Using surveys to foster cooperation in the development of the master’s thesis of initial teacher education

Central motivations for adding a master’s thesis, was the perceived disconnect between the practices of initial school teachers on one hand and research literature on initial school teaching on the other hand.

The reform attempted to use the master’s thesis as a vehicle to strengthen cooperation between researchers, school teachers, and students, leading to improvements in research, education and third mission activities. The Norwegian Agency of Quality Assurance in Education is conducting an enhancement-oriented, ESG-compliant evaluation of initial teacher education. One objective of the evaluation is to help HEIs with the master’s thesis in order to improve and secure the competencies of newly educated school teachers, preparing them to utilize and conduct research. The evaluation uses data from several sources, including surveys directed at students, newly educated teachers, campus-based teacher educators and school-based teacher educators. We discuss how surveys add to the minimum methodological requirements set by ESG, in the context of enhancement-oriented evaluation. Thereafter, we present and discuss different stakeholders’ views on the work with the master’s thesis. We focus on the integration of the research field and the master’s thesis and on the integration between the “initial school field” and the master’s thesis. Reflecting on our experiences from the evaluation, we argue that multiple surveys can help foster cooperation among stakeholders, most importantly through representative information about stakeholder perceptions of quality, by creating engagement in quality work and by stimulating reflection on notions of quality.

This paper was presented at EQAF and reflects the views of the named authors only.

ISSN: 1375-3797

Using surveys to foster cooperation in the development of the master’s thesis of initial teacher education

Erlend Langørgen, Pål Bakken

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