49.4 Empirical Contexts and Cases
Two empirical cases will be presented here as a basis for further elaboration of how
the described concepts could be put to work in the context of a scientific exami-
nation. Both cases relate to the work of the Norwegian ProTed Centre of Excellence
in Teacher Education, a collaboration between the University of Oslo and the
University of Tromsø—The Arctic University of Norway. The mandate of the
centre is to develop and improve the 5-year programmes at master’s level that
recently were introduced as the backbone of teacher education in Norway. Vital to
these programmes is the integration of scientific disciplines, school subjects and
pedagogy and subject didactics (‘professional knowledge’). Fieldwork is essential
with 100 days of practice over thefive years and the education programmes should
reflect a strong research base as well as give student teachers opportunities to
engage in research-oriented practices. To integrate these components into a
coherent programme has proved to be challenging.
Case 1 from 2013 presents a digital home exam in the sixth term of the inte-
grated 5-year teacher education for level 8–13 at the University of Oslo (UiO). In
this exam, the students analyze and reflect on a video from a classroom situation.
Case 2, also from 2013, presents an introduction to R&D among first- and
second-year students of the integrated 5-year teacher education programmes for
level 1–7 and 8–10 at the University of Tromsø—The Arctic University of Norway
(UiT). In this introduction, the students collect and analyze empirical data from
theirfieldwork at practice schools.
In different ways these two cases illustrate how empirical sources, theoretical
perspectives and elements from research methodology create complex, demanding,
and productive learning contexts which raise challenges as to how a scientific
examination of these situations may be conducted. The following case presentations
are based on traditional research methods such as interviews with university
teachers (case 2) and analyses of exam texts and interviews with staff members and
students (case 1). The aim of the case presentations is, thus, not to introduce or
develop new research methods as such but to suggest a conceptual and analytical
framework for interpreting and understanding the educational and transformative
processes displayed through the cases.
49.5 Case 1: Digital Exam
Thefirst case presents a new type of video-based exam that was introduced in
teacher education at the University of Oslo. The nucleus of the exam’s teaching
design was an intended object of integration expressed through a task in which the
students were asked to apply knowledge from pedagogy, subject disciplines and
practice in the analysis of a classroom situation presented in the form of a video.
Since this was an exam design, there was a sharper distinction between the teaching
732 J.M. Vestøl and A. Lund