31.12.2014
Gunnar Börkur Jónasson, Allyson Macdonald and Guðrún Kristinsdóttir
Student demands and a thematic approach to teaching and learning at the University College of Education in Iceland in 1978

The purpose of this study was to analyse forces affecting teacher education in Iceland around the time of upgrading from secondary to university level. The response of the administration when the university level programme did not meet the expectations of some students and teachers is examined. So too is why and how the introduction in 1978 of the socalled ‘thematic approach’ (í. þemanám) accounted for some of the factors affecting the teacher education programme, including the questions of theory and practice and the status of education as a field of study in academia. The study is based on documentary analysis of published and unpublished material and data from interviews taken in 2002 and 2003 with with ten key informants who had participated in most of the changes being studied.