jönsson, who is Head of school in Åmål, has together with the principals developed a plan that will focus on three concrete dimensions of good teaching. With the help of the web tool BRAVOLesson, teachers and principals will together develop teaching through systematic and collaborative visits in ebery classroom.

More than 144,000 lessons are conducted every academic year at the schools in Åmål. The overall goal of the plan is to improve the students’ results – their learning. The plan describes the research that shows that it is crucial not to focus on the students but to focus on the quality of teaching for the students. The three areas that are included in Åmål’s plan are: environment for learning, individualisation of the teaching to the students in the group and a structured and thought through start and end of the lesson.

– With reflection after each lesson observation and open conversations, between the principal and the teacher and between teachers, we hope support all teachers’ to take their teaching to the next level to support students’ learning, says Kent Jönsson, Head of school in Åmål.

Åmål is the latest of several schools and municipalities that initially has participated in our webinars and then chose BRAVOLesson to improve their focus on the quality of teaching in a different way than what Swedish school culture normally leads to. Teaching, should of course, be the core of the school improvement and we are happy that more and more schools on all levels of education, just like us, believe that teaching can be systematically improved in every classroom, says Mats Rosenkvist, BRAVOLesson.


For more information contact
Kent Jönsson, Head of school in Åmål municipality
Phone: 0532-17278 and email: kent.jonsson@amal.se
or
Mats Rosenkvist, founder of BRAVOLesson
Phone: 0709-574780 and email: mats@bravolesson.se

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The most important question every day of the academic year

Now a new academic year has started and at the same time 1000s of lessons at each school. Before that school is out in June next year, a total of more than 100 million lessons will have been completed at Sweden’s primary and secondary schools. This means a fantastic amount of opportunities because everyone agrees that it is the teaching that has the greatest impact on students’ learning.
In previous years, in August, we pointed out the most important question for the academic year and each lesson: Is learning taking place here right now? Now we have honed that wording together with our customers and partners. Interested? You can find it below…

If you as a principal want to organize a systematic focus on developing the quality of teaching together with the teachers at your school, it is important to:

use observational material for lesson visits so that the reflections during the subsequent didactic conversations will, among other things, be about evidence-based important dimensions of good teaching. In short, for the conversations to be systematically about what is important.
use questions in the material (s) that during the conversations really systematically lead to reflections that move the teaching forward.
One of the few such questions is of course related to the question mentioned above – “Is learning taking place…?”. It now reads as follows for discussion and reflection with and between teachers after each classroom visit:

What learning did the lesson lead to for the students – based on your planning?

Feel free to read our next blog. Then we will raise the issue that is as important or perhaps even more important – as a prerequisite for a learning environment  – every school year and every lesson.

Feel free to book a 30-minute web demo and we will show how BRAVOLesson and systematics can lead to better and better teaching in every classroom.

Good luck with the new academic year!
from Team BRAVOLesson

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More schools and municipalities starts to focus on the quality of teaching in every classroom

PRESS RELEASE – AUGUST 13, 2021

More and more schools and municipalities are systematically focusing on the quality of teaching. Something that has probably never been more important than after three semesters with a pandemic and a learning debt.
When the new academic year starts, several new customers on all levels of education systematize their focus and internal work together with all teachers in the BRAVOLesson tool. Work based on evidence to reflect on questions like: how is the teaching carried out, what does it lead to, how can it be improved and does our focus lead to improved teaching and learning?

Municipalities and schools such as Norrköping, Oxelösund and Åmål as well as Thorén Business School in Malmö, Grimslövs Folk High School and the Olympica playschools have recently decided on BRAVOLesson at different levels. In addition, Ludvika municipality has now completed a procurement and renewed their license from 2018 until 2023. They will continue to develop their work with a focus on teaching and for that accounts in BRAVOLesson for all principals and teachers.

– Various surveys over the past ten years have shown that the Swedish school culture generally does not include looking at and evaluating the quality of teaching. We notice a change. This is completely logical because everyone in the global education community along with research agrees that it is the teaching that has the greatest impact on students’ learning. Since the start with BRAVOLesson 2017, interest and the number of customers have been growing for each academic year. During the spring, almost 20 schools in Iceland also chose our tool, says Mats Rosenkvist, founder of BRAVOLesson.

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New milestone – BRAVOLesson from play schools to higher education

During spring we have, despite the covid-19 crisis, been fortunate to welcome new customers as well as new schools with municipalities that have used BRAVOLesson for some time.
This week we have delivered BRAVOLesson to our first play schools – Trolle Ljungby and Nymö förskola in Sweden.
This means that during the next academic year BRAVOLesson will be used on all levels of education in three countries.

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Millions of lessons online – New free observation form to help develop online teaching

Hi!

Due to covid-19 schools and higher education have quickly and in an impressive way changed ways of working and turned to online teaching. We are all very grateful for this! Schools have shown their commitment and their important role in our society.

The current situation with covid-19 means that online teaching will remain for different levels of education in many countries for at least this academic year. This means millions of students being taught millions of online lessons. In a small country like Sweden more than 6 million lessons in upper secondary schools will be conducted online **.

BRAVOLesson has therefore designed an observation form *** for online teaching available in our free library. Many schools and teachers have already expressed their gratitude to BRAVOLesson in assisting teachers in developing the quality of their online teaching and using the form for:

  • Self evaluation
  • Peer evaluation
  • Collaborative reflection and learning
  • Online lesson observations

Kind regards,
from The BRAVOLesson Team

 

DOWNLOAD THE OBSERVATION FORM FOR ONLINE TEACHING

 

**
40 school days x 4 lessons per day x 38,800 teachers

***
BRAVOLesson has not found any existing observation form specifically designed for online teaching in the Nordic countries. Our new observation form is based on the Swedish National Agency for Education’s research overview of important dimensions of online teaching as well as The Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s existing research-based observation form for general didactics. We have also gathered impressions from examples from other parts of the world where there is a greater and more systematic focus on the quality of teaching that has led to that they also have existing observation forms for online teaching.

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2.14 Observation form for online teaching

This observation form has been designed by BRAVOLesson during the latter part of March 2020 to serve as support for schools and teachers. It is primarily based on a research overview for managing online teaching published in conjunction with the Corona Pandemic – published by The Swedish National Agency for Education. It is designed to observe a full online lesson.

At Bett Show 2020 in London – The Lesson calculator and New Module for Icelandic schools

New at BRAVOLesson’s stand at BETT.

This year we are using The Lesson Calculator to discuss and reflect together with visitors just how many lessons per school and year that can be improved. This is a dimension that many teachers and school leaders have not thought about. At a small school with only ten teachers it is more than 7.000 lesson per academic year.

We are also launching a module for how to carry out both self- and external school quality assessment according to the Icelandic school inspection authority’s (Mentamálastofnun) structure (Viðmiðum um gæðastarf í grunnskólum).

January 23rd at 16.00 hours Professor Sir George Berwick’s will hold a short speech at our stand at about the key details of the approach that has made it possible to raise the standards in London’s schools from the worst to the best performing.

Welcome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 things we hope all teachers will experience during 2020 – to smile like this

A new year and a new term is about to begin. Teachers and pupils will meet up in classrooms and hundreds of millions of lessons and more will be carried out around the world. Teachers will take on all the challenges and focus on the most important question: is learning taking place here and now?

Facing this huge and, most of the time, rewarding assignment we hope that all teachers will be involved in professional development where they together with their colleagues will grow and experience these five dimensions of collaborative school improvement.

Good luck with the new term!

This blog has been written in cooperation between
Professor Sir George Berwick, OLEVI International and Mats Rosenkvist, BRAVOLesson
representing two organisations that can support you with focus on the quality of teaching and learning.

___________________________________________

1. I reflect and think more deeply about my practice.
_____________________________

2. The quality of my teaching and learning
has moved forward and improved.

_____________________________

3. I have raised the level of challenge in my classroom – expectations of myself and my pupils are much higher now.
_____________________________

4. I engaged in collaborative learning
and have adopted new strategies.

_____________________________

5. I have both experienced and role-modelled
outstanding professionalism.

__________________________________________

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What teaching activities do the students really engage in?

Part 2 on Kunskapsgymnasiet’s systematic focus on the quality of teaching for learning

During the autumn term, teaching observations were carried out with the support of BRAVOLesson at all schools. Based on the observations, teaching development activities are ongoing and planned. The analysis of strengths and development areas have been carried out at the overall organisational level as well as the individual school level. The analysis has been done together with the principals and deputy principals.

Teacher activity – student engagement
A number of activities are ongoing based on the current position of all schools. Examples: the relationship between teacher activity – student engagement, how the start of the lessons can be made clear to support students and what the lesson end can look like. These aspects are captured with Kunskapsgymnasiet’s observation form, embedded in BRAVOlesson.
– Structured observations based on a common foundation, a foundation that in turn is based on research, lead to productive and good discussions about the development of teaching at all levels, says Petter Enlund, development manager at Kunskapsgymnasiet.

Individually at each school – collaboratively with all schools
Together with the schools, specific activities have been planned based on the development needs of each school. These activities differ greatly between the schools and can be about teachers visting teachers , joint reading, testing of a common method and more. The work at the schools is owned and led by the principal, together with the deputy principals and the management team, with support from Kunskapsgymnasiet’s pedagogy department.

“With the help of BRAVOLesson we are starting to get a clearer picture of our key strengths and development needs at the present time. It´s a good feeling to be able to make informed decisions about further development based on the analysis of a broad base of observation data. After all, it is, first and foremost, all the work done in the classrooms that makes the quality of education. “

Petter Enlund, development manager at Kunskapsgymnasiet

To be continued in our newsletters next term.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
from The BRAVOLesson Team

BOOK A FREE DEMO-ACCOUNT OVER CHRISTMAS & NEW YEARS

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Focus on the quality of teaching – London schools went from the country’s worst to the best performing

In the early 2000s, London schools had student results that placed them at the bottom of England schools ranking. Less than ten years later, they were at the top of the rankings. They achieved this by focusing on the quality of teaching and learning in each classroom. Since then, London schools have consolidated their position with even better student outcomes.

In 2002, 21 percent of London schools were assessed and rated as “underperforming schools” with low student outcome. At the same time, the proportion of “outstanding schools” with high student results in the capital was only 15 percent. In 2010, the figures were 2 percent underperforming and 27 percent outstanding. In 2015, the ratio was 2 percent and 37 percent.

If students’ results are low – then we have a closer look at the teaching
We know what a multicultural city London is and based on the situation we have today in many countries we all understand the dimension of the challenges that London’s schools have and have had. Instead of focusing on that, they chose to look at the situation like this: the student results that the schools achieve are low – then we have to look more closely at the quality of teaching for learning.

Lesson observations in all classrooms
One of the first steps in 2003 was to start with all the schools that had been found to be “underperforming” – 40 schools. At these schools, systematic lesson observations were conducted in all classrooms with the same form for the observations. In other words, consistent reference points based on research. Based on the outcomes of the observations, the teachers who were found to deliver high quality teaching were trained to provide support to the teachers who were found to need additional skills development in order to develop important skills. This support was given in the form of a 10-week intensive course.

Collaborative groups with principals
Another measure was to create many smaller groups with school leaders. Each group included both leaders from high performing and underperforming schools. Together they collaborated exchanging experiences and challenged each other to develop their schools with a specific goal on improving the quality of teaching and the coaching of teachers. ***

Concrete and systematic – two examples
More and more schools are putting concrete and systematic focus to the quality of teaching in other countries as well. Click on the links below to read about two examples.

A systematic approach to improve teaching in Ludvika minicipality
A systematic approach at all seven schools in Kunskapsgymnasset

______________________________________

*** Based on the work that started in London in the 2000s, there are today two organisations that continue on the path that was staked out. Interested? Check out these two links:

Challenge Partners
OLEVI International

 

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Now 6.9 million lessons at Stockholm’s municipal schools can systematically become even better

More than 6.9 million lessons are carried out each academic year in Stockholm’s municipal schools. It is now possible for all Stockholm principals and teachers to focus even more systematically on developing the quality of teaching.
BRAVOLesson has signed an agreement with the City of Stockholm, which makes BRAVOLesson an optional service on the Stockholm Digital Learning Resources Software Bank.

A systematic approach – download our whitepaper

Video – this is BRAVOLesson

 

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Lesson observations for 7 out of 10 teachers per school during 2nd week of October

Part 1
Kunskapsgymnasiet’s systematic approach to improve teaching

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The principal and the deputy principal at each school will conduct observations during the second week in October and during the last week in April 2020. The aim is for at least 7 out of 10 teachers to be observed in each school during those weeks. The result from observation 1 will be analysed using BRAVOLesson. Strengths and areas for development will be defined and used in the work for systematic school improvement.

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Image. Graphs generated in BRAVOLesson for each dimension in an observation form – for analysis, reflection and improvement.

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The result of observation 2 in April will be used to see the progress in the quality of teaching identified in the areas for development in observation 1. In addition to these two observation sessions, continuous lesson observations will be conducted throughout the school year.

     – The overall aim of our school improvement work is always to increase the students’ learning and results. To achieve this, the aim is to develop our teaching together in a systematic and structured way, says Petter Enlund, Pedagogy and Development Manager at Kunskapsgymnasiet.

 

“… the aim is to develop our teaching together in a systematic and structured way.”

Petter Enlund, Kunskapsgymnasiet

 

This term the new way of working starts with:

  1. All principals and deputy principals receive their own accounts and an introduction to BRAVOLesson.
  2. Lessons have been recorded on video. The principals from all seven schools observe the videos together with the help of the BRAVOLesson tool to discuss and calibrate how they perceive what is the quality of the different dimensions of good teaching according to Kunskapsgymnasiet’s joint observation form.
  3. During second week of October lesson observations will be conducted at each school.

Already towards the end of Friday afternoon that week, all the principals and Petter Enlund have the opportunity to start analysing the statistics in BRAVOLesson. What does the teaching at each school look like and what does it look like overall?

     – The observations are intended to serve as a good basis for discussions about how to improve teaching at all our schools, but also between schools, between teachers and principals as well as between teachers and teachers, says Petter Enlund.

The next part about Kunskapsgymnasiet’s systematic approach to improve teaching will be about insights after October and their evidence-based observation form.

A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH. DOWNLOAD OUR WHITEPAPER

THIS IS BRAVOLESSON

 

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1:15 Lesson observation form focusing on the start and the end of lessons – Ludvika municipality

Ludvika has developed their own observation form focusing on the start and the end of a lesson. It is based on / has been inspired by the school researcher Marcus Samuelsson’s book Lärandets ordning och reda, as well as the Swedish school Inspection authority’s observation form. When used, it can be divided into one for lesson start and one for lesson end.

The Lesson Calculator – 100 Million lessons are about to be taught. How many lessons will be taught at your school?

A new school year is starting
Teachers will be creating learning opportunities together with their pupils and students. Millions of lessons will be taught before the school year ends in the summer of 2020. In a country like Sweden with a population of 10 million this adds up to more than 100 million lessons.

 

“… 100 Million lessons. What if all lessons can be systematically improved based on evidence and research to become better and better. What an opportunity for increased job satisfaction and improved student results!”

 

The Lesson Calculator
Use The Lesson Calculator for free to see how many lessons that can be systematically improved per school year at your school?

 

8 key questions for discussion
When you use The Lesson Calculator you can also download our guide that includes amongst other things eight key questions for discussion while creating a plan to systematically improve teaching.

 

Good luck with the new school year!
From the BRAVOLesson Team

 

TRY THE LESSON CALCULATOR

 

 

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Part 5 of 10. Improve teaching in every classroom by thinking about the dimensions that make a difference

BRAVOLesson blog May 3rd 
All pupils and students deserve fantastic teaching
and all teachers deserve constructive feedback!
That is the core of school improvement.

 

 A systematic approach to improve teaching. Our ten part series continues – this is part 5.

Few other professionals get so little feedback as Western teachers according to an article in the magazine The Economist. Surveys in Sweden and our market research in other Nordic countries as well as in continental Europe point in the same direction. ***
Part 5 adresses two things, how schools use an observation template and alternative “thinking” that leads to improvements that affect the students’ learning in all classrooms as of the first semester.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s observation template is the most commonly used observation template for lesson observations in Swedish schools. Their template is based on research on what are the dimensions of good teaching – general-didactic qualities.

Many think and work like this
Many people perceive The Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s observation template as very extensive. This means that those who use it often make notes in the observation template around certain parts individually for a teacher, around other parts individually for the next teacher and partly other parts individually for a third teacher. See the illustration below.

Alternative thinking – a more systematic approach

“Now, all teachers at our school / in our municipality will together become really skilled at some of the most important dimensions of good teaching to support the students’ learning. We will focus on one dimension at a time.”

This approach is based on the following conditions and ambitions

  • Collaborative learning is the objective, but at the same time, the principal is legally responsible for ensuring that the teaching is of high quality throughout the school.
  • If feedback to teachers is a neglected area then let us start with what can make a big difference in a short time.
  • To take the first step in a way where we use reasonable amount of time to make sure that it will happen. 

To carry this out you can develop a plan and use different observation templates for how to take one dimension at a time during a couple of academic years. All observations during one semester have a specific focus and another focus during the following semester. Along this route you also move more and more towards individual teacher feedback.

Possible steps – one dimension at a time

  • The structure of teaching – the beginning and the end of the lesson.
  • Teachers’ leadership in the classroom. Without the leadership and strategies for a learning environment “teaching” and learning does not take place.
  • Teachers’ skills around asking student questions.
  • Teachers’ formative approach in the classroom.

You will find examples for all these four areas in our open library with different templates for lesson observations. Templates that all can be selected and used in BRAVOLesson.

It is, among other things, about how you can write a plan for this thinking that you can read about in our Guide to implement a systematic approach to improve teaching. Download it via the button below.
_______________________________

* The Economist (June 11th – 17th). How to make a good teacher.  : 13, 21-24. 2016.
**    Skolledaren/Lärarnas Riksförbunds lärarpanel. Den osynlige rektorn. 2017
**  Successful Schools Swedens/BRAVOLessons undersökning via  Novus. Konstruktiv feedback kring undervisning. 2016 
_______________________________

We hope you will follow our series! It will continue until the summer of 2019 with one new part every two weeks.

Greetings from the BRAVOLesson Team

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