Current Projects

The pedagogical system Magical Garden – next step [2025–2026]

The pedagogical system Magical Garden is first and foremost a research prototype, but has also proven viable in real-world pedagogical use. As of now, it has reached its limits with about a hundred preschool units and a large scale solution requires further development for distribution, maintenance and pedagogical flexibility and sustainability.
   The focus of the present project is on: (i) system features that have to be developed and refined in order to enable up-scaling, and (ii) a scientific analysis of these features.

Funded by: Wallenberg Launch Pad (WALP)

Förbättrad djupläsning för gymnasieelever [2024–2025]

Läsförståelse är en av den moderna människans viktigaste förmågor. Att kunna ta till sig, bearbeta och förstå komplexa sammanhang via skriven text är inte bara oumbärligt för att inhämta ny kunskap, utan också för att kunna vara en del av och medverka i ett demokratiskt samhälle. I detta sammanhang är färdigheten att djupläsa – dvs att aktivt sätta sig in i en text och förstå den på djupet genom kritiskt tänkande, analys och reflektion – essentiell.
   Genom en samverkansstudie tillsammans med en gymnasieskola avser vi att studera om det är möjligt att under relativt kort tidsperiod stärka gymnasieelevers förmåga till djupläsning.

Finansierad av: Erik Philip-Sörensens Stiftelse

The Increasing Necessity for Data Literacy Education in the Age of Infodemics [2022–2025]

Data literacy, what is it and why is it so important? In short, data literacy can be described as the ability to understand and communicate data by means of basic statistics, graphs and tables. In a world producing, collecting and reporting ever more data by the day, the importance to teach and learn these abilities are increasingly essential to sustain the fundamental structures of a democratic society. The purpose of this project is to study data literacy in Swedish 6th- and 7th-graders with the ultimate aim to understand and support students early developmental stages of data literacy.

Funded by: Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation

Numerical Estimation in Children: From the Number-Line to Probabilities (PhD Project) [2022–2025]

Numerical estimation in children plays a key role in the development of foundational skills required for arithmetic and mathematical reasoning. This PhD project explores how children develop their ability to estimate numerical quantities. It investigates the transition from an early nonsymbolic representation of quantities, supported by the Approximate Number System (ANS), to a more precise, symbol-based representation, supported by the Symbolic Number System (SNS). The thesis focuses particularly on the role of number-line estimation abilities in supporting this developmental shift.

Funded by: The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology

Previous (Finished) Projects

Maximizing informativeness and minimizing neglect – the next step in feedback research [2018 – 2022]

That feedback is critical to effective learning is something of a truism and there is a large body of scientific literature on feedback within the learning sciences. Despite this, there are considerable gaps in our knowledge about feedback and learning. Very little is known about how learners in different contexts pay attention to and process negative informative feedback, that is, constructive information to the learner regarding why, how, and to what extent she failed in solving a task or providing a correct answer. The primary focus of this proposal is to systematically investigate the effects of a number of learning context parameters on student’s attention, processing, and responses with respect to negative informative feedback.

Funded by: Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation

Digital tools as a method for learning and formative feedback in the context of number sense and early math [2018 – 2022]

The aim is to develop and evidence base a method for formative support of important precursors for math skills, in connection to 4- to 6-year-olds’ use of digital educational games in preschool. Central questions are: How can a functional pedagogical tool be designed in order to support teachers scaffolding of goal oriented learning for both individuals and groups? How can they contribute to visualize early math learning processes, and how can educators use them to reach learning goals? Can a digital individual learning game develop children’s early math skills and self-regulation more efficiently than ordinary preschool pedagogics?

Funded by: The Swedish Institute for Educational Research (Skolforskningsinstitutet)

Tillsammans över tröskeln till framtidens klassrum [2017 – 2022]

Målen med detta samverkansinitiativ är framförallt att samla insatser och initiativ som pågår och utvecklas vid Lunds universitet kring att förmedla kunskap och samverka i forskning kring lärande med verksamma lärare och lärarstuderande. (NB: I detta samverkansinitiativ avgränsas lärandeforskning till forskning där frågorna, svaren och upptäckterna är användbara för och kan tillämpas av lärare i sin undervisning. Tillsvidare avgränsar vi också området till att handla om ungas lärande, från förskoleålder till och med gymnasieålder.)

Finansierad av: Lunds universitet

The Magical Garden: Supporting early mathematics for preschoolers with different linguistic backgrounds [2018 – 2021]

The study aims to increase the possibilities for success in mathematics for children having another first language than the official language used in school. By means of a comparative evaluation using the Magical Garden Research Platform, we expect to show an increased learning for children initially interacting with an Arabic implementation of the game compared to children only interacting with the Swedish implementation of the game. Results from the study could show that a modest adjustment of existing educational software as well as pedagogical strategies can have a huge impact on learning.

Funded by: Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation

… and many more