Background

Educational research proves tensions and difficulties in teacher training (NOKUT 2006, Cochran-Smith & Lytle 1999; Heinz 1999). The training aims to develop student teachers with sufficient disciplinary as well as educational knowledge and skills, according to what is prescribed in national and local guidelines. It is often also stated that teachers are entitled to self-determination (autonomy) in practice and in the formation of professional identity – what is often called “Bildung”. New reforms and new models in Norwegian teacher training challenge the conceptions of the mandate of teacher education, as well as the content and the organization (Granlund et al. 2011, Ytreberg 2011). To reconcile these conflicting objectives and develop a teacher qualification of high relevance for teaching are challenging and have actualized a discussion about how to create better coherence between research based and experience based knowledge, as well as between college and workplace learning (Tatto 1996).

Research questions

 What impact will different structural coherence have on student teachers’ learning and which dilemmas are at stake? These differences could be between a) programs (often part time) where students stay in work arenas most of the time or most of the time at college (often full time), b) programs where the college has a strong or weak influence on the organizing and content of practicum or c) programs where the college teachers take more or less part in meetings or supervision in practicum – and where supervisors take more or less part in meetings at college.

 What impact will different conceptual coherence (whether visions and knowledge perspectives are common or diverse between university college and practicum) have on student teachers’ learning?

 What impact has coherence on student teachers’ evaluation of the programs and their relevance for professional work?

 What differences exist between student teachers and student preschool teachers in the matters mentioned in the questions above?

Theoretical framework

In international debates about professional education the concept coherence is used to grasp the tendency to build closer and stronger relationships, between various subjects, especially between education and vocational challenges (Tatto 1996, Grossman et.al. 2008, Hammerness 2006, Darling-Hammond 2006). Coherence is separated into conceptual coherence, where teachers in college and mentors in practicum have common visions, ideas and knowledge perspectives, and structural coherence, when educational programs have a logistic and is organized in a way that integrates parts of them. This concerns the levels and forms of integration between coursework and fieldwork. The urge for new forms of collaboration in practicum with more emphasis on research-based knowledge in teacher training, raises issues related to implementation of national and institutional policies. The intention is that these conceptual and structural changes shall further the integration of research-based and experience-based knowledge in the practicum programs and prepare students for a continuous professional qualification in their work. Research shows however that coherence based on contrived cooperation may lead to resistance (Hargreaves 1994) and that changes in educational programs might become cosmetic and short-lived (Day 1999).

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