Master's Thesis in English and Education

Fakultet for humaniora, samfunnsvitenskap og lærerutdanning

This is a compulsory course reserved for students participating in the Master's Degree Programme in Language and Social Studies with Integrated Practical-Educational Training. Before embarking on their master's thesis students must have satisfactorily completed a minimum of 100 credits (ECTS) in the discipline

The master's thesis is an independent scientific piece of work with a specific within English Literature or Linguistics.

The topic of the master's thesis is to be selected in consultation with the teaching staff/supervisors. The thesis may be written as part of a wider research project or be based upon a teaching topic.

The thesis should be a scientific dissertation of between 40-70 pages in length (with about 2000 characters per page). Comprehensive illustrations and/or material presentations are not included in the overall page count. A minimum limit of 30 text pages is set should the thesis include such things as sound or picture files, printed or taped material.

A master's thesis is normally an individual piece of work, however, two or three students may collaborate on the one thesis. In the event of a 2 or 3 person collaboration, the scale of the thesis increases by 50% and 100% respectively, whereby each student's contribution is evidenced.

The Master's Degree thesis should be submitted for evaluation by May 15th in the Spring Semester and November 15th in the Autumn Semester.

The Programme Board decides each year which programmes/fields of study will be evaluated, and which courses will undergo an end of course evaluation by the students and teaching staff. All courses undergo a mid-course evaluation. All courses undergo an end of course evaluation once during a two year period at the master's degree level.

Students will have gained the following learning results upon satisfactory course completion:

Knowledge and Understanding:

Students will have:

• a thorough knowledge of and greater understanding of a defined area of the subject
• knowledge of the revelance of questions of enquiry, legitimateness and professional experience of the subject in the school.
• knowledge of current ethical requirements and guidelines within the field of research

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• formulate a question of enquiry and prepare a methodical plan for investigating the enquiry of research
• master literature searches and the proper use of research literature
• analyse data from the investigation, and discuss and draw conclusions about the research enquiry.
• reflect academically upon the topic in a school perspective
• write an extensive project where the language is well formulated and correct in usage

Competancies:

Students will have:

• developed the ability to discuss critically and with a theoretical and methodical basis a topic within a field relevant to teaching in the school
• become capable of carrying out independent project work, solve problems by preparing, organising and discussing an extensive material based on a suitable set of methods.
• received a foundation for further research within the subject

The master's degree will be written in English.

New Master's Degree students will be allocated a contact person from among the teaching staff. This person will be available to give advice on the process of the master's thesis and about potential supervisors. The supervisor will be allocated when the topic of the thesis has been decided.

Two supervisors will be allocated, one being the main supervisor from within the discipline, and the other being the assistant supervisor from the Department of Education.

Supervision is primarily provided on an individual basis, and in some cases also in groups in the form of thesis seminars and the like.

Full-time students have the right to a supervisor for up to two years. Part-time students with a study progression of 50% have the right to 'half time' supervision over a total of four years. Students' rights to supervision is void once this time limit is exceeded.

Coursework requirements:

At the commencement of the work on the master's thesis it is required that the student writes a project outline explaining the topic of research, the question of enquiry, the type of material it will build upon, the theory and methods to be used, how the thesis will be structured, and how the work on the thesis will proceed. The subject didactic shall also be presented in the outline. The project outline must be submitted within the end of the first semester of the master's degree thesis, and approved by the supervisors.

After submission, the Master's Degree thesis will be assessed as a written examination paper, and will be given an individual mark. In addition to a grade, the candidate will receive a written report from the examiners outlining the positive and less positive aspects of the thesis.

Where a thesis is written by a group of two or three students, collective responsibility for the thesis is assumed, and all members of the group will receive the same grade.

The Master's Degree thesis is evaluated with the grades A-F. A Master's Degree thesis which has received the grade F (Fail), may be re-submitted for examination in a re-worked form within the deadline for a later semester.

Avhandling:

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.

Avhandling

There is no compulsory reading associated with the Master's Degree thesis.