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 student shall complete varied, tutored vocational teaching practice equivalent to 20 days in their own workplace. These days can be distributed in a flexible manner over the course of the year and are documented by completed coursework requirements. The student’s own or another suitable workplace is used as an arena for learning and vocational teaching practice. Vocational teaching practice is organised by the vocational technical colleges.

Teaching practice is considered a learning arena of equal value to learning work and required coursework in the programme. This means that vocational education theory and issues addressed in the programme are tested and further developed during the teaching practice. In the same way, teaching practice experience will form the basis for discussions and learning work in the programme.

The student and teaching practice tutor shall document the learning activities conducted during the teaching practice by means of coursework requirements.

The programme is provided in collaboration with Noroff – School of Technology and Digital Media. Noroff offers study programmes in English-speaking countries, where English is the language of instruction. The programme is part of OsloMet’s focus on internationalisation.

During the programme, students shall document various coursework requirements linked to the learning outcomes for the programme, the learning community at joint sessions, work between sessions and their own practice in tertiary vocational education. The required coursework is intended to develop the students' ability to reflect on and plan their own learning work and key issues that are relevant to the role of a tertiary vocational teacher. The study programme places great emphasis on the students developing the ability to be active participants in development work in cooperation with others.

The required coursework must be submitted by the stipulated deadlines. The required coursework is assessed as approved/not approved. Required coursework that is not approved can be reworked and submitted for approval twice. In such cases, the student must agree with the lecturer on resubmission of the coursework in question.

Absence for valid reasons documented by e.g. a medical certificate does not exempt students from meeting the coursework requirements. Students who fail to submit/meet a coursework requirement by the deadline due to illness or for other documented valid reasons can be given an extended deadline. A new deadline for meeting the coursework requirements must be agreed with the lecturer in question in each individual case.

Students who do not submit/complete a coursework requirement by the deadline without a documented reason or agreement with the lecturer will not be granted another attempt.

More information about coursework requirements is available in the individual course descriptions.

Requirements made of students during the programme

Students are expected to participate in web-based interaction, complete teaching practice in their own workplace and do the coursework required on the program. Emphasis is placed on a collective learning process achieved through exchanging experiences and reflections all through the study period. Therefore it is expected that students are present in all teaching activities throughout the study-period. In all a minimum attendance of 80 % is required.

Students who, due to illness or another documented valid reason, do not meet to the requirement for participation, shall agree on alternative activity(s) in each individual case with the teacher.

All required coursework must be approved and practical training completed by stipulated deadlines in order to take the exam.

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.

Godkjent av utdanningsutvalget ved LUI 17.01.2022.