Conferences

Project results presented at the NFHE conference in Paris

Agnete Vabø, Nicoline Frølich and Mari Elken presented results from the case studies in part B of the project at the Nordic Fields of Higher Education conference that took place 12-13th of April at Sciences Po in Paris.

The conference was jointly organised by University of Bergen, Uppsala University, the Norwegian University Centre in Paris, and Sciences Po, Paris; and gathered over 40 researchers from within and beyond the Nordic countries.

Dr. Mari Elken, NIFU
Research Professor Nicoline Frølich, NIFU
Research professor Agnete Vabø, NIFU

Mari Elken, Nicoline Frølich, Peter Maassen, & Bjørn Stensaker: “Organizing quality work in higher education institutions” 

Agnete Vabø: “Disciplinary differences in organising quality work”

Both of the presentations will also be chapters in the upcoming book!

 

Results from the project presented at the NERA conference in Oslo

The 46th Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) conference was held  8-10 March in Oslo. Researchers from the project presented seven papers from the project in a two-session symposium Friday afternoon, organised by Crina Damsa and Thomas de Lange (View the conference programme here):

  • Portfolio assessment in biology: from design to implementation by Rachelle Esterhazy
  • Simulation in nursing- Enhancing quality through technological training environments by Odd Rune Stalheim & Yngve Nordkvelle
  • Participant or observer in an online MBA? by Trine Fossland & Cathrine E. Tømte
  • Exploring how law students’ regulation of learning is related their experiences of the teaching-learning environment by Heidi Hyytinen & Anne Haarala-Muhonen
  • Study program leadership: a matter of organization? by Bjørn Stensaker, Mari Elken, Peter Maassen
  • Elements of study program plans – organising for alignment? by Tine S. Prøitz
  • Exploring plenary sessions and their potentialities for student learning by Anne Line Wittek, Thomas de Lange, Monika Bærøe Nerland & Trine Fossland

The sessions were commented by Monika Nerland (UiO) and  Eva Forsberg (Uppsala University).

Odd Rune Stalheim & Yngve Nordkvelle presenting the case on simulation.

 

Professor Monika Nerland, UiO

Note also that Monika Nerland will be one of the keynote speakers at the conference. Her talk is titled: “Contemporary knowledge dynamics and shifting demands to professional expertise”. In the talk, she employs perspectives from social studies of science and professions to discuss how the knowledge dynamics that serve professional expertise are getting more complex, comprising a range of knowledge-producing actors and interests which generate tensions in educational contexts.

Presentations at CHER and EARLI

Researchers from the project will be presenting some of the results at upcoming CHER and EARLI conferences.

From part B – researchers are presenting at the CHER conference  in Jyväskylä at the end of August. The panel is titled “Quality work in higher education” and includes contributions from project researchers ithat focus on internal systems and practices for quality work, disciplinary differences as well as quality management in study programmes.

Researchers from the project part C will also be presenting results from the project during the EARLI conference in Tampere, Finland, at the end of August. Paper presentations in invited and organized symposiums will disseminate mainly findings from Part C of the project, on pedagogical approaches that generate quality in higher education teaching and learning.

The invited symposium of the Special Interest Group ‘Higher Education’ will contain the paper Innovating pedagogical designs for student-centered learning: teachers’ approaches and challenges, written in collaboration by colleagues from Oslo and Helsinki. Another paper, Interactional meaning-making of assessment feedback in undergraduate education, will present material from one of the Norwegian cases analyzed in Part C.

Stensaker, Tømte and Fossland presenting at Nordic Council of Ministers conference in Helsinki

Last week, on 14th of June, the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre organized a Nordic conference, titled: Student-centred approach and the quality of degree education. The conference brought together over 200 participants from various Nordic countries.

Professor Bjørn Stensaker held one of the keynote speeches, where he focused on the relationship between learning outcomes and quality assurance, and pointed some of the issues of bringing quality assurance practice closer to the primary processes of higher education.

cathrine and trineIn addition, Research professor Cathrine Tømte and Associate professor Trine Fossland presented some of their work in the first parallel session. View their presentation “The teachers’ role in the changing landscape of technology rich environments” here (pdf).

The keynote speech by Bjørn Stensaker was also recorded and is avilable on youtube, embedded in the video below. Bjørn Stensakers presentation starts at about 55 minutes, after the introductory speeches from Anita Lehikoinen (Ministry and Education and Culture in Finland), Anders Geertsen (Nordic Council of Ministers) and Professor Riitta Pyykkö (University of Turku).