Department of Education and Sports Science

The Department educates primary school teachers and offers sports studies, as well as a Master’s degree in Special Needs Education. The Department also has an abundance of continuing and further education courses.

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Fakta
Students

1000

Employees

86

Research fellows

9

Visit us

We are located in Hulda Garborg's house

Fasaden til Hulda Garborgs hus sett nedenfra og opp
The department is located in the Hulda Garborg-building at campus Ullandhaug.

At the Department of Educatgion and Sport Science, we are involved in teaching, research and dissemination related to teacher training, special needs education and sport.

The Department has several study programmes at both Master's and Bachelor's level, as well as continuing and further education courses.

We are engaged in comprehensive research and development work related in the field of education, where our core areas are educational science, subject didactics, special needs education and sports science. By providing knowledge, expertise and practice experience, we wish to equip our students with the best possible tools for facing working life.

We work closely with work experience providers and the labour market through various partnership agreements, and we are a major regional participant in further education and in boosting expertise at schools. This takes place via the work of DEKOM (decentralised scheme for boosting local expertise).

The Department’s researchers cooperate with other areas at the UiS, have key roles in Norwegian networks and engage in international research and educational cooperation with institutions in a number of countries.

Our study offers

The Department offers Master's degree programmes in primary education, special needs education and sport. In addition, you can take a Bachelor's degree in sport (specialising as a personal trainer or in outdoor activities) and one-year units in art and handicrafts, sport and drama.

Elev og lærer

We teach primary school teachers for Classes 1-7 and 5-10, and are responsible for a Master’s degree in Special Needs Education. The optional subjects we offer include the core subjects of Norwegian, mathematics, English, social sciences and natural science, as well as drama, physical education, food and health, art and handicrafts, KRLE (Christianity, Religion, Life Views and Ethics) and digital didactics at primary school.

We also offer sports education where you can learn more about public health, outdoor activities and physical education. You can take Sports Science as a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s degree and as a one-year course.

We also have one-year drama, art and handicraft courses.

See all the courses offered by the Department of Primary and Lower Secondary Education, Sports Science and Special Needs Education.

Good reasons for becoming a teacher

The field of educational science is relevant to working with education and the development of expertise and knowledge in many sectors of society.

You will receive an all-round education which will qualify you as an attractive job seeker. Once you have left school you will have a varied working day in a safe job with a good starting salary.

You will have a rewarding profession where you will be involved in looking after the smart brains of the future. As a teacher you will be participating in an important social task!

As a primary school teacher you will have many varied tasks which will allow you to use many different aspects of yourself. The teaching profession is exciting and demanding, but never boring!

Not only does a Master’s degree mean that the starting salary for teachers is higher, it also means that you can delete part of your student loan.

Research at the department

The high-quality teacher training courses offered at the University of Stavanger are research-led. Many employees from several different fields of study participate in research into teacher’s knowledge about teaching and about how teaching takes place. We focus on professional research, where we work on strengthening and encouraging more research relevant to teacher training and practical applications.

Bok oppslått i dunkel belysning med briller og nettbrett ved siden av

The Department’s two programme areas are:

1) Developing teaching practices

UiS researchers have long been engaged in conducting research on teacher’s professional and teaching knowledge. They are now focusing on teaching with the aim of helping to develop teaching practices, for the benefit of both teachers and pupils. In this programme area they conduct research on how Lesson Study can help to promote the development of teaching practices in schools and education, etc. They also devote attention to how cycles involving practice and testing can help to better prepare primary school students for practical studies outside school.

2) Democracy and citizenship: interdisciplinary approaches and critical perspectives (DEMCI)

How do pupils, teachers, school owners and researchers understand, experience and practice democracy and citizenship? And how is work carried out on the interdisciplinary subject of “democracy and citizenship”, both in and across subjects at primary school, upper secondary school and teacher training? This programme area also contains reflections about, and work on, local, national and global political guidelines and documents, and critical perspectives about what democracy and citizenship involve.

Research on sport and mathematics

The Department is also actively engaged in conducting research on teaching mathematics and the development of mathematics teachers. It has also been heavily involved in research relating to Lesson Study under the Teachers as Students project (how student teachers develop the knowledge, skills and expertise that they will need as future teachers), and the UiS is conducting a project in cooperation with The University of Malawi UiS to develop the quality and capacity of mathematics teacher training in Malawi.

The academic community involved in Sport and Sports Sciences is a small academic group with a broad field of impact which makes active contributions in several key fields of study. This academic group contributes towards research on elite sports where the issues involved are linked to the following topics: physical performance abilities, training loads, motion analysis and biomechanics, performance psychology and coaching.

In the field of outdoor activities we work with the values and role that such activities have in Norwegian society, and we have included guidance on outdoor activities in our education. The research focuses on PE teachers’ physical education, physical education didactics and PE learning environments. The main focus of the Master's degree is related to learning about performance developments in sporting activities and Master’s students are linked to research projects at the Department. In addition, we are conducting research on physical activities and health, both in and outside schools. In collaboration with the municipality of Stavanger we are also offering a Public Sector PhD on physically active teaching.

Other important keywords relating to research at the Department include pedagogy and practice, classroom research (pupils’ learning processes in the classroom), literature didactics, reading knowledge, Norwegian didactics, Norwegian as a second language, teachers’ professional knowledge, Lesson Study as a method of working, guidance, sustainable development and education, lifelong learning, digital competence, digital didactics and history (oil history, migration history).

Contact us

Head of Department
51833474
Faculty of Arts and Education
Department of Education and Sports Science
Head of Administration
51833085
Faculty of Arts and Education
Faculty Administration UH
Administration IGIS