Web pabe in development from November 2025 – December 2025
Vefsíða í vinnslu
[Note, that from November 2025, I am totally revamping my homepage. It is a slow process!
Only the first phase of the university page and my short CV are in place both in a rather crude form. ]
On this front page I attempt to summarise my main contributions to the educational discourse, and some related fields. My aim is to give an annotated guidance to my my thoughts and the accompanying material which is discussed on the secondary pages. I do this primarily to remind myself.
This page is just the content page. The annotation, papers and presentations are at the next level.
The language of presentation is mixed. When my main contributions in an area are in Icelandic the Icelandic headings come first. English is used first when I consider my important contributions are written in English. I have written a number of papers with other people and even if my contribution is sometimes substantial, I often consider it to be their papers, especially those written with my doctoral students. In some cases the papers or presentations are shown here under more than one heading.
I left my post at the university some years ago, but endeavour to be active either as examiner of doctoral studies or engaging in the professional or lay educational discourse, in addition to two Nordic keynotes in 2024.
Jón Torfi Jónasson
Fyrrv. prófessor við Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands
Tölvupóstfang: jtj@hi.is
Sími 8649890
Jón Torfi Jónasson
Professor emeritus, School of Education, University of Iceland
e-mail: jtj@hi.is
CV various versions (short, long)
CV ólíkar útgáfur
Personal material
Persónulegt efni
My academic journey started in Edinburgh, studying history, philosopy and political science for a year. As intended, I then turned to physics and completed the bachelor in Edinburgh. Then moved to Sussex for a one year master in experimental cognitive psychology, and then mopving to Reading to study word recognition for a PhD with Max Coltheart. The papers written with him and colleagues are still referenced practically every week – now 50 years later. Moving to Iceland I taught experimental physics, cognitive psychology, educational psychology and methodology in the scocial sciences. Being hired in the Department of education in 1980 I continued my gradual move into education as seen in the various parts of this page.
Interviews Radio, newspapers
Útvarpsefni
Presentations, often with text or powerpoint slides. Presented in the order of presentation.
Erindi, iðulega með texta eða glærum. Listi í tímaröð.
Skoðanagreinar
Published work. Presented in the order of presentation.
Ritverk. Sýnt í þeirri röð sem þau birtust.
The most important issues for education to consider (see texts):
The aims of education are the most important ingredients of the educational arena but are also the most neglected or avoided topic in the discourse on education.
It is interesting how we, academics and professionals, feel we can intelligently discuss quality of education or schools, foundational comptencies, teacher education, new teaching methods, the value of AI for education, etc. etc. without establishing what we consider the most valuable aims of education.
How to educate all children equally well remains a challenge, but the main difficulty hangs on the outdated demand for a standardised curriculum and testing as these tend to be practiced.
We don’t sufficiently discuss how to take the future and the present simultaneously into account in the practice of education. Weaving the future into education is challenging, but important. The same holds for the present.
There is a deep-rooted misunderstanding about the value of data for the practice and policy of education – and a lack of understanding of the substantial professional and political dimensions of their use. Data are often crucial in the conduct of education but don’t solve many of the problems they are meant to. But data are not to be blamed.
The most important decisions in education, concerning both policy and practice are, indeed, overridingly professional and political but science can of course open totally new worlds and inform, perhaps guide, and certainly inspire (even if it is surprisingly difficult to find clear signs that the multidimensional world of science has influence on education).
Recent keynotes:
Nordic conference on adult education
The intriguing, crucial, fragile and complex world of adult education and learning.
May 22nd 2024. At the 10th Nordic Conference on Adult Education and Learning
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Nordic conference on vocational education:
Evolution or transformations in VET? What might evolve? What might transform? And which are the controlling forces?
June 3rd 2024. At the 16th Nordic Conference held by NORDYRK . Et nordisk forskernetværk om erhvervspædagogik og erhvervsdidaktik.
Research fields Rannsóknasvið
The order reflects the educational system and the recent emphasis in my writings.
Framhaldsskóli – Upper secondary education
Adult education – fullorðinsfræðsla,
Starfsmenntun – vocational education –
Saga menntunar – history of education – and its value
Lýðháskólar á Íslandi – The Icelandic folk high school
Um leikskóla á Íslandi – Kindergarten in Iceland.
Töluvmál – AI – Computers –
Tölvur í skólastarfi – Logo
Computers in education
Future of education – framtíð menntunar
Data in education
Fjarkennsla – Distance education.
Lestur – læsi
Studies in word recognition
The chief topics within this section are the following: universality of most issues that characterise the university and its development, as examples is my focus on gender difference, credentialism and exponential growth. For the case of Iceland it is argued that the university as an insitution in a small system is essentially the same as in larger systems as far as operational mode, challenges and developments are concerned. Perhaps these are my main substantive or perhaps the most interesting contributions, but more formal publications ar needed on some of these based on my conference proceedings. Thus I argue that the nature, challenges and development within Iceland is similar to what is seen in much larger systems.
Háskólar á Íslandi miðað við aðrar þjóðir, hlutverk þeirra og vöxtur. M.a eru færð rök fyrir því að eðli, vandi og þróun íslenska háskólastigisns hefur allt svipmót mun stærri kerfa.
Framhaldsskóli – Upper secondary education,
- Comparative studies – esp. the Nordic dimension
- Um eðli og hlutverk íslenska framhaldsskólans
- Brottfall úr framhaldsskóla – drop-out from upper secondry education
Adult education – fullorðinsfræðsla, menntun fullorðinna
It is intresting how this field is always field declared as of primary importance but is marginalised in policy and practice.
Starfsmenntun – vocational education – for a long time my main interest
There are a number of misconceptions about vocational education that are worth discussing.
Saga menntunar – history of education – and its value
Much of my work is of historical origin and often I discuss what I consider the main characteristics of the development of education and the inertia involved. I put some effort in arguing why understanding history of education is vital for understanding its current challenges. There are quite a number of historical papers touching on all levels of education in Iceland. This turns out to be a fairly large part of my work.
Lýðháskólar á Íslandi – The Icelandic folk high school, 1880-1920. The influence of Nordic folk hig schools was much greater than is normally understood.
Um leikskóla á Íslandi – Kindergarten in Iceland. (Note that from 1994 there is no pre-school in Iceland as the schools from year one until adult education are a part of the school system.
Töluvmál – gervigreind – allt frá 1982 – Computers – AI from 1982
Tölvur í skólastarfi – Logo forritun í skólum, tvær bækur
Computers in education – Logo computing in education – two textbooks. I was very much involved in the discussion of harnessing computers in education in the 1980s and published two books on the Logo computer language during that period. Already then I realised technology would be use to solidify old traditions rather than open up new worlds.
Future of education – framtíð menntunar
In the late 1980s I was asked to speculate on the next 25 years of education. I wrote an essay on this and predicted slow development. I was largely correct. When in 2010 I contemplated writing on the next 25 years I choose to research what might facilitate reasonable move of education into the 21st century. In the following 15 years I have been engaed in this speculation.
The value of data in education. In the recent years I have been very interested in the research -practice nexus, especially the use of data in education.
Fjarkennsla – Distance education. For quite a while I was heavily involved in the introduction of distance education in Iceland and chaired ministerial and university committees on the matter.
Lestur – læsi
Studies in word recognition
My PhD research was on word recognition and I continued this work for a short while after returning to Iceland.
Kennsla – kennsluefni – teaching
Ólík námskeið (efni nokkurra námskeiða eða sviða) – Material from some of the substantial courses or areas
Doktorsleiðsögn – doctoral guidance
Aðferðafræði félagsvísinda Methodology in the social sciences
Hugfræði – Cognitive psychology
Námssálarfræði – Educational psychology
Menntunarfræði – Education
Efni frá nemendum
