WP6i - school-uni collaboration

WP6i (NTNU): School-University collaboration in science education  Both teachers in MST21 and scientists will benefit from a more systematic approach  to communication between scientists and teachers or non-scientists. At NTNU, efforts have been made during the past ten years to approach this matter in a more systematic way (Fan et al 2006).   The Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Resource Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education is situated at the crossroads between professional teaching practice in schools and research in science and  technology, and forms a meeting place for science teachers and scientists at university.  The Resource Centre's key target has been to improve teaching practice in MST in primary and secondary education.  In particular, the Resource Centre  makes use of two approaches:  (1) Raise the MST qualification of teachers in schools through in-service training, and  (2) Improve the quality of teaching in MST by development and dissemination of new  teaching materials and good teaching practices.  The Resource Centre combines new knowledge from current development in science and technology with modern teaching approaches, in particular inquiry-based science  teaching approaches (IBSTAL).  The work in WP 6i  will include an in depth analysis of challenges related to the interaction between scientists on one hand and science teachers on the other hand.   The challenges at NTNU, and the Resource Centre in particular, will serve as the case in this study. A preliminary presentation will be given in a two day workshop with partner institutions and experiences from these partner institutions will be  collected.  On the basis of this workshop, we will develop a guide for school-university interaction/collaboration models in the field of in-service training and other  activities aiming at improving the quality of MST teaching in schools. (product 6.12)