A study of net-based distance courses in English for teachers based on the Kompetanseplan K2000

Project summary

The focus of the project has been a study of net based in-service courses in English for teachers based on the Kompetanseplan ("Competence Plan") K2000, initiated by the Ministry of Education in 1999, comparing these courses to tradional on campus courses in English for teachers and teacher students. The goal has primarily been to look at differences, strengths and weaknesses in both types of courses; whether the net-based courses, aimed at practising teachers, differ in content and structure compared to tradional courses, which basically are replicas of the "foundation courses" in English offered at the universities. By investigating study plans from both types of courses and interviewing academic staff who have experience from both of the course categories, the project has made an attempt at finding out whether, and/or to what extent, the "school based" net courses in fact have initiated new ideas when it comes to the content and structure in the English courses within the teacher education, and it has also tried to analyse new possibilities and limitations in net-based ESL distance courses. The project has furthermore tried to find an answer to whether the new courses may create a foundation for the development of a new type of teaching oriented master programmes in the teacher training system in Norway, with more weight given to the didactic aspects than what has been common so far in English master programmes.