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The school is an important institution in Faroese society, as elsewhere in the world. Among other things, schools must prepare students for further education, professional life, and their duties as citizens. The quality of teachers’ instruction is the most important factor influencing pupils’ learning. The concept of citizenship behaviour highlights the idea that student teachers have a responsibility not only to fulfil their duties but also to contribute to the well-being of their peers. Student teachers’ citizenship behaviour is assumed to influence the functioning of teacher education. Teacher education prepares student teachers and supplies schools with appropriately trained teachers. The purposes of this study are (1) to present an overview of Faroese teacher training, and (2) to explore the statistical relationships between Faroese student teachers’ motivational orientations and their citizenship behaviours. As expected, we find that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are related to citizenship behavior. Furthermore, we find that instructional self-efficacy is positively related to citizenship behaviour. Implications for practice and avenues for further research are discussed.

Mange evalueringer har vist, at lærerstuderende bruger beskeden tid på at studere. I denne undersøgelse undersøger vi indflydelsen fra udvalgte faktorer, som er relateret til lærerstuderendes studieintensitet, baseret på undersøgelsesdata og strukturel ligningsmodellering. Analyserne bygger på svar fra 1224 lærerstuderende på fire forskellige campusser. Den vigtigste konstatering er, at studenternes selvdisciplin og akademisk pres skiller sig ud som de vigtigste faktorer, som har betydning for de studerendes studieintensitet. Hvis et lavt niveau af studieintensitet betragtes som et problem, kunne stimulering af de lærerstuderendes selvdisciplin i studiearbejdet og en skærpelse af arbejdskravene i de campusbaserede elementer af læreruddannelsen være et muligt middel. Implikationer for praksis og videre forskning diskuteres.

The focus in this study is on the antecedents of Icelandic student teachers’ instructional self-efficacy in classroom management and ability to support learner engagement. We examine how student teachers’ instructional self-efficacy relates to their experience in the teacher education programme, including campus preparation and practice teaching in schools. Data were gathered from 191 compulsory school student teachers. The results show that experiences with problem behaviour in the classroom are negatively related to student teachers’ efficacy in classroom management. Further, perceptions of the relevance of campus experiences are strongly related to student teachers’ efficacy in classroom management. The implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore antecedents of Finnish and Norwegian student teachers’ prospective commitment to work as teachers or pursue other careers. Are student teachers’ perceptions of coherence between the theoretical and practical elements of the teaching programme related to their commitment to work as teachers or to pursue other careers? For Finnish student teachers, strong associations emerged between the theory-practice interaction in supervision and student teachers’ prospective commitment to work as teachers. Norwegian student teachers exhibited strong associations between personalised feedback and their prospective commitment to teaching. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Research indicates that prospective commitment to a vocation is important to sustaining good professional practices. The purpose of the study was to explore, among Icelandic student teachers, how student teacher experiences in field-based practice and those in university-based courses are related to the student teachers’ prospective commitment to the teaching profession as well as their possible turnover intentions. This study investigated the experiences of student teachers in a five-year programme for compulsory schoolteachers at the University of Iceland. The data is based on results from a survey of 244 student teachers in all cohorts in the programme. In particular, we investigated connections between the attitudes of student teachers towards the teaching profession and their experiences during the university-based part of their teacher education and during the school-based teaching practice aspect. The data analysis indicates that the university-based part of teacher education positively influences student teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession and negatively influences their turnover intentions, while the school-based component of their teacher education is positively related to their commitment to the teaching profession but is not related to their turnover intentions. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Increased time-on-task is one of the overall goals for teacher education in both Denmark and Norway. However, student teachers' time-on-task in those programs are uncertain and highly debated indicators of research input. Researchers adopt this indicator with the expectation that student teachers must invest time and effort in their courses that are approximately equivalent to that expended during a standard workweek. The purpose of this article is to analyse the differences between Danish and Norwegian teacher education for elementary schools based on a uniform survey conducted in each country; more specifically, the survey queried student teachers' time-on-task in faculty- and student faculty-led campus activities. In this empirical study, we use survey data to examine factors that influence the duration of student teachers' time-on-task in Norway (n = 274) and Denmark (n = 1224). To meet the study's objectives, we conducted an ordinary least squares regression analysis and found that student teachers' self-discipline and perceived study demands are the most important exogenous factors in the duration of their time-on-task. The analyses led us to explore their implications for the structure of teacher education programs, particularly in terms of curriculum design and the articulation of academic expectations.

Studies have indicated that the learning results are closely related to how much effort a student puts into the course and how effectively the student works with the learning material. Adequate time-on-task is crucial for student teachers because it allows them to develop their teaching skills, build strong relationships with students, adapt to classroom challenges, and ultimately become more effective educators. It is a critical component of their teacher preparation and development. Time-on-task in a teacher education program can be considered a coarse-grained measure of study intensity. The purpose of the present study is to explore factors that could explain Faroese student teachers' time-on-task. Faroese schools received a PISA shock after the millennium. As one of several measures, the teacher education institute was incorporated into the country's sole university. The results show that it is their perceptions of the study requirements in teacher education that is most strongly related to time-on-task. Further, there is a tendency towards a weaker relation between self-discipline and time-on-task. A comparison with time-on-task in the other Nordic nations shows that time-on-task is somewhat low. If this is a problem, it might be important to increase the study requirements in Faroese teacher education.

The duration of on-campus academic engagements is an uncertain and highly debated indicator of study input. Researchers adopt this indicator with the expectation that student teachers must invest an amount of time and effort in their courses that more or less equals a normal workweek. In the present empirical study, we examine factors influencing the duration of student teachers’ on-campus academic engagements in Norway and Finland using survey data (n = 567). While the teaching profession is highly respected in Finland, and universities make selections for teacher education programs, the profession has a relatively low status in Norway. To meet the objectives of this study, we conducted an OLS regression analysis and found that students’ self-discipline and perceived study requirements are the most important predictors of the duration of their on-campus academic engagements. In addition, the motivation to achieve a goal is also significant, while no significant effect was found for intrinsic motivation. Finally, the study shows no significant differences between the coefficients for the Norwegian and Finnish variable.

A typical preservice teacher will experience demanding teaching situations during practicum. In such situations, interpersonal support from fellow students may be an important factor if experiences gained during teaching practice are to make a constructive contribution to personal growth for the teacher. Human support from other preservice teachers can bridge a gap that can be filled only to a limited extent by practice supervisors, who also have a role in assessing the students’ practice periods. The phenomenon of preservice teachers helping their co-students—even though, strictly speaking, they have no formal responsibility in this area—is called citizenship behavior here. Structural equation modeling of questionnaire data collected among Norwegian preservice teachers shows that performance approach motivation is the factor most strongly associated with citizenship behavior. Intrinsic motivation is also a significant factor, both as a direct and an indirect effect, via study absorption. The self-efficacy of preservice teachers in teaching situations also has a robust association with citizenship behavior, while experiences involving pupil engagement problems in teaching situations have a negative effect on self-efficacy. Pupil engagement problems also have an adverse impact on absorption.

This article focuses on the comparison of organizational antecedents of teachers' fostering of students' effort in two quite different accountability regimes: one management regime with an external-accountability system and one with no external accountability devices. The methodology involves cross-sectional surveys from two different management systems: (1) teachers working under assessment-based accountability (N = 236) and (2) folk–high school teachers who work without tests and examinations and, thereby, without external accountability devices (N = 366). The purpose of the study is to estimate the path coefficients in structural equation modeling in the two regimes and compare the significance of relationships between concepts in the structural models. Through this comparison, inferences are drawn suggesting how accountability repercussions and other leadership organizational antecedents may influence teachers' fostering of students' efforts and how qualitative aspects among school professionals may influence the fostering of effort. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.Christopherson, K, Elstad, E, & Turmo, A. (2012). Antecedents of teachers fostering effort within two different management regimes: an assessment-based accountability regime and regime without external pressure on results. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership 7(6). Retrieved from www.ijepl.org.

The Norwegian school reform “Knowledge Promotion”, implemented from 2006 onwards, focuses on the schools’ responsibilities for fostering student learning strategies. This article reports from an empirical study of high school students’ motivation, learning strategy use and self-regulation in science. An extensive questionnaire was administered to 532 students in five high schools in Oslo. The students (16-17 year olds) attended the first year of the 3-year academic specialization program, where they take a compulsory general science course. The questionnaire also asked the students about their science teacher’s behaviors and about student-teacher interactions. The relationships between teacher behaviors and students’ attitudes and habits are studied in the article. The results show several distinct gender differences. For example, the girls report using memorization strategies more than the boys do in science, while boys emphasize elaboration strategies and critical thinking more.

This article reports from a computer-based assessment of scientific literacy. The study was implemented in Norway in the period from March to June 2005 by the use of 6 carry-in laptops. In total, 315 15-year old students participated. All students did a one hour paper-based test and a one-hour computerbased test. In addition to the cognitive response data, also behavioural data were recorded from the computer-based test. The results show no statistically significant gender difference for the paper-based test, while a substantial gender difference in favour of boys is established for the computer-based test. The PC test seems to favour boys because of the lower reading load. Boys also express higher motivation and larger preference for doing the test on PC compared to on paper. The behavioural data show that boys make more active use of the multimedia elements in the PC test than the girls do.