Back to search

FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education 2017: Evidence-based development in science for schools and teacher education

Awarded: NOK 0.15 mill.

NFSUN 2017 The Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education (NFSUN) is a forum for presentation and discussion of research on science education. The conference links research and development and welcomes researchers, as well as teachers from all levels of education. The conference functions as a meeting point and a platform for establishing networks within science education research. The first NFSUN symposium was held in 1984, and every third year since then, circulating between the Nordic countries. NFSUN 2017 took place at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) between June 7th and 9th, with a pre-conference for new researchers in science education on June 6th. The overall theme for the conference was: Science competences for the future, with the possibility to contribute to 12 strands covering a wide selection of fields within science education research. The conference was open to all interested in science education. The main conference language was English, but it was possible to submit contributions and hold presentation in Swedish, Danish or Norwegian. The aim of the conference was: To create an arena for Nordic science educators and researchers to present and discuss ongoing research and development projects related to science education Strengthen the link between researchers and teachers in science education at all school levels Contribute to Nordic cooperation in science teacher education Strengthen research on science education relevant to schools in the Nordic countries In addition, we wished to contribute to: exchange of ideas and perspectives among Nordic science educators and researchers; and increase the publishing rate among science teacher educators through presenting an arena for discussion of ongoing research, and thus aid in the publication of new work. The conference was carried out as planned, with three keynote speakers from Norway, Sweden, and Canada: Astrid Sinnes, Associate professor, Norwegian University of Life Sciences Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor of Applied Cognitive Science, University of Victoria, Canada Pernilla Nilsson, Professor, Halmstad University, Sweden In total 145 participants, representing all Nordic countries and a few other countries were present. There were 58 paper presentations, 2 symposia, 5 workshops and 6 poster-presentations during the conference. The abstract book of the conference is available on the NFSUN website: http://nfsun.org The number of participants were lower than last NFSUN conference In Helsinki 2014. This may be due to fact that the European Science Education conference ESERA was arranged only two months later than this conference, and several possible contributors explicit said they could not afford two conferences so close, and that they preferred the ESERA conference because it has a broader impact. At the first day of the conference we made a dedicated program for teachers in primary and secondary schools in Trondheim and the surrounding area, including the first key note speech. A total of 18 teachers participated, which was a little disappointing. This again, may be due to limited school budgets and a competing large STEM-teacher conference earlier in the year. In addition, 37 participants joined the preconference the day before the main conference started. The main topic of the preconference was qualitative methods relevant to research in science education. Our self-assessment is that the conference through presentations and a conference schedule with space for discussions, formal and informal, managed to create a positive arena for strengthening cooperation, exchange ideas and academic views on the expanding research area of science education; and Science competences for the future were covered through a long list of interesting presentations. There will be an electronic conference proceeding published during spring 2018, and selected papers will be published in the journal Nordic Studies in Science Education, NorDiNa, in June 2018. Link to the NFSUN net site: http://nfsun.org Link to the NFSUN 2017 net site: https://www.ntnu.edu/nfsun2017 The NFSUN 2017 conference has received funding from the Research Council of Norway, the FINNUT programme for research and innovation in the educational sector; and from Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences (SU) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

NFSUN 2017 (Nordisk Forskersymposium om Undervisning i Naturvitenskap) is a triennial conference that brings together researchers, teacher educators and science teachers from all Nordic countries. The topics of the conference cover science teaching from pre-school to teacher education, and research, innovations, development work and policy issues in science education are presented and discussed. Hence NFSUN represents a unique meeting place between science educators, teachers and researchers. The conference will involve Nordic participants in preparation, review, organization and the production of a special issue of the Nordic journal NorDiNa, and hence strengthening Nordic networks in science education also before and after the conference. It will contribute to internationalization and collaboration across Nordic countries, and to the development of a strong Nordic profile in science education that will improve the relevance of science education research for practitioners in our field. The conference welcomes newcomers in the field, and will represent a stepping stone into the international research community for PhD students and teacher educators who have less experience with research. The review process for participation, proceedings and the special issue of NorDiNa will support the participants development of skills in publishing their work, and this way improve the publication rate as well as quality in our research field. Dissemination to practitioners will be undertaken by publishing results presented at the conference in channels used by school teachers and provided by the National Centre for Science Education. Link to the net site of the last NFSUN conference in Helsinki 2014: http://www.helsinki.fi/luma/nfsun2014/

Funding scheme:

FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren