This exciting Learning Forum 2017 at UNIS is now come to an end. And here are some of the highlights!
Harald Ellingsen, the Director at UNIS welcomed us all to the Learning Forum and sat the frames for the forum by going through the background, status and strategies for education at UNIS. Harald also announced that UNIS will be a part of the new merit system for teaching at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Bergen. An introduction to the merit system was also given by Professor Øyvind Fiksen from UiB in a lecture the same day. Øyvind, who was in the first batch of teachers who was rewarded status as Excellent Teacher Practitioner (ETP) in 2017, talked about the merit system in Bergen and how he had evolved in his teaching during the years.
Berit Kjeldstad, Head of Education Quality Division, NTNU and chair of the Board of Directors at UNIS had a very nice and interesting opening speech of the forum where she presented several of the trends in Higher Education in Europe where there is a growing attention to learning and teaching, and a digital revolution in the educational sector. Berit also brought up some of the main challenges for institutions and students, and how NTNU is working with teaching on different levels by use of digital tools, flexible teaching and learning spaces, educational leadership, a merit system and quality assurance “follow-up-tasks” that is connected with budget processes.
Field teaching was again on the agenda including both internal and external lectures. Professor emeritus Peter van Marion from NTNU, who has a wide experience from field work in university courses in biology and in-service courses for teachers in science, biology and geography was invited to hold a speech about his experience with field teaching. Peter raised some valuable questions and gave some interesting thoughts about different perspective on fieldwork; the “hands on” and “minds on” pitfalls, use of the outdoor as a context for learning, degree of inquiry in field-based teaching and the cost-benefit perspective of fieldwork. The participants were also able to join in on a 2 hour-long workshop with Peter on this theme. Click here to watch the Peter van Marion’s lecture.
We were also introduced to the reviewing and reflective techniques by Roger Greenaway from Scotland, a training consultant who has specialized in how to facilitate learning and the transfer of learning. Roger went through some of his techniques during his lecture and deepened up on the theme in his workshop where the participants learned more about different active methods, and how these methods could be applied at different stages of learning. Click here to watch Roger Greenaway’s lecture.
The full Learning Forum program is available here.
