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Many students regard physics as an isolated, sophisticated and perhaps a boring branch of science. Meanwhile, physics is embedded in most events and issues of society, culture and everyday life. To find and include such relevant contexts is one of the challenges for every physics teacher. Here we present our findings, which concern the classic The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Some important questions are still open and disputed, such as the dates of events in the story. In particular, physics can provide a method for an approximate estimation of the dates and places of the events in the tales. This paper provides some of the details.

Non-Formal Education in Mozambique is considered to be one of the ways to open up opportunities for education and training for youth and adults. Mozambique has great gender disparities in post-elementary and vocational education. In this study, semi-structured interviews and life stories were used to explore gender differences in participants’ motivations and expectations in Non-Formal Vocational Education and Training (NFVET) in Mozambique. Fourteen participants and six former participants of two NFVET programmes were involved in the study. The findings showed that both men and women acknowledge that NFVET programmes can help them to improve their life chances. However, there were clear gender differences. Women focus on improving the lives of their families as the main objective of participating in NFVET, while men prioritise their own professional growth. Men see their own needs as the family needs. In the discussion of findings a need to challenge gender inequalities in Mozambique is addressed.

The current socio-economic development in Mozambique is characterized by growing social inequalities, in particular concerning the imbalanced access to education and the increased poverty of women and the unemployed. Adult education is a way to provide youth and adults with opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. Through education they can gain power and they can learn how to cope with social and economic challenges. The purpose of this research is to examine how far policies concerning adult education, especially with respect to Non-Formal Vocational Education and Training (NFVET) are implemented. The research is qualitative in nature, based on document analysis with a focus on the policies that have guided the implementation of adult education and training in Mozambique during the period 2000-2015. The findings reveal that Mozambique has been strongly influenced by international initiatives within the framework of ‘Education for all’ and ‘Education for development’. There is an apparent need to strengthen policy implementation strategies, particularly in the area of NFVET in order to ensure the real empowerment of learners and teachers.

The current situation of Mozambique, characterized by limited but highly needed Formal Vocational Education, demands the development and improvement of Non-formal Vocational Education and Training (NFVET). NFVET can provide relevant knowledge and skills, particularly for out of school and unemployed youth and adults to promote social inclusion and development. This is a qualitative case study with some elements of action research. Semi-structured interviews with six educators, classroom observations and two focus group interviews with former participants were implemented. The research aims to explore ways by which NFVET programmes can be improved in order to increase people’s chances, not only to get work, but also to be able to participate actively in their own process of development. The findings suggest some directions for the improvement of NFVET in Mozambique in order to empower people to actively participate in the social and economic life of their local communities and broader society.

Interest in vocational education and training (VET) is growing. This can be attributed to global socio-economic developments requiring continuously changing knowledge and skills. Adult education and training, particularly in non-formal education (NFE) contributes to provide these skills and knowledge for youth and adults. This puts pressure not only on programmes and facilities, but also on the educators. How do they cope with the changing demands? This paper focuses on educators in non-formal vocational education and training (NFVET) in Mozambique. It explores the perceptions, experiences and reflections of educators in NFVET working in training centres on the outskirts of Maputo. Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to get insight into the educators' understandings and into the conditions in which their educational activities took place. The findings point to the need for the professionalisation of NFVET educators. This would contribute to the quality of their activities and to their status as professionals.

Many universities around the globe consider raising the pedagogical competence of their teachers to be an important task. The common way of approaching this task is the creation within the university of a specialised centre in charge of staff pedagogical development. This study attempts to provide an analysis of activities conducted by two pedagogical centres situated in two dramatically different contexts: one of the poorest countries in the world (Mozambique) and one of the richest (Sweden). A qualitative study was carried out based on a comparative policy document analysis, on-site observations and semi-structured interviews with two staff members from both centres. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) provided a theoretical framework for the analysis. The collective activity system is taken as a unit of analysis that connects psychological, cultural and contextual perspectives (Engeström, 1999). We found that the official rhetoric of both universities explicitly focuses on the development of pedagogical competence for all categories of teachers. Therefore, as was expected, similarities were identified in the object and expected outcomes of the centres’ activity. However, due to significant differences in historical pre-conditions, cultural contexts and artefacts used for mediating activities in the two centres the findings revealed many differences in the corresponding collective activity systems. The study suggests that the implementation of pedagogical training at a university should carefully consider contextual, social and cultural factors shaping collective activity systems and if necessary construct compensatory artefacts to ameliorate possible frictions in the developmental process.

The paper discusses tensions in the process of implementation of student-centered pedagogical approaches in Mozambican higher education. A qualitative study was carried out based on document analysis, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews at one selected university. The analysis of this data was based on an activity theory approach which connects psychological, cultural and contextual perspectives. Data collected in this study showed that the teachers did not feel ownership of the innovation and the students revealed difficulties in taking responsibility for their learning. Traditional ‘punitive’ assessment culture and the Mozambican ‘poverty context’ influenced pedagogical practice. Younger teachers appeared to have more interest in the innovation.

The Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique is introducing new participative forms of pedagogical practices into the process of its current curriculum reform. This article presents a case study of the introduction of a student-centred approach at one department and discusses some of the lecturers’ perceptions and experiences concerning the process. A qualitative study was carried out based on classroom observations and interviews. Activity theory was used in the analysisof the results. The findings show that the lecturers do not feel ownership of the curriculum reformintroducing student-centred learning. They express a need for training and the creation of adequatematerial conditions to apply the innovation. The findings also reveal contextual factors affecting student engagement in learning. In the conclusions, reflections are presented concerning the place of the generic values of learner-centeredness in the academic culture of the UEM.

The article presents a creative experimental task for students to determine the amount of heat with a partially elastic impact. The experiment is carried out using a smartphone, which makes the experiment simple and convenient for conducting at home

Begreppet beprövad erfarenhet (BE) har blivit särskilt aktuellt inom det svenska utbildningsystemet under det senaste decenniet i och med att den nya skollagen trädde i kraft 2010. I lagtexten utrycks följande: "Utbildningen ska vila på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet" (SFS 2010:800, 1 kap. 5 §). Emellertid finns inte någon överenskommelse om hur beprövad erfarenhet kan genereras och spridas inom utbildningssektorn. Forskare (Persson, 2017) påpekar också att det finns brister i de tolkningar och preciseringar av begreppet BE som olika myndigheter inom skola och högskola har föreslagit. Följaktligen behövs ett fördjupat arbete för att utveckla förståelsen av begreppet BE. I det här kapitlet föreslås en modell som konceptualiserar hur BE kan utvecklas och synliggöras. Huvudtesen är att BE som en form av erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap kan verifieras och kvalitetsgranskas via teoretisk förankring. Den föreslagna modellen korrelerar ontologiskt med historiska former av kunskapens genesis som börjar med instrumentell kunskap och kulminerar i teoretisk kunskap. Vidare diskuteras samverkan mellan olika utbildningsaktörer för en identifiering, formulering, registrering och spridning av beprövad erfarenhet.

This paper presents the conceptualisation, implementation and evaluation of methodology of “outdoor physics” a project in science teacher education at Umeå University, Sweden (see http://outdoorphysics.educ.umu.se). Activity Theory was used as the theoretical framework for project development. The fundamental constructs of this theory: collaborative activity, motivation, object and context of learning were taken into consideration in the development of outdoor cases and methodology of the project. Prospective science teachers took active part in all stages of project activities. They developed specific cases for outdoor study, tested these both by themselves and with students in schools and evaluated their outcomes. The various cases of outdoor physics were part of teacher students’ research projects presented at the end of their undergraduate studies. Professional development of prospective teachers of science participating in the project is the main outcome of the current stage of the project, which benefited from international collaboration with colleagues from Russia (KSPU, Petrozavodsk) and some European countries (OutLab project). We expect that the knowledge acquired by prospective teachers in outdoor physics activities can also lead to new pedagogical approaches in their future professional work.

In the recent decades, there has been a growing international consensus about importance of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at all educational levels, in different subjects, as well as in formal and informal structures. ESD is actively promoted by teacher education institutions around the world. The area of interculturality is also used to be in focus of international collaboration projects aiming to enhance sustainability in teacher education. However, natural science and mathematics teacher education has traditionally paid lower attention to “soft” parts of subject teaching such as internationalization, intercultural and critical competencies which are closely relate to 21st century skills (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010) then that of social sciences. Our previous research (Popov, Sturesson, 2015) shows that interculturality is not yet part of the Swedish science education mindscape. Moreover, current pandemic situation changed dramatically preconditions for physical meetings as well as for student and staff mobility especially outside EU-states area.

The rapidly expanding mobile learning (m-learning) that employs handheld technology is a powerful international trend (Yildiz, et al. 2020).  Our smartphones are packed with internal sensors that can measure sound, light, acceleration, magnetic field strength, etc. (see below app Sensors). The smartphones' sensors are reliable and accurate enough to permit good measurements.

This paper presents theoretical foundations and practical solutions demonstrating how smartphones and use of modern mobile applications can assist teacher education in fulfilling goals of sustainable development. In particular, focus is on mobile learning (m-learning) collaboration in geographically distributed and culturally diverse settings.

Förmågan att tänka kritiskt är grundläggande för aktivt deltagande i ett demokratiskt samhällsliv. Den inkluderar färdigheter att kunna analysera, reflektera, dra slutsatser, värdera och ifrågasätta. Samhällsfrågor med naturvetenskapligt innehåll (SNI) i naturvetenskaplig undervisning ger goda möjligheter att utveckla denna förmåga. I den här artikeln ligger fokus på den viktiga rollen som kritiskt tänkande spelar i forskning och i den naturvetenskapliga medborgarbildningen. Av läroplanen för gymnasieskolan framgår att eleverna ska utveckla sin förmåga att tänka kritiskt, att granska fakta och förhållanden och att inse konsekvenserna av olika alternativ. Kritiskt tänkande och förhållningssätt uttrycks också i de naturvetenskapliga ämnenas syften och centrala innehåll. Diskussionen om utveckling av kritiskt tänkande i denna teoretiska artikel relateras till tre naturvetenskap-didaktiska områden: kunskap, procedur och tankesätt. Texten utgår ifrån att man bör sträva efter att utveckla vetenskaplig kunskapssyn, insikt i vetenskapliga arbetsmetoder och ifrågasättande inställning till verklighetsbeskrivningar för att kunna utöva kritiskt förhållningssätt.

Presentationen problematiserar begreppet beprövad erfarenhet (BE) och användningen av begreppet inom den pedagogiska verksamheten. BE kan ses som en form av praxisgrundad kunskap som omfattar kognitiva, praktiska och emotionella dimensioner. I Skolverkets dokument poängteras vikten av den beprövade erfarenhetens dokumentation, delning och prövning i ett kollegialt sammanhang, men vilka former av dokumentation och spridning som är valida preciseras inte. I presentationen dikuteras olika dimensioner av BE och skillnader mellan forskning och BE. En teoretisk modell föreslås för konceptualiseringen av BE.

Motivation for Science studies is an issue actively discussed in educational research literature. There is no shortage of analysis either about the root of the problem, or recipes for its solution. Arguments have been provided, for example, that use of socio-scientific issues (SSI) in teaching can positively affect students’ motivation to study science. In this connection the following research questions were explored in a combined qualitative and quantitative study:

-          How was prospective physics teachers’ interest to physics/science influenced by World Affecting Event - Fukushima accident in Japan in March 2011?

-          How students’ professional background knowledge affected their private inquiry about Fukushima?

The target group included about one hundred fourth- and fifth year physics students in Petrozavodsk and Blagoveshchensk (correspondently West and East of Russia) and Umeå (Sweden).

The analysis of students’ answers showed:

-          Fukushima Catastrophe did not influence significantly students’ interest for nuclear physics or physics study in general and did not become a triggering event for deeper study of physics or interest in “radiation education”.

-          Physics knowledge was not drawn upon for reading and discussing about Fukushima, mainly humanitarian/value aspects were in focus.

-          The main source of information on Fukushima events for students was the Internet, where mostly they surfed over pop-up news. They acted in information search more like laymen rather than physicists.

-          National and regional differences could be indentified in the answers.

This paper provides an analysis of the internationalisation of Teacher Education in Japan viewed from the perspective of a Swedish teacher educator. The analysis attempts to highlight the most interesting features and problematic aspects of the complex process of internationalisation as declared and implemented at national level and in one particular teacher training institution. The perspective of a Swedish scholar aligned the study focus on common and contrasting issues of the internationalisation of higher education in two countries, however the data provided in this paper concerns explicitly only Japan.

This paper addresses different aspects of internationalisation of Swedish teacher education. The contextual, societal and curriculum perspectives are used to highlight complexity of international work in training prospective teachers. Evidence of systematic improvement of internationalisation was found at Umeå University. It is argued that an active internationalisation process can help to raise academic status of teaching profession domestically and internationally.

Multiculturalism and intercultural education have been for the long time constitutive components of Swedish teacher training, in particular concerning the teaching of Swedish as second language (Johansson, 2008). However, in the curriculum discourse and practice of other subjects, this concept appears to be poorly explored and instrumentalised (Popov, Sturesson, 2015). Nowadays, when teacher students go to school practice, they face culturally diverse classrooms and challenging educational contexts (Popov, Sturesson, Carlsson, 2012). They need to deal with cultural heterogeneity on pedagogical and curriculum planes (Popov, Sturesson, 2015). The focus of this paper is to highlight important elements of intercultural competence as they perceived by the science teachers. Theoretical lens of the socio-political framing of education (Gutiérrez, 2013), in particular issues of identity construction is used in the study. The concept of identity is related to what a person does and his or her activities. Identity is dynamic and depends on participation in a particular community that position an individual “through and in race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, language, and so forth” (Gutiérrez, 2013, 46). Theoretical constructs of multiculturalism were also important to highlight different dimensions of science teachers’ intercultural competence.

Denna artikel handlar om kommunikationens betydelse för undervisning i matematik på yrkesprogram. En fördjupning inom detta område är särskilt viktig med tanke på yrkesprogrammens heterogena grupper och bredden på utbud av inriktningar. Yrkeselevernas varierande förkunskaper berättigar till en analys av kommunikationsförmågan ur ett ”språk och matematik” perspektiv. Det handlar inte bara om att stödja elever att lära sig ett matematiskt innehåll genom att kommunicera utan även att utveckla elevernas språkkunskaper. Syftet med denna artikel är att belysa kommunikationens och visualiseringens roll i undervisningen och lärandet av matematik. Artikeln riktar sig i första hand till gymnasielärare i matematik.

This is an account of the development of prospective teachers’ competence to conduct outdoor science education. At the Department of Science and Mathematics Education, the students participate in outdoor education courses. They also plan, manage and evaluate outdoor lessons designed as assignments in science education, participation in school practice and summer courses. Many student teachers evaluate and analyse the pedagogical aspects of outdoor science when they carry out research projects in schools for their graduation thesis work. In order to understand the activity of science teaching and learning outdoors, a qualitative study was conducted. It was based on interviews with teacher educators and included studies of students’ examination papers. A Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) lens was applied to the study. The theoretical framework helped to identify the prospective teachers’ abilities and skills to design, implement and evaluate tasks related to the professional competence of delivering outdoor science activities.

The advancement of space exploration is an important socio-scientific and political issue in Sweden. This study attempts to understand secondary school students’ awareness about this national “space ethos” and roles of space technology in their everyday life. Methodologically, this research draws on a sociocultural framework and examines the reflections of 69 grade 9 students in a questionnaire about space exploration consisting of a total of nine multiple choice, short answers and open questions. Students shared awareness and high expectations about space contribution to monitoring climate and environmental problems, providing satnav and telecommunication services, but showed limited understanding about satellite technology.

Traditionally, the area of interculturality in teacher education has included international collaboration projects aiming to enhance students’ cultural awareness. Due to current pandemic situation student and teacher exchange was reduced, especially with non-EU states.  This paper presents research on how smartphones can assist teacher educators in fulfilling the goals of intercultural competence development. The focus of research was on mobile learning collaboration in geographically distributed and culturally diverse settings. The presentation will specifically highlight challenges experienced at a science teacher training department in Sweden. Following research questions were raised in the project: What potential could be identified in using smartphones in science teaching for promoting intercultural competence? How does cultural context affect implementation of the introduced innovations? Data collection was conducted through interviews with students involved in the project and analysed using the CHAT theoretical framework. The results show that future teachers have skills and interest in using and acquiring new applications of m-technology in the context of cross-cultural collaboration, but they express concern about current restrictions on use of smartphones in schools. Our findings indicate that existing tensions and contradictions concerning “smartphones in education” need to be proactively addressed at all curriculum levels.

The report presents overview of educational system in Singapore with focus on teacher education. The National Institute of Education (NIE) is the only teacher training institute in the country. It is an autonomous institute of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. NIE staff not only conducts research in education but also “content research”, meaning pure science research. At the Department of Natural Sciences & Science Education (NSSE)  a majority of publications are in the fields of pure physics, chemistry and biology. NIE’s plasma research group is world-leading in their area of specialization. Therefore, the number of publications and citations from NSSE is very high in comparison to the amount of publications done by similar Swedish departments. Value-work and leadership training are central for all educational programs. Voluntary work is promoted for NIE students with regular advertisements on the website and around campus. Staff members are expected to be role-models for the students. Diversity is a major slogan at NIE. This includes diversity in research but also Cultural Diversity. NIE is active in international exchange programs. It also organizes regular study visits and developmental work actions in the region. In some programs students have to spend six months at foreign institutions. NIE also has some specific rules, for example a code of conduct and dress code for student teachers on campus. As stated in the code of conduct, NIE aims to develop student teachers into cultured teachers. “A cultured teacher is one who is smart looking, confident, caring, creative, and a mentor, learner and leader. As part of the desire to project a positive total image of teachers, a code of conduct and dress code for student teachers on campus has been established and student teachers are expected to observe the code.” The admission of students into teacher education is a very selective process in Singapore. It can be compared to the admission to medical faculties in Sweden. When demographic situation in the country is changing, as it is now, with fewer children in schools, Singapore needs fewer teachers. As a result the selection procedure is becoming even tougher.

The balance between research and teaching is strict at NIE. Professors cannot freely disperse their time between teaching and research but must instead, even if they have funding for research, teach courses according to the needs of the department. Everybody should teach undergraduate and masters students. Masters courses are normally given on evenings, not an attractive time, but old professors and young lecturers will do their teaching duty in master courses. People often joke that “research is considered more like hobby for the staff – they find time anyway to do it, but teaching is a holy activity”. Everybody takes teaching very seriously. The status of pedagogical merits is high at NIE. It is comparable, but not equal to, research merits. Teachers are expected to do a lot of curriculum work, develop new courses, new laboratory activities, ICT-solutions: apps, animations, etc. They participate as judges in science fairs and competitions. These activities are voluntary, but an important part of their pedagogical work. They also supervise school students’ preparation for such competitions. Most of the courses are technology rich, in the sense that they use ICT and laboratory facilities.

Reklam är inte skapad för att bli kritiskt granskad, utan för att främja vår konsumtionslust. Nationalencyklopedin (NE) definierar reklam som ”ett av de konkurrensmedel som ett företag använder i sin marknadsföring för att främja försäljningen av en vara eller tjänst.” I vidare mening inbegriper reklam även spridning av idéer och värderingar och därför tangerar begreppet propaganda. Enligt NE betyder propaganda ”mer eller mindre systematiskt bedriven verksamhet som syftar till att med hjälp av språk, bilder eller andra symboler påverka människors åsikter, värderingar eller handlingar i en bestämd riktning.” I den här artikeln analyseras ett till synes fyndigt reklamtrick från Lufthansa, vars syfte är att öka försäljningen av solresor från Skandinavien under vinterårstiden (Lufthansa, 2016). Reklamen som kallas ”UNSCREEN” lanserades i olika medier i februari 2016. Den åberopar vetenskapliga forskningsresultat och använder olika naturvetenskapliga begrepp i reklamtexten och kan därför vara lämplig för analys i SNI-baserad undervisning.

Swedish universities frequently offer campus-based education as well as online courses, a system commonly referred to as dual mode. This paper analyses some challenging pedagogical aspects of a master's programme in engineering developed and delivered simultaneously online and on campus. Course evaluations, questionnaires, and interviews with the programme teachers were the main instruments used in this study. Activity theory was used as a theoretical framework for data collection and analysis. The study evidences the nature of problems experienced by on-campus and distance students as well as conflicts of interest and expectations existing between these two student groups. Teaching simultaneously in two modes demands extra effort from the course teachers, who are aware of the problems related to pedagogical communication needed by both groups. Though teaching in the dual mode offers economic benefits for the department, the simultaneous mode of teaching is experienced as problematical by both groups of students, with distance students appearing to be more disadvantaged in the programme.

The comparative study of prospective teachers’ pedagogical skills of written communication in science is presented. Russian and Swedish students were asked to give detailed explanations of two simple physical phenomena (how and why the shadow from a tree appears and why the bulb lights in a torch) to a hypothetical Grade 7 pupil. The results of the questionnaire revealed the evident gap between the students’ knowledge per se and their abilities to didactically express their knowledge in written form and in pictures. Undoubtedly this is one of the challenges to teacher educators. The study also revealed the differences between forms and qualities of explanations given by Russian and Swedish students as the result of different pedagogical traditions and communication cultures.

This theoretical paper elaborates on the concept of “proven experience” (beprövad erfarenhet) that recently came into focus within the Swedish educational system. Based on a systematic study of international research literature it is argued that proven experience can be interpreted as a combination of the terms “evidence based teaching” and “teacher professional inquiry”, which are broadly used in English language educational discourse.

A four level theoretical model is suggested for interpreting and instrumentalising the term proven experience in education. The model is based on the inverted version of Miller’s (1990) model, which was used for the analysis of practical knowledge in medical education. The suggested model correlates ontologically with historical forms of knowledge genesis starting with instrumental knowledge and culminating in theoretical knowledge. Josefson (2005) defined the concept of proven experience as: “experience critically proven through theoretical reflection”. This definition appears to better correspond to the suggested model than the interpretations of the concept provided by the Swedish National Education Agency (Skolverket, 2012).

The provided theoretical model for analysing proven experience could be used as a tool for understanding and generalising teaching experience at different educational levels.

References

Josefson, I. (2005). Vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet. I: Carlgren, I. (red.). Forskning av denna världen. 2, om teorins roll i praxisnära forskning. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet.

Miller, G.E. (1990). The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med. 1990 Sep., 65(9 Suppl). S63-67.

Skolverket. (2012). Promemoria om vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet. (dnr 00-2012:1700).

The presentation discusses issues related to integration of refugee children in Swedish school system. During the past ten years (2007-2016) over 62000 of asylum seeking unaccompanied children came to Sweden. These children are placed in different municipalities around the country that take responsibility for their education and socialisation. I argue that existing practice of introducing unaccompanied immigrant children into Swedish school system is built with multiple cultural barriers impeding success of their integration in Swedish society. Interviewed prospective teachers also recognise existing systemic problems in education of unaccompanied immigrant children and feel luck of instrumental intercultural competence to deal with such problems.

I den här artikeln analyseras ett till synes fyndigt reklamtrick från Lufthansa, vars syfte är att öka försäljningen av solresor i Skandinavien under vinterårstiden. Reklamen som kallas ”Unscreen” lanserades i olika medier i februari 2016. Det åberopar vetenskapliga forskningsresultat och använder olika naturvetenskapliga begrepp i reklamtexten och kan därför vara lämplig för analys i nv-undervisning.

Fysik och utomhusmiljö öppnar många möjligheter att bekanta sig med naturlagarna. Även de vanligaste föremålen i vår omgivning, en båt, ett träd eller en snöboll, kan bidra till att utveckla lärande och skapa förståelse. Artikeln presenterar idégrunden för boken ”Utomhusfysik: Uppleva, undersöka, utforska” (Popov & Engh, 2016). Boken bjuder in till att utveckla naturvetenskaplig undervisning utomhus. De föreslagna aktiviteterna genererar upplevelser och praktiska undersökningar av verkliga fenomen i utemiljön och samarbete i olika gruppkonstellationer. Interkulturella aspekter lyfts fram för att visa på behovet av att anpassa undervisningen för att tilltala barn med olika kulturella bakgrunder. Aktiviteterna är uppdelade i tre nivåer: Upplevelsenivån avser att synliggöra och skapa intresse, undersökandenivån utgår från elevers praktiska erfarenheter av vardagliga fenomen medan utforskandenivån innebär mer systematiska undersökningar. Boken vänder sig till blivande och verksamma lärare i grundskolan, företrädesvis för lärare som arbetar med elever från förskoleklass till årskurs 6 samt lärare i fritidshemmet.

Preparing future teachers to use different contexts to organise science learning is an important part of primary teacher education in Sweden. Outdoor environment and science museums are often used for this purpose. This presentation reports the study summarising my teaching experience on the use of video-reporting of practical activities and study-visits to science and arts museums during science-orientation courses for prospective primary school teachers. Focus of these activities was on developing of a creative side of teacher professional competence. Students work with open practical problems outdoors, preparation of scenarios, video-recordings with mobile phones, editing and reporting of results made these course activities real exercise in creativity. Visits to science and arts museums created additional stimulus to instigate students’ creativity. The course evaluations reported high satisfactions of the students with these forms of course-work.

Enligt väl etablerade begreppsramverk ska all pedagogisk verksamhet i svensk lärarutbildning och skola byggas på forskning och beprövad erfarenhet. Det kan liknas vid ett tveeggat pedagogiskt svärd som kan hjälpa till att vinna internationella bataljer på PISA-fältet. Svärdet kan också bli ett effektivt verktyg för att markera en riktning för framtida pedagogisk utveckling och hugga bort eventuella svårigheter som uppstår på vägen till hållbara utbildningsframgångar.

I det svenska utbildningssystemet arbetar skolledare och lärare som i sin dagliga verksamhet skapar den beprövade erfarenheten och de pedagogiska framgångssagor som borde spridas. Så är det tänkt och det är en god tanke! Det är bara oklart vem som ska sammanställa och sprida beprövade erfarenheter och genom vilka kanaler de ska nå det breda yrkeskollegiet. Kan det vara lärarstudenternas uppdrag?

För att få en lärarexamen i Sverige, måsta man skriva ett examensarbete baserat på egna självständiga undersökningar (SOU, 2008:109). Studenterna strävar ofta i sina studier att beskriva och förstå lärarnas erfarenhetsbaserade kunnande eller den didaktiska förtrogenhetskunskapen. Det är ju den kunskapen de vill få med sig ut i den verksamhet som väntar dem. De ställs inför en utmaning att beskriva den lite diffusa aspekten som utgör lärarnas beprövade erfarenhet. I dagsläge omfattar studenternas examensarbete på 30 hp runt 50 sidor text och brukar förutom av en handledare och en examinator också läsas av några studenter. Den återkoppling mot fältet som examensarbetet skulle kunna vara uppstår sällan. Inte ens de lärare som var informanter för studenternas arbete läser arbetena då de sällan har tid eller ork för detta. Om projektets resultat också skulle sammanfattas på max 10 sidor och presenteras i form av exempelvis en kort videoinspelning på 6–10 minuter kunde det markant öka tillgängligheten av studenternas didaktiska fynd för praktiker. Publikationskanaler för detta finns redan etablerade vid flera universitet. Lärarstudenternas didaktiska konferenser i slutet av utbildningen, öppna för publiken, skulle också vara ett värdefullt forum för spridning av resultat.

Det krävs mera flexibilitet och mindre styrning vid utformningen av examensarbeten. Flexibilitet är också viktigt utifrån att examensarbeten riskerar bli en segregerande faktor för studenter med utländsk bakgrund. Att ställas inför kraven att producera en omfattande akademisk text med tydliga stilistiska ramar, ramar som inte används i någon större utsträckning inom skolans dagliga verksamhet är en krävande uppgift för många svenskfödda lärarstudenter men betydlig mera krävande för de som inte har svenska som modersmål.

Beprövade erfarenhet borde spridas i större omfattning, inte minst med hjälp av lärarstudenter, och didaktisk forskning borde kopplas tydligare till praktiken. Kanske får vi då, efter samverkan mellan forskning och beprövad erfarenhet, ett riktigt vasst verktyg, det tveeggade pedagogiska svärdet, som tydligt kan peka ut riktning men också kan forma en grund för hållbart utvecklingsarbete i den svenska skolan.

Educational discourse about teacher as an expert professional practitioner is growing in Sweden.  In science education, teacher expertise in conducting practical activities constitutes an important part of the professional responsibilities (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004).  Outdoor activities are more demanding from management perspective and conducted mainly by enthusiasts. Creative solutions of organising practical work in science in different contexts are usually teacher-bounded. Anecdotal evidence shows that when the teacher retires or changes workplace his or her favourite equipment and developed lab-instructions tend to be soon forgotten, if they are not became rooted in the traditions and practice of the school. Rephrasing Edwards (2010) we can state that teachers inhabit practices laden with the accumulated knowledge and values necessary to undertake activities and they engage in activities when they possess necessary knowledge and share the values.

This presentation reports the study summarising my teaching experience of using video-reporting of practical outdoor activities during science-orientation courses for prospective primary school teachers. The focus of these activities was on developing effective tools for accumulating and spreading teacher expertise in using outdoors contexts in science education.

Results

Open authentic practical activities were suggested to the students to be conducted outdoors (Popov & Engh, 2016), for example on playgrounds, which should be reported with the help of short videos (5-6 min). The activities included formulation of practically solvable problems, preparation of scenarios, practical work outdoors, video-recordings with mobile phones, and the editing and reporting of results.

Practical activities were reported in a broad variety of forms, including fairy tales, competitions, instructional videos, etc. The course participants provided different didactical solutions as to how their videos can be used in science classrooms, for example; as an introduction to new study-topics, as explanations of a phenomenon, or as a point of departure for flipped-classroom arrangements. Students showed possible ways to connect these activities to the national educational policy documents as well as the school science curriculum. They also suggested theoretical justifications of selected forms of doing and presenting activities using for example cultural-historical activity theory. Findings confirmed the effectiveness of out-of-classroom contexts for learning science (Popov, 2015) and the potential of video-reporting in developing science teacher professional expertise.  

References

Hofstein, A. & Lunetta, V.N. (2004). The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty-first century. Science Education. Vol.8, N 1, pp. 28-54.

Edwards, A. (2010).  Being an expert professional practitioner: the relational turn in expertise.  Dordrecht the Netherlands; New York: Springer.

Popov, O., Engh, R. (2016). Utomhusfysik: uppleva, undersöka, utforska. // Outdoor physics: experience, explore, research. [In Swedish] Studentlitteratur. Lund.

Popov, O. (2015). Outdoor Science in Teacher Education. In T. Hansson (Ed.), Contemporary Approaches to Activity Theory: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Behavior. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. pp. 128-142.

Den här artikeln handlar om hur undervisning baserad på samhällsfrågor med naturvetenskapligt innehåll (SNI) kan bana vägen för elever att utveckla sin handlingskompetens genom att fördjupa deras kunskaper, förmågor och värderingar. Det är inte ovanligt att det finns en klyfta mellan vad man vet och vad man gör, det vill säga mellan individernas kunskaper och deras handlingar i vardagliga praktiker. Systematiskt arbete med värdeladdade SNI-fall kan hjälpa till att överbygga den klyftan. I denna artikel liger fokus på den viktiga rollen som kommunikation, argumentation och handlingskompetens kan spela i naturvetenskaplig undervisning med fokus på SNI och hur dessa kompetenser kan utvecklas i SNI-undervisning.

Artikeln presenterar en kreativ experimentell uppgift för elever att bestämma mängden värme som produceras under en oelastisk stöt. Experimentet utförs med hjälp av en smartphone, vilket gör att resultatet har en hög precision. Tydlig visualisering och tillgänglighet när det gäller använd utrustning visar på ämnesdidaktiska fördelar.

Raising quality of science specialists and science education is a major priority around the globe. Another important global educational focus is promoting sustainable development. Use of modern mobile learning tools and teaching approaches shows great promises for teacher education in fulfilling these goals. This paper presents theoretical foundations and some practical solutions how smartphones as handheld computers can assist mobile learning (m-learning) in geographically distributed settings. The developmental work is conducted within the framework of InterMobile project that is presented in the paper where also some expected and achieved outcomes outlined.

Social inclusion of refugee children is an important issue in Sweden and many other European countries. Sweden has a population less than 2% of the European Union but accepts more than 20% of all unaccompanied minor immigrants in the EU. Logically, effectiveness of their schooling creates necessary pre-conditions for success of their integration in the society. However, political attention and state funding are concentrated on assuring quality living conditions and legal support for incoming minors, leaving responsibility for their education to underfunded municipal schools. Thus, the study conducted in a secondary school in Northern Sweden showed that the school was facing problems in getting mother tongue teachers’ support and funding extra curriculum activities to facilitate refugee children’s socialisation and effective Swedish language acquisition. This made their in-schooling process lengthy and rather painful for all actors involved. A sociocultural theoretical lens was used to understand the situation and outline further studies. In teacher education in Umeå, we treated intercultural issues of integration of unaccompanied minor immigrants in the Swedish school system in a course at the end of the students’ training. In group interviews and guided discussions in the course, prospective teachers recognised existing systemic problems in education of immigrant children and expressed a feeling of lack of instrumental intercultural competence to deal with such problems.

Balans är ett område inom fysiken som har många kopplingar till människans vardagliga liv. Balanssinnet bygger på information från syn, känsel och balansorganen i innerörat. Med ålder försämras balanssinne. Generellt i Sverige är risken att dö i en fallolycka är sex gånger större än i en trafikolycka. Artikeln tar fasta på medicinska rön att även på äldre dagar går det att träna och förbättra balansen och föreslår möjliga vägar att göra det.

This paper presents a conceptualisation of over ten years practical experience of working with “outdoor component” in science teacher education in Umea (Sweden). The Activity Theory (AT) has been used to provide theoretical ground for reflection on educational work and students’ activities in the outdoor context. Our experience of exploring pedagogical potential of outdoor context in teaching physics for prospective primary and secondary school teachers is also illustrated by concrete examples from different courses and student examination papers. Evidence provided by this study and students research shows great potential of outdoor learning environment but also reveals issues related to motivators and pedagogical complexity of outdoor teaching demanding purposeful development of teacher competence and great deal of private interest.

Fysik är läran om naturen i vid bemärkelse. Undersökande aktiviteter i utomhusmiljö öppnar många möjligheter för eleverna att lära känna fysikens lagar. Även de vanligaste föremålen i vår omgivning, en båt, ett träd eller en snöboll, kan bidra till att utveckla lärande och skapa förståelse.

Utomhusfysik innehåller redskap för att utveckla naturvetenskaplig undervisning utomhus. De föreslagna aktiviteterna leder till upplevelser och praktiska undersökningar av verkliga fenomen i utemiljön och samarbete i olika gruppkonstellationer. Interkulturella aspekter lyfts fram för att visa behovet av att anpassa undervisningen för att tilltala barn med olika kulturella bakgrunder.  

Aktiviteterna är uppdelade i tre nivåer: upplevelsenivån avser att synliggöra och skapa intresse, undersökandenivån utgår från elevers praktiska erfarenheter av vardagliga fenomen medan utforskandenivån innebär mer systematiska undersökningar.

Boken vänder sig till blivande och verksamma lärare i grundskolan, företrädesvis lärare som arbetar med elever från förskoleklass till årskurs 6 samt lärare i fritidshemmet.

The social inclusion of refugee children is an important issue in Sweden and many other European countries. Sweden accepts more than 20% of all unaccompanied immigrant children in the EU. Logically, effective schooling is needed for these children to create the necessary pre-conditions for their successful integration into society. However, political interest and state funding concentrates instead on assuring good quality living conditions and legal support for incoming minors, leaving the responsibility for their education to underfunded municipal schools. Accordingly, a study conducted in a municipal secondary school and a university teacher education in Northern Sweden revealed low preparedness to meet the educational needs of immigrant children. Sociocultural and socio-political theoretical lenses were used in the study to understand the situation. Pedagogical action was taken on the teacher education programme in Umeå to improve the situation and issues concerning the integration of unaccompanied immigrant minors in the Swedish school system were explored in an interdisciplinary course at the end of the students’ teacher training. In group interviews and guided discussions during the course, student teachers recognised existing systemic problems in the education of immigrant children and expressed a feeling of a lack of practical intercultural competence to meet such children.

This paper focuses on the development of prospective teachers’ competence to conduct outdoor science education in a Scandinavian context. This context is characterized by easy accessibility to open-air natural environment and folk traditions of being and doing different activities outdoors. Working in the field of science teacher education in Sweden and Norway, we have experienced that outdoor science is traditionally linked to environmental and biology field courses or teaching units that contain fieldwork. The Ministries of education in both countries are supporting outdoor science in schools through a variety of programs, that are internet- and open source-based (www.skolverket.se, www.naturfag.no; www.ndla.no). Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) lens is applied to the study. The conclusions of the study underline the importance of working actively with issues related to pedagogical complexity of outdoor teaching, which is demanding a purposeful development of teacher competence and teaching material.

 Research and curriculum development in the field of primary S&T education in Mozambique conducted by the Science and Technology Education Group (STEG) at the National Institute for Education Development (INDE) is presented in the paper. The paper discusses the problem of making S&T  teaching socially relevant, describes some results of the work concerning experiments about teaching traditional technological skills in big classes and related gender issues.

The study analyses the historical development of vocational literacy in basic education and Non-Formal Vocational Education (NFVE) in Mozambique, as well as current challenges and contradictions. The theoretical lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is employed in the study. Methodologically the study was executed through an analysis of oral, printed and e-resources produced by the main stakeholders and also the reflective experiences of the authors in their extensive educational work in the country. The findings reveal poorly developed vocational literacy education in schools and non-formal settings in spite of recurrent political declarations about its importance. There is a strong dependence by formal and particularly NFVE sectors on the technical and financial support provided by international organisations. Vocational literacy courses are characterized by a lack of adequate equipment and poor practice. As a consequence, theoretical or elementary forms of vocational knowledge are dominant in the courses, resulting in the dissatisfaction of both learners and educators. Vocational literacy development proved to be a complex field that faces many challenges and is characterised by diverse internal contradictions.

The Swedish National Agency for Education is currently implementing a project aiming to raise the didactical competence of science teachers at all school levels. The project uses a praxis-based collegial learning approach supported by facilitators and framed by the project web portal presenting study modules. The authors of this paper have been in charge of the material development for the module “teaching science through socio-scientific issues”. The material developers’ work was enriched and supported by the experience of EU funded project Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research and Innovation in Science Education. The aim of this paper is to highlight a question: what lessons could be learned from the process of material production for the professional development of science teachers in Sweden?