Scholarly Teaching in Science and Technology

After concluded course, the participant should be able to:

• implement and argue for scholarly teaching and educational development;
  
• plan, analyze and reflect upon teaching and assessment in relation to
  research results and proven practice regarding student learning within the
  participant’s own discipline;
  
• discuss and evaluate higher education and pedagogical development using
  discipline-based education concepts, models and research results;
  
• find, evaluate and use different scholarly resources, such as journals and web
  sites, in teaching practice.

The course combines theoretical elements, discussions and practical exercises. This overview presents some of the questions that will be treated during the course and the six overlapping themes of the content. Details of the course content will be adjusted to the backgrounds of the participants.

Introduction to scholarly teaching and discipline-based education research

• What is scholarly teaching
  
• How can we use discipline-based education research results?
  
• How does one relate to teaching and learning in a scholarly fashion?

Teaching and learning in context

• What ideas are there about learning, knowledge and communication in your discipline?
  
• What goals do students have for their education and how can those goals affect learning?
  
• How can we learn more about our students’ goals and expectations?
  
• How do concepts such as identity and discourse relate to teaching and learning?

Student learning

• What is known about student learning in our disciplines?
  
• How can we learn more about student learning?
  
• What are the important threshold concepts in our disciplines? How can we help students understand them?
  
• How do students’ preconceptions about scientific models as well as their prior knowledge and understanding influence their learning?
  
• How can student understanding of key concepts be explored?

Design of teaching

• How can one design education to facilitate deep learning and holistic perspectives?
  
• What is known about different forms of teaching and how they affect learning?
  
• What are the goals of laboratory work, excursions and other practical exercises? How do we achieve those goals?
  
• How can we improve the communicative skills of our students?

Goals, examination and goal fulfilment

• What are the goals in the official regulations and how do they relate to educational practice?
  
• What are the differences in the goals for our educational programmes?
  
• How do we measure achievement of learning goals? How can different types of skills and knowledge be measured?
  
• How can we work with constructive alignment between goals, learning activities and examination?
  
• How can teaching and educational design be evaluated?

Project and development

• How does one find findings and practices based on discipline-based education research?
  
• Which are the useful sources relevant to different disciplines in science and technology?
  
• How can discipline-based education research results be used to justify and support pedagogical development?