The school year 2011/2012 I will be working with master students in Vocational Pedagogy at Oslo and Akershus University College. It is the first year of their master studies. My aim is to involve the students in recognizing quality in development work and action research in the field of vocational pedagogy.

This is part of my Phd-project were the working title is: Investigate and further develop ways to assess and evaluate pedagogical vocational development projects and action research when this is the core activity in education. One of the first steps in this three year project is to collaborate with my students in developing criteria of assessment and evaluation through action research. Through a process of a future workshop, in the style of Müllert and Jungk, I want to challenge my students to express examples of quality or lack of quality and use this as a starting point for reflection. Further we will through dialog draw pictures of future possibilities and develop practical ways of implementing these ideas in to the students work with their master projects.

I have been working with master students since 2005. I have seen that there are areas of this education that has a potential for improvement. I have a concern that my students are not sufficiently able recognize quality in a way that is practical for the development of their master projects. There are many challenges in an education like this. The average student is more than 35 years of age and has vast experience in their vocational field. Most of the students have been working as vocational teachers for several years. We need to find ways that to a greater extent recognizes and makes use of this valuable experience. Also one of the great challenges of the Master Studies in Vocational Pedagogy is at all times to be sufficiently up to date with what is happening both in the actual vocational fields relevant to our students and in the schools that educate in these vocations. 

The books in special focus for my project in this period will be:

Dobson, Stephen, Eggen, B., Astrid og Smith Kari (red.) (2009). Vurdering, prinsipper og praksis. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk

Eikeland, Olav (2008). The Ways of Aristotle. Bern: Peter Lang

Hattie, John (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge

Hiim, Hilde (2010). Pedagogisk aksjonsforskning. Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk

Jungk, Robert og Müllert, Norbert R. (1989). Håndbog i fremtidsværksteder. København:  Politisk Revy

McNiff, J. og Whitehead, J. (2009). Doing and writing action research. Los Angeles: Sage

Sennet, Richard (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press

Slemmen, Trude (2009). Vurdering for læring i klasserommet. Oslo: Gyldendal akademisk