Learning outcome

Pedagogy in Teacher Education is distributed over the first three years of study and will qualify students to meet the usual joys and challenges of school. The relationship between theory and practice is crucial to the students’ training, and the professionalisation of teacher students starts in a close collaboration between the college and the teaching-practice schools. The pedagogy teaching has a special role in coordinating the teaching study programme, so that the various elements of the study programme are interrelated and perceived as parts of a whole.

Being a teacher in today’s society requires skills in several fields. First, teachers are required to have thorough knowledge of the subjects which they intend to teach. The teaching profession also places emphasis on didactic skills which are necessary for helping children and adolescents to develop their characters and contribute to society in a meaningful way. Teachers also require a high degree of social skills in facing the many challenges they meet in their interactions with colleagues, parents and pupils of differing backgrounds and experiences. Today’s teachers should also possess development and change skills so they are able to participate in the renewal of the school’s content and teaching and learning methods. In a pluralistic society that embraces different cultures, perceptions, attitudes and forms of expression, the teacher must also be an active team player supported by a clearly formulated professional competence. Consequently, the pedagogy studies are designed to promote coherence in teaching and help students to develop an overall professional competence supported by practical training, subject studies and interaction with other students and teachers.

The various topics in pedagogy overlap to a certain extent. This is natural since working as a teacher often means relating to many situations simultaneously. However, the subject is divided into the following main topics over the three years of study:

• In the first year we will take a look at the more general aspects of practical school life: lesson planning, class management and learning activities in class.
• In the second year we go into further detail concerning the individual pupil’s learning aptitudes, adapted education and parental cooperation.
• In the third year - in the autumn semester - we will work with social processes, collaboration, the importance of community for learning and the school as an institution in society.
• In the spring semester of the third year of study, students will write a Bachelor’s thesis. During the first and second years, topics will be considered in order to develop student skills and prepare them for work on the Bachelor’s thesis. The assignment may be linked to a discipline or more generally to the teaching profession, and it should be teaching-practice based and development oriented. Work on the Bachelor’s thesis comprises a total of 15 ECTS credits during the study programme.

Students will acquire knowledge of the teacher’s mandate and tasks. At the same time, they will develop critical thinking in relation to the school and the teaching profession. During the training it is expected that students will develop their reflective abilities and self-criticism, and learn to act more independently in their studies and teaching practice.

The course will focus on the work of primary and lower secondary schools, in terms of the basic skills and methods used in the normal operation of the school. The course will employ varied and adapted teaching and learning methods in two contexts: the college and the period teaching practice in schools. Some topics will be focused on in both contexts, while others are focused on either in the college or the teaching practice school.

After the first year, students will have acquired basic teaching knowledge and skills in leading, stimulating, organising and evaluating learning activities in the Years 5-10 in the primary and lower secondary school.

Knowledge:

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate basic knowledge of class management and be able to justify their choices as a class leader.
• Give an account of children and young people’s development at beginner level, and justify didactic choices.
• Give an account of various learning theories.
• Give an explanation of communication theory.
• Present the main content in the school’s key documents and relate this to activities in the classroom.
• Explain the various didactic models.
• Give a theoretical account of the development of basic skills.
• Present basic supervision theory.
• Give an account of the main principles for assessment in schools with and without grading.

Skills

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate a basic ability to lead and build relationships in class to promote learning.
• Observe and reflect on how approaches to learning are expressed in teaching practice situations in schools.
• Demonstrate that they can use didactic models in teaching situations.
• Facilitate the development of basic skills in the pupils’ learning.
• Use various digital tools.
• Apply teaching and learning methods, content and assessment in order to promote pupils’ learning.
• Apply their skills in academic writing.

General skills

Students will be able to:

• Give an account of children and adolescents’ learning and development.
• Explain and implement educational choices in the classroom at the upper primary level (Years 5-7) and lower secondary level (Year 8-10).
• Demonstrate self-criticism and the ability to develop change skills.
• Integrate basic skills in subjects.
• Formulate learning objectives and criteria in assessment work.
• Demonstrate that they can develop in their role as supervisor.

Course Description

The content of the course concerns the relationship between teacher, pupil and content. The relationship between these three elements will always be present in the subject. In the first year of study (course code: PEL 501), the main focus will be on the teacher’s role, but the teacher is always in a relationship with the pupils, the content and the surroundings. Therefore, the teaching of the subject will be characterised by holistic thinking. The semester plans, assignments and teaching practice schedules will reveal how the content of the course is aimed at learning activities in years 5-10 in the primary school and lower secondary school.

R & D

The topics are based on national and international research, theory and literature. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative research in teaching and learning activities at the college, efforts are made to bring a reflective and critical expertise to the primary school. Integrated in the work on particular topics, students will be given an introduction to basic research methods. As a continuation of this practice, students in the teaching practice school will conduct an observation activity in the autumn semester and a job interview assignment in the spring semester.

Collaboration:

The content and organisation of the topics will be coordinated with the other relevant study programme courses (subjects) in the first year. Pedagogy in Teacher Education has the overall responsibility for the whole of the study programme and will collaborate with the subject teachers and the teaching practice teachers so that theory and research are used in the period of teaching, and experience from teaching practice is used in teaching at the college. Norwegian and Pedagogy in Teacher Education aims at having a joint project with at least one of the other courses (subjects) in the spring semester. Drama is included as a method in Pedagogy in Teacher Education (course code: PEL 501) and provides the students with experience in using “drama as a teaching method”. Students will receive training in facilitating creative activities for pupils where they can explore different subjects and topics. They will gain practical experience in mediation, communication and interaction. This relates particularly to topics such as the teacher’s role and the classroom.

Learning Methods

The teaching will consist of seminars and lectures and focus on specific topics – theoretical or case-based – and will involve workshops in which the college teachers and students can take turns teaching or giving presentations. The teaching and learning methods will be characterised by discussion and reflection.

Supervision is emphasised in the teacher education study programme. The study programme involves a close relationship between student, college teachers and the teaching practice schools. Students will receive comprehensive supervision, and will also participate in the supervision process. Through oral and written responses from the college teachers, co-students and teaching practice mentors, each student will be able to develop professionally and pedagogically.

The supervision will largely be based on case studies or questions that students and teachers prepare. The students will complete a basic course in supervision.

The learning dialogues will take place periodically and aim at following up the student’s own programme of study. The learning dialogues will take place either individually or in groups by appointment. Three-party dialogues will be carried out in relation to the period of teaching practice, cf. the teaching practice plan.

The study programme emphasises that participation in social practice is important for individual learning. The learning community includes communication with all the parties involved in the teacher education study programme; through this community, students will learn to reflect on their own and others’ learning.

Assessment Methods

All seminars are compulsory. The same applies to teaching practice seminars and follow up, as well as supervision groups and similar activities. Compulsory teaching at the college is indicated in the semester plan. The college requires a minimum of 80% attendance; however, it is expected that all students will participate in the compulsory activities.

Continuous assessment

The students will be given two assignments every semester which will be assessed as approved / not approved. These assignments are compulsory, and must be submitted and approved before the student will be permitted to sit the examination.

Final assessment with a lettered grade in Pedagogy in Teacher Education (course code: PEL 501):

• Written examination in the autumn semester 40%
• Oral examination in the spring semester 60%

The final grade for each of the Pedagogy in Teacher Education courses (course codes: PEL 501, 502, 503, 504) will be entered on the diploma; in other words, four separate grades in Pedagogy in Teacher Education.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean