| 1. |
- Andersson, Mikael, et al.
(author)
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Work integrated learning boosts students' experience of readiness for working life
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - Valencia : IATED. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 4101-4105
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Self-efficacy and Self-esteem of readiness are important factors for students to succeed in an internship. These factors affect how an individual handles new situations and possible threats. By testing their theoretical knowledge in a practical context, the internship can have a positive effect on the student's experience of being successful in working life.Work integrated learning is one approach that may support students progression towards increased readiness for working life. What characterizes work readiness and how can it be achieved?The study was conducted at the bachelor's degree programs ‘Digital Media’ and ‘3D-animation and visualisation’, at University West in Sweden. During the fifth semester students have the opportunity to carry out internships in a workplace. These internships are conducted as a course at the university which also gives higher education credits. The time spent on the course is split between the workplace (80%) and the university (20%). Every fortnight the students meet with faculty staff at a seminar to discuss a given topic. The purpose of the course is to give the student the opportunity to integrate theory from the university studies with practical experience in a workplace.The students spend the majority of the time in the workplace however every second week they meet in a seminar on campus, in which they discuss their experiences in the workplace. As a preparation for the seminar, the students are given different thematic questions to reflect on. Based on all students answers, in the seminar the students reflect on similarities and differences in each others’ texts. Additionally, a supplementary summarizing question is given to the students during the seminar.Prior to the start of the course, the students make their own estimation of how ready they feel they are for working life on a scale from 1-10. After the course, the estimation is revised along the same scale. In addition to this estimation, conversations are conducted between the students, regarding readiness for working life.The study is a mixed methods approach and consists of three sets of data: five group interviews á three hours with 7-15 participants in seminars, two online surveys and 50 written reports from all together 15 students.In the paper we report on how students gradually increase their feeling of being more sure of what type of work tasks they prefer to do in the future, which skills they already have or need to develop further, and what type of workplace they want to work at related to for instance: level of creative freedom, level of collegiality, type of governance etc. These insights, we argue, are vital characteristics of students’ experience of ‘readiness for working life’. We discuss how these characteristics are important aspects of self efficacy and how they are related to the design of the course and ultimately a work integrated learning approach to teaching and learning within higher education.
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| 2. |
- Bernhard, Iréne, 1953-, et al.
(author)
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Work-Integrated Learning and Collaboration in Higher Education 3rd Cycle : The Case of Industrial PhD Students
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - Valencia : The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 2344-2353
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Today universities and higher education face challenges related to collaboration with the society. Societal impacts and innovation from academia are highly valued from governments and interaction with and impacts on society and practice are of crucial importance for universities today (Gellerstedt, et al. 2018; Galan, 2018). University West in Sweden has a profile area in work-integrated learning (WIL), which generally aims to address issues on integrating theory and practice in education in a sustainable and coherent way (Olsson et al. 2019; Gellerstedt et. al. 2015). In this paper the arguments are based on a study of a PhD-education (3rd cycle) in Informatics with the specialization of work-integrated learning. at University West.The focus is on the collaboration between the university and industry through industrial PhD-students who are active in the university-industry interface i.e. fully employed by the industry during their PhD-education.Research on collaboration between PhD- students and industry is, according to Thune scarce. Previous research mainly focuses on the students´ learning outcomes and educational experiences (Thune, 2009) although some benefits of this kind of collaboration are recognized (Assbring and Nuur, 2017). Thus, research on interaction and informing flows between university, students, research and practice needs to be further developed ( Bernhard et al, 2018).In a recent study aiming at evaluating a PhD education (third-cycle) and research environment from a WIL perspective several collaboration activities were identified at key stakeholders in university as well as in the industry (Bernhard et al 2018) by adopting an informing science model in order to conduct a current state analysis. The findings implicate e.g. that flows from PhD-student and research environment towards stakeholders were generally strong, while the opposite flows were weaker. This was especially crucial for the flows originating in practice.Thus, the overall aim of this paper is to explore university-industry collaboration and identify possible aspects of societal impact of industrial PhD-student education. The research is conducted as a case study and qualitative methods will be applied.
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| 3. |
- Bernhardsson, Lennarth, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Work Integrated Learning and Work Integrated Education : A Study On Learning Processes and Learning Methods for Working Life
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - : IATED. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 4106-4112
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is a common view in higher education to make clear distinction between theory, what you learn in school, and practice, what you learn in the workplace. Work integrated learning (WIL) is an approach in higher education that problematizes this distinction and that supports the understanding of an integrated view of theory and practice. In this paper we report from a study in which we investigate how students become increasingly ready for working life during a course. We explore “the process of learning to be ready for working life”, that we herein call ‘Work Integrated Learning’ (WIL) and we explain how WIL can be supported by ‘the methods used to enhance readiness for working life’, which we refer to as Work Integrated Education (WIE). The first aim of this study is to better understand how students develop readiness for working life. A second aim is to shed light on the distinction between WIL and WIE in order to understand how different types of knowledge sources for students can support the feeling of being ready for working life.The study is conducted at the bachelor’s degree programs ‘Digital Media’ and ‘3D-animation and visualisation’, at University West, Sweden. During the fifth semester, students have the opportunity to carry out internships in a workplace. The internship is conducted as a course at the university that gives higher education credits. The time spent on the course is split between the workplace (80%) and the university (20%). Every second week the students write down reflections on a given topic related to experiences in the workplace. Topics can be for instance custom relations, professional roles and ethics. The reflection texts are shared openly on the learning management platform so that all students can read each other’s reflections. Thereafter the group meet with faculty teachers in a seminar to discuss each other’s reflections. In the end of the seminar the teachers present a matrix including dimensions related to the topic discussed and the students are given the task to place the organisation they are practicing at in the matrix. The purpose of the shared reflection texts, discussions and work with the matrix is to give the students the opportunity to compare each other’s working experiences and to shed light on aspects of the experience that can help them to feel prepared for working life.The study is a mixed methods approach and consists of three sets of data: group interviews, online surveys and students' written reports. The research questions we seek answers to are:- How do the work of writing and discussing experiences from the workplace contribute to students’ personal understanding of what kind of workplace they search for in work life?- To what extent can both academic theoretical goals and students practical goals be combined during Internship?Preliminary results show that the student learn something on top of the course curricula. In the seminars discussing and reflecting upon each others experiences from different workplaces, they start to construct a vision for a future workplace of their own. A set of preferences on company size, the way the creative process is conducted, values, type of clients and other factors that define the company where student make internship.
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| 4. |
- Bjursell, Cecilia, 1970-, et al.
(author)
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University-industry collaboration to support lifelong education
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - : IATED. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 6059-6068
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Collaboration between the university and industry can contribute to generating a rich and relevant educational content. Furthermore, it can create a network of contacts with the surrounding community and future employers. Collaborating with an educational institute can also be a way of engaging in lifelong education and learning. This includes developing specific knowledge while training generic abilities, not least the ability of working collaboratively. There has come a movement in university-industry collaboration that involves a shift from (A) simple knowledge exchange to (B) the creation of shared frames of reference. This does not entail that problem-solving and knowledge dissemination should be set aside, but we observe that new dimensions have been added to the working methods that are already in play. Additionally, there is an increasing demand on higher education to provide lifelong learning, but how can this be done? The objective of this study is to explore innovative models of collaboration in continuous higher education. The paper is based on a qualitative case study method. Case study can be a way to explore unique cases, and in this particular paper, to explore new forms of collaboration as part of lifelong education. Considering the ongoing changes in university - industry collaboration, the question arose whether there are initiatives to collaborate in new ways in education to support lifelong education in working life. We started to search for new forms of education collaboration (in the national context of study). Since we looked for new forms, they were not to be found in data bases or previous literature. and we found that the most efficient method was to simply ask around in our networks. The criteria to include a case was: 1) that is was based on collaboration between university and working life, 2) the collaboration was aimed at higher education for professionals, 3) that the case exhibited a form of collaboration not identified elsewhere. When the cases were identified, we contacted the organizations for interviews with key informants. Based on the interviews, we constructed cases that described what they had done, what was unique and what we can learn from these cases. The interviewees got to approve the cases and make sure that the facts were correct. The main result from these cases is that it is industry and working life, not universities, that initiate collaboration to develop new models for lifelong education. Such collaborative efforts also hold a potential for the integration of research, education, and innovation. However, we need to:(i) develop robust models outlining how this can be achieved and(ii) clarify how the development of skills takes place. In our paper we draw the following conclusions:- Proximity facilitates collaboration and regional initiatives are the appropriate level to reach a critical mass while remaining geographically close to collaborating businesses.- Collaboration in higher education can be said to have undergone a cultural shift towards approaches that support active learning and a sense of responsibility in society.- The educational innovation that we have identified through the case descriptions has taken place on the initiative of external actors who contacted the university institutions based on specific needs.
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| 5. |
- Dalaklis, D., et al.
(author)
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OIL SPILL RESPONSE TRAINING IN THE SOUTH BALTIC SEA REGION
- 2020
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In: 14th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2020), Valencia, Spain, March 02-04, 2020. - 9788409179398
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Spills of petroleum oil always create severe negative effects on the environment, such as smothering and poisoning flora and fauna. Minimizing the risk of oil spills and their negative impacts is a priority under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and especially SDG 14, concerning the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources. It is also a self-explanatory fact that in order to deal effectively with oil spill incidents, close and effective international cooperation -especially between neighbouring countries that usually "share the burden" of oil pollution- is a vital necessity. On this basis, the South Baltic Oil Spill Response (SBOIL) project aims to strengthen the existing oil spill response capacities in the South Baltic region, introducing a cross-border spill response tool based on the new "green technology" of biodegradable oil binders (BioBinders). Within the framework of that project, a Table Top Training Activity was conducted by the World Maritime University (WMU), along with the help of Oil Spill Response Ltd. (OSRL). The specific event was based on a realistic oil spill scenario taking place in the region under discussion and the main aim was to test the preparedness and implementation of the BioBinders as a response option to support the existing oil spill response capacities. The overall impression of the participants was that the specific exercise served well the intended purpose and that the use of BioBinders is a rather promising concept. On the other hand, there was a consensus that the use of these biodegradable wood-based oil binders on the field is for the time being associated with challenges difficult to overcome, with the quantity and time needed to deploy the required amount of binders to successfully absorb a large volume of oil standing out.
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| 6. |
- Dvorak, Martin, 1971-
(author)
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Native Multilingualism and Stroop Effect : a Pilot Study Examining the Relationships Between the Two Variables
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - Valencia : The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 8533-8541
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Multiple studies point out a positive relationship between bilingualism (multilingualism), cognitive development of children and their academic performance at the early age. The Stroop Test is often used as one of the methods of assessing subjects’ executive function of inhibition (the ability to suppress dominant responses), which appears to be enhanced in bilingual/multilingual individuals compared to their monolingual counterparts. The better executive control in bilinguals/multilinguals that the function of inhibition represents only a part of (besides shifting, i.e. the ability to switch over between tasks, and monitoring, i.e. the ability to update information in the working memory) is believed to stem from these individuals switching over between their languages as well as their need to suppress the other language-related information irrelevant in the given language context.This paper describes a pilot experiment preceding a study of a larger scale whose main objective is to obtain data to be used to assess a possible relationship between the number of mother tongues Swedish university students have a command of and their performance at the Stroop Test.
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| 7. |
- Ekström, Sara, et al.
(author)
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New Critical Imaginaries and Reflections on Robots and Artificial Intelligence : How Teachers’ Programming Knowledge Could Affect Future Educational Technology
- 2020
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In: INTED 2020. - : International Association for Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 3475-3483
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Educational Robots (ER) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are rapidly evolving to meet the challenges that characterize school environments. The direction in which these emerging technologies will develop, and the effect they finally have on schools, will partially be shaped by how scholars and practitioners imagine future education. A recent study about the views of teachers and educational researchers regarding the use of ER and AI for learning purposes highlighted this issue [1]. This study revealed that, beside an urgent need for teacher professional development, the participants were concerned about human interrelations, individualization, educational management and ethics. However, both groups showed a rudimentary understanding of the differences between these two technologies. More importantly, there seemed to be a gap in the way teachers and researchers in that study approached new technologies in education. Whereas for teachers the purpose of technology was to enhance current teaching processes, for researchers, technology had a deeper transformational potential. Since then, a large national program aiming at increasing schoolteachers’ computational thinking and coding skills has been put into practice at several Swedish universities to support the introduction of computer programming in the K-12 curriculum. To account for these new developments, we wanted to investigate how these teacher professional development programs could reflect on upcoming school technologies. University teachers in charge of the programming courses could provide insightful information about how ER and AI can mold future school practices since they represent an entrance point for teachers into these technologies. Delegates from several universities involved in the development of programming courses for K-12 teachers were therefore invited to give their vision of a future classroom. In order to compare with the previous study, seventeen university teachers were also asked to imagine a teaching situation in a school in which a) social robots and b) robots with artificial intelligence, were a reality. They were further requested to reflect upon which challenges and possibilities could emerge when using ER and AI in post-digital K-12 education. Which differences appear relevant compared to the participants in the previous study? The analysis showed that the university teachers participating in our study coincide in pointing out potential gains in individualizing teaching and relieving teachers from routine tasks. Our informants adhered to the position of schoolteachers and did not predict any fundamental transformations in the current teaching practices. Unique for our participants was their ability to discern between ER and AI and that, while they were largely sceptic toward the cognitive benefits of a physical robot, they trusted the software to achieve similar results in a traditional computer. Given the premises in this investigation “future teachers that already knew how to program”, the participants in our study did not suggest further need for professional development, which contrasts with the prevalent opinion in the previous study. If university teachers believe that programming knowledge is enough to bridge the competence gap, and they do not expect any radical transformation in education, maybe ER and AI could be fully integrated in the teaching practice more easily than it was predicted earlier
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| 8. |
- Ekström, Sara, et al.
(author)
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New Teacher Roles With Social Robots as Actors in the Classroom
- 2020
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In: INTED 2020. - : International Association for Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 6636-6644
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Robots are entering the classrooms and provide new opportunities for education. Educational robots can either be used for programming, or as new types of social actors where these robots are designed to play different roles such as teachers, tutors, peers or tutees. However, new social actors affect the scene for learning by altering the social dynamics in the classroom, which in turn affects the roles of the other actors. In this study we explore the role of teachers in robot-enhanced classrooms, and ask the question: What new teacher roles emerge when robots enter the classroom as social actors? In this study we explore a setting where a student plays an educational mathematics game together with a humanoid robot on an interactive whiteboard, guided and supported by teachers and peers from the class. Four classes of school children in 2nd and 41h grade participated and played for about 5 minutes each. The game playing sessions were video-recorded, and 32 sessions were randomly selected, transcribed, coded and thematically analyzed using Interaction Analysis. Situations in which the teacher acted were analyzed to investigate when and why the teacher intervened and what types of support that was provided to the student. Results show that the teacher took several roles during the sessions. Traditional roles include moderator organizing the learning and managing social interactions as well as educator supporting the student’s learning by scaffolding mathematical problems and game-playing strategies. In addition, the teacher had to act technical facilitator handling problems and challenges with using the robot, and the role as interaction mentor guiding and supporting the student to manage the social interaction with the robot. The latter two roles are challenging and unfamiliar to most teachers. We conclude that using robots as social actors in education introduce new, challenging teacher roles requiring substantial and specific digital competence.
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| 9. |
- Fuentes Martinez, Ana, 1975-
(author)
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Understanding cooperative learning among teachers and pre-service teachers who integrate computer programming activities in their mathematics lessons
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - : International Association for Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 3564-3568
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Students and professionals with background in technical subjects are increasingly opting for a teaching career as a result of a conscious plan from the Swedish government to facilitate transition and completion of a teaching degree. One of the expected benefits from this measure is that students with broader academical and professional experiences could bring that knowledge into their future teaching practice and share it with in-service teachers during their practicum. The purpose of this study is to understand the subjectivities and practices of teachers and pre-service teachers as they engage in professional development activities together. Michel de Certeau’s work on practices of everyday life serves as a lens for bringing forward the tensions and opportunities that appear in cooperative learning settings within external policy constrains. The motivations of mathematics teachers and preservice teachers that participate in computer programming training activities are analyzed in terms of tactics and strategies that preserve individual autonomy and group coherence and that allow them to make their own spaces within imposed structures. Some teachers resorted to avoidance tactics to escape reporting about their programming assignment, such as postponing it to future meetings or claiming time constrains, while others considered programming activities as intruders that obstructed their mathematics lessons and introduced moments of struggle, deception, confrontation and resignation. This sheds light upon how the practical and intellectual production that schools expect to reap from the process is disseminated increative alliances but leaves also a sense of deprofessionalization in the community.
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| 10. |
- Hansen, Kjetil Falkenberg, et al.
(author)
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Unproved methods from the frontier in the course curriculum : A bidirectional and mutually beneficial research challenge
- 2020
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In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - : IATED. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 7033-7038
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we report the experiences of students and teachers in a master course in Musical Communication and Music Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The students were exposed to vocal sketching [1], a novel sound design method, both as their course material and for the examination. The results in terms of learning outcome and course experience were confirmed and more than convincing, while the results in terms of validating the efficacy of the method were meagre.As part of our research, we designed an experiment where the students first interviewed preschool children who were asked to describe a fantasy musical instrument and then built it. The course schedule included lectures on voice sketching, sound synthesis, sound quality, new musical instruments, parameter mapping, and music programming. The project work and idea was presented during the first lecture, eight weeks before meeting the children. The interview took place in a workshop at the Swedish Museum for Performing Arts who had an exhibition of new musical instruments. Student/child pairs visited the exhibition in order to 1) familiarize themselves, 2) establish communication, and 3) get a common point of reference in terms of the exhibited instruments. After this process, the pairs completed an interview session inspired by [2]. The parents and teacher could join in if desired. The students got two weeks to build the instruments and present these at the museum. The purpose was not to evaluate the instruments, but to explore the vocal sketch method. The design and building phase was a prototyping task which the students were comfortable with. All design decisions needed to be set in relation to the course literature. All the presented projects followed a scenario- and contextual-inspired design approach [3] where a target solution needed to be established quickly grounded on a basic understanding of the agent (the child), its goals, and its presumed actions [4], and where the child mainly acted as informant [5]. While all the children could voice sketch, few actually did so in the interview. Despite this, the finished instruments matched the expectations of the children, and the course work satisfied the intended learning outcomes. As a research outcome, we suggest that future studies should include training vocal sketch techniques to produce suitable sounds. As for the pedagogical outcome, we are convinced from both the high quality of the works and the unusually positive course evaluations compared to previous years that the unproved research method was appropriate as course material. The bidirectional challenge in the research where students know that the method is experimental is hypothesized to further boost student motivation.
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