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- Adams, Robin, et al.
(author)
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What is the word for 'Engineering' in Swedish : Swedish students conceptions of their discipline
- 2007
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Engineering education in Sweden – as in the rest of the world – is experiencing a decline in student interest. There are concerns about the ways in which students think about engineering education, why they join an academic programme in engineering, and why they persist in their studies. In this context the aims of the Nationellt ämnesdidaktiskt Centrum för Teknikutbildning i Studenternas Sammanhang project (CeTUSS) is to investigate the student experience and to identify and support a continuing network of interested researchers, as well as in building capacity for disciplinary pedagogic investigation. The Stepping Stones project brings together these interests in a multi-researcher, multi-institutional study that investigates how tudents and academic staff perceive engineering in Sweden and in Swedish education. The first results of that project are reported here. As this study is situated uniquely in Swedish education, it allows for exploration of “a Swedish perspective” on conceptions of engineering. The Stepping Stones project was based on a model of research capacity-building previously instantiated in the USA and Australia (Fincher & Tenenberg, 2006).
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- Berglund, Anders, 1956-
(author)
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Learning computer systems in a distributed project course : The what, why, how and where
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Senior university students taking an internationally distributed project course in computer systems find themselves in a complex learning situation. To understand how they experience computer systems and act in their learning situation, the what, the why, the how and the where of their learning have been studied from the students’ perspective. The what aspect concerns the students’ understanding of concepts within computer systems: network protocols. The why aspect concerns the students’ objectives to learn computer systems. The how aspect concerns how the students go about learning. The where aspect concerns the students’ experience of their learning environment. These metaphorical entities are then synthesised to form a whole. The emphasis on the students’ experience of their learning motivates a phenomenographic research approach as the core of a study that is extended with elements of activity theory. The methodological framework that is developed from these research approaches enables the researcher to retain focus on learning, and specifically the learning of computer systems, throughout. By applying the framework, the complexity in the learning is unpacked and conclusions are drawn on the students’ learning of computer systems. The results are structural, qualitative, and empirically derived from interview data. They depict the students’ experience of their learning of computer systems in their experienced learning situation and highlight factors that facilitate learning. The results comprise sets of qualitatively different categories that describe how the students relate to their learning in their experienced learning environment. The sets of categories, grouped after the four components (what, why, how and where), are synthesised to describe the whole of the students’ experience of learning computer systems. This study advances the discussion about learning computer systems and demonstrates how theoretically anchored research contributes to teaching and learning in the field. Its multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary character invites further debate, and thus, advances the field.
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- Berglund, Anders, et al.
(author)
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Qualitative Research Projects in Computing Education Research: An Overview.
- 2006
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In: Australian Computer Science Communications. ; 28:5, s. 25-34
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Qualitative research approaches have much to offer computing education research (CER). Conducting studies which are theoretically anchored in pedagogy, as well as in computing, can help us to draw more solid and significant conclusions about how students learn computing. When studying teaching and learning situations it is important to take into explicit account what is meant by learning. We claim that this implies that research into student learning is strengthened by increased awareness of the role and relevance of qualitative research approaches in CER.With this aim in mind we identify the area of “pedagogically anchored qualitative research” and place it within the broader CER landscape. We also provide an overview of research methods and resulting studies, which we feel exemplify the value this type of study has for the CER community.
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- Berglund, Anders, 1956-, et al.
(author)
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Three Ways of Globalizing IT Engineering Education : Experiences from Two European Universities
- 2008
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In: International Conference on Science, Technology and Education Policy. - Hangzhou, China. ; , s. 63-67
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we present three different mechanisms for globalising engineering education: (1) student and staff exchanges, (2) joint courses, where the students work in globally distributed teams; and (3) joint degree programmes.We argue that the three mechanisms complement each other and that successful globalisation within an institution can be archived by combining the three.Our argument is based on the experiences of two north European universities, who successfully globalise their education.
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- Fuller, Ursula, et al.
(author)
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A Computing Perspective on the Bologna Process
- 2006
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In: SIGCSE Bulletin: inroads. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 0097-8418. ; 38:4, s. 115-131
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Bologna process is intended to culminate in the formation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. Its aim is to facilitate the mobility of people, the transparency and recognition of qualifications, quality and development of a European dimension to higher education, and the attractiveness of European institutions for third country students.This paper provides an overview of progress towards implementation in EHEA member states using official documents and interview data from faculty teaching computing in countries represented at the ITiCSE 2006 meeting. The key areas where the structures established by the Bologna process are problematic for computing education arise from the rapidly changing nature of the curriculum. It seems that the maturity and capability criteria, as well as the manner in which learning outcomes are specified, being developed within the Bologna process are too general. This endangers the properties of transparency and mobility that the process intends to promote.Progression and prerequisite knowledge in computing degrees can be very specific. For instance, generic learning outcomes for an introductory programming course quite rightly will not specify the programming language, or languages, used to implement algorithms. However, suppose a student intends to study an advanced algorithms and data structures course in which Java is the language of implementation which has an introductory course in programming as a prerequisite. If the introductory course language was Standard ML it is not clear that the prerequisite course actually provides the student with a suitable background. These types of complexities are typical of computing, where early subject curricula are not standardised nationally or internationally, and create significant hurdles for realising the Bologna objectives.
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