Karl Christian Alvestad, Kari H. Nordberg, Hege Roll-Hansen (Eds.), “New Perspectives on Educational Resources: Learning Materials Beyond the Traditional Classroom”. London, Publisher: Routledge, 2023.

New Perspectives on Educational Resources: Learning Materials Beyond the Traditional Classroom is an interdisciplinary book that examined how diverse learning resources can be leveraged to promote creativity, collaboration and critical thinking across all levels of educational settings. The book presents broad conceptualisation of educational materials that extends beyond traditional textbooks to physical places, cultural artifacts, digital media and experiential activities. The book aims to bridge the theoretical frameworks from pedagogy, didactics and curriculum studies with empirical research from Scandinavian educational contexts.

The editors, Karl Christian Alvestad, Kari H. Nordberg, and Hege Roll-Hansen, argue that educators must evaluate and creatively employ the wide range of resources available to foster deep learning and support students’ development of 21st skills, Bildung; which has to do with the development of a person’s morals, behaviour and values, and the evolving knowledge society. They propose that educational practices should move beyond the narrow reliance on prescribed textbooks to embrace museums, heritage sites, natural environments, songs, video games, and social media as legitimate and valuable learning resources. The volume emphasises that effective use of these resources requires educators to be grounded in disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical expertise.