Master in Education (class 2006/2008)

The Master’s degree programme in Education amounts to 120 credits. It can be taken both full-time over 2 years or part-time over a longer period of time, max. 5 years.

The programme consists of 2 compulsory and 3 optional courses, all amounting to 15 credits, and the Master’s thesis of 45 credits.

Individual study plan

In the first meeting, there will be allocated time for information about the study plan and the study progress. Here, the students will get an overview over what is expected from them and how the work is organised, and they will draft a tentative individual study plan which states their study progression, choice of courses and topic for the Master’s thesis. The purpose of this is that the students already from the beginning will start to prepare for the work on the Master’s thesis. The individual study plan should reflect how the students are planning to acquire competence and the specialisation required for the thesis. One or several of the optional courses should thematically be related to the Master’s thesis. The individual study plan may be adjusted or changed during the programme.

Compulsory and optional courses

The programme’s two compulsory courses are ”Philosophy of science and research method” and “The history and basic concepts of education”. These courses are offered each academic year in the autumn and spring semester respectively. There is teaching in all courses, both the compulsory and the optional, during the whole semester. The students may take several optional courses at Lillehammer University College (LUC) which are offered in the autumn or spring semester during a period of two years. Optional courses may, upon approval, also be taken at other places of study in Norway or abroad. Likewise, the Master’s courses at LUC may be taken as independent courses by students from other Master’s degree programmes. The university college will make arrangements so that there always are optional courses which provide the students with real options. Optional courses taken at other places of study must correspond to the programme’s topic and profile, and be approved by the programme coordinator at the Master’s degree programme.

The Master's thesis

The work on the Master's thesis will amount to 45 credits. The thesis should describe and analyse educational conditions through theoretical or empirical research. It represents a comprehensive and independent work in which a problem is presented and discussed scientifically. The Master's thesis can consist of a study of theory and/or be based on empirical material. Thematically, the thesis should be placed within one or more of the compulsory or optional courses that the student has chosen. It is important that the students begin formulating ideas and drafts for problem issues early in the programme. In the compulsory and self-elected courses during the programme, it is possible to develop texts that support the student's choice of topic in the Master's thesis.

Individual Master's theses should have a volume of 60-120 pages. Students may also cooperate on the thesis. The individual student's workload will nevertheless be the same. The plan for the Master's thesis is presented in a project plan which must be approved by the programme coordinator at the Master's programme, and which forms the basis for the appointment of supervisor. This normally happens during the second semester, but it is possible to hand in the project plan for approval already in the first semester.

The Master in Education builds on a three-year Bachelor’s degree or corresponding. The requirement is that the Bachelor’s degree amounts to a minimum of 80 credits of education/pedagogy. Applicants with previous teacher, pre-school teacher, child welfare or practical-educational (PPU) education may also be admitted.

Applicants with education higher than Bachelor’s degree level may apply to get this approved as part of the Master’s degree programme. In the evaluation of such applications, the education in question will be assessed and compared with the Master's degree programme in terms of relevance, academic level and overlapping courses.

The content of the different courses are explained and discussed through lectures, supervision, literature study, seminars, group discussions and a final thesis with subsequent evaluation.

There will also be different specialisation seminars in research method related to the students’ work on the Master’s thesis.

The reading material will amount to 5000 pages in total, i.e. app. 1000 pages in each course (15 credits). About 2/3 of the literature is compulsory while the rest is self-elected. The self-elected reading material must be approved by the course teachers.

The programme is flexibly arranged so that it can be taken both full-time and part-time over a longer period of time. This requires that the students have access to the Internet. Since the programme is based on courses, the students can take different parts at different pace and order. The teaching will be organised in meetings which are available both for full-time and part-time students, and it will be arranged in a way that makes it possible for the students to take one or several courses in parallel each semester. In addition, an essential part of the communication between the university college/teachers and the students will be done via the Internet. The students will organise their own study progress within the framework of the course offer. It will be possible to be full-time student in some periods and part-time student in others by taking some parts of the programme full-time and others over a longer period of time. Part-time students working on their Master’s thesis are recommended to apply for a leave of absence from other engagements so that they in periods can work full-time on the thesis.

The evaluation will partly be continuous at the end of each course (15 credits) and partly final through an oral examination based on the Master’s thesis (45 credits).

Evaluation of compulsory and optional courses
The work requirements and evaluation methods in the programme will vary depending on course. In the compulsory courses, the evaluation will be based on handed-in written assignments. In the course “Philosophy of science and research method”, there will also be a four-hour written test in research method. There are more details on the evaluation methods in the different course descriptions. The students will get a letter grade for each course which counts 15 out of 120 credits in the calculation of the total grade for the programme.

Final examination

The Master’s thesis is handed in and evaluated at the end of the programme. The thesis is evaluated by 2-3 examiners of which one is external. The thesis will get a letter grade. The thesis will get a letter grade. The grade might be adjusted after a final oral examination in connection with the Master's thesis and the curriculum. The final grade on the final examination amounts to 45 out of 120 credits in the calculation of a total grade for the programme. The grade of the Master’s thesis (final examination) is separately indicated on the certificate.

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