bioCEED – Centre of Excellence in Biology Education

Fullt navn: The Centre of Excellence in Biology Education
Tilknyttet: Universitetet i Bergen, Universitetssenteret på Svalbard og Havforskningsinstituttet
Fagfelt: Biologi
Nettside: bioCEED – Centre of Excellence in Biology Education
SFU-status: 2014–2023
Senterleder: Vigdis Vandvik
Nestleder: Pernille Bronken Eidesen

bioCEED utvikler biologiutdanninger som skal fylle fremtidens kompetansebehov i forskning og samfunn.  Vi utvikler kurs og utdanninger der studentene får nyte godt av tette koblinger mellom vitenskapelig kunnskap, praktiske ferdigheter og samfunnsrelevans. Biologiutdanningene bygger på en sterk forskningstradisjon, og bioCEEDs tar med oss denne forskningskulturens styrker inn i undervisningen for å utvikle en kollegial og forskende undervisningskultur.

Biologisk fagkunnskap er i rask utvikling, og spiller en stadig viktigere rolle i samfunnet, ikke minst fordi biologisk fagkunnskap er helt nødvendig for å løse de globale samfunnsutfordringene – nå og i fremtiden. Biologiens raske utvikling og voksende rolle stiller nye krav, ikke bare til hva biologer skal kunne, men også av hvordan de skal lære.

bioCEED vil knytte sammen teori, praksis og relevans i undervisning og utdanning, ved å styrke utviklingen av praktiske ferdigheter og gi studentene erfaring fra forskning og arbeidsliv. Dette skjer blant annet ved å tilby studentene arbeidspraksis i samarbeid med aktører i forvaltning, forskning og næringsliv; styrke og utvikle praktisk undervisning i felt og lab; og bygge opp gode ressurser for undervisere og studenter for å utvikle sine overførbare ferdigheter gjennom utdanningsløpet.

bioCEED arbeider for en endring vekk fra lærersentrert undervisning til læringssentrert undervisning, med studenten i fokus. Studentene skal aktivt engasjeres i egen læringsprosess og i utviklingen av undervisningen, med muligheter og ansvar for egen læring.  En slik endring kan kun oppnås dersom underviserne er forberedt på å endring og utvikling. bioCEED arbeider derfor for å bygge en kollegial lærerkultur der underviserne har en vitenskapelig tilnærming til undervisning og læring, og der studentenes læring blir satt i fokus. Ved å ta det beste fra forskerkulturen inn i undervisningen – å ta forskerholdet med seg i lærergjerningen, vil vi skape en utviklende, delende og vitenskapelig basert undervisningspraksis.

Senteret har delt inn sitt arbeid i fire hovedområder:

  1. Lærerkultur
  2. Innovativ undervisning
  3. Praktiske ferdigheter
  4. Spredning

bioCEEDs arbeidsområder gjenspeiler seg i hovedprosjektene deres:

biopraksis: Yrkeutplassering som del av studieløpet. Studentene får bruke biologisk kunnskap på relevante praktiske oppgaver og få arbeidserfaring som biolog. Gå til biopraksis UiB

Artsapp: En studentutviklet og studentdrevet applikasjon for å identifisere arter av starr. Gå til ArtsApp

Bioskills: Et prosjekt som skal gi studentene forskjellige generiske ferdigheter en biolog vil ha behov for: numerisk kompetanse, vitenskapelig skrivemåte, samfunnskommunikasjon og laboratorie- og feltarbeid. Gå til bioskills

Teach to Learn (TE2LE): TE2LE skal stimuleres studentenes samarbeids-, kommunikasjons- og pedagogiske evner gjennom selvlagde videoer der de skal forklare vitenskapelige konsepter for andre studenter. Gå til Teach 2 Learn

Les om disse og flere av bioCEEDs prosjekter

  • I 2017 ble bioCEED vurdert for fem nye år, og 12. desember 2017 vedtok NOKUTs styre at senteret får fortsette som Senter for fremragende utdanning (SFU) i ytterligere fem år.

  • Søknad

    Tilbakemeldinger

    Concept

    The institution applies for the establishment of a Centre for Excellence in Biology Education, with UiB and its department of Biology as the host institution in collaboration with the same institution’s Higher Education Research Unit, the Department for Arctic Biology at University Centre Svalbard and the Institute of Marine Biology. The idea is to reshape biology education in a broad spectrum of biology programmes, to align it with changes in research, student behaviour and societal demand. It proposes to work via seven strategies that cover learning, learning environments, student motivation, leadership and dissemination.

    Strengths and weaknesses
    The application addresses the transformation of biology education in a visionary way. It sets out to change a culture of ‘teaching’ to one of ‘learning’, and involves several central organizations in the field. The academic environments engaged together form a coherent whole and many if not all parts are of international scientific significance. Its educational track record is more varied, with a blend of educational models, and outcomes which vary between outstanding and average.

    The plans are exciting for integrating a wide variety of biology programmes and could, if successfully implemented, propel biology education at these institutions to international pre-eminence. Integrating many institutions and programmes will confront the centre with a major organizational challenge. The structure of seven work packages might also be overly complex and difficult to implement. Bringing about a change of culture on the scale that is proposed here is a task of some magnitude and the road from vision to practice could therefore have been discussed in more detail.

    International collaboration will be vital to the success of the centre and strategies in this respect could usefully have been included.

    Grade: 5
    Site Visit: Yes

    Centre

    The declared aim of the Centre is to reform biology education in response to changes in the biological sciences, in higher education, and in society’s needs. BioCEED is built on the vision that the expanding role of biology – and biologists – places new demands on both the content of education provided and the training of tomorrow’s biologists. Consequently, new approaches for integrating the learning of biological content, knowledge and skills with practical training in more generic skills will be developed.

    Strengths and weaknesses
    BioCEED is an ambitious attempt at establishing an outstanding environment for education in a research-driven environment. The NOKUT Team (NT) was impressed with the visions and leadership, including the commitment from university leadership, to realize the aims of the proposal. The partnership between three different institutions appeared credible with each bringing complementary strengths (such as research, teaching and stakeholder relationships) to the consortium.

    The centre leadership was energetic and visionary, however there were signs that the commitment to the centre idea varied among the wider staff body. While the plans were, by and large, convincing and feasible, the current status of biology education across the consortium partners is not uniformly outstanding. Strategies to deal with quality differences need further development. This is a key area for demonstrating the effectiveness of the Centre’s dissemination.

    The NT was impressed by the ambition behind the centre, the open and frank accounts of the challenges of biology education and the clear visions of education reform to align it better with the successful research environment.
    A strength of the proposal was the ambition to collaborate with other biology environments in Norway to ensure a more widespread transformation of the relatively traditional structure of biology education in Norway. In the time between being short-listed and the site visit, the proposers had secured agreements to be engaged in the Centre’s work from several providers of biology higher education in Norway and the NT regarded this as a strong indication of likely success in terms of the ambition to bring about change on a national scale.
    Although some of the proposed innovations were promising and exciting, others appeared more routine. Efficient ways of monitoring progress and change were proposed and these should be effective. However, a stronger overarching plan may be needed, particularly to achieve some of the higher level goals.

    The added value of the centre, beyond already ongoing work to reform the educational programme, could have been made clearer.

    Overall, the NT were impressed with BioCEED’s proposals and believes that the proposed organisational structure and work plan can succeed in bringing about some of the desired changes. The NT would encourage the team to be willing to take be adventurous and willing to take risks in testing new approaches.