Bodily Learning Through Creating Dance: Student Teachers' Experiences From Norwegian Physical Education Teacher Education

Creating dance in physical education teacher education (PETE) is described as a way of expressing subjective experiences based on movements that the students have already mastered or as a way of composing dance with set movements from various dance forms that are further explored through concepts such as time, space, power and flow. This article shows how 13 Norwegian student teachers experienced the creation of dance as part of their PETE. It explores the following questions: how do student teachers in PETE experience dance creation as an embodied process of exploring, transforming and creating movements, and how were these experiences facilitated by bodily learning that was initiated by body memories? The results show that creating dance is a intersubjective, intercorporeal and interaffective phenomenon where the sense-making process happens as both an individual and a joint process. This ongoing individual and participatory sense-making can further be understood as a reciprocal dependency between culture and self, where the students' bodily learning process evolves on an existential level over time. Through this process, the students develop a sense of confidence and trust in each other, which creates a feeling of belonging. The educational potential of bodily learning through creating dance can be seen in relation to the affordances the students perceive and utilize within their learning culture in PETE.

Mental Distress, Help Seeking, and Use of Health Services Among University Students. The SHoT-Study 2018, Norway

Background: Existing studies have documented high levels of mental distress in University and college students, complemented with poor help-seeking behavior. Colleges and universities offer a unique setting to address mental health problems that might overcome some of the most prominent barriers to help-seeking.Objective: We aim to describe the use of campus-based health care services and health services available in the near-by community among students in Norwegian student welfare organizations. We compare health care service use between non-local (in-movers) and local students, students at large and small welfare organizations, and students with severe and medium-low levels of mental distress.Methods: Data stem from the SHoT study (Students' Health and Well-being Study), a national survey from 2018 of all students aged 18–35 undertaking higher education in Norway. Mental distress was assessed using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), and we also obtained self-report data on use of health care services. Data on health care services offered at Norwegian student welfare organizations was obtained from semi-structural telephone interviews.Results: Non-local students used health care services that are low threshold, easily accessible and close to campus (health clinics and services organized by the student welfare organization) to a larger extent than local students. Students with symptoms of severe mental distress used almost all types of health services more than other students. We found big differences in reported use of health services in large and small organizations, yet these differences mirrored services available, and not necessarily student demand and preferences.Conclusion: Services offered by the student welfare organizations seem to play a particularly important role for non-local students and students reporting symptoms of severe mental distress.

Antecedents of Student Teachers’ Commitment to the Teaching Profession in Finland and Norway

The purpose of this study was to explore antecedents of Finnish and Norwegian student teachers’ prospective commitment to work as teachers or pursue other careers. Are student teachers’ perceptions of coherence between the theoretical and practical elements of the teaching programme related to their commitment to work as teachers or to pursue other careers? For Finnish student teachers, strong associations emerged between the theory-practice interaction in supervision and student teachers’ prospective commitment to work as teachers. Norwegian student teachers exhibited strong associations between personalised feedback and their prospective commitment to teaching. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Differences in Norwegian and Swedish student teachers’ explanations of solutions of linear equations

This study draws on data from 146 Norwegian and 161 Swedish student teachers. They were given a correct but short and unannotated solution to the linear equation x + 5 = 4x – 1. The student teachers were invited to explain the solution provided for a fictive friend, who was absent when the teacher introduced this topic. An accurate solution of this equation contains two additive and one multiplicative operation. There are two main strategies for solving a linear equation, ‘swap sides swap signs’ (SSSS) and ‘do the same to both sides’ (DSBS). Of the Norwegian student teachers, 2/3 explained the additive steps in the solution by SSSS, while only 1/3 of the Swedish student teachers applied SSSS. Consequently, DSBS was more frequent among the Swedish student teachers regarding the additive steps. However, in the final, multiplicative step, 3/4 of the Norwegian student teachers chose to explain by DSBS. On the contrary, among the Swedish student teachers the proportion applying DSBS for the multiplicative step of the solution decreased, and almost as many provided a deficient explanation of the final operation. We discuss possible reasons for differences between the nations. We also suggest how teacher educators in both countries can use the results of this study to improve student teachers’ explanations of how to solve linear equations.

Comparing Early Childhood Teacher Education in the subject Language learning and Early literacy in Denmark and Norway

Few studies highlight the content of early childhood teacher education (ECTE) and examine the quality of knowledge acquired by future early childhood teachers. The current study concerns two questions. The first explores the goals of the national curricula in Danish and Norwegian ECTE concerning children’s language learning and early literacy. The second explores how satisfied Danish and Norwegian student teachers are with their own subjective learning outcomes related to the same themes. To answer the first question, data were collected through document analysis of the two countries’ national curricula. To answer the second question, data were collected through a survey handed out to student teachers in both countries at the end of their education. The survey contained questions about factual, procedural, and meta-knowledge areas. The survey participants comprised 199 Norwegian student teachers from three University Colleges and 90 Danish student teachers from three separate campuses at one University College. This study reveals that the Norwegian student teachers evaluated their subjective learning outcomes in the fields of language learning and early literacy more highly than Danish student teachers. Our research points to the fact that, compared to the Norwegian ECTE, the breadth of subjects in the Danish ECTE bachelor program tends to give lower subjective learning outcomes in these knowledge areas.

“I just Google it” - Developing professional digital competence and preparing student teachers to exercise responsible ICT use

The rapid emergence of information and communication technology (ICT) has had implications for the education system and initial teacher education (ITE) in particular. This study investigated the extent to which teacher education assists student teachers in developing their professional digital competence (PDC) in general and, more specifically, their competence in using ICT responsibly. Responsible use of ICT is here taken to include privacy and copyright issues, ethical issues and the ability to evaluate digital information. To explore Norwegian student teachers’ perspectives, awareness and experience of the responsible use of ICT, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 student teachers before their practice placements at local schools and with six students after their practice placements. Overall, the findings indicate that the student teachers mostly knew how to search for and evaluate digital information, but that they tended to choose the most convenient approach for search and evaluation. Further, it seems that the student teachers were aware to some extent of how to avoid advertisements, marketing or inappropriate content when using online resources in the classroom. However, they had limited competence in dealing with privacy and copyright issues in a teaching setting. One of the challenges identified through this study is that, during practice placements, the attention seems to be on the technical aspects of ICT rather than on pedagogical or responsible ways of using ICT. The study concludes that teacher education programmes need to include responsible use of ICT as an integral part of their programme, as well as during student teachers’ practice placements in schools, rather than providing stand-alone activities or courses of limited duration.

Oral and written competencies at a transitional stage: A study of narratives from first-year student teachers´ self-evaluations

El artículo presenta un estudio sobre la comprensión de los estudiantes docentes noruegos de sus competencias orales y escritas en la educación superior, centrándose en los estudiantes en sus estudios iniciales de formación docente mientras se preparan para convertirse en maestros de escuela o maestros de jardín de infancia. El estudio busca una visión más profunda de las percepciones de los docentes estudiantes sobre su propio desempeño al cumplir los objetivos orales y escritos de la academía. El estudio incluye las siguientes categorías estudiantes de educación: estudiantes de medio tiempo a nivel de licenciatura que buscan enseñar kindergarten, así como estudiantes de kindergarten de tiempo completo y estudiantes de maestría de tiempo completo que buscan ser educadores de primaria y secundaria. Los hallazgos en este análisis de la experiencia de los estudiantes docentes, con respecto a las competencias orales y escritas expresadas en sesenta y siete narrativas, indicaron que experimentaron un alto grado de dominio de la competencia oral pero niveles más bajos para la competencia escrita. Además, los estudiantes lucharon con lo que describieron como expectativas ocultas o poco claras relacionadas con la producción de textos académicos. Sobre la base de los resultados de este estudio, los autores proponen una investigación adicional de las experiencias de los estudiantes en el dominio de las competencias lingüísticas. Estos hallazgos de Noruega tendrán paralelos a otros programas de educación en otras partes de Europa. The article presents a study concerning Norwegian student teachers’ understanding of their oral and written competencies in higher education, focusing on students in their initial teacher education studies as they prepare to become school teachers or kindergarten teachers. The study sought deeper insight into student teachers’ perceptions of their own performance in meeting the oral and written objectives of the academy. The study sample included the following categories of education students: part-time students at the bachelor’s level seeking to teach kindergarten, as well as full-time bachelor’s kindergarten students and full-time master’s students seeking to be primary and secondary educators. The findings in this analysis of student teachers’ experience, concerning oral and written competencies as expressed in sixty-seven narratives, indicated that they experienced high degrees of mastery for oral competency but lower levels for written competency. Further, students struggled with what they described as hidden or unclear expectations related to academic text production. Based on the findings of this study, the authors propose further investigation of students’ experiences in mastering language competencies. These findings on Norway will have parallels to other professional education programmes elsewhere in Europe.

Knowledge of CT exposure parameters among Norwegian student radiographers

Background Improvements in the competency levels of student radiographers in computed tomography examinations (CT) are important due to the increasing number of these examinations being undertaken in imaging departments. The present study assesses the knowledge of student radiographers regarding CT exposure parameters. Methods The level of knowledge related to CT exposure parameters was evaluated using a twenty-one-item questionnaire that was distributed to final-year student radiographers. The questionnaire consisted of questions around CT exposure parameters and either allowed respondents to answer “true,” or “false” or choose a response from a range of responses where only one answer was correct. Correct answers were given one mark, while no mark was given for an incorrect answer. The score out of possible 21 was converted to a percentage, with a higher percentage signifying greater knowledge. Results Seventy-two students completed and returned the questionnaire, resulting in a 71% response rate. The mean score was 53%. Only 33% of students correctly identified that kilovoltage peak (kVp) should be increased when patients have metallic implants, and milliampere seconds (mAs) should be increased as body part thickness increases. No one answered all the questions correctly. There was no significant knowledge difference between students who had CT facilities on campus and those that did not. Conclusion Overall, student radiographers’ knowledge of CT exposure parameters was reported to be satisfactory.