Web pabe in development during 2026
Vefsíða í vinnslu
[Note, that during 2026, I am gradually 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.
The page below 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 BS Hons 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, at the University of 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.
Reframing the educational discourse. Important issues for education to consider (see texts):
The aims of education are the most important issue facing education, yet they are also the most neglected or avoided topic in the professional educational discourse. This affects most of the following issues, but in particular makes it difficult to make sensible changes.
Institutionalising education in schools and school systems has been essential for the development of education, but it also tends to reshape and often distort educational aims through its operational requirements, such as standardisation, testing, ranking and credentialling.
It is interesting how we, academics and professionals, feel we can intelligently discuss quality of education or schools, foundational competencies, teacher education, new teaching methods or the value of AI for education, without establishing, as a point of departure, what we consider the most valuable aims of education.
How to educate all children equally well in an inclusive culture remains a challenge, but the main difficulty lies in distinguishing between desirable general aims and the outdated assumption that general aims require a standardised curriculum and standardised testing.
We don’t sufficiently discuss how to take the future (with all its complexities and challenges) and the present (attending to children’s current challenging lives) simultaneously into account in the practice of education. Weaving the future into education demands a crucial curricular shift which is challenging, but important. The same holds for the present. Thus education should pay much more attention to children’s well-being, their present lives, and the uncertain futures they are likely to face.
There is a deep-rooted misunderstanding about the value of data for educational practice and policy – and a lack of understanding of the professional and political dimensions of their use. Data can illuminate educational problems and are frequently crucial for educational practice, but cannot determine how educational problems should be solved. The limitations are not within the data themselves but in the assumptions about what data can tell us.
The most important decisions in education, concerning both policy and practice are, indeed, fundamentally professional and political. Science can certainly inspire new ways of thinking and acting, and inform educational practice, for example, by identifying poor decisions. But it is surprisingly difficult to find clear signs that developments across the sciences have had as much influence on innovation in education as might be expected.
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
—————
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.
The global and local university, its development and challenges.
Málefni háskólastarfs.
Framhalds-skóli –
Upper secondary education
Adult education –
Fullorðins-
fræðsla.
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
Gögn í mennta-málum
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. Most important is my focus on gender difference, credentialism and exponential growth. For the case of Iceland it is argued that the university as an institution 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 are 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. My main area for more than a decade, working mainly with Kristjana Stella Blöndal.
Adult education – fullorðinsfræðsla, menntun fullorðinna
It is intresting how this field is always 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. The idea permeated important parts of the education system.
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. I wrote a book on its development in Iceland – in Icelandic. )
Töluvmál – gervigreind – allt frá 1982 – Computers – AI from 1982. I was particularly interested in AI in the 1990s.
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, even if the potential was always there.
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. I have argued that it has far less directional value than is normally surmised.
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