| 1. |
- Cronhjort, Mikael, et al.
(author)
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Leadership and Pedagogical Skills in Computer Science Engineering by Combining a Degree in Engineering with a Degree in Education
- 2020
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In: 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE). - : IEEE. - 0190-5848. - 9781728189611 ; , s. 1-9
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this full paper on innovative practice, we describe and discuss findings from dual degree study programmes that combine a master's degree in engineering with a master's degree in education. This innovative study programme design has emerged in Sweden due to an alarming demand for more Upper Secondary School teachers in STEM subjects. Studies on alumni from these programmes indicate that the graduates are highly appreciated not only as teachers in schools, but also in business and industry, e.g. in roles as IT consultants and computer science engineers. Data indicate that the breadth of the combined education, and especially leadership and pedagogical skills, are important factors for these graduates' success as engineers.
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| 2. |
- Malmström, Hans, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Integrating CAD, 3D-printing technology and oral communication to enhance students' physics understanding and disciplinary literacy
- 2020
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In: European Journal of Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0143-0807 .- 1361-6404. ; 41:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- How do engineering physics students come to understand and share their physics learnings as a result of careful integration of oral communication with engineering skills like computer aided design and 3D-printing technology? Based in a sociocognitive theory of situated communication pedagogy, the action research conducted in this study set out to answer this research question in an introductory first-year course in engineering physics. A re-design intervention was planned, overseen, and evaluated by a teaching team comprising three physicists and a communication specialist. The findings-supported by student surveys, reflective field notes from the teachers' observations, and a focus group interview with students-strongly indicate that the students' structured oral engagement with disciplinary content confer learning benefits and promote the development of disciplinary (physics) literacy.
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| 3. |
- Steghöfer, Jan-Philipp, 1983, et al.
(author)
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Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses
- 2018
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In: ACM Transactions on Computing Education. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 1946-6226. ; 18:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and project courses is desirable dueto its potential positive effects on the students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion ofan industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire professional skills. In addition,an increasing push towards education that is aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners canbe observed. However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can create friction andcould, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all involved parties.Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the involvement of external stakeholders inuniversity courses both in a retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in aconstructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders.Key Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the teachers in their analysisof stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate thecollaboration). The guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these activities.In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an action plan based on an analysis of potentialstakeholders and the pedagogical objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identifyissues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing from ideas of the reflectivepractitioner, the model contains an emphasis on reflection and interpretation of the observations made bythe teacher and other groups involved in the courses.Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible toreveal hitherto implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the interaction betweenexternal stakeholders and students. Our empirical data reveals seven recurring risk themes that categorisethe different risks appearing in the analysed courses. These themes can also be used to categorise mitigationstrategies to address these risks pro-actively. Additionally, aspects not related to external stakeholders, e.g.,about the interaction of the project with other courses in the study program, have been revealed. Theconstructive use of the model for one course has proved helpful in identifying action alternatives and finallydeciding to not include external stakeholders in the project due to the perceived cost-benefit-ratio.Implications to practice: Our evaluation shows that the model is viable and a useful tool that allowsteachers to reason about and plan the involvement of external stakeholders in a variety of course settings,and in particular in capstone projects.
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| 4. |
- Finnveden, Göran, et al.
(author)
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Evaluation of integration of sustainable development in higher education in Sweden
- 2020
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In: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1467-6370 .- 1758-6739. ; 21:4, s. 685-698
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose Since 2006, higher education institutions (HEIs) in Sweden, should according to the Higher Education Act, promote sustainable development (SD). In 2016, the Swedish Government asked the Swedish higher education authority to evaluate how this study is proceeding. The authority chose to focus on education. This paper aims to produce a report on this evaluation. Design/methodology/approach All 47 HEIs in Sweden were asked to write a self-evaluation report based on certain evaluation criteria. A panel was appointed consisting of academics and representatives for students and working life. The panel wrote an evaluation of each HEI, a report on general findings and recommendations, and gave an overall judgement of each HEI in two classes as follows: the HEI has well-developed processes for integration of SD in education or the HEI needs to develop their processes. Findings Overall, a mixed picture developed. Most HEIs could give examples of programmes or courses where SD was integrated. However, less than half of the HEIs had overarching goals for integration of SD in education or had a systematic follow-up of these goals. Even fewer worked specifically with pedagogy and didactics, teaching and learning methods and environments, sustainability competences or other characters of education for SD. Overall, only 12 out of 47 got a higher judgement. Originality/value This is a unique study in which all HEIs in a country are evaluated. This provides unique possibilities for identifying success factors and barriers. The importance of the leadership of the HEIs became clear.
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| 5. |
- Serholt, Sofia, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Teachers’ Views on the Use of Empathic Robotic Tutors in the Classroom
- 2014
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In: 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Edinburgh, Scotland. - : IEEE.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we describe the results of an interview study conducted across several European countries on teachers' views on the use of empathic robotic tutors in the classroom. The main goals of the study were to elicit teachers' thoughts on the integration of the robotic tutors in the daily school practice, understanding the main roles that these robots could play and gather teachers' main concerns about this type of technology. Teachers' concerns were much related to the fairness of access to the technology, robustness of the robot in students' hands and disruption of other classroom activities. They saw a role for the tutor in acting as an engaging tool for all, preferably in groups, and gathering information about students' learning progress without taking over the teachers' responsibility for the actual assessment. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to teacher acceptance of ubiquitous technologies in general and robots in particular.
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| 6. |
- Viktorelius, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Energy efficiency at sea : An activity theoretical perspective on operational energy efficiency in maritime transport
- 2019
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 52, s. 1-9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The mitigation of emission from shipping will require improvements in energy efficiency. In order to achieve this, sociotechnical changes are required, affecting all stakeholders within the shipping sector. Ship crews and their everyday work practices will play an especially important role in the transformation of the sector. It is therefore crucial to understand how new energy efficient technologies and practices are being introduced and enacted onboard ships. The case study reported in this paper investigates an attempt to improve the operational energy efficiency in a shipping company that was made by installing an energy monitoring system and introducing an energy saving policy onboard the ships in the fleet. The analytical framework in this paper is inspired by cultural-historical activity theory which is suggested as a novel and useful practice-based approach in energy studies. It is used in analyzing the contradictions and tensions in the work practices onboard the ships that preceded and followed the implementation of the energy monitoring system and energy saving policy. The empirical results revealed how the initial demand for operational energy efficiency and the subsequent introduction of the new monitoring system and policy gave rise to tensions in the existing activity systems onboard which crew members then tried, but did not always manage, to reconcile. It is concluded that a better understanding of the sociotechnical change processes, associated with organizational energy conservation and energy management, can be achieved if the situated paradoxes of practitioners’ everyday practices are examined.
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| 7. |
- Hagvall Svensson, Oskar, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Authenticity work in higher education learning environments: a double-edged sword?
- 2022
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In: Higher Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0018-1560 .- 1573-174X. ; 84, s. 67-84
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Educational authenticity occupies a strong position in higher education research and reform, building on the assumption that correspondence between higher education learning environments and professional settings is a driver of student engagement and transfer of knowledge beyond academia. In this paper, we draw attention to an overlooked aspect of authenticity, namely the rhetorical work teachers engage in to establish their learning environments as authentic and pedagogically appropriate. We use the term “authenticity work” to denote such rhetorical work. Drawing on ethnography and critical discourse analysis, we describe how two teachers engaged in authenticity work through renegotiating professional and educational discourse in their project-based engineering course. This ideological project was facilitated by three discursive strategies: (1) deficitization of students and academia, (2) naturalization of industry practices, and (3) polarization of the state of affairs in academia and in industry. Our findings suggest that authenticity work is a double-edged sword: While authenticity work may serve to bolster the legitimacy that is ascribed to learning environments, it may also close down opportunities for students to develop critical thinking about their profession and their education. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for teaching and propose a nascent research agenda for authenticity work in higher education learning environments.
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| 8. |
- Ou, Wanyu, 1992, et al.
(author)
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‘It becomes increasingly complex to deal with multiple channels’: materialised communicative competence and digital inequality in English-medium higher education in the digital era
- 2023
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In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. - 0143-4632. ; In Press
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores university students’ communicative competence for English-Medium Instruction (EMI) at a Swedish university in the era of digitalisation and blended learning. Based on a linguistic ethnography, we present an argument for communicative competence as repertoire assemblages orchestrating digital materiality and human language to construct meanings. The study shows how diverse digital multimodalities and AI-language tools are essential features of spatial repertoires for academic communication, and how they cooperate with and mediate students’ personal repertoires to accomplish interactive learning tasks in EMI contexts. The study also highlights how digital diversity in EMI causes a ‘digital divide’, potentially impacting power relations among students. These findings underline the importance of acknowledging the communicative value of digital materiality and negotiating difference and normativity for intercultural academic communication in EMI.
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| 9. |
- Enelund, Mikael, 1965, et al.
(author)
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Tracks for change, flexibility, interdisciplinarity and creativity in engineering education
- 2020
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In: Proceedings of the International CDIO Conference. - 2002-1593. - 9789188041272 ; 1, s. 37-47
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes the early stages of the developments of Tracks, an initiative to create, implement and evaluate a new educational model where the structure of the education is developed to give students the opportunity to create multi- and interdisciplinary competencies, meet their expectations and need for a more individualized study plan and shorten the lead times for changing the education to embrace new technologies. The new education model is based on the creation of tracks with different themes lying between existing programs not belonging to a specific department or school. The idea is to create individual and flexible study opportunities by introducing Track-courses within the themes. These courses address specificc hallenges that may be broad societal and profound research-driven. Tracks also include largein vestments in Chalmers learning environment. The paper focuses on Tracks as a large change initiative, strategies to manage the complexity of this change as well as development philosophy and working methods in the early phases of the initiative. Change at universities has been discussed previously, but this is a unique opportunity to study how large change may be managed over time, including both the content of the education and the learning environments. Through action research, where interventions may be done to influence the initiative, it is possible to develop practical contributions for other universities in need of similar development. The research has been conducted over approximately a year and includes data from interviews and action research, where the authors are the main people working with this initiative. The close contact with the data gives a unique understanding of how different activities within the initiative influence the outcome. Thus, this paper will contribute to the understanding of how large institutional change initiatives are facilitated by a flexible and agile approach contrasting the traditional and somewhat slower university culture.
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| 10. |
- Malmström, Hans, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Communicating to Learn Multivariable Calculus: Students' Blackboard Presentations as a Means for Enhancing Mathematics Learning
- 2018
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In: PRIMUS. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1051-1970 .- 1935-4053. ; 28:8, s. 726-741
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports observations and reflections from a pedagogic intervention intended to enhance mathematics students’ learning of course content in a course in multivariable calculus. The intervention design required students to structure, practice, and deliver an oral presentation that was a synthesis of the teacher’s weekly lectures, for the benefit of themselves and their peers. The intervention appears to have incentivized students to engage with and learn mathematics contents in an effective way, and it also helped the mathematics teacher to reflect on, adapt, and develop his teaching strategies. To conclude, it would seem that both students and teachers in mathematics have much to gain from giving students opportunities to develop their own voice in learning contexts otherwise relying on books and lectures.
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