Research topic As part of the QUINT project the data collection in Iceland aims at answering the projects’ main questions such as: In what way does teaching make a difference to student learning and engagement across and within school subjects, with and without digital-rich support, in mono- and multi-cultural contexts. Theoretical framework Recent reviews highlight that teaching quality is more important for students’ learning than several other factors, including student socio-economic background, class size, classroom climate, and teacher’s years of experience and formal training (Hanushek, 2014). Although scholars from very different disciplinary traditions agree that teaching quality matters, there is little consensus about the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ (Cochran-Smith & Villegas, 2015). That also account for Iceland, where teaching methods has proven to rather homogeneous, not providing students with many opportunities to affect their own learning process (Óskarsdóttir, 2014). It has become the accepted view that quality in teaching ‘...is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that is best studied through a variety of overlapping complementary strategies’ (Croninger et al., 2012, p. 3). Methodological design The QUINT Centre host several comparative projects all rest on the same database, video-recordings in classrooms in the Nordic countries. Ten compulsory schools in Iceland will be chosen purposefully in terms of variety in number of students, type of schools, results on national tests and location in a city or in the country side. Nine lessons in grade eight will be video recorded in each school, three consecutive lessons in Math, three in Icelandic and three in Social science. Total of 90 lessons. Two cameras will be based in the classroom, one extra microphone in the middle and the teachers will have a microphone as well. This requires that at least two members of the team are present in the school at a time for one week. Expected findings Preparation work and procedures for selecting schools and participants is ongoing at the writing of the proposal as well as application to The Icelandic Data Protection Authority. The conclusion will be discussed as well as the challenge to convince schools and participants to be part of a project where their appearance will be used as an exemplary model. The project contributes to an ethical discussion where video data are used to present examples to others. Video data put specific constraints to issues of privacy and anonymization especially when it relates to thinly populated schools in sparsely populated areas.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Villegas, A. M. (2015). Framing teacher preparation research: An overview of the field, part 1. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(1), 7-20. Croninger, R. G., Valli, L., & Chambliss, M. J. (2012). Researching quality in teaching: Enduring and emerging challenges. Teachers College Record, 114(4). Óskarsdóttir, G. (Ed.). (2014). Starfshættir í grunnskólum við upphaf 21. aldar [Educational practices in primary and lower secondary schools – main results and discussions]. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan