One of the key deliverables from the project will be an edited volume that discusses a range of the key results from the project. Authors of the different draft chapters met on Tuesday the 19th of June in Oslo to discuss current drafts.
The book puts focus on the notion of quality work at various levels of the organization and draws on all of the different data sources employed in the project. It will be edited by (in alphabetical order) Mari Elken, Peter Maassen, Monika Nerland, Tine S. Prøitz, Bjørn Stensaker and Agnete Vabø.
There will also be an event to mark the launch of the book! Check the website for updates!
Following the symposium at the NERA conference, project researchers are also working with a special issue at UNIPED.
Associate Professor Thomas de Lange, UiOAssociate Professor Crina Damsa, UiO
Crina Damsa & Thomas de Lange, the guest editors of the special issue, describe it as:
“This special issue explores how various forms of student centered approaches have been implemented in higher education courses and programs. Its main aim is to examine and understand the way teaching methods and various forms of activity are employed to activate students and to achieve quality in the teaching and learning processes. In addition, the special issue addresses aspects of organization and leadership of study programmes in relation to the teaching and learning processes.
Implications for the educational practices will be identified following from the analysis of empirical cases from Norway and Finland. The articles and the commentaries cover a wide spectrum of disciplinary contexts, institutional contexts and levels of education and intend to identify and problematize aspects that might foster or stand in the way of achieving quality in teaching and learning. The contributions take a departure point in empirical data and engage with different research methodologies.
Overall, the ambition of this special issue is to provide a nuanced and research-based view on quality work in practice and inspire innovative efforts in the future.”
The contributions in the special issue will be both in Norwegian and English.
This morning, the report on student centred approaches in higher education was launched at a breakfast seminar. Monika Nerland (IPED/UiO) and Tine Prøitz (NIFU) presented the key results in the report. This was followed by a panel discussion with Oddrun Samdal (UiB), Ida Austgulen (NSO), Stein Erik Lid (NOKUT) og Gunn Engelsrud (NIH).
The report presents results from 8 course level case studies that employ various student centered approaches. All of the chapters present specific lessons learned, and the final chapter concludes with a number of dilemmas for using student-centered approaches.
The report includes chapters on:
Introduction by Monika Nerland and Tine S. Prøitz
Project-based learning in Computer Engineering Education by Crina Damşa
Portfolio assessment in an undergraduate course in ecology by Rachelle Esterhazy
Group assignments and roleplay in Organisation and Management by Line Wittek & Monika Nerland
Simulation in a practicum course in nursing by Yngve Nordkvelle & Odd Rune Stalheim
Bringing work-related elements into teaching and learning of legal education by Trine Fossland & Thomas de Lange
Online teaching and learning in an experience-based MBA programme by Trine Fossland & Cathrine Tømte
Problem-based learning in a field course in ecology research by Heidi Hyytinen
Large class lectures and essay writing in legal education by Heidi Hyytinen & Anne Haarala-Muhonen
Quality of educational practices: Lessons learned and recommendations for the future by Monika Nerland, Tine S. Prøitz, Crina Damsa, Thomas de Lange, Rachelle Esterhazy, Trine
Fossland, Heidi Hyytinen, Yngve Nordkvelle, Odd Rune Stalheim, Cathrine Tømte, Line Wittek
As a part of the project, researchers from sub-project C have been working on case studies of educational practices at the course level.
The report with key findings will be launched with a breakfast seminar at NIFU on 23rd of January, 2018, at 0830-1000. Tine Prøitz and Monika Nerland present the key results from the report.
The case studies examine aspects that matter for the quality of educational practices in course designs that employ student-centered approaches. Whilst ways of engaging students more actively in their learning processes are high on the political agenda and a variety of pedagogical approaches are developed for these purposes, less is known about how such approaches are
enacted in practice and the challenges teachers and students face in this regard. The cases presented here illustrate different pedagogical designs and approaches and how they play out in different domains and program contexts. Each case study addresses three research questions:
What characterizes the teaching approaches and ways of engaging students in the course?
What challenges do students and teachers face with the given pedagogical approaches and learning activities?
What can we learn from this case about issues that matter for quality of educational practices?
The case studies used a common methodological approach combining participant observation, interviews with teachers and students, document analysis of course documents, and a questionnaire to the students targeting their course participation and experiences.
PhD research fellow in the project, Rachelle Esterhazy (IPED, University of Oslo), has together with Crina Damsa published an article on Studies of Higher Education where she examines how students make sense of feebdack processes. They describe the key focus as:
“This qualitative study proposes a feedback conceptualization informed by sociocultural notions, in which students co-construct meaning from the teacher’s feedback comments through interaction over time, with each other, the teacher, and relevant resources. Based on an in-depth analysis of undergraduate biology students’ discussions of feedback comments, we found that the feedback process takes the form of a meaning-making trajectory students move along by orienting towards and elaborating on both task-specific and general-knowledge content.”
Rachelle has also written a blog post about her recent work on the blog of Centre ofor Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at University of Deakin in Australia. You can find the blog post here.
