The goal of research-based learning in teacher education: Norwegian and Finnish teacher educators’ perspectives

Abstract

Within research-based teacher education, there is still a lack of common understanding and consensus regarding what research-based learning means and how it should be organised. In this study, the aim was to explore how teacher educators perceive student teachers’ research-based learning within teacher education in Norway and Finland. The study collected data through interviews with 22 teacher educators. The analysis was done in an inductive way, inspired by constant comparative analysis. The results are categorized into four main areas: 1) academic writing, 2) research competence, 3) critical and analytic thinking and 4) lifelong learning in the teaching profession. These categories represent how teacher educators envisage the development of student teachers’ research-based learning. In the discussion, the theoretical framework of research-based-learning drives the reflection about the categories and the relationship between them. The study concludes that both narrow and broad views of student teachers’ research-based learning, founded on the four categories, are necessary for the development of professional teachers. The narrow views lay the foundation for the broader ones, emphasizing that it is equally important for student teachers to achieve the goals of both perspectives.