Norwegian science teacher educators’ views of the master’s thesis and the supervision process

The aim of this article is to investigate Norwegian science teacher
educators’ views of the master’s thesis and the supervision process in
connection with the recent change to five-year master’s programmes.
Interviews with fourteen science teacher educators from the seven
teacher education institutions offering a master’s specialisation in
science education were analysed inductively through thematic analysis.
The teacher educators’ perceptions were represented by four themes:
development of personal traits, academic competence, value for
classroom practice and value for the teaching community. Furthermore,
they emphasised being project leaders and having competence in
science education and relational competence when supervising master’s
theses. The science educators are positive about the general features of
the master’s thesis, such as developing personal traits and more
research-competent colleagues of teachers. However, the study
revealed that many supervisors expressed a lack of competence and
supervision experience, and we suggest involving teacher educators in
research projects in education.