Practical Pedagogy for Tertiary Vocational Education 1 Programme description

The programme Practical Pedagogy for Tertiary Vocational Education 1 will confer basic teaching competence for work in tertiary vocational education. The students will learn to plan, execute, document and assess learning work for students in tertiary vocational education. They will learn to use research-based knowledge and try a variety of teaching activities in their workplace. The students are expected to develop a critical and reflective attitude to their own practice in tertiary vocational education, and an awareness of their role in the double practice field.

The programme is adapted to the varied and profession-oriented fields of tertiary vocational education. The programme therefore focuses on using the students’ experience in their learning work.

Practical Pedagogy for Tertiary Vocational Education 1 is an English-language commissioned programme conducted in collaboration with Noroff – School of Technology and Digital Media.

The target group for the programme is vocational teachers affiliated to Noroff – School of Technology and Digital Media.

General admission requirements

Qualified applicants must document that they have achieved the Higher Education Entrance Qualification or equivalent prior learning and work experience.

The following requirements must be met in order to qualify to apply for admission on the basis of prior learning and work experience:

1. The applicant must be at least 25 years of age in the year of admission and cannot have achieved the Higher Education Entrance Qualification. Applicants must document one of the following:

• craft certificate or equivalent and at least two years’ relevant work experience, or
  • at least five years’ relevant work experience. Up to two of these five years can be replaced by relevant unpaid work, education, organisation work experience or similar.

2. Applicants must have adequate proficiency in English to be capable of completing the programme. This must be documented with, as a minimum, the subject English (140 hours per year) from a vocational upper secondary school programme or equivalent, passed with the grade 2 or better. Applicants whose first language is not a Nordic language must document that they meet the requirement for English language proficiency at a level corresponding to the Higher Education Entrance Qualification.

Relevant part-time work of varying scope and length can be converted into full-time in accordance with the applicable rules.

Special admission requirements

The applicant must be affiliated to Noroff – School of Technology and Digital Media through an employment relationship and work on educational development, learning work or counselling work for adults. This should be documented by an employer reference.

Learning outcomes are described in the course description.

Practical Pedagogy for Tertiary Vocational Education 1 is a web-based part-time programme comprising one course with a scope of 30 credits. The course is taught over two semesters.

The content of the programme is organised on the basis of the spiral approach, i.e. that learning tasks and topics in the programme build on each other. Practical Pedagogy for Tertiary Vocational Education emphasises basic vocational teaching competence, critical reflection and change and development competence.

The programme is organised as a digital web-based programme that includes asynchronous work assignments, coursework requirements, vocational teaching practice and synchronous sessions. Asynchronous work assignments make up five thematic assignments per semester. The thematic assignments are published on a digital learning platform and can be done either individually or in groups by given deadlines. Synchronous sessions make up a total of five days per semester, and supervision is also provided to small learning groups in connection with coursework requirements. Work assignments will also include obtaining information from and in collaboration with the labour market and, if relevant, the industry. All classes will be taught in English.

OsloMet’s learning platform will be used during the programme.

Because the programme is based on teaching practice and assignments, and related to practice in the role of vocational teacher, 20% of the syllabus is chosen by the students themselves. By encouraging students to obtain their own appropriate literature, the students develop competence in line with the programme description’s learning outcomes and their own learning objectives under the supervision of the lecturer. Literature selected by students must be approved by the person responsible for the course. The learning outcome descriptions determine which parts of the literature are relevant for each course.

The following vocational education principles apply to the choice of forms of learning and the organisation of content:

• Practice-oriented learning

The programme is based on the challenges and duties encountered in tertiary vocational education. This means that students’ experience from their own vocational teaching practice and reflections on this play a key role in the study programme.

• Problem-oriented learning

The students will learn by working on realistic problems and situations. Problem-oriented learning can be achieved through, for example problem-based learning and solving assignments, project work and development work.

• Experience-oriented learning

The students shall be aware of and able to express their feelings and thoughts in different situations. They should also be able to facilitate such learning processes for their students.

• Experience-based learning

This means developing an awareness of previous experience and gaining new experience through various forms of vocational education work. By planning, testing and reflecting on new practice, the students will increase their awareness of and their range of options in different teaching situations.

• Example-based learning

Students learn by analysing, processing, applying and generalising suitable examples for use in their own practice.

• Value-oriented learning

The students shall become aware of and clarify their norms and attitudes in relation to professional ethical standards and the consequences of their own choices.

• Student influence

The students shall exercise influence in the programme through supervision, the student representative system and evaluations.

The target group for this course is PhD candidates and researchers among the academic staff at OsloMet, who are actively engaged in writing articles, papers or dissertations in English.

• A completed Master¿s Degree.
• Employment at OsloMet.

Admission of PhD candidates and academic staff employed at other higher educational institutions and/or research institutions in Norway can be considered subject to the available places on the course.

Admission of internal and external candidates is based on individual application approved by the applicant¿s Head of Studies or Head of Division.

Participants should be reasonably fluent in written and oral English and familiar with academic conventions and requirements.

Ranking

• PhD candidates and academic staff at OsloMet.
• PhD candidates and academic staff employed at other higher education and/or research institutions in Norway.

After completion of the course, the student will have acquired the following learning outcomes, defined as knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The candidate has in-depth knowledge of:

• the writing conventions and rhetorical patterns needed for international publication in their field
• revision, editing and development strategies needed for international publication
• principles of applied textual analysis for writing development

Skills

The candidate can:

• formulate academic texts in English intended for international publication
• transform awareness of textual features into specific writing strategies
• analyse and describe trends and features of their field¿s academic English

General competence

The candidate can:

• can identify and establish connections between writing practices, writing conventions and research traditions in their fields
• discuss and give feedback on a range of academic texts and issues
• can reflect on and document their current practices and how these can be developed

The development of assessment competence is a key part of the programme, and continuous assessment is an integral part of the learning process. The objective of the assessment is to give students feedback on their own development in relation to the programme's objectives, and to give the students experience they can use in the assessment work they will carry out as vocational teachers.

Progress and learning in the programme will be documented and assessed by means of the lecturer’s assessment, feedback from fellow students and self-evaluation. This enables students to develop awareness and methodology competence about assessment work in their own profession as teachers.

More information about the final assessment can be found in the course description.

Rights and obligations in connection with exams

The students’ rights and obligations are set out in the Regulations Relating to Studies and Examinations at OsloMet. The regulations describe, among other things, the conditions for resit/rescheduled exams, the right to appeal and what is considered cheating in an exam. It is the students’ responsibility to register for any resit/rescheduled exams.

Examiners

Tutors will be used in accordance with the Guidelines for Appointment and Use of Examiners at OsloMet.

- Attendance:

• In order to take the exam, and be eligible for study points, the participant must have attended at least five of the six sessions.

- Compulsory tasks:

• A completed needs analysis form, and an academic text (an unedited manuscript, approx. 5 pages, double spaced font sized 12) must be submitted prior to the first course session.
• Active participation in all group sessions.
• Resubmission of the academic text in progress for discussion in the group.
• Final resubmission of this text, revised further, for the exam.
• A reflective statement, describing the candidate¿s experience of and responses to the course.