The SFU Magazine 2/2016 by NOKUT

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016

Teachers agree:

We need to talk about teaching! The teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trick: More learning, same amount of time. Is it possible?

About the Centres for Excellence in Education Initiative (SFU)

CONTENT AUTUMN/WINTER 2016

SFU IS a prestigious national initiative for higher education, which was established in 2010. SFU SHALL contribute to further developing the quality of and initiatives relating to higher education and teaching, and highlight the fact that education and research are tasks of equal value. SFU HAS given universities and university colleges a new arena for competing in quality in higher education.

SOME QUICK FACTS ABOUT SFU:

CENTRES ARE TASKED WITH:

▶ Outstanding academic environments at universities and university colleges can be given the status of SFU.

▶ disseminating knowledge and research about education and teaching

▶ The centres receive between NOK 4-8 million each year.

▶ inspiring other communities

▶ SFU status is awarded for a period of five years and can be extended by five years. ▶ So far, four centres have been established and four new centres will be established in autumn 2016. ▶ The SFU initiative is administered by NOKUT.

▶ promoting and using R&D-based teaching ▶ testing new and innovative methods in teaching and education

▶ involving students

In this edition of the SFU Magazine, you will find news from the centres bioCEED, CEMPE, MatRIC and ProTed

Building teaching communities

More support wanted from institutional leadership

Turning the teaching of maths on its head

In sync with the students?

From student to teacher: Profession-oriented mentor scheme

SimReal makes better teachers

Collegial competence development for master’s degree supervision

Five more years as a Centre for Excellence in Education

Room for more learning?

The teacher’s trick: More learning – same amount of time

Is there a formula for quality culture in higher education?

Read more at www.nokut.no/sfu THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 3

bioCEED CEMPE

Terje Mørland Director General, NOKUT

Yes to quality culture in higher education! A lot of good things are happening in Norwegian higher education - and NOKUT is not the only one to notice this. The newspaper Morgenbladet’s nomination of fantastic lecturers earlier this autumn was an important tribute to teachers who work their magic every day in the auditorium, bring their discipline to life and link complicated subject matter to the real world outside. The nomination also reflects the great interest in the debate on the place of education in Norwegian universities and university colleges. We are seeing a clear shift – an appeal to continue increasing the prestige of education and to put teaching and education on an equal footing with research. This is a very positive part of establishing and further developing a quality culture in Norwegian higher education. NOKUT put international researchers on the case when we wanted to examine this development in more detail. What are the success factors behind a quality culture? There may not be a simple formula for this, but common values for high-quality education and learning, strong educational leadership and access to resources are some of the factors highlighted by the researchers. All of the success factors are described on pages 20-21 in this edition of the SFU Magazine. The Centres for Excellence in Education Initiative is an important tool for developing a quality culture in Norwegian higher education. They are outstanding laboratories; for

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

the academic communities, so that they can research and innovate in the field of education, and for us at NOKUT. The centres will enable us, in our mission to contribute to quality development at universities and university colleges, to see what works and adjust what does not work. In this way, we use the SFUs in our supervisory and development work. However, they are also intended to be laboratories for everyone who works or has an interest in higher education. On pages 6-8, you can read more about how two SFUs in two entirely different fields are working in similar ways to establish a quality culture. You can be inspired by a collaboration project that is studying the learning effect of a flipped classroom on pages 10-12. On page 14, you can learn more about a brand new mentor scheme that has been launched for student teachers. NOKUT is picking up where Morgenbladet left off this autumn. On 1 November, the scene is set for the first celebration of education in our history. A whole evening has been dedicated to the very best of Norwegian higher education. During the course of the evening, we will finally reveal which of the nine finalists will become part of the SFU family. I look forward to getting to know the new centres better. This might already have happened by the next edition of the SFU Magazine. Enjoy!

Building teaching communities New incentives and arenas for communication enable teachers to share their knowledge and experience of teaching in new ways. Although bioCEED and CEMPE have different starting points of departure, both Centres for Excellence in Education focus on teacher culture and have clear common traits. WRITTEN BY: Oddfrid Kårstad Førland og Aslaug Louise Slette SYSTEMATIC WORK ON TEACHER CULTURE ‘A culture of quality does not emerge in individuals, but in a strong community where individuals share and evolve together. This has been a fundamental aspect of bioCEED’s work on developing teacher culture,’ centre director of bioCEED Vigdis Vandvik explains. Many of the tools for building a teaching community already exist in the academic community – academic arenas for meetings and cooperation are not new in this environment. What is new, is that both bioCEED and CEMPE are now working more systematically to build and strengthen new teaching communities and that both centres have found a means of motivating many teachers to take part in this culture change.

‘What is unique for CEMPE is that the culture change is both about creating openness in relation to teaching and encouraging more systematic research and development work in relation to our own teaching,’ says centre director of CEMPE Jon Helge Sætre.

THE TWO ACADEMIC CULTURES ‘Teachers in higher education typically have two very different roles, the teacher and the researcher, and these roles fall under two different academic cultures,’ adds Vandvik. Whereas researcher culture is characterised by scientific methodology and continuous development, teacher culture is more concerned with preserving methods and experience-based practice. As researchers, we share, assess, criticise, debate and document work and results, but the same can rarely be said for teachers. Researcher

culture has a strong and demanding collegiate spirit, while teaching culture is characterised by allocating tasks and ‘lone practice’. ‘One way of building a quality culture in teaching is to merge the two roles, by taking the best aspects of the collegial researcher culture and integrating them in the teaching culture,’ according to Vandvik.

A COLLEGIAL TEACHER CULTURE bioCEED has created arenas for meetings in which learning and teaching are the topics. Seminars, workshops, learning forums and annual teacher retreats are examples of collegial activities organised by the centre, which mainly focus on topics that can be directly applied to the teaching practice of each individual participant. In cooperation with the academic development

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 5

During the course in Critical Response Process, teachers and students try out new methods of discussing teaching practice. (Photo: Katinka Hustad)

The centre director of bioCEED, Vigdis Vandvik (third from left), and centre director of CEMPE, Jon Helge Sætre (second from right), along with (from the left) Simon Goodchild from MatRIC and Tone M Eriksen and Hilde Sollid from ProTed, during a meeting held for the centres earlier this year.

Nearly half of the permanent research and teaching staff at bioCEED’s biological host departments are now involved in R&D projects in the field of education. Luckily, it appears that the students are comfortable with their role as guinea pigs. ‘Being guinea pigs for new and more active teaching methods is fun. We look forward to our lectures,’ says one student.

5TIPS FROM BIOCEED AND CEMPE

▶ Create academic arenas that increase the sense of community in teaching. ▶ Increase the status of educational development work and teaching to be on an equal footing with the status of research and artistic development work. ▶ Let teachers become familiar with the teaching practice of other teachers – create a common language and facilitate good conversations. ▶ Expand the teaching team to include the expertise of students, teachers, educational experts and support staff. ▶ Nurture the local teacher culture, but build institutional mechanisms to support the enhancement of teaching quality.

unit Genombrottet at Lund University, bioCEED offers the Collegial Project Course for teachers. The course encourages participants to have a research-based approach to their own teaching practice, through familiarising themselves with relevant literature and studying, developing and documenting their teaching practice. To strengthen cooperation and collegiate spirit, the participants carry out a group project that is assessed by both the course leader and fellow students (peer assessment). Pernille Bronken Eidesen, associate professor in Arctic Biology at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and participant on the course, confirms its positive effects:

discussing teaching and learning, but have also inspired the teaching staff to become involved in the debate on teaching outside their own academic environment. Centre director Vigdis Vandvik feels that this new common language has given a new dimension to the discussions on teaching and learning in the academic environment:

‘I was motivated to work on further developing my own courses and gained new ideas for improving learning activities. I gained an awareness of the interaction between course content, learning activities and the form of assessment, particularly the importance of continuous assessment. I am now aware of the importance of a well-considered course description, and how this can serve as a tool. I used to think that writing course descriptions was more an administrative requirement than something I could actually use.'

A RESEARCH-BASED TEACHER CULTURE

The collegial activities have provided us with a common language for reflecting on and

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

‘Even when teachers want to disprove or criticise ideas and projects, they do this by referring to pedagogic literature. We discuss things in a different way now and it’s no longer enough to have an opinion, you have to have an informed opinion,’ she says.

Biology teachers and students in Bergen and on Svalbard are well aware that they are part of a SFU – bioCEED’s research and development projects use the biology programme as their ‘field area’ and teachers and students as objects for study. ‘We also see a growing interest among teachers to develop and research their own teaching practice, and several projects have been initiated as a result of this,’ says Vandvik.

‘In the work practice course subjects initiated by bioCEED, students get to participate in active researchers’ day-to-day work. The teaching really brings the subject to life. We see that the course changes from year to year in response to student feedback,’ she continues.

APPRECIATION OF QUALITY As a centre, bioCEED represents teaching development in the academic environment and its commitment at the local level has strengthened the work on culture building and is a key to developing a collegial and research-based teacher culture. However, if a permanent quality culture is to be achieved, changes must also take place at the institutional level, the centre argues. In the survey conducted by bioCEED among higher education biology teachers, the results clearly showed that teachers want a greater focus on and appreciation of teaching, as illustrated by the following comment from a survey participant: ‘I have always been concerned with the quality of teaching, and believe that I have succeeded in achieving this. But quality is little valued and barely noticed. I miss a stronger focus on quality in relation to teaching and an appreciation of measures to improve quality.’ ‘If teaching is seen as a second-rate activity in relation to research, and effort and quality are not

merited and valued in teaching, we won't be able to develop a permanent quality culture,’ says centre director Vandvik. In addition to contributing resources, support and expertise to individual teachers who wish to develop their teaching practice, bioCEED works closely with the institution leadership at the University of Bergen to initiate a merit scheme for excellent teaching. The scheme awards the title of Framifrå undervisar (Excellent teaching practitioner) to teachers who have worked systematically on their developing teaching and have contributed to build a collegial and professional teaching culture. The scheme is intended to reward teachers and contribute to teaching quality being valued.

CULTURE FOR GOOD TEACHING The Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) has always had a culture of providing good teaching. Much of today’s instrument tuition is based on the ‘master-apprentice’ principle, which includes individual lessons and close follow-up of the student. Teaching is also a high priority for teachers of other theoretical and practical subjects. This might be related to NMH’s background as a music conservatory, in that it has historically been a ‘school of music’ with teachers and students united in a practice-based fellowship. This close relationship between student and teacher may have overshadowed the need for sharing knowledge and the experience of teaching with colleagues.

BOTTOM-UP Committed teachers are a sound point of departure for realising CEMPE’s vision of developing knowledge that can improve the quality of higher music education. When such a highly-qualified staff is gathered at NMH, one of the most important things for

Jon Helge Sætre, centre director of CEMPE « CEMPE has organised the teachers into teams so that they have the opportunity to talk and discuss. We see that this provides good and long-awaited arenas for sharing knowledge about, and experiences from, teaching, » Jon Helge Sætre

CEMPE has been to build new teacher cultures from the bottom up. ‘We have always wanted a bottom-up culture at the centre. We have organised this by letting the teachers themselves suggest relevant development projects in the framework of CEMPE’s main focus areas. In this way, CEMPE’s project portfolio has been developed using the teachers’ fields of interest and initiatives,’ explains centre director Jon Helge Sætre.

CREATING ARENAS FOR SHARING KNOWLEDGE One of CEMPE’s contributions is to gather great teaching competencies and thus enable teachers to share and discuss their experiences from their own teaching. ‘CEMPE has organised the teachers into teams so that they have the opportunity to talk and discuss. We see that this provides good and long-awaited arenas for sharing knowledge about, and experiences from, teaching,’ says Jon Helge Sætre. The challenge has been that teachers have

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 7

More support wanted from institutional leadership

bioCEED

A survey of higher education biology teachers shows that they do not feel appreciated by, or have little support from, the institution institutional leadership for the efforts they make in teaching. During the course, teachers wander about the room and describe objects to expand their teaching vocabulary. (Photo: Katinka Hustad)

mainly stayed in their own offices and classrooms, so that teaching and reflecting on teaching have been a ‘lone practice’, in the same way as described by bioCEED. It appears that CEMPE’s working methods help to create new teaching communities for the staff.

education, in university college education, in which teachers that need teaching qualifications receive collegial supervision and write reflection papers on their own teaching.

FOR INSPIRATION, GET TO KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES

Although the centres have different points of departure – bioCEED with a strong research culture, and CEMPE with a strong, but, in part, personal teaching culture – both have chosen to support strong learning communities. This is also shown in the international research project on Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, www.utwente.nl/ bms/cheps/cetlfunk, in which bioCEED and CEMPE are both participating. The preliminary results categorise CEMPE and bioCEED as ‘organic centres’, where teacher cooperation across the institution and a bottom-up culture are key characteristics. CETLFUNK also ties these characteristics to a strong learning community, or, as they call it, ‘Faculty Learning Communities’.

Julius Pranevicius, Professor of Horn, is one of the teachers who has taken part in several CEMPE projects. He describes his experiences of participating in a teacher team: ‘Taking part in the CEMPE project has been particularly educational and a very important arena for getting to know my colleagues through group discussions on teaching, instrumental practising and other topics that we rarely talk about in the “corridors”. I was very inspired by the working methods and approaches that my colleagues presented at the group meetings. The fact that my colleagues were so open and inquisitive gave me the confidence to further develop some of the ideas that emerged during my first year on the CEMPE project,’ says Julius Pranevicius.

STRATEGIC FOCUS DURING WORKING HOURS Being creative and self-critical towards your own teaching practice takes time. Teachers at NMH normally use their own research and development time to work on artistic development or more traditional research projects. ‘One of the reasons we’ve succeeded in sparking new interest in the teaching culture itself, is that CEMPE earmarks working hours to reflect on, try out and think innovatively about old and new forms of teaching,’ claims centre director Sætre. When extra working hours are earmarked for educational development work, CEMPE also requires documentation of the work on reflection and development. This strategic focus therefore goes hand in hand with NMH’s Professional development course in higher

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

EMPHASIS GIVEN TO COLLEGIAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS

‘We are now seeing a gradual change throughout the sector, both nationally and internationally, towards emphasising the collegial and cultural aspects of teaching and learning to achieve a higher quality of teaching,’ says Sætre from CEMPE and Vandvik from bioCEED. During such processes of transition, the local academic environment is the key to cultural development, but a change of perspective of this kind also requires that the institutions facilitate development and quality by stimulating a collegial culture and practice in teaching and learning. The two centre directors conclude that Centres for Excellence in Education, such as bioCEED and CEMPE, can be models for developing the necessary institutional strategies for a quality culture, where teaching is continuously developed and efforts to achieve quality are valued.

Vigdis Vandvik, centre director of bioCEED

bioCEED - Centre of Excellence in Biology Education Affiliated to the University of Bergen (UiB), the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the Institute of Marine Research (HI) bioCEED aims to strengthen biology education to ensure that the biologists of tomorrow are highly qualified and well prepared for a professional career.

> www.bioceed.no

CEMPE - Centre of Excellence in Music Performance Education Affiliated to the Norwegian Academy of Music (NAM) CEMPE’s goal is to develop knowledge and experience that can support performance students in their search for artistic excellence. CEMPE also aims to qualify the students for a career in a rapidly changing globalised music community.

> www.cempe.no

ioCEED conducted a large, national survey during spring 2015 on biology education at nine Norwegian higher education institutions. The students and academic staff at the institutions answered questions on their experiences of, attitudes towards and opinions about the biology education.

Figure 1 The teachers are uncertain about whether they want to spend more time on teaching, but want teaching to be more appreciated and prioritised (bioCEED Survey 2015).

‘The results show that many are dissatisfied with the support they receive from the institutional leadership. At the same time, we see that colleagues and students play an important role in providing valuable support and useful feedback. This is particularly clear with respect to the teachers,’ explains Torstein Nielsen Hole, PhD student at bioCEED. The teachers’ answers show that the appreciation of effort and quality of teaching comes primarily from colleagues and students. There is also a clear distinction between how teachers perceive that their efforts are valued by their own department and from the institution as a whole. ‘The teachers discuss teaching with their colleagues, but this is often related to practical implementation and academic content rather than the students and their own role as teachers. This gives the overall impression that teaching is private and get little appreciation from the institutional leadership. This is also strengthened by the fact that teachers want the institutions to prioritise teaching, but are less willing to devote time to this themselves. This may indicate that they don't believe they will gain anything from prioritising teaching,’ says Hole.

Figure 2 Effort and quality of teaching are primarily valued by colleagues and students.

Figure 3 In the teaching community, content, teaching plans, students, and practical circumstances are most often discussed. The role of teacher is a less common topic for discussion between colleagues.

Finally, Hole points out that the teachers want more feedback; ‘Teachers seem to want more feedback in general, particularly from students and colleagues. The exception is feedback from the leadership, which reinforces the impression that leadership and teaching are seen as separate from each other.’ The bioCEED Survey 2015 has presented many interesting results, and data from the survey form the basis for further research at the centre. You can download the report here.

Figure 4 Teachers feel that feedback from students is most useful, while feedback from the leadership is of less value.

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 9

MatRIC WHAT IS A ‘FLIPPED CLASSROOM’?

Turning the teaching of maths on its head

It definitely does not mean to flip out, quite the opposite in fact. In a flipped classroom, the students can sit at home and watch lectures by the teacher before attending classes to solve assignments in groups. The home lectures are in the form of videos covering a given topic, which normally last about six to ten minutes. For the lecturer, the flipped classroom means that more time can be devoted to supervising the students individually and in groups. The students can follow the teaching at their own pace and according to their own level.

( x + 1 ) ( x - 1 ) = x2 - 1

x +y =1 2

sin x + cos x = 1

x2 + y2 = 1

sin x + cos x = 1

x2 + y2 = 1

( x + 1 ) ( x - 1 ) = x2 - 1

Matt K. Voigt

Short video clips on a topic as homework, followed by group exercises in the classroom. Experience shows that it works. It increases understanding. The teacher becomes an active supervisor in problem solving, rather than speaking non-stop at the front of the auditorium. But what really happens in the learning process? WRITTEN BY: Tor Martin Lien ‘The videos give the students the opportunity to rewind if there are parts they don’t understand. They can repeat things as many times as they like until they understand them,’ say PhD research fellows Helge Fredriksen from the University of Agder and Matt K Voigt from San Diego State University in California, USA. They are working on a research project on flipped classrooms.

CHALLENGING HABITS AND STIMULATING INQUISITIVENESS ‘The most important thing for the University of Agder is to further a culture of co-creation that constantly challenges habits and generally accepted views in order to achieve higher quality. In this way become an institution that has a

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

quality culture that is constantly striving for excellence,’ says Rector Frank Reichert. 'One exciting aspect of Fredriksen and Voigt’s project is that it links teaching in two countries so they can learn from each other. The two project managers have experience from different teaching systems. The differences stimulate inquisitiveness and forms the basis for “aha!” experiences on both sides of the Atlantic, which can contribute to developing and raising the quality of education,’ says director of MatRIC, Simon Goodchild.

assignments in the classroom. The two researchers are studying a group of engineering students at UiT The Arctic University of Norway’s campus in Bodø. The goal is to study how flipped classrooms work in teaching mathematics at university level, and the effect the method has on the students. The idea is that a flipped classroom gives the teacher more opportunity for dialogue with the students in the learning process, while the students are more engaged by the teaching, thereby achieving better results.

TWO WEEKS OF 'FLIPPED' TEACHING A key aspect of the pilot project is analysing what role the videos play in communication between the students when they solve group

Helge Fredriksen (left) is a PhD research fellow in mathematics didactics at the University of Agder, and assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Computational Engineering at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, with his place of work in Bodø. The pilot study is a part of his PhD thesis. He will continue his full-scale study of the students throughout the next academic year.

In the project, the teaching will be flipped for two weeks. The students familiarise themselves with new subject matter on their own, before

Helge Fredriksen bases his group teaching on the assumption that the students have studied the topic on video at home. The video from the group sessions (see camera in top-left corner) shows whether the students use the knowledge and their understanding from the videos when solving the assignments. (Photos: Matt K. Voigt and Helge Fredriksen)

everyone is brought together to be taught in groups by teachers. In these groups, new knowledge is used and elaborated on in assignments, under the supervision of the teachers. The individual introduction is in the form of short videos of six to ten minutes, where brief revision questions or quizzes may be included.

ANALYSING USE OF THE VIDEOS The researchers are analysing teaching in two learning arenas. They study how the students use the videos and quizzes when going through the subject matter at home. The work carried out in the classroom is studied

is a PhD research fellow and employee at San Diego State University in California. He has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the USA. He is now working at MatRIC at UiA in Kristiansand. He is collaborating with Helge Fredriksen on the ‘Flipped Classroom’ project. The pilot is part of a research project that will be conducted over the next three to five years, which includes Helge Fredriksen’s full-scale study in Bodø over the next academic year.

The goal is to flip teaching on its head to increase students’ understanding of the subject. Increased understanding also means students benefit more from the teaching. This raises the quality of both teaching and the students’ learning. In this way, society will gain more knowledgeable graduates. Research from around the world is intended to provide answers to whether flipped classrooms and other trials on new forms of teaching really increase the quality of teaching and the candidates' knowledge. Matt K Voigt and Helge Fredriksen’s project is a piece of this puzzle.

MatRIC supports and assists both PhD research fellows.

on the basis of three main issues. Firstly, they are studying to what degree the students and teachers use the knowledge from the videos in the work on and discussions about the mathematical problems. Secondly, they are studying the forms of cooperation that emerge in the classroom. Lastly, they are examining what type of mathematical discussions emerge in the students’ activities in the classroom and how the discussions develop over time. Finding out how students and teachers approach this new method of working, using videos first and group discussions afterwards, is an important part of the research project. The discussions about the assignments, both in the groups and in plenary sessions, are studied and analysed to find out if and how

video learning influences the discussions.

TWO TOPICS – SEVERAL STYLES OF VIDEOS In the pilot, the students study two mathematics subjects, vectors and trigonometry, using different styles of videos. In the group teaching, the students solve calculation assignments and open assignments that show whether they have gained a deeper understanding of the subject, or have just learned the procedure for finding the correct answer, but perhaps don’t understand why the answer is correct. It is important that the videos used only cover one subject and one problem at a time. The

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 11

VIDEO TIPS

FROM MATT AND HELGE:

Screenshot: Simple, but well-prepared video introducing a vector topic.

Screenshot: The video with pictures and text is supplemented by step-by-step instructions on how to solve the assignment.

The videos do not need to be fancy. The videos work best when they

CEMPE

In sync with the students? ‘Can you please help us find new ways of listening to you?’ CEMPE director Jon Helge Sætre asked the students when CEMPE and the University of Agder organised a symposium on music, teaching and learning in higher music education. WRITTEN BY: Marie Strand Skånland

▶ are simple ▶ are short ▶ only cover one topic ▶ are focused on the topic ▶ are broken up by a quiz or a revision question. ‘The simplest one I’ve seen was made by a teacher who put his iPhone on a stand, filmed a blank page and solved the problem with a pen on the page. It worked well,’ says Helge Fredriksen. Others film themselves while explaining and drawing on the board or illustrate problems using simple images. ‘Long videos result in the same effect as lectures – concentration levels fall and the students don’t pick up the information they need to understand the topic. The formula is short and focused,’ says Matt K Voigt.

‘The videos are a source of learning in themselves, but it is important that the teacher takes the level of the student group as their point of departure, both individually and as a group,’ says Helge Fredriksen. ‘We have four videos for each topic. The level in the classroom is somewhat higher than in the videos,’ says Matt K Voigt, who has made the videos.

PAUSES FOR INSIGHT Small assignments and quizzes form part of the teaching, which helps increase understanding of the topic in question. This is done both in the group assignments and classroom teaching.

Open questions give students the opportunity to explore the topics at different levels so that everyone is able to participate in the group work. ‘The questions that are asked are perhaps more expansive than open, since they are a step up from the platform formed by the videos. The students in the groups help each other if they are at different levels. Those who have understood the most help the rest along,’ says Helge Fredriksen. The empirical data will be documented next year, both in the Norwegian’s thesis and the American’s project. The analysis work will then start, but we might be able to read an article based on the pilot before then, written by Matt K Voigt and Helge Fredriksen.

OWNERSHIP OF THEIR OWN WORK When CEMPE and the University of Agder (UiA) hosted the symposium In Sync? in Kristiansand, it was essential that students from the programmes in question would participate and be heard. One of the challenges of this type of symposium is that teachers and heads of institutions are primarily the ones discussing their perspectives on education. ‘There’s a lot of teacher talk,’ confirms music student Kari-Andrea Bygland Larsen at UiA. ‘There are lots of good ideas, but I hope that it’s more than just talk and ideas and that it will also lead to results,’ she states.

Students’ understanding of mathematical problems increases by solving assignments in groups.

next video then builds on the first, thus providing a sound foundation for building knowledge.

key part of the quality culture at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) is putting students in charge of own development. An important part of this is to teach the students independent and critical thinking. But to what extent do the students themselves feel that they are able to influence their educational pathways?

MatRIC - Centre for Research, Innovation and Coordination of Mathematics Teaching Affiliated to the University of Agder MatRIC’s vision is to be a national resource centre that encourages and supports excellence in teaching and learning mathematics in natural sciences, engineering, economics, teacher education and other higher education programmes with significant mathematical content.

> www.matric.no

CEMPE is actively working on greater inclusion of students. During one of the breaks, we asked students Robert Løkketangen, Gina Grosås and Kari-Andrea Bygland Larsen to tell us more about their experiences of being heard as students, and to what extent they are able to influence their own educational pathway. They tell us that they want to take charge of their own development. ‘Learning a music instrument is not a gift you can be given, but a job you have to do yourself,’ says Robert. He reminds us that the students themselves need to do the work necessary to become good musicians. ‘It is important to receive input, of course, but knowing that you own your career because you have worked for it yourself and made your own choices is an important message to get across.’

OUT OF SYNC?

students to develop an independent artistic identity. This means that we must encourage critical reflection. Pianist Ingfrid Nyhus Breie raised this important topic in her talk, describing the piano lessons she had taken as a student in 1998. She very much wanted to try out her own approaches and ideas in her playing, but was told by her teacher that she shouldn't think so much. This goes against the vision of independent and reflective students, but is nonetheless something that students of classical music still encounter today. ‘Many teachers want their students to take responsibility and reflect on their own learning and development, both at an artistic and technical level; that you don’t just perform an artistic order, but think about how you can be musically creative. However, the desire to have active, creative and innovative students is a perspective that must be balanced with helping them to be able to maintain the quality requirements of each genre,’ Jon Helge Sætre told Pling, NMH’s research magazine before the symposium. A challenge for music education is to ensure constant development while maintaining traditions at the same time. This is particularly evident in the key role that the “masterapprentice tradition” has in music education, where the teacher teaches students individually. The tradition of the 'master showing and explaining’ is challenged by the need to help the students to be capable of making their own choices. Students themselves also place emphasis on having the opportunity to make their own choices.

‘So you want to be more responsible for your own education?’ ‘Yes, but I have also experienced on several occasions that I have first thought “what’s the point of this”, Gina says. ‘For instance, I was part of an improvisation project that I didn’t think I wanted to take part in, and that I found awkward for the first three days. I would never have chosen to take part if I hadn’t been forced into it, but afterwards it felt really great,’ ‘Freedom is good, but sometimes teachers who have done things before know what works.’ As director of CEMPE, Jon Helge Sætre wants to continue to listen to the students: ‘In CEMPE, we take the students’ perspectives seriously and constantly work to include them in our activities. Ensuring that their voices are heard at a symposium like In Sync? is valuable for us. We will continue our dialogue with the students, both in the development projects and through conversations at the organisational level.’

IF THE STUDENTS COULD CHOOSE One of the questions discussed at the symposium concerned the way ahead in higher music education. How do the students envisage their dream education? ‘We would like to have more influence over our own course of studies,’ says Kari-Andrea. She would like to be able to choose her own educational path to a greater extent.

Music students Gina Grosås (NMH), Robert Løkketangen (NMH) and Kari-Andrea Bygland Larsen (UiA) want to make their own choices in their education. (Photo: Marie S. Skånland)

The Norwegian Academy of Music wants

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 13

From student to teacher:

A profession-oriented mentor scheme

ProTed MatRIC

A new mentor scheme for students in the five-year integrated teacher education programme at master's degree level at the University of Oslo is intended to help the students experience a sense of relevance and context throughout their studies.

his autumn, all lektor student teachers at UiO have the chance to take part in the programme’s own professionoriented mentor scheme, PROMO.

‘The students that take part will be assigned a mentor who is an experienced teacher in their respective field,’ explains research fellow Eli Lejonberg, who has led the work on the programme’s development. ‘Through meetings and visiting schools, they gain a unique opportunity to discuss relevant issues and gain an insight into how skilled teachers think and work. This gives the students an impression of how the knowledge they gain through their education at Blindern is used in schools.’ PROMO runs in parallel with the other courses in the programme. Through meetings on campus and visits to schools, the students are introduced to different aspects of a teacher’s day-to-day work. The students are organised into groups where they can discuss different aspects of the teaching profession. The groups are led by an experienced teacher with relevant mentor training and the same academic background as the students. These teachers or ‘mentors’ are from the University of Oslo’s partners and university schools.

scheme provides access to experienced teachers’ ‘silent knowledge’ about teaching and learning. ‘The students also become a part of the mentor’s teacher network, which can open doors to future jobs in various schools,’ says Fløgstad.

GREAT INTEREST AMONG NEW STUDENTS At present, the mentor scheme is voluntary. Over 500 students in total are taking part in mentor groups this semester. Nearly all of the new students are participating – 280 students in their first semester have registered. When developing the programme, it has been important to ensure clear progress in the scheme. Students and mentors should not just meet and share notes, but work systematically on different aspects of the teaching profession.

CREATING IDENTITY

At an early stage of the programme, the shift in perspective from pupil to student and from student to teacher is emphasised. Halfway through the programme, the students work on issues relating to diversity in the classroom and pupils’ learning. Later in the programme, the differences between courses at university and at school are discussed, and it is shown how teachers can use their knowledge of the field as one of their most important strengths when practising the profession.

Specialisation is a major part of the five-year teacher training programme at the university. The student teachers on the programme take some courses with the ‘normal’ bachelor's degree students in other disciplines. It can be difficult for them to maintain their identity as student teachers during the programme.

At the same time, the scheme also intends to prevent students from dropping out of teacher training. It is also important to enable students to create good internal networks through different social events between the mentor gatherings.

‘We hope that the mentor scheme can help create an identity for the students, in addition to helping them see the relationship between theory and practice,’ says Lejonberg.

MENTORS FROM PARTNER AND UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS May-Britt Fløgstad is a teacher at Ullern upper secondary school and one of the mentors in PROMO. She believes that the PROMO

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

The mentor scheme is developed as a collaboration between ProTed, the Department of Teacher Education and School Research and the University of Oslo’s university schools, and the pilot project was carried out during the academic year 2015–2016. The experiences from the pilot were positive and the students have welcomed an offer of this kind. PROMO will now be implemented in full scale throughout the entire programme, divided over ten semes-

PhD student at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research. (Photo: Shane Colvin, UiO)

ters. This academic year, students in their first, third and fifth years of the programme are participating in mentor groups.

AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW Eli Lejonberg believes that schemes of this kind can be useful in all types of programme, not just the lektor programme. ‘The students get to know someone working in the profession they are studying and this is done in a more systematic manner. I don’t know of any similar schemes in other teacher training programmes,’ says Lejonberg.

PROMO ▶ Is a profession-oriented mentor scheme at the University of Oslo. ▶ Runs in parallel with the other courses in the programme. ▶ Includes meetings on the campus and visits to schools. ▶ The students are organised into groups where they can discuss different aspects of the teaching profession. ▶ The groups are led by an experienced teacher with the relevant mentor training and the same academic background as the students. ▶ These teachers or ‘mentors’ are from the University of Oslo’s partner and university schools.

ProTed - Centre for Professional Learning in Teacher Education Affiliated to the University of Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)

ProTed’s vision is to educate professional, knowledgeable, confident and internationally oriented teachers for a multicultural society.

> www.uv.uio.no/proted/

SimReal makes better teachers

The computer programme SimReal helps student teachers to ‘see the maths’. This aims to make them better maths teachers when they start their teaching careers.

SimReal aims to help students improve their mathematical skills so that they will become better maths teachers. Here Professor Said Hadjerrouit and student Maria Kaiktzoglou.

WRITTEN BY: Morten Rosenvinge

imReal gives students the opportunity to work with visualisations and simulations – to 'see' the maths in order to understand it better. The programme is being developed by associate professor Per Henrik Hogstad at the University of Agder (UiA), and has received a great deal of praise from engineering students.

The students have been active by evaluating and assessing the programme and their own learning. Several adjustments have been made to SimReal based on the students' feedback, in order to make the programme more user friendly and the level more suited to student teachers.

MAKES IT EASIER TO UNDERSTAND IMPROVING TOGETHER The program has since then been introduced as a pilot project in the teacher training programme through an R&D project supported by MatRIC’s research funding. The programme aims to help the students to better understand mathematics and thus teach it better at school. Hogstad and professor Said Hadjerrouit at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UiA have conducted the trial twice. The reports can be found on www. matric.no. ‘It has been interesting to see how the program works differently for different groups of students. It has been exciting to work together with the students, both for improving SimReal for their learning purposes, but also as a part of the research on how students best learn maths,’ say the two experienced teachers.

The students’ feedback included that SimReal is useful as a tool for creating more motivating activities for the student teachers. They also believed it to be a good supplement to teaching and textbooks, and commented that it contributes to more variety in teaching. ‘The programme contains many assignments that involve different challenges. Visual presentations are very useful for understanding how things are related, and also boosts motivation,’ says student teacher Maria Kaiktzoglou. ‘I’m a big fan of digital tools. SimReal has great potential because it gives you so many choices,’ says Dan Bartholomay, also a student teacher at UiA. The students feel that it has been useful to see the digital solutions available in SimReal and assess how they can be used in teaching.

Student Magnhild Rugland thinks that SimReal is a good programme for the most able students and that it is positive that new simulations/visualisations are being developed for different levels of knowledge. ‘Many programmes are suitable for less able students, but here, there are also many opportunities for the most able students to work through the syllabus and be given more challenges. The concept is great, but the design could be improved,’ says Rugland. The design has now been altered.

ABOUT SIMREAL ▶ An interactive digital tool for teachers and students in and outside the classroom. ▶ The tool contains, among other things, video lectures, simulations, animations, assignments and other interactive visualisations. ▶ The programme is intended to support traditional teaching methods, and is available to everyone on the internet here.

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 15

ProTed

Collegial competence development for master’s degree supervision The ProTed project ‘Kollegabasert kompetanseutvikling om masterrettleiing’ (collegial competence development for master’s degree supervision) aims to develop a common understanding of the profile of master’s theses in teacher training. Developing a supervision competence in the staff, a broad combination of experience and academic traning, is a key aspect. WRITTEN BY: Hilde Sollid

« It is useful to discuss common issues and problems related to supervision with colleagues. Being able to supervise alongside a more experienced colleague has been particularly important. » Geir Olaf Pettersen

A SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT ▶ Pilot i nord is a project intended to test the design of a five-year integrated master’s degree programme in primary and lower secondary school teacher education.

‘Developing two new integrated master’s degree programmes in primary and lower secondary school teacher education has given a boost to the academic teacher training environment at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. The community is not least concerned with developing quality in the many components of the work related to master’s theses in the fields of study that students can opt to take as courses on the programme,’ says Programme Coordinator Henning M Sollid. While the profession-oriented assignments for grades 1-7 education are based on education subjects, the five subjects in the grades 5-10 education are based on subject didactics. ‘Nonetheless, important nuances between subjects may influence how a master thesis is understood and profiled. In line with the idea of integrating subjects, subject didactics, subjects of professions and practical training, the students can choose to combine the different components so that they support the basis for each master’s project,’ says Henning M Sollid.

ularly exchanged supervision experience and also discussed the framework for this new type of master’s thesis. The academic community has switched between dialogue meetings, internal evaluation meetings, reading groups and seminars with external contributors.

Hilde Sollid (UiT) and Andreas Lund (UiO) are stepping down as ProTed directors at the end of the first fiveyear period for ProTed. What do they think ProTed’s most important achievements have been so far, and what will be important for the centre’s work in the time ahead?

The main focus has been on the academic aspects of supervision and how professionoriented the master’s thesis is, but in the process, other related topics have also been included. A key question has been how, within the framework of a master’s degree programme, an understanding of professional practice can be developed in an academic perspective.

SUPERVISION COMMUNITIES

▶ Experience from the pilot phase of the project have been included in the work on new national curriculums.

The master’s thesis supervisors come from different academic traditions (the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences), and their knowledge of the professional field, research experience and experience of supervision at master’s degree level also differ. Based on this complex expertise, the collegiate will work to reach a common goal of developing a profession-oriented master’s thesis in the two study programmes.

‘Project has first and foremost established an arena for collegial competence development for master’s degree supervision. The community has been inspired by other master’s degree programmes, but has not avoided copying others’ solutions. It is clear that the different subjects and supervisors develop a more unified understanding of the master’s thesis and supervision up until students submit their theses,’ says KariAnne Sæther.

▶ As of autumn 2017, all of Norway’s primary and lower secondary school teacher education programmes for grades 1-7 and 5-10 will be integrated master’s degree programmes.

‘To reach these common goals, we have chosen to work together on developing master’s degree supervision,’ explains Kari-Anne Sæther, coordinator for the ProTed project.

The project has also led to the community establishing interdisciplinary cooperation on a common supervision practice for students, in which scientific methodology, research ethics and information competence are included.

▶ The first cohort started the programme in 2010 and so far, two cohorts from each of the two study programmes have graduated.

Five more years as a Centre for Excellence in Education

DEVELOPING A COMBINED UNDERSTANDING OF THE MASTER’S THESIS

‘It is useful to discuss common issues and problems related to supervision with colleagues. Being able to supervise alongside a more experienced colleague has been particularly important,’ says associate professor in mathematics didactics Geir Olaf Pettersen.

ProTed

‘”Everyone” is talking about quality. What is the most important contribution ProTed has made to improving the quality of education during the first five years?’ HILDE: ‘The most important contribution has been the development of a closer and ground-breaking, closer between teacher training programmes and schools .’

ANDREAS: ‘The international expert group that recently evaluated our work referred to the work on university schools as “the jewel in ProTed’s crown”. In addition, we have worked hard on describing quality and quality indicators, and have linked these to the development of or changes in practice. This is described in ProTed’s anthology, Veier til fremragende lærerutdanning. Aside from several chapters on many of our development projects, a discussion is also included about the concept of quality itself.’

‘What are the natural goals for the centre in the next period?’ ANDREAS:

Hilde Sollid (UiT)

Andreas Lund (UiO)

‘We are basically aiming to be Norway’s foremost environment on knowledge about and implementation of outstanding teacher training. This takes place at the intersection between innovation, academic and professional expertise and in close cooperation with the university schools. We can make very important contributions.’

HILDE: ‘As part of the work ahead, I would like to mention the development of new types of assignments in teacher training and the importance of these in supporting the students’ professional expertise. This is partly with reference to profession-oriented R&D work, but also other subject-oriented and professionoriented assignments that stimulate student activity and involve them in work on relevant topics.’

ANDREAS: ‘I would also like to mention the work on developing a professional digital expertise in teacher training. Preparing the students to design teaching environments and education that includes digital resources is a priority and we will continue working on this in more detail throughout the entire five-year teacher training programme.’

Since spring 2014, the supervisors have reg-

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 17

Room for more learning?

FACTS: In the analysis Rom for meir læring (room for more learning), NOKUT has interviewed students and staff at six study programmes and examined to what extent the students are challenged to reach the desired learning outcomes. The background to the study is a review of data material from the survey Studiebarometeret. The data shows that student motivation is the the variable that most strongly influences study effort. Students who reported that they are very motivated spend more time on their studies than others.

There is room for more effective learning at Norwegian universities and university colleges, says Director of NOKUT Terje Mørland. Here seen at the release of the figures from Studiebarometeret in February 2016.

Read the analysis report here.

Do students learn as much as possible during their studies or do they have the potential to learn even more if they are challenged in the right way? NOKUT wanted to study this further. ‘Many students believe that higher education institutions can influence how much they learn by setting clearer requirements and expressing more clearly what is expected of them. I entirely agree with this. This will motivate the students to increase their study efforts and perform even better.’ This is argued by NOKUT’s director Terje Mørland in connection with the findings from an analysis in which NOKUT asked students and staff on bachelor’s degree programmes in engineering, early childhood education and political science what they thought influenced students’ motivation and study efforts. For the individual student, increased study effort has a big impact on his or her results, both regarding the grades achieved and learning outcomes. NOKUT’s analysis shows that there is room for more effective learning at Norwegian universities and university colleges. He believes that better results can even be achieved in study programmes where the students are not that motivated to begin with. ‘Study programmes where the students either have weak prior knowledge and/or weak motivation should analyse the student cohort and plan their teaching around this. Norwegian universities and university colleges’ leadership must take

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

responsibility for this, because there is a lot to gain here.’

CALL FOR GREATER DEMANDS ON STUDENTS Room for more learning was the topic at one of NOKUT’s breakfast meetings. Here, the head of the University of Oslo’s student parliament, Hans Christian Paulsen, pointed out that students are not lazy but that they, in general, do the type and amount of work necessary to achieve a good grade. Few students invest more than this in their studies, which does not serve the labour market they will enter into well. ‘Society invests money in us taking an education. The higher education institutions must then make proper requirements so that we actually invest so much effort in our studies that we give something back to society and gain from it ourselves,’ he argues.

IT IS ALL IN THE FEEDBACK NOKUT’s Director of Analysis and Development, Ole-Jacob Skodvin, believes that the NOKUT report shows that the leaders of universities and university colleges must emphasise the elements that make a difference to the students’ learning.

‘Better steps must be taken to ensure good learning and the requirements must be more clearly communicated. Good communication is an important success factor in building up a good quality culture.’

ADVICE TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: ▶ Set out clear requirements and clearly communicate what is expected of the students. ▶ Help to establish good work habits. ▶ Vary the type of assignments and exams and space them out over the semester. ▶ Use active forms of teaching. ▶ Give constructive feedback on assignments submitted. ▶ Map the students’ prior knowledge and use the information in teaching. The students learn better if they are taught in a way that enables them to relate the new knowledge to what they have learned before. (Source: Ole-Jacob Skodvin, Director of Analysis and Development NOKUT)

AN EXAMPLE OF THE ‘TEACHER’S TRICK’: Teachers spend a lot of time writing feedback in the margins of written assignments. However, research shows that the students rarely use the feedback after the course has ended. In other words, the teacher has spent a lot of time on something that has not resulted in students learning more. We can therefore, with good conscience, skip this feedback and give points instead.

The time saved can be used by the teacher on providing formative feedback while the course is being taught. This can be effectively achieved by the students providing feedback on each other’s work or the teacher providing feedback to the group as a whole.

For example, the students can submit an assignment halfway through the course. They then give each other feedback on their assignments in groups of four. They can sit together in groups at a seminar and review the feedback for the purpose of improving the assignments. After this, the teacher presents one positive aspect, or the ‘highlight’ of each assignment in a plenary session.

In this presentation, it is possible to express a great deal of enthusiasm, while at the same time, demonstrating the most important aspects of the course. The students will often receive a wealth of constructive feedback from their fellow students, but the teacher may nonetheless want to present a list of the five most important weaknesses of the assignments. If the assignments are to be graded, the students may be asked to write a new version of the assignment that will be assessed without further feedback.

The teacher’s trick: More learning – same amount of time WRITTEN BY: Kristina Edström, professor at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm

any believe that better learning for students always involves teachers investing more time. Since teachers already have a lot of work, we immediately think that educational development is not possible. I view this misunderstanding as a common obstacle to development, and would therefore like to show that it does not have to be the case. I would argue that there is a lot we can do to improve students’ learning without increasing teachers' workloads. For many years, I have collected examples that I or colleagues have tested and that work. Sometimes, the teacher can even reduce their workload. The best news is that it often involves doing less of the most boring routine tasks.

The idea is that the teacher does more of what creates learning and less of what doesn’t. Let us call it the ‘teacher’s trick.’ Since we, as teachers, actually do a lot of tasks that do not lead to learning, there’s a lot of time at our disposal.

« The idea is that the teacher does more of what creates learning and less of what doesn’t. » Kristina Edström

We will, of course, make improvements that cost money when we can afford to, but we can easily start by implementing ones that are free, particularly when this will benefit both students and teachers.

The point is that it takes much less time to find one highlight than to provide feedback on the entire assignment. Lists of weaknesses are also quite stable from year to year and can therefore be re-used. The teacher has thus used the same amount of time to increase the students’ learning and both teacher and students have had fun along the way!

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 19

Ole-Jacob Skodvin

Jeroen Huisman

QUALITY CULTURE In the research report, ‘quality culture’ is defined as: the organisational culture that intends to enhance quality permanently and is characterised by two distinct elements: on the one hand, a cultural/ psychological element of shared values, beliefs, expectations and commitment towards quality and on the other hand, a structural/managerial element with defined processes that enhance quality and aim at coordinating individual efforts. (European University Association 2006. Quality Culture in European Universities: a bottom-up approach. Report on the three rounds of the quality culture project 2002-2006.)

THE SUCCESS FACTORS At the individual level: ▶ The teachers’ beliefs, values and attitudes ▶ Motivation ▶ Professionalisation of teaching/ education – further development ▶ Leadership/leadership style At the organisational level: ▶ Support from the leadership at the institutional level ▶ Communication ▶ Available data? Reflecting on quality work ▶ Innovation ▶ Decision-making level – institutional basis ▶ Available resources/staff – laboratory (SFU)

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

Is there a formula for quality culture in higher education? Perhaps not, but there are some key success factors, a new report shows. ‘The idea is that this report will inspire Norwegian universities and university colleges. In addition, NOKUT wishes to use it in our advisory and development work,’ explains Ole-Jacob Skodvin, NOKUT's Director of Analysis and Development. He is referring to a research report that examines success factors for establishing and further developing quality culture in higher education. the study was carried out by the Dutch research institute CHEPS, in collaboration with CHEGG from Belgium. ‘The report reviews the literature on quality culture in higher education. It also shows how quality culture can be described by examining five centres of excellence in education in Europe. Based on this, the researchers arrived at factors that they believe should be present in order to achieve a quality culture,’ the director of analysis and development states.

QUALITY CULTURE IS A PRIORITY If we are to believe the report, quality culture is not a new concept in higher education. Skodvin agrees: ‘What is new is how it has become an integral part of a system at all levels in most universities and university colleges. It has become a priority for the leadership and an important strategic goal. It’s really exciting and helps to put research and education on an equal footing.’ Skodvin also believes that an important driving force is that work on the quality of education

has shifted from being control-based to development-based. ‘This necessitates common values that define the characteristics of good quality in relation to learning and teaching. A common understanding of this kind is vital if we are to succeed with new measures aimed at raising quality.'

CHEPS CHEPS – the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies is a research institute affiliated to the University of Twente in the Netherlands. They study different aspects of higher education and offer the sector training and consultancy services. CHEPS focuses in particular on an international, comparative perspective.

CHEGG CHEGG – the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent is a research centre based at Ghent University in Belgium, which wants to increase understanding of management and leadership in higher education. The centre focuses on the system and institutional levels. Its work involves combining aspects from research on higher education with organisational sociology, political science, public administration, and economics and management.

LEADERSHIP, RESOURCES, COMMUNICATION AND APPRECIATION

ABOUT THE REPORT

‘There is not a single formula for how a quality culture can be implemented and developed,’ admits one of the researchers behind the report, Professor Jeroen Huisman, and states that:

NOKUT has ordered a research report entitled ‘Educational Leadership: How can one create a culture for quality enhancement?’.

‘It is about balancing incentives at the organisational level and the individual level. The teachers’ beliefs, values and motivation is important. It is also important to be aware of potential conflicts and the teachers must have the opportunity of further development. Leadership and leadership style is decisive and sufficient resources are obviously an important precondition.’ The five outstanding environments that are used as cases in the report are very different. They nonetheless have some common traits when describing which factors they believe to be important for developing a quality culture,' Huisman explains: ‘Educational leadership, resources, communication and developing a language that forms the basis for discussing education, and that work on education is appreciated, are the main factors that were emphasised.’

The target group is educational leadership at all levels of the Norwegian university and university college sector. The report is written by the research institutes CHEPS and CHEGG. The project managers were Andrea Kottmann (CHEPS) and Jeroen Huisman (CHEGG).

An important contribution to the discussion on quality culture ‘This report has provided valuable insight. I feel that it supports much of the development that is taking place in Norwegian higher education at the moment,’ says Nina Waaler, Vice-Rector for Education at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA).

aaler believes that there is great engagement in the quality of education in Norwegian universities and university colleges. She feels that an active, national discussion is important and welcomed addition in order to create a quality culture in this field.

PUT THE VALUES INTO PRACTICE A key point in the report is how important common values are to achieving high quality in teaching and learning. Most institutions have adopted a set of values, but to what degree do we succeed in putting these values into practice? HiOA's fundamental values are ‘learning, diversity and innovation’. To comply with these values, the pro-rector believes that teachers and managers must dare to experiment more. ‘Trying out new methods and tools is often a manifestation of the wish to develop the subject, oneself as a teacher and the quality of teaching. Perhaps we should accept a culture, to a greater extent, that has room for and accepts failure? The most important thing is that we learn from the mistakes and develop and improve the quality of our work.’

MOTIVATION AND THE VALUE OF ACADEMIC COMMUNITIES Waaler is also interested in how the report describes academic communities. ‘In research, we are good at supporting each other and giving constructive criticism in order to improve quality and learn from each other. This is done, for example, through peer review and other activities embedded in most established and well-functioning research groups. In the field of teaching, however, most teachers are left to their own devices.’

The report is based on literature studies and five case studies of the following environments:

The pro-rector believes that peer review of teaching and developing a greater collegial community in teaching are examples of measures that are long-overdue for discussion.

▶ bioCEED – Senter for framifrå utdanning ved Universitetet i Bergen ▶ Centre for Learning and Teaching ved Birmingham City University (England) ▶ EDLAB ved University of Maastricht (Nederland) ▶ Gennombrottet og Pedagogiska Akademi ved Lunds Tekniska Högskola (Sverige) ▶ Center for Teaching Quality Development ved University of Potsdam (Tyskland). You can read the report here.

Nina Waaler

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP – MOST IMPORTANT FOR THE LEADERS CLOSEST TO THE TEACHERS

The report’s target group is educational managers at all levels of the Norwegian university and university college sector. Waaler emphasises that the managers of higher education institutions have a great responsibility to facilitate a well-functioning culture for the quality of education. ‘Those who work closest to the teachers are the most relevant here; programme coordinators and/or heads of departments. There must be clear expectations and requirements for teachers regarding high quality and good development of their teaching.’ ‘To ensure competence in how these ambitions can be put into practice, we are now establishing a programme for educational managers at HiOA. The inclusion and active participation of students in this work will be a precondition. We don’t just want to do this for our students but also with our students.’

THE SFU MAGAZINE |

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | 21

We ask the communities that were interviewed for the report:

1. How are you working to create a collective effort in education? 2. How would you describe a ‘quality culture’? What influences the development of a quality culture? Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of EDLAB, Harm Hospers, Maastricht University

NOKUT helps to assure, develop and provide information about the quality of education. NOKUT is short for 'Nasjonalt organ for kvalitet i utdanningen' (Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education).

NOKUT is an independent expert body under the Ministry of Education and Research with approximately 99 fulltime equivalents employees divided between five different departments.

NOKUT's main task is to document and provide information about the situation in higher education, tertiary vocational education and recognised foreign education.

NOKUT supervises, provides information about and contributes to developing the quality of Norwegian study programmes and institutions.

NOKUT has several recognition schemes for foreign education, which aim to help enable people with foreign education to use their expertise in Norway.

NOKUT is, among other things, responsible for the national student survey Studiebarometeret, the incentive arrangement Centres for Excellence in Education, and the Utdanningskvalitetsprisen award (prize for quality in higher education).

At EDLAB – The Maastricht University Institute for Education Innovation, we have contact persons from all faculties that disseminate innovative teaching ideas to EDLAB. The road from idea to pilot project is discussed with all of these contact persons. Funded pilot projects are therefore the result of team effort.

Academic Developer, Torgny Roxå, Gjennombrotet, the Faculty of Engineering at Lund (LTH)

Since our framework is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, teachers are expected to write about their own teaching. The target group is colleagues at the same faculty. We have about 500 texts to date written by engineering teachers. These have been collected in a database that can be accessed by all teachers and we use it in the centre’s work. Publishing the texts increases the seriousness for the teachers and stimulates interest in reading what colleagues have done. This influences the entire communication and teaching culture, which is our main goal.

A culture is built and maintained through day-to-day interaction. A quality culture therefore emerges as the sum of all cooperation in the organisation. The teachers communicate more about teaching, they communicate with new people and they cooperate better. We have shown that this is the case in our organisation: The quality of the texts written by the teachers constantly improves. The heads of departments indicate that there is a new and improved climate for discussing teaching. Over a 13-year period, students have reported better teaching. This is a sign of a quality culture, which we also see in good research environments.

Ideally, a quality culture regularly reminds relevant interested parties about the indicators that are assumed to be decisive for the institution. In addition, procedures and structures are in place to put this information into action.

Head of Department of Biology, Ørjan Totland, the University of Bergen, host institution for bioCEED

We encourage cooperation and give teachers the opportunity to take part in collegial and competence-building activities, such as courses, teacher retreats and seminars for the purpose of inspiration and professional development. We often refer to the two cultures in academia, the researcher culture and the teacher culture, and how we can improve teaching by integrating the best of the researcher culture with the teacher culture.

The organisation as a whole and each member of the organisation should evaluate on a daily basis whether they can improve what they do and the way that they do it. It’s important to set quite ambitious goals which you can strive to achieve in the work in education, both in research groups and study programmes, and for the department as a whole. I feel that we used to focus more on quality as a high academic standard of education. This is of course important, but bioCEED has also added a clear focus on the quality of learning outcomes. Continuous quality development is key.

Do you want to know more? Go to www.nokut.no 22

AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 | THE SFU MAGAZINE

THE SFU MAGAZINE AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 PUBLISHED BY: NOKUT in cooperation with the SFU centres bioCEED, CEMPE, MatRIC and ProTed EDITOR: Ingvild Andersen Helseth CO-EDITOR: Emilie Valebjørg COVER: Photo: Håvard Nesbø LAYOUT: NXT/A2N Reklame & Digitalbyrå