Jón Torfi Jónasson

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• PhD
• Professor emeritus at University of Iceland

This study explores the relationship between the time children spend outdoors with critical social and health factors. We use questionnaire data from the 2017–2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Iceland, focused on children in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades. All Icelandic schools with pupils in these classes were invited to...

The paper proposes three educational spaces, an operational space, an interactive space and a comparative space. The focus is on the interactive space in order to shed light on various modes of Nordic educational cooperation, with a brief discussion on the rather unique Nordic comparative space. Based on different data and sources, the paper propos...

Á vormánuðum 2020 hóf COVID-19 innreið sína. Í kjölfarið var öll staðbundin kennsla í framhaldsskólum færð í fjarkennslu út vorönnina og um haustið breyttist fyrirkomulag skólastarfs ítrekað í takt við síbreytilegar sóttvarnareglur. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar er að öðlast skilning á verkefnum og aðstæðum skólastjórnenda, skólameistara og aðstoðars...

Past findings concerning whether and how feedback from external evaluations benefit the improvement of schools are inconsistent and sometimes even conflicting, which highlights the contextual nature of such evaluations and underscores the importance of exploring them in diverse contexts. Considering that broad international debate, we investigated...

The main purpose of this research is to analyse school principals’ and teachers’ attitudes towards external school evaluation in Iceland, in particular, the ways in which they consider the evaluation affects their schools’ internal evaluation and drives changes in their own practices. The study uses a quantitative method and is based on a survey co...

This article examines a professional online learning community developed within the Council of Europe's Pestalozzi Programme, gathering educators from 50 European countries, engaged in the practice of education for democracy. It argues that conversational approaches sustain peer learning with unique practices in the field of continued professional...

Magnúsdóttir and Jónasson explore the formation of three documents: the first white paper (WP2014) issued by Icelandic state educational authorities and two background papers (WP2017 and GP2014) co-authored by the OECD and EAIE. These papers are explored through content and bibliographic network analysis and semi-structured interviews with Ministry...

This chapter examines the use of regional policy knowledge and the importance of Nordic cooperation in the latest education reforms in Finland, Iceland, and Norway. By drawing on interviews and bibliometric network analysis, the authors demonstrate that policymakers do not consider knowledge sources from other Nordic countries as essentially promin...

Ferðamennska og tómstundir hafa fengið æ meira vægi í daglegu lífi fólks síðustu áratugi í kjölfar vaxandi velmegunar og breytinga á vinnumarkaði. Aðgengi að ferðamennsku og margs konar tómstundum er ólíkt og fer meðal annars eftir efnahagslegri stöðu fólks. Hérlendis er lítið vitað um samspil félagslegrar stöðu, ferðamennsku og tómstundaiðkunar. M...

The chapter will explore the development of the Icelandic education system by using a twofold historical perspective. More specifically, the analysis will look at the very long-term development and then the period 1990–2020. Using only the latter focus in isolation may lead to an erroneous interpretation of recent developments and that is why we al...

Accountability and evidence play a prominent role in modern educational discourse. Against the background of the rapidly changing culture relating to the formation of our current education system, the question arises if this process might be a modern trend, possibly influenced by neo-liberal rhetoric and new public management. We consider three poi...

When considering the organizational analysis of education, in particular of schools, some scholars have argued that the lack of an institutional perspective notably diminishes the understanding of the dynamics of educational change. Thus, the theoretical notions of institutions are also important when examining change in schools. This paper explore...

Alþjóðlegar rannsóknir hafa sýnt fram á ólíka stöðu bóknáms-og starfsnámsbrauta í framhaldsskólum hvað varðar inntak náms, félagslega virðingu, réttlaeti og taekifaeri til framhaldsmenntunar. Þetta hefur einnig verið umraeðuefni hér á landi í naestum heila öld. Markmið greinarinnar er að skoða hvernig ólík staða bóknáms-og starfsnámsbrauta, með til...

Globally, there is a demand for basing education policy decisions and practice on solid evidence. While the same applies in Iceland, some have claimed that there is a dearth of evidence-based publications targeted at education. This article considers this claim by examining the availability and nature of evidencebased publications with a focus on u...

Greinin fjallar annars vegar um þá miklu áherslu sem lögð er á notkun gagna í skólastarfi og hins vegar um það að þau gefi litla leiðsögn í mikilvægum efnum. Umfang og margbreytileiki gagna vex hratt og margir ólíkir heimar gagna sem tengjast menntun eru í þróun. Ljóst er að trúin á nytsemi gagna er sterk bæði hjá alþjóðastofnunum og öðrum sem stýr...

In this chapter we investigate school effects on student disengagement as expressed by school misconduct among students in the last year of compulsory education in the capital area of Reykjavík in Iceland. We build on an input-process-output model. Multilevel analysis was used on the Icelandic data gathered in 2014–2015 (1996 students in 10th grade...

Traditionally emphasizing justice, equality and inclusion, education policies in the Nordic countries have incorporated neoliberal features during the last three decades, but to varying extents. These changes have important, multidimensional implications, but the variations have been addressed in few comparative Nordic studies. Thus, this article e...

The purpose of this review is to investigate cross-cutting research themes and issues related to access and stratification in Nordic higher education (H.E.) (Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden). We synthesise how recent changes in H.E. policy, practise, and appropriations have influenced educational opportunities along social class, gende...

The point of departure of the paper is that there are profound social, cultural, technological, scientific and environmental changes which occur at most local but also at global levels of the modern world. From these will stem huge challenges in all spheres of life. These demand changes in education, not necessarily in the system or how it operates...

The basis of the paper is the argument that the growth of Higher Education is most profitably described as exponential growth. Thus the notable gender difference in attendance and graduation rates is described by referring to the different growth coefficients of males and females, seen over long periods. Typically, the growth rate for women is high...

Education in Non-EU Countries in Western and Southern Europe is a critical reference guide to the development of education in Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland and the Vatican City. The chapters, written by regional expe...

This paper investigates the importance for pupils’ learning of being generally visibly active participant in a classroom discussion. A class of six year-old pupils was taught about the human skeletal system and other organs. To determine what they had learnt, they were asked to produce drawings before and after the course of teaching. The pupils’ p...

On the basis of the author's previous work the paper argues that there are important, but not transparent, regularities in the expansion of higher education that tell an important story about its nature. These regularities can be demonstrated by exploring long-term growth patterns of enrollment and graduation with reference to the whole student bod...

The impact of transnational processes (such as those driven by the Bologna and Lisbon goals of the European Union, the recommendations of the OECD, etc.) on reforms of Nordic higher educational policy has been significant in discussions on higher education (HE) over the past fifteen years (Neave and Maasen, 2007), in Iceland and in the other Nordic...

Carried out in 2011 to 2012, this study investigated how the higher education (HE) system has developed in a small country, Iceland, compared to the HE systems of larger countries, such as the US, Japan and other Nordic and European countries. Similarities and differences in the HE systems were sought by focussing on the following issues: 1) the ex...

Early in the 20th century, the Icelandic education system was poorly developed, with no compulsory education and no legal framework for primary education. During the next 100 years, however, the system became mature, flexible and fairly advanced – largely on par with systems in the other Nordic countries (Guttormsson, 2008). While the total Iceland...

In recent years, Icelandic society has moved towards the free market, mainly in business and finance, but not so much in the health, education and social services. Privatization of these areas has been relatively minor. Nevertheless there are at least three Icelandic higher education institutions that have been categorised as private institutions....

The book is about the nature, role, challenges and inertia of the modern university. Acknowledgment This essay stems from seminars held at the initiative of the Magna Charta Observatory and the University of Iceland, with the cooperation of the University of Luxembourg and the Mario Boella Institute, in Torino. The discussions took place at the U...

The discussion on the development of the university and its underlying idea has in recent years been lively, often interesting as it oscillates between being very optimistic and somewhat pessimistic. However, in this general discussion, I think there are serious weaknesses that are perhaps acknowledged by those who participate in the debate but are...

How does the education system expand? And why? How do we describe this expansion and how do we account for it? (Tyack & Cuban, 1995) suggest that there may be some implicit rules that govern the development of schools and understanding those may give a useful insight into the fate of educational reforms. They call these rules, the grammar of school...

The question in the title above can be presented and segmented in numerous ways. Not only can we ask what drives the expansion or development of higher education, but also what controls (directs or limits) this expansion or development. Furthermore, it would be in line with current discourse to ask what role government policy plays in the expansion...

The higher education system in Iceland has received increasing political attention. In 1997, a new law was passed on university education that set up the framework for a variety of developments that had already begun to be instituted. The principal issues in the current and recent debates relate to decentralization, globalization, upgrading of educ...

Incl. bibl. notes.

This paper probes the relationship between educational policy and actual changes in the field of education in Iceland. It attempts to relate previous analysis of the role of the State in changing education and give some reasons why it may sometimes be less effective than expected. Educational change is inspected from three different perspectives: F...

Erindi flutt á málþingi menntamálaráðuneytisins um háskólastigið í Reykjavík, 19. febrúar 2000. Það er sagt að erfitt sé að spá um framtíðina. Ég er ósammála því og held að haegt sé að spá nokkuð rétt fyrir um margt sem máli skiptir. Og það getur verið gagnlegt að skyggnast inn í framtíðina. Hvernig breytist háskólamenntun naesta aldarfjórðunginn h...

Athugun á þróun háskólastigsins á Íslandi hefur sýnt að vexti þess sé vel lýst með veldisfalli (Jón Torfi Jónasson, 1995). Síðar hefur verið sýnt fram á að vexti stúdentsmenntunar hér á landi sé einnig svo lýst, en einnig að best sé að skoða þróunina fyrir karla og konur sitt í hvoru lagi (Jón Torfi Jónasson, 1997a). Einnig hefur verið bent á að þr...

Þessi skýrsla er gerð að tilstuðlan þess hóps framtíðarnefndar forsætisráðuneytisins sem fjallaði um skólamál. Í skýrslunni átti að setja fram hugmyndir um þróun á helstu sviðum menntamála á árunum 1985-2010. Verk eins og þetta er erfitt fyrir margra hluta sakir. Fyrst og fremst vegna þess hve erfitt það er að fara milliveginn milli ritgerðar anna...

In lexical decision experiments, subjects have difficulty in responding NO to non-words which are pronounced exactly like English words (e.g. BRANE). This does not necessarily imply that access to a lexical entry ever occurs via a phonological recoding of a visually-presented word. The phonological recoding procedure might be so slow that when the...

In a recent discussion instigated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in order to consider doctoral education for the 21 st century, the authors noted when proposing a somewhat dramatic rethinking of doctoral education in the United States that [A]s so many observers of U.S. doctoral education have opined, there are powerful...