Stockholm university
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Per BlomqvistSenior lecturer

About me

I am a senior lecturer at the Department of Teaching and Learning, Stockholm University, and have been teaching in Higher Education since 2001.

I received my Ph.D. in Language Education from Stockholm University in 2018 with the thesis Teachers' conversations about writing assessment: Norms, pedagogical decisions and grading [link]. Prior to that, I was a guest lecturer at the Department of Language Education, Stockholm University, and at the Teacher Training College in Stockholm. I have a background as an upper secondary teacher in Swedish and German, and have taught in various programs, mainly in aesthetic and artistic education. 

I am the author of two books on writing-based teaching (both in Swedish): Writing-based teaching – shaping a creative and intellectually challenging writing community [link] and Teaching writing – in interplay with fiction and factional texts [link]. These books provide teachers with practical guidance in how writing can be used as a tool for thinking and learning regardless of school subject. They describe how writing can make students find their own voice and engage in dialogue with different topics and texts, think critically and develop a more scientific approach to their studies and their writing of subject-specific texts. The books also describe and discuss how assessments can be integrated into teaching and student learning.

My research focuses mainly on writing instruction, creativity and assessment in Upper Secondary School and in Higher Education. Two ongoing research projects are:

  • Writing Cultures and Formative Assessment Practices in Upper Secondary School [link]
  • Student's Academic Writing: Pedagogical Perspectives on Teacher Students' writing their degree thesis. 

I am on the steering committee for SKRiDi - a Nordic Network for Researchers in Writing in Education [link]

Selected publications and conference papers:

  • Creativity, Feedback and Students’ Writing of Subject-Specific Texts. 7th World Conference on Teaching and Education (WORLDCTE), Zürich, July 5-7, 2024.
  • Subject-Specific Writing in Upper Secondary School: Norms and Feedback. NNFF9, Helsinki University, universitet, October 24-26, 2023.
  • Assessment practices to develop students' academic writing in upper secondary school. The SIG Writing Conferense 2022, Umeå University, June 20-22, 2022.
  • Can assessment be a threat to creative writing processes and students' writing development? Svensklärarföreningens årstidskrift, 2022.
  • Consensus, independence and governance. Pedagogical perspektives on academic writing in higher education. Örebro University, May 19-20, 2021.
  • Teachers' discussions about writing assessment: Expressed assessment criteria in relation to pedagogical decision-making. International Journal of Arts and Sciences' conference, Harvard University/MIT, Boston, May 28-30, 2019.
  • Assessment discourses in teacher group discussions about students' writing. EARLI SIG 1: Assessment and evaluation, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, August 24-26, 2016.

 

Research

My research focuses mainly on writing instruction and writing assessment in Upper Secondary School and in Higher Education. Two ongoing research projects are:

  • Writing Cultures and Formative Assessment Practices in Upper Secondary School
  • Student's Academic Writing: Pedagogical Perspectives on Teacher Students' writing their degree thesis.  

 

Conference Presentations & Workshops

A selection (2015-2024)

Creativity, Feedback and Students’ Writing of Subject-Specific Texts. 7th World Conference on Teaching and Education (WORLDCTE), Zürich, July 5-7, 2024.

Subject-Specific Writing in Upper Secondary School: Norms and Feedback. NNFF9, Helsinki University, universitet, October 24-26, 2023.

Assessment practices to develop students’ academic writing in upper secondary school. The SIG Writing Conference 2022, Umeå universitet, 20-22 juni 2022.

Teachers' Discussions About Writing Assessment: Expressed Assessment Criteria In Relation To Pedagogical Decision-Making. International Journal of Arts and Sciences' conference, Harvard MIT, Boston, May 28, 2019.

Assessment discourses in teacher group discussions about students' writing. EARLI SIG 1: Assessment and evaluation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, August 26, 2016.

What kinds of instruction do students need to improve their writing? Nordic Symposium on Testing and Assessing Writing, Sør-Trøndelag University College, Trondheim, September 28, 2015.

Writing & Thinking Workshop, critical reading and writing. Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 3-7, 2015

Research projects

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Samtal om skrivbedömning

    2018. Per Blomqvist (et al.).

    Thesis (Doc)

    This thesis reports and discusses results from a qualitative study of Swedish teachers' writing assessment in upper secondary school. Based on teacher group discussions, the study investigates teachers' interactions, expressions of norms and decisions when assessing and grading students' writing in the subject of Swedish.

    The aim of the study is to describe and analyze how teachers interact and what they pay attention to when discussing writing assessment. In relation to this aim the following three research questions were posed: (1) What characterizes the teachers' conversations about writing assessment? (2) What assessment norms do the teachers express? (3) What decisions do they make?

    The theoretical perspectives are dialogical and pedagogical. From a dialogical point of view, the assessment conversations are considered as social acts where teachers in interaction collectively create meaning. Furthermore, the assessment conversations are considered as pedagogical, as a part of teachers' reflective work to discuss how to assess students' work and how to make decisions about further instructions and grading. The methods used to describe and analyze interactional patterns, expressions of norms and decisions in these assessment conversations are topic analysis and initiative-response-analysis.

    The empirical data consists of audio and video recordings from three teacher groups' conversations about writing assessment, comprising a total of 17 Swedish teachers from three upper secondary schools. Data was also collected via a questionnaire with the individual teacher's grading of the students' writing and evaluation of the assessment conversations.

    The results show that teachers' assessments of students' writing focus on much more, and partly other, criteria than their pedagogical decisions. The quality standards that teachers express in the discussions about student texts focus mostly on communicative quality, language style and text structure but also on content and the use of sources. The pedagogical decisions, on the other hand, almost exclusively focus on text structure and the use of sources.

    The results also show that shortcomings in the students' texts are crucial for teachers' summative assessments. Meanwhile, the teachers also express that students' age, their writing development in the course and the national test must be considered. These assessment norms can be compensatory and have a substantial impact on these teachers' decisions on summative assessments. The teacher groups show considerable variation in the basis for their decisions regarding summative assessment of students' writing.

    Finally, the teachers demonstrate a high degree of consistency within each teacher group when discussing summative assessment of students' writing. However, the assessments that individual teachers make after the discussions comply only to some extent with the group's decisions. The least degree of consistency was shown by the teacher group who, in the discussion, seemed the most consistent. Decision-making processes in these discussions are characterized by low intensity, where few assessment alternatives are being considered. The overall assessment consistency between the teacher groups was found to be low.

    Read more about Samtal om skrivbedömning

  • Vad behöver eleverna undervisning i för att utveckla sitt skrivande? Förväntningsnormer och didaktiska beslut i svensklärares bedömningssamtal

    2016. Per Blomqvist, Viveca Lindberg, Gustaf B. Skar. Acta Didactica Norge - tidsskrift for fagdidaktisk forsknings- og utviklingsarbeid i Norge 10 (1)

    Article

    I studien samtalar tre lärargrupper om elevers skrivande och skrivundervisning i ämnet svenska på gymnasiet. Det teoretiska perspektiv som läggs på dessa samtal är didaktiskt och inriktas på hur lärare formulerar och använder bedömningsinformation om elevers skrivande för beslut om skrivundervisningens innehåll. Resultatet visar att lärares bedömningar av elevers skrivande behandlar fler och delvis andra aspekter av skrivförmåga än vad deras didaktiska beslut sedan omfattar. De kvalitetsuppfattningar och förväntningsnormer som lärarna uttrycker i sina bedömningar av elevers skrivande inriktas huvudsakligen på texters kommunikativa kvaliteter, den stilistiska utformningen och textuppbyggnaden, följt av ämnesinnehåll och källanvändning. De didaktiska beslut som fattas utifrån bedömningen av elevers texter inriktas däremot i stort sett enbart på att eleverna behöver skrivundervisning i att disponera text och att använda källor. Detta gör att överensstämmelsen är låg mellan lärarnas beslut om skrivundervisningens inriktning och deras förväntningar på vad eleverna ska kunna. De didaktiska besluten omfattar i begränsad utsträckning den bedömningsinformation som lärarna själva har formulerat.

    Read more about Vad behöver eleverna undervisning i för att utveckla sitt skrivande? Förväntningsnormer och didaktiska beslut i svensklärares bedömningssamtal

  • Vad uppmärksammar lärare i samtal om skrivbedömning? Svensklärares normer för beslut om summativ bedömning

    2018. Per Blomqvist.

    Article

    This article reports on a qualitative study of Swedish teachers’ summative assessments of students’ writing in upper secondary school. Based on teacher group discussions, the study describes and analyses teachers’ expressions of norms when assessing and grading students’ writing in the subject of Swedish. Data consist of audio- and video recordings from three focus group discussions, comprising a total of 17 teachers. Topic analysis (Linell, 2001) is the method used to identify expressions of assessment norms in these discussions. The analysis reveals that these teachers’ summative assessments of students’ writing express two competing norms: a non-compensatory and a compensatory norm. The non-compensatory norm is expressed through perceptions that all text qualities must correspond to the same criteria. This means that shortcomings in texts are crucial for teachers’ summative assessments. The text qualities that primarily determine these decisions are language style and text structure. Meanwhile, the compensatory norm is expressed through perceptions that in summative aspects such as students’ age and writing instructions as well as students’ writing development and the national test must be considered. These competing assessment norms have a substantial impact on theses teachers’ decisions on summative assessments. The teacher groups show significant variation in the basis for their decisions regarding summative assessment of students' writing.

    Read more about Vad uppmärksammar lärare i samtal om skrivbedömning? Svensklärares normer för beslut om summativ bedömning

  • Är vi överens om det? Samspel och samstämmighet i svensklärares bedömningssamtal om gymnasieelevers skrivande

    2018. Per Blomqvist. Nordic Journal of Literacy Research 4 (1), 1-21

    Article

    This article reports on a qualitative study of the interaction in Swedish teachers’ discussions about summative assessment of students’ writing. Interactional patterns of dominance, dynamics and coherens in the decision-making processes are described and analyzed, comparing the degree of assessment consistency between and within the groups. The analysis reveals a high degree of consistency within each teacher group’s discussion. However, the assessments that individual teachers make after the discussions comply only to some extent with the group’s decisions. The least degree of consistency was shown by the teacher group who seemed the most consistent in the discussions. Decision-making processes in these discussions are characterized by low intensity, where few assessment alternatives are being considered. In teacher group discussions characterized by higher intensity, a variety of suggestions for assessment are made by the teachers. The individual teachers' assessments in those groups are more consistent with the group's decisions. Meanwhile, the overall assessment consistency between the teachers was found to be low.

    Read more about Är vi överens om det? Samspel och samstämmighet i svensklärares bedömningssamtal om gymnasieelevers skrivande

  • Bedömning, ett hot mot kreativa skrivprocesser och elevers skrivutveckling?

    2021. Per Blomqvist.

    Conference

    Studien undersöker gymnasielärares samtal om hur skrivandet i svenskämnet har förändrats över tid. I samtalen deltog tre svensklärargrupper från olika gymnasieskolor med högskoleförberedande program. Samtalen genomfördes som så kallade collective remembering interviews, en metod att genom social interaktion stimulera deltagarnas minne (Middleton & Brown, 2005), och de frågor som strukturerade samtalen var vilka förändringar som har skett genom åren och vad dessa förändringar inneburit. 

    Studien utgår från teorier om formativ bedömning i relation till skrivdidaktik med fokus på hur stöttning kan utformas både som mål och metod i skrivprocesser för att ge elever möjlighet att utveckla ett akademiskt skrivande samtidigt som de breddar och fördjupar sina ämneskunskaper (Hoel, 2010; van de Pol et al., 2010). Materialet analyserade med topikanalys (Linell, 2001), inriktad på att belysa vilka beskrivningar och uppfattningar som lärarna inom varje grupp gav uttryck för att dela. Frågorna som ställdes var: Vad har lärarna velat åstadkomma och varför? Vad har dessa förändringar lett till och vilka problem har de synliggjort? 

    Resultatet visar att lärargruppernas beskrivningar av vad de har velat åstadkomma och varför till stor del överensstämmer. Samtliga lärargrupper beskriver hur kraven på ett mer akademiskt skrivande i ämnet har ökat. För att möta dessa ökade krav har lärarna genom åren på olika sätt arbetat med att synliggöra bedömningsgrunder för skrivuppgifter, utforma olika typer av stöttning för skrivandet och bygga progression i skrivandet inom och mellan de olika kurserna. Men när lärarna beskriver vad dessa förändringar har lett till och vilka problem de i sin tur har synliggjort, framträder två olika berättelser som i mångt och mycket är varandras motsatser. En berättelse handlar om att bedömningsarbetet riskerar att stå i vägen för elevers möjligheter att delta i kreativa skrivprocesser där de får utforska ämnet, testa olika uttryckssätt och skapa något nytt (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007), medan en annan berättelse handlar om ett bedömningsarbete som istället kan bidra till att skapa en sådan kreativ skrivkultur. Hur lärarna uttrycker att de förhåller sig till och använder ämnesplanens kunskapskrav vid planering och genomförande av undervisning och vid bedömning, tycks vara avgörande för deras olika uppfattningar om vilken inverkan bedömningsarbetet får. Ett bedömningsarbete som i alltför hög grad utgår ifrån och knyts till kunskapskravens formuleringar, beskrivs få negativa konsekvenser även för de texter som eleverna skriver, där de i större omfattning än tidigare har svårt med att föra självständiga resonemang, dra slutsatser och använda ämnesspecifika för att utveckla sina resonemang. 

    Read more about Bedömning, ett hot mot kreativa skrivprocesser och elevers skrivutveckling?

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