VIA University College
Twin centre
VIA University College
Skejbyvej 1
8240 Risskov
Denmark
Contact person
Martin Krabbe Sillasen
VIA University College
Department of teacher education
Nattergalevej 1
DK-8600 Silkeborg, Denmark
Phone: +45 8755 3101
Fax: +45 8755 3101
E-mail: Please enable JavaScript to reveal the Email address
National website containing information about Fibonacci
VIA University College - short overview
VIA University College ( www.viauc.com ) is today the centre of all professional bachelor degree programmes offered in Central Jutland and thus the largest university college in Denmark. VIA University College also offers continuing education and lifelong learning programmes and participates in various development activities in the region. Besides, VIA offers diploma programmes, vocational upper secondary programmes, programmes in textile and creative studies, the Danish higher preparatory examination (HF), and the higher technical examination (HTX), etc.
VIA’s focus is to provide education to students who will graduate as professional bachelors in the fields of technology & business, education & social studies, health sciences, and media, arts, and design. In addition, VIA University College also offers a wide variety of postgraduate courses to professionals, as for instance nurses, engineers, and teachers. These activities are implemented through the development of interdisciplinary study environments where students cooperate with both private and public companies
as well as institutions all over the world. Research and knowledge exchange is an essential mission of VIA University College and enriches the experience of all our staff and students. Therefore, VIA expects its full-time staff to be engaged in research and development activities with measurable outputs. This contributes to the enhancement of a research-based educational curriculum as well as the promotion of an advanced learning environment.
The research division encompasses a number of cross-disciplinary research centres, several programmes and PhD projects as well as Forum for Applied Research VIA University College is home to: more than 15,000 full degree-students and several thousand course participants on an annual basis; approximately 2000 staff members; 39 locations in the region; 7 campuses; 50 study programmes; and an annual turnover of 160 million EUR
House of Science (NVH: www.nvhus.dk ) is a non-profit organization working to increase the interest in science and technology among children and youngsters in Denmark. The House of Science leads a large range of development projects with the overall aim of generating new knowledge, concepts and methods that can increase the quality and appeal of science teaching in primary and secondary schools. The House of Science has a strong focus on the co-operation between schools and industry as way to give pupils insight into the application of science as well as role models that can guide them in choice of further education and career. The House of Science offers in-service teacher training, conferences and science teaching for teachers and their classes within eg. Bio-technology, astronomy and crative science and technology.
Activities with the Fibonacci project
VIA University College and House of Science collaborate about implementing IBSME in schools at primary and lower-secondary levels through school development projects as our main activity. The characteristics of school development projects are that many teachers and the school-principal takes part in the project. Collaboration with schools will be established through partnerships. In a partnership activities are co-financed, and there has to be a negotiation about what the outcome of the development project should be for all partners. Partnerships might involve private enterprises as third parties. We plan to involve private enterprises in school development projects, and ask them to contribute to developing science and math teaching though inquiry. This might involve that classes visit companies as part of their teaching-learning experience. Designing school development projects involves five main activities:
- Initial contact to schools that might be interested
- Negotiating the overall objectives of the development project
- Planning and implementing IBSE in the teaching practice
- Evaluating the process and outcome
- Negotiating and planning how to ensure continuation of IBSE after the development process is terminated
In phase one we implement IBSME in three schools.
In phase two we plan to implement IBSME in 10-20 schools.
In phase three we will dissiminate IBSME in 30-50 schools.
Information about this project in Danish
Formålet med dette projekt er at udvikle en dansk variant af IBSE-didaktikken til implementering i natur/teknik i folkeskolen. Projektet er et samarbejde mellem Naturvidenskabernes Hus, VIA University College, Aalborg Universitet og tre folkeskoler i Region Midtjylland. I tilknytning til udviklingsprojektet indgår Naturvidenskabernes Hus, VIA UC og Aalborg Universitet som et kompetenceudviklingscenter i Fibonacci-projektet. Fibonacci-projektet er et europæisk projekt der har til formål at formidle viden om IBSE-didaktikken for ressourcecentre til kompetenceudviklingscentre.
Other related projects
Here are two examples of activities implementing inquiry based methods:
1) VIA University College is currently involved in a research - and development project entitled “Developing meanings and uses of inquiry based science education in pre-service and in-service teacher education” funded by the Danish Globalization Council about implementing inquiry-based science pedagogy in pre-service teacher-training programmes. Activities follows two lines of action:
Teacher trainers at VIA UC engage in collaborative processes about developing a common understanding of inquiry based pedagogy. This activity contains four dimensions: discussing andnegotiating pedagogical principles of inquiry based science education; development of inquiry based teaching sequences about different subject matter content that can be applied in pre- and in-service teacher training programmes; development of a didactical model for teacher-students implementation of inquiry based teaching in practice situation; and development of assessment-procedures and tools for evaluating the impact of applying Inquiry based pedagogy in teacher training.
Teacher-students collaborate with teacher trainers and professional science teachers about assigning meanings to inquiry-processes based on critical and logical reasoning about evidence that is gathered and developing Inquiry based teaching sequences that the teacher-students apply and evaluate in practice situations. Within the teacher training programme teacher-students is subject to inquiry based teaching and engages in discussions with teacher trainers about assigning meaning to the inquiry based pedagogy. Subsequently teacher-students collaborate with professional science teachers and teacher trainers about developing, implementing and assessing inquiry based teaching in practice-situations. Quality development and internalization are critical parameters. Formative assessment will guide ongoing adjustments of the activities. Internalization is ensured by negotiating how pedagogical principles about scientific inquiry and attained experience are embedded in the curriculum of the preservice teacher training program.
2) In VIA UC’s Lego Educational Centre© teacher-students collaborate with teacher trainers, professional teachers and their pupils from lower secondary level about designing teaching strategies in problem-based science in open-inquiry teaching/learning environments using Lego Mindstorm®. The emphasis of these activities is to develop scientific competences such as communication, testing hypothesis, modelling, presenting competing ideas and proposing solutions. The teacher-students will later collaborate with local schools about participating in First Lego League, a competition concept about building robots and exploring scientific ideas.