Evaluation of bilingual Training Opportunities in Schools (ETOS)

About the project

The ETOS project aims to increase our knowledge of bilingual education, which is instructed partly in Norwegian and partly in English across subjects, in addition to students' and teachers' perspectives on bilingual education. The participating schools have offered bilingual education in lower secondary school since 2011/2014. They have been granted a trial through the school year 2021–22.

ETOS evaluates whether bilingual instruction are performed to a satisfactory standard in a range of content subjects (religion and ethics, mathematics, science, social studies) which are compared to language subjects (English, Norwegian, foreign languages). The project also considers how student motivation, learning outcomes, and perceived relevance across individual subjects. The evaluation considers both language and content aspects of the instruction.

Background

In 2017, the Directorate for Education and Training decided that any school wishing to offer bilingual training opportunities must request a deviation from the Education Act § 1-5. On the basis of trials and our evaluation, the regulations might be revised. Both our main report (Brevik & Doetjes, 2020) and the follow-up report (Doetjes, Brevik & Barreng, 2022) are essential in this respect.

Bilingual education is known in Norway and  internationally by different names, including Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), International Baccalaureate (IB), International Bilingual Classes (IBC), International Programme (IP), and Bilingual and Immersion Education (BIE).

Objectives

The project's objective is to evaluate:  

• if students have developed a high level of competence in English
• if bilingual education provides increased adapted education
• if bilingual education contributes to increased learning outcome in all subjects 
• if bilingual education contributes to increased motivation in all subjects
• if bilingual education contributes to increased perceived relevance for further education and work
• if students demonstrate understanding of Norway from an international perspective

To draw robust inferences related to these objectives, we analyse data longitudinally. This includes quantitative and qualitative data: lesson plans (documents), observation of classroom instruction (video recording) and assessment situations (audio recording), Experience with bilingual instruction (interview and survey among students and teachers and interviews with school leaders), motivation for bilingual instruction (application and survey among students and parents), in addition to students' results (grades and reading tests). 

Reports

The main report was submitted December 2022 (in Norwegian): Brevik & Doetjes et al. (2020). Tospråklig opplæring på fagenes premisser  [Bilingual education on the subjects' premises] (pdf). University of Oslo. The report builds on the following: 

• The school year 2019-20 we observed teaching in six classes in years 8-10 at two schools. We collected information about the bilingual instruction among students, teachers, and parents, including interviews, surveys, documents, school grades and test results.
• When evaluating content aspects of bilingual instruction, we examined how students' language resources were activated in subjects such as religion and ethics, mathematics, science and social studies. 
• We evaluated language aspects of the bilingual instruction, in the language subjects English, Norwegian language arts and foreign languages (German and Urdu), including multilingualism amongst students and teachers.
• We compared the observed bilingual teaching with main areas in the curriculum. 

A follow-up report was submitted August 2022 (in Norwegian): Doetjes, Brevik & Barreng (2022). Tospråklig opplæring fra et skoleperspektiv [Bilingual education in a school perspective] (pdf). Universitetet i Oslo. The report builds on the following: 

• The school year 2021-22 we conducted interviews with teachers and school leaders, concerning their perspectives on and experiences with the bilingual instruction.

Covid-19

We had planned to collect data from oral and written exams in year 10 during spring of 2020, 2021 and 2022. Due to Covid-19, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training has decided to cancel all exams all three years.

Funding

Department of Teacher Education and School Research is funded by Oslo Municipal educational officer and Bærum Municipality for the period 2019-2022.