Nordic Journal of STEM Education最新文献

{"title":"Student guides: supporting learning from laboratory experiments through across-course collaboration","authors":"Kjersti Daae, Elin Darelius, Anne Digranes Årvik, Mirjam S. Glessmer","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.5093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.5093","url":null,"abstract":"We have observed that students often struggle with laboratory experiments. There is a high threshold to getting involved hands-on for fear of ruining an experiment, losing time, or breaking the equipment. More importantly, students have difficulty connecting the theory they learn in lectures and exercises with observations they make in the laboratory. As a result, it is challenging to formulate hypotheses, figure out what observations are needed, and make and interpret observations. We address this challenge by creating across-course collaboration between a basic- and an advanced-level Ocean and Atmosphere Dynamics course, which run during the same study periods and are typically taken in subsequent years. We train students from the advanced-level course to act as \"guides\" and to support groups of basic-level students doing laboratory experiments with the practicalities of running the experiments, making observations, and facilitating discussions about interpretations by asking open-ended questions. This benefits students from both levels: Basic-level students appreciate the help with new lab equipment and the supporting questions that help them make sense of observations. Advanced-level students understand the importance of questions in the learning process and realize how far they have come in understanding the topic in just one year. They report they would like to act as a guide again. We reflect on which design criteria help make this across-course collaboration successful and where we still see room for improvement. Based on our experience and evaluation, we present recommendations for other teachers that might want to try a similar approach.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135645677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How formal initiatives to improve teaching can lead to more significant informal conversations and increased sharing practice","authors":"P. B. Eidesen, O. Førland, Lena M. Håkansson, H. Christiansen, T. Dahl, E. Strømseng","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4951","url":null,"abstract":"University teachers grow professionally from conversations about learning and teaching with colleagues. Significant informal conversations can be facilitated through formal activities initiated from the institutional side. This case-study shows how a formal institutional initiative to enhance educational quality has facilitated more significant informal conversations. Such conversations power constructive feedback to the organisation, improve the formal quality development work at the institutional level, and increase the use of collegial experiences across the institution. We identify the formal initiative “Collegial sharing sessions” as particularly efficient for fuelling significant informal conversations within and across departments.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121507650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introducing Debate as a pedagogical tool in pharmacy education","authors":"Mirey Alfarah, Aase M. Raddum, L. Holst, Reidun Lisbet Skeide Kjome","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4934","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4934","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Communication skills are crucial for pharmacists’ role in counselling and providing information to patients, other healthcare practitioners, and the community. This study explores the implementation of debate as a pedagogical tool into pharmacy education to improve students’ communication skills.This study is part of the design-based research (DBR) project FREMFARM that aims to design, test, and evaluate the expansion of active learning modalities in pharmacy education at the University of Bergen. The project embeds an explicit focus upon the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The sample in the current study consisted of 4th year pharmacy students. Qualitative methods were used to explore students’ perception of implementing the debate activity in the Clinical Pharmacy course. Data were collected using a short pre and post questionnaire, observation using an adapted version of the Teaching Dimension Observation Protocol and post activity focus groups. Analysis was inspired by the systematic text condensation methodology.  Our main finding was that students showed a high level of enthusiasm and interest in the new learning activity. Most students agreed that the debate helped them structure their thinking and simplify their language when communicating complex concepts. Students also expressed that preparing for the debate helped them organize thoughts, spurred them to gather information from prior taught courses, and draw connections to additional fields to prepare arguments. Some students reported transformation in their learning and change of their position and perspective after the debate. Still, some students found the effort used to prepare for the debate activity too large in relation to the gains. We conclude that the debate as a teaching tool increases students’ engagement and that the students experience that the activity had positive impact on their communication and argumentation skills. Despite students experiencing the debate as an unknown and demanding methodology, they considered it important for their academic and professional development. It generated opportunities for critical thinking, argumentative capacity, use of communication skills and teamworking skills. We consider the first trial successful and will continue to implement and upscale the use of debate as a pedagogical tool for future evaluation.\u0000","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125674336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do Students Reflect on Sustainability? Student Development of Competencies for Sustainability in Project-Based Learning","authors":"T. Bolstad, Lars Lundheim, Milica Orlandic, Anders Strømberg, Pauline Hardeberg Zimmermann","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4478","url":null,"abstract":"Higher education plays a crucial role in supporting a society based on sustainable development through the facilitation of students’ acquisition of competencies for sustainable development. A suitable arena in which to integrate these competencies can be courses built on project-based learning, though knowing how to support the students’ learning can be difficult and a continued challenge. In this work, we study first and second year bachelor level PBL courses and examine the effect of choosing a project theme related to sustainability. Specifically, we look at the students’ own assessment of integration of sustainability aspects in their projects, and their development of the normative competency, critical thinking competency, and self-awareness competency fromUNESCO’s key competencies for sustainability, as a function of project theme. Through a survey, where students were asked to assess themselves and their own projects on a seven-point Likert scale, we found that while having sustainability-related project themes does have some effect, the effect is limited compared to the development of other competencies in the course. Along with how the project theme affects the development of the investigated competencies, the need for targeted support in order to facilitate the students’ development of sustainability related competencies is discussed.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115336408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gruppelærerdagen – kvalitet fra første undervisningstime","authors":"Maarten T. P. Beerepoot, Hilja Lisa Huru","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4066","url":null,"abstract":"En stor del av gruppeundervisningen i realfagene ved norske universiteter blir utført av stipendiater eller studenter fra tidligere kull. Fokus på opplæring av denne gruppen undervisere kan bidra til en positiv effekt på undervisningskvalitet og studentenes læring. Det varierer imidlertid fra institusjon til institusjon om det finnes en slik type opplæring og omfang og kvalitet på denne opplæringen kan avhenge av fakultet, institutt, emne og emnelederen. Vi har etablert et enkelt opplæringstilbud for ferske og mer erfarne gruppelærere på vårt fakultet for å bidra til bedre læring gjennom kvalitet fra første undervisningstime. Vi drøfter ulike temaer vi har møtt i organiseringen, spesielt relevans for ulike fag, ulikt erfaringsnivå og ulike undervisningsoppgaver, språk og omfang på opplegget, samt rollen dagen har i pedagogisk opplæring og videreutvikling hos gruppelærerne. Vi belyser temaene ut fra internasjonal litteratur på feltet, evalueringsresultater fra gruppelærerdagene og våre egne erfaringer. Vi håper at dette bidraget kan inspirere andre til å ha mer fokus på opplæring av gruppelærere og gi verdifull innsikt til organisering av opplæringen. Samtidig ønsker vi å vise at dette ikke nødvendigvis må bli ressurskrevende for å utgjøre en forskjell for studentene, for gruppelærerne, og forhåpentligvis også for undervisningskvaliteten på fakultetet som helhet.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"93 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135170259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Teachers’ self-motivation and sense of responsibility determine the use of active learning methods","authors":"K. Enberg, I. Steen, Ståle Ellingsen","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.3356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.3356","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Extended use of laboratory and field courses makes biology a discipline considering itself as a habitual practitioner of active learning strategies. We investigated how widely the faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences (BIO) at the University of Bergen (UiB, Norway) uses active learning methods. Thirty-six members of the teaching staff answered our web-based questionnaire, and we carried out in-depth interviews of 7 faculty members. Our results show that almost all BIO-teachers use at least some active learning methods, and plan to use them in their teaching in the near future. The teachers use active learning methods mostly because they want their students to achieve deeper learning, but also because they want to develop themselves as teachers. This self-motivation is obvious, as over 90% of the teachers identified self-motivation as the strongest incentive, while colleagues, the department, and the university were less important. A vast majority of the teachers also think that it is their own responsibility to adopt active learning methods, while fewer faculty members assume institutional responsibility from BIO. The major bottlenecks identified were large class size and difficulties related to evaluating and grading student performance when using active learning methods. The teachers would use more active learning methods if the availability of active learning rooms was increased. Our in-depth interviews suggest that the most suitable time window for adopting more student-active learning methods is either when new courses are established, or when teachers are taking over courses new to them. We therefore suggest that if educational institutes wish to increase the proportion of active teaching and learning methods, they should provide extra support in such transition periods.\u0000","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129626620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Student active learning in a digital classroom: high-performing science students’ perceptions of their experiences","authors":"Helen Palmer","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4829","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4829","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In March 2020 higher education institutions across Norway closed campuses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored five high-performing science students’ perceptions of their experiences with active learning in a digital physiology classroom. A thematic analysis explored the detailed first-person subjective experiences of learning in the digital classroom to add to the knowledge base about how science students can be supported to learn physiology in remote and digital learning contexts. Five superordinate themes central to the students’ experience were identified: ‘accountability and self-regulation’, ‘building strategy and structure’, ‘creating community and social learning’, ‘difficulty and discomfort essential’ and ‘efforts to reframe adversity’. The students recognised the importance of self-regulation, structure, social interactions, and challenge, explaining how aspects of the course helped or hindered their learning. Differential responses to the use of peer-evaluation and the ability of high-performing students to reframe adversity were evident. Active learning approaches in the digital classroom supported science students in gaining a deeper understanding of physiology.\u0000","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125138237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Students’ response to the introduction of active learning and computational practices in a bachelor-level earth science course","authors":"T. Møller","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4827","url":null,"abstract":" \u0000Earth science education should provide space for students to engage with real-world problems involving complex earth systems and their societal implications. However, the ill-structured nature of such problems creates uncertainty among both teachers and learners. To explore the effect of this uncertainty, we designed and taught a bachelor-level earth science course that introduced geology students to computational practices allowing them to work with authentic data, methods, and ill-structured problems. In addition, the course was designed entirely for active learning and formative assessment. Students provided reflection notes as part of every learning activity, and a series of focus group interviews were conducted at the end of the course to triangulate student experiences with computational practices and problem solving in groups. Our findings suggest that the introduction of computational practices to novices, combined with the transition from passive to active forms of learning, were major sources of uncertainty. This uncertainty needs to be understood and confronted in order for students to engage with real-world problems in an effective manner. On the other hand, our results indicate that collaborative work in groups can alleviate some of the effects of this uncertainty. Our study also supports the systematic use of student reflections as a means of fostering feedback literacy among students as well as teachers.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129443230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interdependence between Perceived Cooperative Learning, Sense of Belonging, and Generic Skills in Undergraduate STEM Education","authors":"Anja Møgelvang, J. Nyléhn","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v7i1.4949","url":null,"abstract":"The development of sense of belonging and generic skills may be considered important to succeed in higher education and in life and may be enhanced through student group work. For group work to succeed, Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning suggest that group members need to be positively interdependent. In the present study we conducted a cross-sectional survey in a sample of 401 students in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education in Norway mapping the students’ perceptions of cooperative learning, sense of belonging and generic skills. By means of Pearson bivariate correlation analyses and standard multiple regression analyses, we found that 1) Cooperative Learning was positively associated with the development of both sense of belonging and generic skills, 2) Sense of belonging and generic skills were positively interrelated, and 3) Interaction was the cooperative learning principle contributing most to the association with both sense of belonging and generic skills.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129231999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maintaining quality assessment practices in Norwegian higher education after the two-evaluator law","authors":"Yael Harlap, C. Jørgensen, S. Cotner","doi":"10.5324/njsteme.v6i1.4873","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5324/njsteme.v6i1.4873","url":null,"abstract":"In May 2021, the Norwegian parliament voted unanimously to again require the use of two evaluators to assess all student work given a grade on the A-F scale in higher education. This revision of the law regulating higher education marks a return to a rule that had been rescinded with the Quality Reform of 2001, and has the potential to lead to a cascade of negative consequences for the quality of practices in STEM higher education. We first provide an overview of the problem, and then offer practical, constructive, and evidence-based suggestions for how instructors can meet these requirements while still offering students opportunities to gain formative feedback, to engage in deep and meaningful learning, and be assessed in ways that are aligned with the intended learning outcomes of the course. These recommendations are certainly not exclusive to a STEM learning context, but two of us (CJ and SC) are STEM educators and bring that perspective to this work.","PeriodicalId":202902,"journal":{"name":"Nordic Journal of STEM Education","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127459451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}