Academic Interests
Jennifer’s research interests circle around studying instructional quality across different contexts, with a special focus on methodology and validity issues in observational measures of instructional quality. Jennifer is particularly interested in ways of improving context sensitivity in observational studies of instructional quality by combining and contrasting contextually grounded perspectives of quality with standardized observation systems’ views of quality. In addition, Jennifer focuses on conceptualizations and operationalization of quality in observational frameworks and the possible biases that this has for reporting empirical work from very different classroom contexts. Other interests are possible tensions between reform-oriented mathematics instruction and instruction for students with special educational needs.
Background
Jennifer completed a PhD in Educational Sciences in 2021. Before that, she studied Multicultural and International Education as well as Special Education and Drama education at Universities in both Norway and Finland. This diverse background has formed her emphasis on multiple perspectives and context-sensitivity when measuring educational constructs such as quality instruction.
Postdoctoral project
Jennifer is a Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024) at the Synthesizing Research on Teaching Quality (SYNTEQ), a project under the umbrella of Nordic Centre of Excellence QUINT – Quality in Nordic Teaching. Jennifer’s postdoctoral project has two main themes: (1) Mapping the theoretical grounding and validity arguments for different classroom observation systems designed for cross-national studies, and (2) Investigating implications of different ways of operationalizing instructional quality in terms of both sequencing instruction and using different observation frameworks.
Publications
Klette, K., Sahlström, F., Blikstad-Balas, M., Luoto, J., Tanner, M., Tengberg, M., Roe, A. & Slotte, A. (2018). Justice through participation: Student engagement in Nordic classrooms. Education enquiry, 9(1), 57-77. doi:10.1080/20004508.2018.1428036
Luoto, J. M. (2020). Scrutinizing two Finnish teachers’ instructional rationales and perceived tensions in enacting student participation in mathematical discourse. LUMAT: International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, 8(1). doi:10.31129/LUMAT.8.1.1329
Luoto, J. M. (2021). Exploring, understanding, and problematizing patterns of instructional quality: A study about instructional quality in Finnish-Swedish and Norwegian lower secondary mathematics classrooms (PhD thesis). University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Luoto, J. M., Klette, K., & Blikstad-Balas, M. (under review-a). Patterns of instructional quality in Finnish and Norwegian lower secondary mathematics classrooms.
Luoto, J. M., Klette, K., & Blikstad-Balas, M. (under review-b). Possible biases in observation systems when applied across contexts: Conceptualizing, operationalizing and sequencing instructional quality.
Luoto, J. M., & Selling, A. J. V. (in press). Exploring the potential in using teachers’ intended lesson goals as a context-sensitive lens to understanding observational scores of instructional quality. In M. Blikstad-Balas, K. Klette, & M. Tengberg (Eds.), Ways of measuring teaching quality. (pp. xx-xx). Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.
Luoto, J. M., Stovner, R. B., Nordtvedt, G., & Buchholtz, N. (2018). Methodological challenges when scaling up research on instructional quality in mathematics. In J. Häggström (Ed.), Perspectives on professional development of mathematics teachers. Proceedings of MADIF 11 The eleventh research seminar of the Swedish Society for Research in Mathematics Education (pp. 211-220). Karlstad, Sweden: SMDF.