Teori i praksis og praksis i teori? GLU-studenters refleksjoner om fag og didaktikk

Abstract

During the last few decades, research, public debate and policymaking related to the school sector, have been characterized by discussions concerning what being a competent teacher involves. Another issue has been how the two learning arenas in teacher education – the theory arena and the practice arena – can best complement each other to educate competent teachers. In this article we present and discuss results from an investigation conducted among teacher students in teacher education 1-7 at one particular educational institution. We have focused on getting across the students ́ experiences and understanding of what the teacher role comprises, and how they see the connections between the two learning arenas as campus training and practice training in partner schools in the school subject Norwegian. This is done using a survey and group interviews. Our goal has been to contribute to the ongoing discussion about how to develop a teacher education in which teacher students and teacher educators (in both learning arenas) share an understanding of mutual tolerance and respect. Another has been to develop a common understanding of the complexity of teacher education, and thereby recognizing the equivalence of the students` two learning arenas. Our main findings are that the respondents are notautomatically able to transfer k nowledge between the two arenas. Consider relational competence more important than subject competence, that these two competence areas are seen as independent of each other, and that the practice arena is considered as more important than the theory arena for developing the role of the teacher.