In addition to providing many models of univer-sity-school partnerships that promote research capacity, the international literature also suggests ideas about the most and least effective ways to develop research capacity. For example, Oancea
et al. (2017) found that the most successful re-search capacity building strategies in the pro-grammes they evaluated were tailored to specific institutions and local contexts, including modelling high quality studies, developing shared datasets, and funding conference participation for staff.
Meanwhile coaching and mentoring, placement
fellowships, building a directory of expertise, and digital engagement were moderately successful, particularly in relation to practitioners. Finally, some of the most difficult elements of the programme, but also the most rewarding were joint collaborative projects across more and less research-experienced organisations.
7.4 Recommendations on research capacity building
Building on the rationale, the international liter-ature, and the evidence discussed above, the Advisory Panel for Teacher Education makes the following recommendations to TEIs and schools/
municipalities regarding building research
capa-city. These are also related to recommendations we make to the Ministry and NOKUT regarding accountability and sustainability, and recommen-dations we make to the TEIs and schools regarding partnerships.
• Invest in enhancing the qualifications and professional development of existing staff to increase the pool of those with research experience in both TEIs and schools.
− Create a professional development strategy for teacher educators linked with recruitment strategies for Practitioner II and Professor II positions in TEIs.
− Provide leadership training for new deans and leaders of newly merged TEIs, including ways to provide professional development to increase faculty research capacity.
• Provide financial and logistical support for sustainable research collaborations between TEIs and schools.
− Jointly develop a collaborative research agenda, including plans for master’s thesis co-supervision.
− Co-design a timetable of opportunities for collaborative work involving university TEI and school teachers and mentors in face-to-face and other interactions.
− Co-design opportunities for student teachers and new teachers to be part of professional communities focused on research and practice.
• Build and consolidate infrastructure to support the conduct, quality assurance, and sharing of research across TEIs and schools.
− Build infrastructure for research
engagement between TEIs and schools, municipalities, and other research institutions, and across subject areas.
− Provide mechanisms and tools for sharing the findings and insights generated by student teachers’ master’s theses.
• Review existing mechanisms for incentivising and recognising research engagement as an essential part of professional activity in TEIs and schools.
− Consider becoming signatories of DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) and applying its principles to evaluate hiring, tenure, promotion, and reward decisions, especially for early-stage academics.
− Ensure that research engagement is accounted for in the allocation of time and workload and arrangements for study leave.
Transforming Norwegian Teacher Education
107 N O K U T – Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education
N O K U T – Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education
8. Programme Design and Integration
In this section, we offer recommendations to the TEIs and their school and municipality partners regarding programme design and integration.
This section follows the same format as the others with four interrelated parts: (1) Norway’s
aspirations regarding programme design and integration, (2) potential challenges; (3) insights from the international research literature and from local examples; and (4) recommendations.
8.1 Norway’s aspirations for programme design and integration
The new 5-year integrated master’s programmes in PLS teacher education require that teacher education reflects the inter-relationship of theory and practice in order to “unite and mobilise everyone involved in teacher education” (Norwe-gian Ministry of Education and Research, 2017, p. 6). The master’s reform is driven by a vision of school-based teachers as valued and trusted professionals and a view of teaching as not only a skilled professional practice, but also one that is research-informed. Central to this vision is the intention that student teachers are empowered to learn “research-based skills” so that they can make “informed decisions”. Also integral to Norway’s reform is the aim that student teachers experience coherent and integrated learning
experiences that are relevant to teaching practice and that all stakeholders work together to
identify, frame, and design these. Along these lines, it is very clear that the overall vision of the PLS reform is animated by the idea that teacher educators and school-based teachers need to be partners in the work of teacher preparation. This vision requires shared understanding of the key learning experiences that promote the develop-ment of new teachers, based on the premise that the expertise and participation of teacher educa-tors from both the TEIs and the schools are cen-tral to teacher preparation. Further, this vision requires ongoing evaluating, reflecting on, and learning from participants’ experiences in pro-gramme activities, processes, and requirements.
8.2 Potential challenges to programme design and integration
As international panel members, we strongly agree with and support Norway’s vision of teacher education. We agree that there are tremendous learning opportunities for student teachers who learn to engage in research,
supported by educators at both TEIs and schools.
There is great benefit in designing curriculum that deliberately connects theoretical principles and foundational ideas with thoughtful practice, which reflects the ways professional teachers engage in their work. The current reform has the potential to strengthen genuine collabora-tion between TEIs and school partners, helping Norway forge far stronger links in teacher educa-tion than has been the case in teacher educaeduca-tion historically and in many other countries.