Abstract:

The article is based on a survey where teacher students during the one year practical pedagogical course which qualifies for teaching in secondary school report their attitudes, values and motivation concerning perspectives on teaching. We wanted to know what Norwegian teacher students found important for attending the course. The basic find is that the students’ values are in concordance with the general values in our society, that the students are mainly influenced by intrinsic motivation, but that extrinsic motivation also plays an important part, especially for students who had experienced unemployment. Background variables like gender and majority/minority did not make any difference. The findings indicate that the students are strongly motivated to work with children and young people, and that they found practical-pedagogical education relevant and displayed positive attitudes towards the content of the course.

Keywords:

Teacher training, motivation, student attitudes.