Working Papers from the Centre for Academic Development

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Working Paper 5

Historia på längden och tvären. Om problemdriven och färdighetsorienterad utbildning i historia (2021)

Författare: Henric Bagerius

This report presents a pedagogical project that focuses on developing a problem-driven and skill-oriented introductory course in history in the teachers’ training program at Örebro University. Resting upon the educational philosophy of the university—not least the principle that both teachers and students should take an active role in the development of teaching and learning—the project group, consisting of a senior lecturer and four teaching assistants, has made several suggestions on how to teach students to do history while offering them an education that is engaging, inclusive and sustainable.

Course evaluations and group interviews show that many history students enrolled in the teachers’ training program appreciate a problem-driven and skill-oriented introductory course. Thus, there are good reasons to first and foremost strengthen the practical elements in the course. For the future, the project group suggests a focus on (1) ensuring a better alignment between learning activities and assessments, (2) offering more variety in learning activities and assessments, and (3) presenting students with more clear directives in learning activities and assessments.

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Working Paper 4

Kollegialt lärande i en rättsvetenskaplig praktikgemenskap – ett pilotprojekt (2021)

Författare: Rigmor Argren 

This report presents results from a pedagogical project focusing peer-review on teaching within the legal sciences at Örebro University. The model which was explored is based on teachers working in groups of three: This allowed each teacher to receive feedback on their teaching, give feedback to a colleague and to observe the process.

The report notes that lack of knowledge about concepts and disagreement about criteria for and indicators of successful teaching in legal science made it harder to provide substantial feedback on the teaching. The report suggests that increased knowledge about a conceptual framework would lead to better quality feedback in similar future projects. At the same time such framework could become a foundational element in a community of practice within the legal sciences.

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Working Paper 3 

Casebaserat lärande inom humanistiska studier. Erfarenheter från Kandidatprogram i språk, retorik och kommunikativt ledarskap (2021)

Författare: Marie Gelang, Mattias Jacobsson, Assimakis Tseronis och Gustav Westberg. 

In the development of a new program at the School of Humanities at Örebro University, the subjects involved (English language, Rhetoric and Swedish), proposed the implementation of a pedagogical model that hitherto has been underused in the humanities, namely case-based learning. Although well established in other fields, case pedagogy has not been tested in the humanities to any large extent. In this report, we first describe the three subjects’ take on case pedagogy along with our experiences from its implementation in the program. Next, we discuss the criteria we deem essential for success in this pedagogical model; these four criteria that comprise the Harvard model are authenticity, open-endedness, applicability of theory, and implementation that supports learning objectives. 

In summary, we emphasize that these criteria should not be considered as a fixed template; instead, we propose that they be regarded as a source of inspiration and let applicable fields of practice and the discipline itself dictate which criteria are relevant.

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Working Paper 2 

Integrating a sustainability perspective into psychology education. A review of the literature and some suggestions (2019)

Författare: Maria Ojala 

During recent years, the importance of education for dealing with global sustainability problems such as climate change has been emphasized. This report focuses on education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education. The aim is to discuss, based on research about ESD and a national evaluation of how sustainability issues are included in higher education, how a sustainability perspective can be incorporated in psychology education at the university level. Three questions are in focus: What is sustainable development and how can we best define this complex concept? What is ESD and which are the most important perspectives in the research field of higher education for sustainable development? How can sustainability issues be integrated into courses in psychology and the psychology program?

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Working Paper 1 

Skrivutveckling i stora studentgrupper. Erfarenheter från ett pedagogiskt utvecklingsprojekt (2019)

Författare: Karin Gustafsson, Erik Löfmarck, Lisa Salmonsson och Ylva Uggla. 

This report presents the results from a pedagogical project focusing students’ writing in higher education. Literature in this field conclude that student writing should be integrated in teaching of the subject with a plan for progression. Teachers’ and students’ experience indicate that students write a lot during their education, but only occasionally get concrete feedback on the writing as such. Focus groups with students showed that students found it difficult to write distinct and to differentiate between text genres. The teachers reported lack of ”tools” to help the students to improve their writing. The report suggest a model for the work with students writing based on goal setting; inventory; identifying problem areas; prioritizing; implementation; and follow-up and revision.