Research project

In September 2022 an (USO) education innovation project ‘Belonging@UU – Diversity and inclusion beyond the numbers’ started (see https://teaching-and-learning-collection.sites.uu.nl/project/belonginguu-diversity-and-inclusion-beyond-the-numbers/ for details).

One part of this project is the development of a dashboard that gives insight into the ‘sense of belonging’ of UU students. A general focus of the project is to develop interventions to foster the sense of belonging of UU students. Another part of the project focuses on teachers / lecturers. It’s a workshop that aims to provide them with knowledge and tools to create a safe and inclusive atmosphere during education sessions (see work package 5 on above mentioned site).

This workshop has been developed and is currently tested out (pilots) to improve it. From September onwards the (final version of the) workshop will be offered to a broader audience of lecturers at UU. The content of the workshop is based on academic literature, such as for instance the concept of ‘pedagogical caring’ (eg. Freeman et al., 2007) and the illustration below. The workshop’s content is quite general: getting to know each other, definitions of important core concepts, analysis of inclusive and exclusive case materials, personal input through particpants’ dilemmas and experiences, discussion in groups, and a plenary final conversation.

For a R30 research project a possibility would be to study the effectiveness of the implemented didactic approach in meeting the aims of the workshop. The workshop is supposed to be organised for lecturers of the faculty of science in Sep / Oct. UMCU/UU colleagues will carry out the workshop, while the research student will assist in the organization of and communication about the workshop. As the content of the workshop is general, it is important to study the workshop edition that will be held with the science faculty lecturers. As the student will be close to the practical implementation of the workshop, it will be possible to do related qualitative research (interviews) with the participants to study the research question.

There’s a small risk that it may not be possible to find a enough (science faculty) participants fort he workshop, but if promotion is started early enough, this should not be a problem (the group of potential participants is large).

In terms of research approaches more than one are available: through a survey, but also more qualitative approaches are possible, such as interview of participating lecturers or observation of the workshop. Also a mixed-method approach is possible.

This R30 project is offered by PhD candidate Anne-Roos Verbree of the UMCU. She will be the daily supervisor for this research project. She will liaise with Liesbeth de Bakker (e.p.h.m.debakker@uu.nl) who will be first supervisor for this R30 project. If you are interested, please contact Liesbeth first and she will connect you to Anne-Roos if you want to pursue this option.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has permeated curricular reforms across the globe. Recent attention is increasingly going to action-orientation in these approaches to education: with action taking as part of the learning process (Sinakou et al., 2022) and action competence as a key learning objective (Sass et al., 2023). Resonating with these tendencies, the European Union has pushed action front center in GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework (Bianchi et al., 2021). While the salience of sustainability issues urge taking action, having this focus within education strikes a cord for many educators, who feel that teaching (about and for) action clashes with their pedagogical views, labelling it is too normative. Others stress that learning for action touches on the core of what education should be focusing on in current times of (climate) crisis: the empowerment of learners to take meaningful action for a better future. These tensions result in uncertainty around the position of action-oriented ESD in teacher training programs (Bourn et al, 2017).

This proposed research project aims to explore the beliefs and conceptions of teacher trainers on action-oriented ESD. Through qualitative inquiry (interviews and/or focus groups) the study will describe how teacher trainers relate to these issues and how this affects the integration of action-orientation to teacher training programs, both at curricular level and in the educational practice. Depending on students’ interests, attention could also go to (differences among) teacher trainers in different disciplines (sciences, social sciences, humanities), teacher trainers in first and second degree programs, as well as teacher trainers in primary and early childhood education.

References

Bianchi, G., Pisiotis, U., Cabrera, M., Punie, Y., & Bacigalupo, M. (2022). The European sustainability competence framework. Publications Office of the European Union. Online handle.

Bourn, D., Hunt, F, & Bamber, P. (2017). A review of education for sustainable development and global citizenship education in teacher education. UNESCO GEM Background Paper. UNESCO: Paris, France. Online handle.

Sass, W., De Maeyer, S., Boeve-de Pauw, K., & Van Petegem, P. (2023). Effectiveness of education for sustainability: the importance of an action-oriented approach. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2229543

Sinakou, E., Donche, V., & Van Petegem, P. (2022). Action-orientation in education for sustainable development: Teachers’ interests and instructional practices. Journal of Cleaner Production, 370, 133469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133469

(Room for multiple students)

Contact: Jelle Boeve- de Pauw (j.n.a.boeve-depauw@uu.nl)

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is considered to be one of the key pathways to achieving a sustainable future (Hopkins, 2012). It is a dynamic concept that incorporates a novel vision of education that seeks to empower people, to make it possible for every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future (Agbedahin 2019). In formal education, ESD has been described as having the potential to serve as a breeding ground for promoting innovations which meet and cope with the salient social challenges we face in an active and constructive manner (Rauch 2002). However, it presents diverse challenges for teachers.

When we look at definitions of ESD, its complexity is a characteristic that stands out both in the research literature and at policy level. According to UNESCO (2018), ESD aims to provide knowledge about ever‐changing planetary conditions and environmental issues, and their risks and causes. It empowers learners to make informed decisions and take responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations, while ensuring respect for cultural diversity. It prepares people to cope with and find solutions to problems that threaten the sustainability of the planet and social systems (UNESCO, 2018). Consequently, ESD is suggested to promote competences such as critical thinking, imagining better futures and participatory decision-making. It also requires far-reaching changes in the way education is organized and delivered (UNESCO, 2014). Within ESD, educational efforts are described that aim to empower students with the necessary competences to deal with and act upon the complexity of sustainability issues (Sass et al. 2020), requiring a complex educational approach. For teachers, ESD presents a major professional challenge, connected to (among others) the complex educational principles that have emerged in recent ESD-related literature (Sinakou, Boeve-de Pauw, and Van Petegem 2019a).

Recently, Malandrakis et al. (2019) developed a framework and measurement instrument that can be used to assess the current abilities of pre-service and in-service teachers to teach ESD: the Teachers’ Self-Efficacy on Education for Sustainable Development (TSESESD). The validation process of the scale reports its strong psychometric properties, appropriateness for both pre-service and in-service primary school teachers and comprehensive nature, encompassing the current trends of ESD competences. This instrument has great potential to study the self-efficacy of teachers and as such to highlight key features of and focus for their professional development, either at the pre-service or in service stage. Several question are still open before this can be done within the Netherlands:
 

• Is the TSESESD a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the self-efficacy for ESD of (pre- and or in-service) teachers in the Netherlands?
• What are the key domains and topics that (pr-e and or in-service) teacher highlight as difficult?
• Which differences can be observed within and between pre- and in-service teachers in terms of their self-efficacy for ESD?
• How can (pre- and/or in-service) teachers in the Netherlands best be supported to developed their ESD competences?
• …

Hopkins, C. (2012). Twenty years of Education for Sustainable Development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 6, 1–4.

Agbedahin, A. (2019). Sustainable development, Education for Sustainable Development, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Emergence, efficacy, eminence, and future. Sustainable Development, 27, 669–680.

Rauch, F. (2002). The potential of education for sustainable development for reform in schools. Environmental Education Research, 8(1), 43-51.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2018). Issues and trends in Education for Sustainable Development. Paris: UNESCO.

Sass, W., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Olsson, D., Gericke, N., De Maeyer, S., & Van Petegem, P. (2020). Redifining action competence: The case of sustainable development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 51(4), 292-305.

Malandrakis, G., Papadopoulou, P., Gavrilakis, C. & Mogias, A. (2019). An education for sustainable development self-efficacy scale for primary pre-service teachers: construction and validation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 50(1), 23-36.

(Room for multiple students)

Contact: Jelle Boeve- de Pauw j.n.a.boeve-depauw@uu.nl

Two hundred years ago there was no concept of a professional scientist. Science was practiced by amateurs driven by their fascination for understanding the natural world. Benjamin Franklin was a printer and a politician, Charles Darwin was an unpaid companion on the Beagle. Science as a profession exists only since the second half of the 19th century (Silvertown, 2009); before, it was a citizens’ affair. The situation is very different nowadays, with science being in the hands of researchers associated to scientific institutions worldwide. Ever increasing competition for funding, and growing awareness that citizens present an opportunity to generate large (and cheap) amounts of data, lead to an increase in the amount of citizen science projects (Conrad & Hilchey, 2011). Bonney et al (2014) define such initiatives as “projects in which volunteers partner with scientists to answer real-world questions”. Recent technological developments facilitate such collaborations: the number of citizen science projects is growing exponentially and policy attention to the matter is increasing rapidly. All over the world citizens are making inventories of migrating birds, monitoring climate change, studying pollutant distributions…

Increasingly, also schools see participation in such citizen science projects as an opportunity to work with their students’ scientific literacy and research competences. These are an essential part of the science curriculum in secondary education, but pose a challenge for teacher as they are best acquired with an authentic research context. Paige, Hattam & Daniels (2015) point out that school science is heavily skewed towards the abstract canon of science rather than towards its nature and relevance for everyday life. Furthermore, standardized tests (e.g. PISA) show decreasing student performance and interest in science, the numbers of students enrolling into science tracks in higher education is decreasing worldwide, and we face a crisis of public confidence in science.

These observations underscore the importance of addressing scientific literacy during the formative years in school. A collaboration between scientists and schools could, (e.g. in the form of students participating in citizen science projects), present unique opportunities for both parties. However, a tension may arise here between the goals scientists and schools wish to achieve. Scientists benefit from the regular and well-defined participation of schools, with a view to guaranteeing data quality. The schools, on the other hand, benefit from connecting citizen science to the interests, authentic questions and local reality of the pupils. They also have to take into account the performance and time pressure that the curriculum entails. Both stakeholders (scientists and schools) can benefit from cooperation within citizen science projects, but the conditions for a fruitful collaboration and the needs of those involved remain unclear. This presents several avenues for relevant research question, in which a focus can be put on …
 

• … the scientists: what are the conceptions scientist have of the pedagogical-didactical approach to teaching and learning science in school? which goals do they have in mind when conducting citizen science projects in collaboration with schools? what kinds of educational material are being developed by scientist who want to involve schools in their citizen science projects? Etc.
• … the teachers: what are the motivations of teachers to participate with their students in citizen science projects? How do they choose which citizen science project to participate in, and why? What are the needs of these teachers? Etc.
• … the students: what do they learn by participating in citizen science projects, in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills? How much room is there is (selected) citizen science projects for students’ autonomy is e.g. the selection of research questions.

Bonney, R., et al. (2014). Next steps for citizen science. Science, 343, 1436-1437.

Conrad, C.C., & Hilchey, K.G. (2011). A review of citizen science and community-based environmental monitoring: Issues and opportunities. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 176, 273-291.

Paige, K., Hattam, R., & Daniels, C. (2015). Two models of implementing citizen science projects in middle school. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 14(2), 4-17.

Silvertown, J. (2009). A new dawn for citizen science. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 24(9), 467-471.

Nature connectedness is described in educational and psychological literature as a factor of great importance for young people. This connectedness can be expressed in two ways. There is the affective involvement of young people with nature, also referred to as the degree to which individuals experience themselves as part of (or just separated from) the natural environment. On the other hand, there is the more behavioural involvement: the extent to which young people come into contact with nature in their personal and school context. These two components have been shown to be crucial in developing environmental behavior, willingness to contribute to nature conservation, young people's health and learning, and even their citizenship competences.

In this light, the botanical gardens of Utrecht University hold great educational and societal potential. Class groups can come there to learn about the plant kingdom, ecology, biodiversity, evolution and conservation in an informal context. Currently, Utrecht University Botanic Gardens (hereafter referred to as BoTu) are renewing their educational activities. This creates the possibility for meaningful educational research.

Questions that can be put in focus in master studies are, among others:

• How can the educational activities of the BoTu tap into the interests of various groups of young people? We know from literature that young people go through a dip in their (personal and situational) interest in and connection with nature during adolescence. The informal learning context of the BoTu offers room to work complementary to the school curriculum and to focus on specific interests (and interest development) of pupils. The question then is, what are those interests and how can they be integrated in the educational activities?
• Which elements of self-determination (Autonomy, Relatedness, Competence) can be identified in the current educational activities of the botanical gardens? Research from psychology shows that basic needs satisfaction contributes to the well-being and learning of pupils. Research into the (potential) presence of these basic needs in the educational activities of the botanical gardens can contribute to strengthening the educational impact.
• What is the educational impact of the educational offering of the botanical gardens? Research on the learning outcomes (knowledge, attitudes, skills) of pupils participating in the educational activities of the gardens may reveal the impact and whether this impact is the same for different participants (age, origin, language, place of residence...).
• And finally, how can the three previous questions and their answers be linked to optimize the educational offer of the gardens and develop effective educational interventions.

Research that provides answers to these questions can take the form of (longitudinal) survey research, in-depth interviews and focus groups, case studies, design research, or a targeted combination of these.

The insights gained are relevant beyond the specific context of Utrecht University's Botanic Gardens. They teach us more generally about how informal education can connect to interests and basic needs and how this can enhance the effectiveness of an educational activities in term of pupils’ knowledge, attitudes, and actions concerning the natural environment. As such, Utrecht University Botanic Gardens is a fruitful context to serve as a test case.

Students interested in this research can negotiate with Jelle Boeve-de Pauw (assistant professor biology didactics at the Freudenthal Institute) and Edwin Pos (scientific director of Utrecht University Botanic Gardens), which questions they would like to focus on in their research project.

Relevant literature

Aladağ, E., Arıkan, A., & Özenoğlu, H. (2021). Nature education: Outdoor learning of map literacy skills and reflective thinking skill towards problem-solving. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 40, 100815.

Barrable, A., & Booth, D. (2020). Increasing nature connection in children: A mini review of interventions. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 492

Cincera, J., Johnson, B., & Kovacikova, S. (2015). Evaluation of a place-based environmental education program: From there to here. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 14(3), 178-186

Martin, L., White, M.P., Hunt, A., Richardson, M., Pahl, S., & Burt, J. (2020). Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68, 101389.

Paraskeva-Hadjichami, D., Goldman, D., Hadjichambis, A., Parra, G., Lapin, K., Knippels, M.C., Van Dam, F. (2020). Educating for environmental citizenship in non-formal framework secondary level youth. In: Hadjicjambis, A., Reis, P., Paraskeva-Hadjichami, D., Cincera, J., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., & Knippels, M.C. (Eds.) Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st century education. Springer Open: Cham

Sellmann, D., & Bogner, F. X. (2013). Effects of a 1-day environmental education intervention on environmental attitudes and connectedness with nature. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 28(3), 1077-1086.

Context

Computational thinking (CT) is gaining interest in education, as it is a relevant skill in students' 21^st century workplaces and everyday lives. CT was initially defined by Wing (2006) as follows: "computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science" (p. 33). A broad range of aspects are involved in CT, as summarized in a framework by Kalelioglu, Gulbahar, and Kukul (2016) that includes the aspects abstraction, decomposition, data representation and analysis, mathematical reasoning, building algorithms, modelling, generalisation, testing and debugging. However, it is not clear how these aspects can be integrated in the secondary education curriculum.

Within the Erasmus+ project “Computational Thinking Learning Environment for Teachers in Europe” (<colette/>, project duration: 2020-2023, https://colette-project.eu/), seven organisations in the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, France, and Austria aim to address the need for accessible learning activities addressing different aspects of CT. The learning environment offers tasks related to upper and lower secondary education focussing on mathematics for different aspects of CT. Students use their smartphone to do the tasks. Part of the task set is related to block-based programming where the student evaluates the result in Augmented Reality (AR).

Research Project

The aim of this master research project is to use the Colette AVR smartphone environment to investigate how aspects of CT, such as algorithmic thinking, decomposition, and abstraction can be addressed in a series of programming tasks to design a cube building. In the programming task block-based coding is used and augmented reality to view the result of the code. A possible approach is to design a series of tasks in the colette learning environment and perform design research. Another approach might be to perform a teaching experiment.

Possible research questions are:

• How do programming tasks support the development of abstraction skills, for example in the use of variables and repeat blocks?
• How does AR and its embodied characteristics support the development of spatial skills in a cube building programming task?

More Information

For more information, please contact Sylvia van Borkulo s.vanborkulo@uu.nl.

References

Kalelioglu, F., Gulbahar, Y., & Kukul, V. (2016). A framework for computational thinking based on a systematic research review. Baltic Journal of Modern Computing, 4(3), 583–596. Retrieved from http://acikerisim.baskent.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/11727/3831/4_3_15_Kalelioglu.pdf?sequence=1

Milicic, G., Borkulo, S. P. Van, Medova, J., Wetzel, S., & Ludwig, M. (2021). Design and development of a learning environment for computational thinking: The Erasmus+ <colette/> project. Proceedings of EDULEARN21 Conference, (July), 7376–7383. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gregor-Milicic/publication/353339769_Design_and_Development_of_a_Learning_Environment_for_Computational_Thinking_The_Erasmus_COLETTE_Project/links/60f592a09541032c6d508428/Design-and-Development-of-a-Learning-Environment-for-Computational-Thinking-The-Erasmus-COLETTE-Project.pdf

Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35.

The weather report is so much part of our daily lives, that we almost forget that it is also a highly sophisticated piece of science communication. Whether it is the printed weather forecast in newspapers or the dynamic depictions online or on TV, weather reports communicate complex scientific scenarios with carefully assessed levels of uncertainty. The format of weather reports have changed over time and differ across various media platforms. We challenge you to investigate these changes by looking at the people involved, the content, and/or the effects. The format of weather reports in newspapers, radio, television, online and in apps has been constantly adapted to changing audiences.

We propose to analyze the communication aspects of weather reports. Research topics could include, for example:
 

• Differences in visualization strategies in weather reports in different media
• How weather reports have changed over time
• changing references to climate and climate change in weather reports in recent decades
• how levels of (un)certainty in weather forecasts are communicated, both visually and textually
• public understanding/interpretations of  / trust in weather reports and forecasts

But other approaches are also possible. Your suggestions are welcome!

Supervisors: Mark Bos and David Baneke

Literature

Compton, J. (2018). When weather forecasters are wrong: Image repair and public rhetoric after severe weather. Science Communication, 40(6), 778-788.

Daipha, Phaedra. Masters of Uncertainty: Weather Forecasters and the Quest for Ground Truth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Fine, Gary Alan. Authors of the Storm: Meteorologists and the Culture of Prediction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Gerst, M. D., Kenney, M. A., Baer, A. E., Speciale, A., Wolfinger, J. F., Gottschalck, J., ... & Dewitt, D. (2020). Using visualization science to improve expert and public understanding of probabilistic temperature and precipitation outlooks. Weather, Climate, and Society, 12(1), 117-133.

Gigerenzer, Gerd, Ralph Hertwig, Eva van den Broek, Barbara Fasolo, and Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos. “‘A 30% Chance of Rain Tomorrow’: How Does the Public Understand Probabilistic Weather Forecasts?” Risk Analysis 25, no. 3 (2005): 623–29.

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille (e.vansebille@uu.nl) and Mark Bos (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl)

The KlimaatHelpdesk is a unique and accessible communications platform that connects the general public with scientists and experts, run by a volunteer group and meant to become the go-to place for people with climate-related questions. These may cover the whole range of academic disciplines and range from physics, economy, geography, psychology, history, biology, etc. As such, it highlights the need for a multi- and interdisciplinary approach to address climate change. The questions are answered by a network of active experts who write evidence-based responses in an accessible language and each answer will be reviewed by at least one other expert.

The aim of the KlimaatHelpdesk is to provide an easily accessible source of reliable and evidence-based information, as well as insight into how science works. This is of crucial importance in a time in which the validity of available information is difficult to check for non-specialists and sometimes deliberately undermined  [Howe et al 2019, Petersen et al 2019].

The general public submits the questions, drawn to the KlimaatHelpdesk via social media (twitter, Instagram), national media (e.g. NOS.nl) and partnerships with klimaatakkoord.nl and Teachers4Climate. The platform stores the exchange of questions and answers, thereby becoming a source of easily accessible and reliable information. This procedure improves the quality of information and demonstrates to a broad audience how research works.

Since the official launch of the KlimaatHelpdesk in November 2020, it has assembled a database of 200 enthusiastic experts ready to answer questions, published more than 100 questions and answers on the website and attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

By lowering the threshold of engagement for a variety of leading experts, through providing access to a well-developed platform and broad audience, the platform motivates high level public scientific communication. The KlimaatHelpdesk is run by approximately 40 (UU) volunteers, with two part-time student-assistants to coordinate them. While all tiers in academia are represented in the team, most are (MSc) students or PhD candidates.

However, it is unclear how effective the method and vision of the KlimaatHelpdesk is [Corbett 2021]. Which target groups are reached with the KH (are people that ask the questions the same as those that are using the website as a source for reliable information) and what are they using the information for? What are key factors that can be used to predict whether a question (as well as an answer) is effective?

In this project, you will work together with the KlimaatHelpdesk team to measure and assess the effectiveness of the platform. 

Interested? Just get in touch with Erik (e.vansebille@uu.nl) and/or Mark (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl).

References

Corbett JB (2021) Communicating the Climate Crisis: New Directions for Facing What Lies Ahead (Lexington Books)

Howe LC, B MacInnis, JA Krosnick, EM Markowitz and R Socolow (2019) Acknowledging uncertainty impacts public acceptance of climate scientists’ predictions. Nature Climate Change, 9, 863–7

Petersen AM, EM Vincent and AL Westerling (2019) Discrepancy in scientific authority and media visibility of climate change scientists and contrarians. Nature Communications, 10, 3502

In this research strand dr. Alice Veldkamp and dr. Mark Bos work together

Currently, we live in a visual world; messages are communicated through visual communication (Rodríguez Estrada & Davis, 2015).

We want to investigation the design, use and effect of visuals in science communication and education. The expertise of Mark is science communication, Alice is expert on biology education. Based on work of people like Alberto Cairo and Jos van den Broek, and with your help, we plan to contribute to both theoretical and practical insights and practices in visuals.

We are interested in all aspects of visuals and their use, so in

1. the creation by artist(s) and/or knowledge expert(s),
2. the content that is supposed to be communicated, and
3. the effect on the reader,
4. the (development of) visual literacy needed to interpret these visuals

Your master research can be directed on one of these aspects or a combination (in either science education or communication).

Examples of previous and current research

Together with two students, we have researched how professional artists design visuals for complex biological process; resulting in insights into experiential knowledge and potential guidelines for future designs (and testing of these guidelines).

One student developed a data base with 3000 visuals from two leading methods for upper secondary schools.  What types of visuals are used in the methods, what is the relation with text, and how do they differ from the type of visuals used in national exams?

Another student looked at how scientists (visiting COP27) communicate about their visit on social media, investigating if, and if so, how, they communicate values in their posts and if this leads to higher levels of engagement among their followers.

Finally, together with the Dutch National Health Institute (RIVM), a student investigated the effects of adding visuals (infographics) to information leaflets about vaccination aimed at pregnant women on appreciation of the leaflet, understanding of its contents, their related health beliefs, and intent to get vaccinated.

Mark and  Aike Vonk are interested in the visuals used by scientists (in press releases for example) vs journalists (in news articles for example) to communicate about climate change and ocean plastics (e.g., how do visual frames compare to textual frames) and the effects thereof (e.g., how do people interpret what they see and what are the effects of potential incongruence between text and visual).

Other projects are possible (e.g., the use of pictograms to enhance treatment adherence), or the use of visuals in musea or the botanical garden (Science Park).

Interested? Please contact me, Alice Veldkamp (a.veldkamp@uu.nl) or Mark Bos (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl)

Sources

Visual Language – Jos van den Broek, Willem Koetsenruijter, Jaap de Jong, Laetitia Smit

Praktijkgids infographics ontwerpen – Jos van den Broek

Cairo, A. (2019). How charts lie: Getting smarter about visual information. WW Norton & Company.

Cairo, A. (2012). The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. New Riders.

van Beusekom, M. M., Kerkhoven, A. H., Bos, M. J., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. M. (2018). The extent and effects of patient involvement in pictogram design for written drug information: a short systematic review. Drug Discovery Today, 23(6), 1312-1318.

van Beusekom, M. M., Grootens-Wiegers, P., Bos, M. J., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. M. (2016). Low literacy and written drug information: information-seeking, leaflet evaluation and preferences, and roles for images. International journal of clinical pharmacy, 38(6), 1372-1379.

Van Beusekom, M., Bos, M., Wolterbeek, R., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. (2015). Patients’ preferences for visuals: Differences in the preferred level of detail, type of background and type of frame of icons depicting organs between literate and low-literate people. Patient education and counseling, 98(2), 226-233.

Background

The climate crisis is a pressing public emergency that demands urgent attention to mitigate its escalating effects on both the environment and human health (Campbell et al., 2023; Ripple et al., 2023). In the face of this emergency, we all have a role to fulfil. To enhance our support for addressing the climate crisis, it is essential to begin by collecting insights from Utrecht University (UU) students and understanding their information needs concerning climate change. This understanding can then be used to shape communication strategies and policies within the university (Fernandez et al., 2019). Therefore, in this project, our objective is to gather information on the perspectives of Utrecht University students regarding climate change, and the role of universities and scientists in climate change discourse. The possible implications of this project are as follows:

1. A better understanding of how climate change is perceived by university students and how their information needs can inform curriculum development and educational strategies.
2. The insights into preferred communication channels and trusted sources of information, which can enhance climate change policies and communications within universities.
3. The exploration of university students' views on scientists' and universities’ role in the climate change debate, which can shape research priorities and engagement.
4. The understanding of university students’ perception and engagement with climate crisis, which can inform climate action initiatives.
    

These outcomes closely align with the initiatives undertaken by the "Sustainability Education and Engagement" community. We encourage you to contact them in order to identify any areas of convergence between the goals of your project and their activities.

Research Questions

Here is a list of potential research areas and questions that you can choose as the central focus of your thesis. You have the flexibility to select one or more of these topics based on your personal interests.

A. Climate change

1. How do university students perceive the concept of climate change?

2. Is climate change relevant to university students, and why or why not?

3. What are the perceived impacts of climate change on the lives of university students?

B. Climate change communication

4. What are the information needs of university students regarding climate change?

5. What communication channels do/did university students prefer for receiving information about climate change?

6. Which sources of information do university students consider most trustworthy in the context of climate change?

C. Role of scientists and universities

7. What are the opinions of university students regarding the role of scientists in the climate change debate and their involvement?

8. How do university students perceive the role of universities in the climate change debate?

Study design

In this study, you will collect data from Utrecht University students using a survey that includes both closed and open-ended questions. The selection of the specific target group will be determined in agreement with the student. You have the option to either include all Utrecht University students or narrow your focus to particular faculties of interest (e.g., Faculty of Science) or, for instance, exclusively Master's or Bachelor's students. The analysis of data will require both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Supervision

In this project, you will be supervised by Tugce Varol, Nieske Vergunst and Mark Bos.

Nieske Vergunst works as a strategic communications consultant at the Faculty of Science and as a postdoc researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. She studies the impact of public engagement on audiences with different science capital.

Tugce Varol has a PhD in Health and Social Psychology, specializing in behavior change. She works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. Her research focuses on public engagement with climate change.

Mark Bos has a PhD in Science Communication, specializing in visuals used in various contexts, but in general in climate and health communication. He works as an assistant professor in the Public Engagement and Science Communication group and coordinates the course Communicating Science with the Public.

References

Campbell, E., Uppalapati, S. S., Kotcher, J., & Maibach, E. (2023). Communication research to improve engagement with climate change and human health: A review. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 1086858. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1086858

Fernandez, M. E., Ruiter, R. A., Markham, C. M., & Kok, G. (2019). Intervention mapping: theory-and evidence-based health promotion program planning: Perspective and examples. Frontiers in Public Health, 209. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00209

Ripple, W. J., Wolf, C., Gregg, J. W., Rockström, J., Newsome, T. M., Law, B. E., Marques, L., Lenton, T. M., Xu, C., Huq, S., Simons, L., & King, S. D. A. (2023). The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territory. BioScience, biad080. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad080

Contact: Veerle Ottenheim (v.l.ottenheim@uu.nl), Ralph Meulenbroeks (r.f.g.meulenbroeks@uu.nl), Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, all universities have used online and or hybrid education. However, not all teaching translates well from face-to-face to online and or hybrid education. There is limited research on the influence that the move from face-to-face to online or hybrid education has on scientific discourse as part of the teaching and learning process. A key role of scientific discourse in the classroom is to allow students to be persuaded or convinced that ideas are true or valuable. We are interested in how such a role takes shape in online and hybrid education.   

In a study on the experiences of teachers and students with hybrid education I am currently conducting, teachers mentioned that the use of argumentation is hard to implement when part of the class is online, as the interaction between the students and teachers is vastly different from a face-to-face classroom setting. We take up the challenge of designing a hybrid or online education setup that does allow and promotes argumentation in scientific discourse.

In this research project, you can contribute to investigating how we can implement scientific discourse in a hybrid education setting. The project is a design study, meaning that you will first dive into the literature on scientific discourse in the classroom and the affordances and limitations of hybrid education; then, based on this literature, you design a lesson (series) on a suitable science or mathematics topic. Finally, this design should be experimentally tested as part of a bachelor course at the science faculty. This project contributes to my PhD project on scientific discourse in hybrid education, and as such, we would collaborate closely.  If you are interested please send an email to Veerle Ottenheim (v.l.ottenheim@uu.nl), Ralph Meulenbroeks (r.f.g.meulenbroeks@uu.nl) or Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl) and we will have a chat about this!

Literature

• Lakhal, S., Mukamurera, J., Bédard, M. E., Heilporn, G., & Chauret, M. (2021). Students and instructors perspective on blended synchronous learning in a Canadian graduate program. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 37(5), 1383–1396. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12578
• Berland, L. K., & Reiser, B. J. (2009). Making sense of argumentation and explanation. Science Education, 93(1), 26–55. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20286
• Erduran, S., Simon, S., & Osborne, J. (2004). TAPping into argumentation: Developments in the application of Toulmin’s Argument Pattern for studying science discourse. Science Education, 88(6), 915–933. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20012

Instruction and knowledge videos based on dynamical animations have gained enormous popularity with the rise off YouTube. Channels like MinutePhysics and 3Blue1Brown attract millions of views and followers.

Clearly, animated instruction is attractive and manages to popularize science and mathematics. However, research on whether animated video instruction is more effective than static instruction has given mixed results (Berney & Bétrancourt, 2016).

Based on cognitive theory (cognitive load theory, dual channel theory) general design principle for educational videos have been formulated and tested, but domain specific principles are still to be explored. There are many research questions of interest that you could work on in your research project:
 

1. Are the video’s from the previously mentioned channels effective? If so, why? What (domain specific) principles do they adhere to?
2. Can animating formulas and equation in mathematics or science animated videos reduce cognitive load? Does it lead to better reproductive and conceptual understanding?
3. There is some evidence that instructional videos visualizing human movement are more effective than those visualizing non-human movement (de Koning & Tabbers, 2011; Pouw, van Gog, Zwaan, & Paas, 2016). How can we visualize human movement to support learning mathematics or science (Bos, submitted)? Under what condition are such visualizations effective?

Your research project could be based on existing animation (as in option 1 above), but could also include a design of an animation for which I could provide support.

For more information, email Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl).

Berney, S., & Bétrancourt, M. (2016). Does animation enhance learning? A meta-analysis. Computers and Education, 101, 150–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.06.005

de Koning, B. B., & Tabbers, H. K. (2011). Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: An Embodied Perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 23(4), 501–521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9173-8

Pouw, W. T. J. L., van Gog, T., Zwaan, R. A., & Paas, F. (2016). Augmenting instructional animations with a body analogy to help children learn about physical systems. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(JUN), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00860

Bos, R., & Renkema, W. (submitted). Animating algebra using embodied metaphors.

Contact: Hang Wei (h.wei@uu.nl) or Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl)

Developing functional thinking skills has been a central area of mathematics throughout primary, secondary, and tertiary education since the beginning of the twentieth century (Vollrath, 1986). Functional thinking is thinking in terms of relationships, interdependencies, and change. It is an essential step towards understanding the concepts of calculus. In this regard, functional thinking has received considerable attention because of its educational importance. Nevertheless, new insight from embodied design and technological advances allows for new approaches to design tasks that promote functional thinking.

Technology-enhanced instruction provides students with an opportunity to actively participate and reorganize the way in which they understand mathematics through higher-order thinking tasks (Lee & Hollebrands, 2008; Tanudjaya & Doorman, 2020), such as functional thinking tasks. While the new digital-embodied design (Abrahamson, 2014) in mathematics teaching shows high potentiality for developing functional thinking. The question becomes: how can digital-embodied designs be used to develop students’ functional thinking?

Your master research project will be part of the Erasmus+ FunThink project. You will co-design an innovative teaching-learning environment that aims at fostering students’ functional thinking in secondary education. The learning activities will be embodied designs and make use of up-to-date digital technologies, such as the DME’s GeoDefiner. There will be two testing cycles, one in the teaching and learning laboratory (TLL), and one in a real classroom. We invite master students who are interested in functional thinking and willing to develop skills in using educational technology.

For further details, please contact Hang Wei (h.wei@uu.nl) or Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl).

Abrahamson, D., & Lindgren, R. (2014). Embodiment and embodied design. In The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences, Second Edition. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139519526.022

Lee, H., & Hollebrands, K. (2008). Preparing to teach mathematics with technology: An integrated approach to developing technological pedagogical content knowledge. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 8(4), 326-341.

Tanudjaya, C. P., & Doorman, M. (2020). Examining Higher Order Thinking in Indonesian Lower Secondary Mathematics Classrooms. Journal on Mathematics Education, 11(2), 277-300.

Vollrath, H. J. (1989). Funktionales denken. Journal für Mathematik-Didaktik, 10(1), 3-37.

Rogier Bos (r.d.bos@uu.nl) and Ralph Meulenbroeks (r.f.g.Meulenbroeks@uu.nl)

The current pandemic of the coronavirus has led many governments to close school buildings as part of their containment effort. Teachers have responded at impressive pace by setting up new arrangements moving all their educational activity to online environments. But what will be the effects of this shift in the longer run? What is needed to make online education sustainable over longer periods of time? The Mathematics D Online project in the Netherlands provides a years-long experience providing online education at the secondary school level. Studying the project and the involved teachers and students might provide insight in the questions raised above.

The regular (not online) Mathematics D course is optional for students aged 15-18. Unfortunately, not many students opt for the course and several schools have stopped offering it because of the relatively high costs associated with teaching small groups. Mathematics D Online attempts to solve this issue by enabling schools to offer the course with reduced hours for teachers involved  The course presently offers a complete online arrangement with schedules and exercises, an online course book, online videos (instructional and motivational), online hand-in exercises with feedback provided by online assistants, exams, and test exams. The teacher remains responsible for setting and marking the exams, and for providing one hour per week of face-to-face time with the student. The courses may thus rightly dubbed “blended” in nature, with a ratio of on- and offline work of about 80/20.

According to a recent review by Boelens and colleagues (Boelens, De Wever, & Voet, 2017) there are four key challenges to the design of blended learning:
 

1. incorporating flexibility
2. facilitating interaction
3. facilitating students’ learning processes
4. fostering an affective learning climate

A recent internal report (Bos, 2019) describes the design choices within Mathematics D Online in the light of these challenges. A concrete major challenge is the decreasing engagement as time goes by. This raises questions on the motivational support during the course.

To our knowledge research into blended education addressing these challenges on the secondary level is very limited. The aim of the research proposed here is to fill that gap by studying the effects of the design choices made for the Mathematics D Online course.  

The focus of your research, as a student, could be one or two of many questions, for example:   
 

• What is the effect on motivation of the educational video clips? Do the educational videos provide enough autonomy and competence support?
• To what extent do the hand-in tasks, provided with feedback, contribute to the learning process or/and to the motivation of students, as reported by the students?
• To what extent is  face-to-face education essential for motivating the students?
• How can community building between students and teachers be facilitated?
• How can self-regulation and self-assessment be stimulated and facilitated?

References

Boelens, R., De Wever, B., & Voet, M. (2017). Four key challenges to the design of blended learning: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review, Vol. 22, pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.06.001

Bos, R. D. (2019). Eindrapportage Project Blended Learning Wiskunde D. Intern rapport.

In the new curricula for mathematics in HAVO-VWO in the Netherlands one finds a renewed attention for mathematical thinking (wiskundige denkactiviteiten). The curriculum designers want to move away from learning mathematics solely by memorizing sets of routines. Mathematical problem solving is a central constituent of mathematical thinking. To solve a problem, one needs to combine mathematical activities that one mastered before. So one needs to make strategic decisions, on a level that transcends the procedural.

A way to guide a student with these strategic decisions is by providing heuristics. A heuristic (Pólya, 1945) is a general strategy to attack a problem, e.g., investigate special cases. In this research we study how such hints and heuristics should be structured in a course. About heuristics Schoenfeld claims (1985, p. 73): “many heuristic labels subsume half a dozen strategies or more. Each of these more precisely defined strategies needs to be fully explicated before it can be used reliably by students”. So how should the use of these heuristics be built up? The idea under investigation is that hints in a course should be developed parallel to the way mathematical thought develops. Central in development of mathematical thought is a cognitive process called compression (Thurston, 1990, Barnhard & Tall, 2001). Compression is a transition in the mind from isolated procedural steps to more integrated processes, ending in cognitive units that Tall calls procepts. With a cognitive unit Tall means “a piece of cognitive structure that can be held in the focus of attention all at one time” (p.1). Hints and heuristics may represent such cognitive units, heuristics being the highly compressed ones.

The goal of this research project is to contribute to the teaching of mathematical thinking and in particular problem solving in HAVO-VWO. To this purpose, a course in the Digital Mathematics Environment (DME) of the Freudenthal Institute will be designed. The DME offers the possibility to build a structure of hints and heuristics and to monitor the students use of these.

The designed course will be field tested with secondary school students . The first result for these student should be that they develop compressed procepts in the domain of the course, and use these in their reasoning. A second result should be that students learn to ask for hints on the right level of their mathematical development, not continue to ask for low procedural hints, when they should be able to handle heuristics (cf. Roll et al., 2014).

Barnard, A. D. & Tall, D. O. (2001). A Comparative Study of Cognitive Units in Mathematical Thinking, Proceedings of the 25th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2, 89–96. Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Pólya, G. (1945). How to solve it. Princeton university press.

Roll, I., Baker, R.S.J.D., Aleven, V., & Koedinger, K. R. (2014). On the benefits of seeking (and avoiding) help in online problem solving environment. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 23(4), 537-560.

Schoenfeld, A. H. (1985). Mathematical Problem Solving. Orlando, FLA: Academic.

Thurston, W. P. (1990). Mathematical education, Notices of the AMS, 37, 844-850.

Despite the Netherlands offering competitive salaries for teachers, there remains a persistent shortage of educators in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields with STEM graduates often overlooking teaching as a career option. This study will investigate this trend, examining societal perceptions, professional identity, and the economic value associated with STEM professions by identifying the underlying factors contributing to the reluctance of STEM degree holders to pursue teaching careers in the Netherlands, and understanding how these factors relate to the identity of a STEM teacher. The project aims to address teacher shortages by providing recommendations for policymakers, educational institutions, and other stakeholders in the Netherlands (and beyond). This study could also be conducted by international students, potentially comparing the situation to their home countries. The research questions you will strive to answer are the following:
 

• What are the primary factors influencing the career choices of STEM degree holders in the Netherlands?
• How is the identity of a STEM teacher perceived in the Netherlands, and how does this impact the attractiveness of the teaching profession?
• How do these factors and perceptions compare to those in the student’s home country? (in the case that the student is not from the NL)

Digital fabrication tools like 3D printers and laser cutters are becoming increasingly accessible and offer exciting opportunities to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Mathematics) subjects. Students can create sophisticated projects that can be personally meaningful and shared with others. The use of such tools is receiving increasing attention from educators and policymakers thanks to their promising potential for learning through experimentation, creative expression, and authentic inquiry.

However, even though such tools are becoming commonplace in Dutch classrooms, it is still unclear how and in which learning activities they are used. For example, some educators fail at using 3D printing technologies as a means of invention/expression and rather use them for fabricating existing 3D models from open hardware repositories like Thingiverse. This raises concerns about promoting surface instead of deep-sustainable learning and promoting a consumer-oriented approach to STEAM education. This research project investigates how Dutch schools use digital fabrication (3D printing, laser cutters, CNC mills, etc.) in STEAM education through teacher surveys and interviews for:
 

• The collection and analysis of existing school projects/lessons of teachers
• The collection and analysis of teaching strategies and instruction models used
• Identifying the support needs of the teachers and students
• ...

Key Literature

*Pedagogies and emerging technologies in education

Blikstein, Paulo. "Digital fabrication and ‘making’ in education: The democratization of invention." FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors 4.1 (2013): 1-21.

Blikstein, P., & Krannich, D. (2013, June). The makers' movement and FabLabs in education: experiences, technologies, and research. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on interaction design and children (pp. 613-616).

Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard educational review, 84(4), 495-504.

Thematic content analysis

Mayring, P. 2000. Qualitative Content Analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 1, 2

Pedagogical content knowledge and TPACK

Ball, D. L., Thames, M. H., and Phelps, G. 2008. Content Knowledge for Teaching: What Makes It Special? Journal of Teacher Education 59, 5, 389–407

Niess, M. L. (2011). Investigating TPACK: Knowledge growth in teaching with technology. Journal of educational computing research, 44(3), 299-317.

Basic coding and mathematical skills should be accessible to every individual for computational problem solving but also as a means for creative and personal expression. Over the last years, there have been global efforts to foster mathematical and computational thinking in K-12. However, many educators often fail at engaging and maintaining individuals' interest in mathematics by focusing exclusively on theoretical aspects of mathematics that are difficult for the students to connect to their lives. On the contrary, mathematical and computational concepts and practices should be introduced in parallel with creative and real-life applications rather than dull exercises.

This study suggests combining computational design and 3D printing as a means of fostering mathematical and computational thinking to students. The study includes the implementation and assessment/evaluation of an existing workshop concept that allows students to use mathematics and geometry knowledge as well as computational concepts (e.g., iterations and conditional statements) to generate 3D models that can be fabricated at our Teaching and Learning Lab and Lili’s Proto Lab of our university. The existing workshop concept needs to be adjusted according to the mathematics curricula standards of the workshop partipants. The analysis focuses on the evaluation of learning outcomes of lower secondary students in terms of mathematics knowledge and computational thinking (e.g., computational concepts, practices and perspectives).

The expected duration of the workshop is around 2-3 hours per day for 2-3 days. The fabrication of the projects will continue after the students leave our lab. The master student undertaking this project will contribute to implementing the workshops and facilitating the learning activity and fabrication phase along their supervisor. The assessment/evaluation of the workshop outcomes will include questionnaires, interviews and 3D artifact qualitative analysis. Master students with no coding experience are welcome to take the project, but they should be willing to invest a couple of days to get familiar with the computational design tools we use (BlocksCAD or BeetleBlocks or similar).

Links: https://www.blockscad3d.com/editor/

Key Literature

Computational Thinking Assessment 

Brennan, K., & Resnick, M. (2012, April). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 2012 annual meeting of the American educational research association, Vancouver, Canada (Vol. 1, p. 25).

van Borkulo, S., Chytas, C., Drijvers, P., Barendsen, E., & Tolboom, J. (2021, October). Computational thinking in the mathematics classroom: fostering algorithmic thinking and generalization skills using dynamic mathematics software. In The 16th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (pp. 1-9).

Pedagogies 

Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital fabrication and ‘making’ in education: The democratization of invention. FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors, 4(1), 1-21.

Blikstein, P., & Krannich, D. (2013, June). The makers' movement and FabLabs in education: experiences, technologies, and research. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on interaction design and children (pp. 613-616).

Evaluation of computational design learning activities

Jennifer Jacobs and Leah Buechley. 2013. Codeable objects: computational design and digital fabrication for novice programmers. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1589-1598. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466211

Chytas, C., Diethelm, I., & Tsilingiris, A. (2018, April). Learning programming through design: An analysis of parametric design projects in digital fabrication labs and an online makerspace. In 2018 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 1978-1987). IEEE.

Chytas, C., Brahms, E., Diethelm, I., Barendsen, E. (2022, May).

Youth’s Perspectives of Computational Design in Making-based Coding Activities. In FabLearn Europe / MakeEd 2022: 6th FabLearn Europe / MakeEd Conference 2022 (pp. 1–9). https://doi.org/10.1145/3535227.3535231

Bringing design practices to science and mathematics education is gaining interest with recent science curriculum reforms emphasizing design, and calls for integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math) education. Design is a central practice in science and mathematics disciplines, and could potentially engage students in designing projects in digital formats or fabricating them into the physical realm. Fabrication tools commonly used in education (e.g., with 3D printing/laser cutting) allow students to create artifacts that have quality comparable to that of industrial products. Including such tools in project-based learning activities seems to be an effective strategy to empower and motivate students in using science and mathematics to create sophisticated projects and take a more active role with technology. Digital fabrication itself (e.g., with 3D printing/laser cutting) is also still viewed by many students as an innovative and exciting process.

Science and mathematics teachers are key in bringing design to STEAM classrooms, but little is known about their views on teaching and learning regarding design. This research project aims to better understand how design-based learning activities focusing on aspects like 3D design/printing can complement existing teaching/learning practices in science and mathematics from the perspective of both the teachers and students. 

Developed learning activities will be empirically evaluated in the classroom to investigate how design-based learning activities can be appropriate choices for equipping students with scientific literacies and practices like understanding scientific concepts, phenomena and processes, and applying new technical skills and knowledge to address scientific issues. Below you can find an example of a design-based learning activity:

Design of an instrument

Lower secondary school students get to use 3D technology and their understanding of sound waves, frequency, and amplitude. After an introduction on the topic and working with existing material, the students are expected to develop a basic understanding of waves, frequency, and amplitude and generate ideas/testing theories to solve authentic problems (how to make efficient design choices for their artifact to be functional). The students are called to interact with the artifacts we provide them with, as well as the ones they designed and fabricated in a lab/workshop (For example, the Teaching and Learning Lab at our university). The students are called to record and analyze their data and communicate their findings with their peers and tutor(s), discuss about testing strategies for their design considerations, and communicate their findings. The learning activity could end with a reflection on their learning experience.

Key literature:

Pedagogies, design, and technology in education

Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital fabrication and ‘making’ in education: The democratization of invention. FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors, 4(1), 1-21.

Blikstein, P., & Krannich, D. (2013, June). The makers' movement and FabLabs in education: experiences, technologies, and research. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on interaction design and children (pp. 613-616).

Design practices and engineering in mathematics and science

Vossen, T. E., Henze, I., De Vries, M. J., & Van Driel, J. H. (2019). Finding the connection between research and design: The knowledge development of STEM teachers in a professional learning community. International Journal of Technology and Design Education.

Roehrig, G. H., Moore, T. J., Wang, H. H., & Park, M. S. (2012). Is adding the E enough? Investigating the impact of K-12 engineering standards on the implementation of STEM integration. School Science and Mathematics, 112(1), 31–44.

Methods 

Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

Pedagogical content knowledge

Rahimi, E., Barendsen, E., & Henze, I. (2016). Typifying informatics teachers’ PCK of designing digital artefacts in Dutch upper secondary education. In A. Brodnik & F. Tort (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th international conference on informatics in schools: Situation, evolution, and perspectives (pp. 65–77). Cham: Springer.

Simulation and modeling tools are promising technologies for engaging students in inquiry-based learning activities to investigate and understand the world around them. In fact, in virtual spaces students can even conduct ‘dangerous’ experiments that they could not try in their class (e.g., learning about salmonella bacteria, which is an important topic that schools cannot teach in the lab for safety reasons).

There are several studies investigating the advantages of virtual experiments over physical experimentation as well as combining both. For example, students can explore scientific phenomena such as heat diffusion and wave propagation by conducting physical experiments and in parallel designing virtual models, and connecting the experiments with the models in real-time through iterative comparisons with empirical data. During the physical phase of the process, students design and develop their physical experiment, and they run the experiment while collecting data with embedded sensors or a time-lapse camera and try to model the phenomenon under investigation.

This study will examine how primary/secondary school students design and compare their own experiments in both the digital and physical realms and how to leverage this combination to promote authentic scientific inquiry. The suggested study could examine the applicability and challenges of this combination in formal, non-formal, or informal learning environments from the perspective of multiple stakeholders (teachers, educators, and students). The master students participating in the project can conduct observations of the students and teachers and their interactions in the Teaching and Learning Lab or Lili’s Proto Lab of our university.

Key literature

Bifocal Modeling Framework

Blikstein, P. (2010, June). Connecting the science classroom and tangible interfaces: the bifocal modeling framework. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-Volume 2 (pp. 128-130).

Blikstein, Paulo. "Bifocal modeling: a study on the learning outcomes of comparing physical and computational models linked in real time." Proceedings of the 14th ACM international conference on Multimodal interaction. 2012.

Key studies:

Fuhrmann, T., Schneider, B., & Blikstein, P. (2018). Should students design or interact with models? Using the Bifocal Modelling Framework to investigate model construction in high school science. International Journal of Science Education, 40(8), 867-893.

Fuhrmann, T., Bar, C., & Blikstein, P. (2020). Identifying Discrepant Events as a Strategy to Improve Critical Thinking About Scientific Models in a Heat Transfer Unit in Middle School.

Fuhrmann, T., Fernandez, C., Blikstein, P., & de Deus Lopes, R. (2021). Making Students' Ideas Visible through Coding a Scientific Computational Model. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the development of Large Language Models like ChatGPT have opened up exciting possibilities in the fields of personalized teaching, adaptive learning, and automated assessment in education. However, as we explore the potential benefits, it's crucial to consider both the advantages and drawbacks of integrating AI and LLMs into the educational landscape.

In this project, you will have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing research projects at our institute, gain expertise in AI's applications in education, and collaborate with faculty members and experts from different departments at Utrecht University. Our ongoing projects aim at investigating the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) in Higher Education. You can choose one of the three research directions we focus on or suggest your own:

• Teachers and instructor support: Bubeck et al. (2023) has demonstrated the capacity of GPT-4 to generate teaching materials, exercises, feedback, graphics, and code, with further quality improvements expected. This research direction investigates how AI-powered tools can assist educators in creating personalized teaching materials, thereby enabling more effective, personalized, and engaging STEM lessons.
• Learning assistance: This direction Investigates how AI can support students' learning experiences. Whether through chatbots, virtual tutors, or adaptive learning platforms, AI-driven tools provide immediate feedback and individualized assistance. Your study could evaluate the impact of such tools on student performance and learning experience and derive best practices and design principles for supporting students learning with AI.
• Grading and assessment: The role of AI in grading and assessment is an area of growing interest. This research direction examines how automated grading systems influence student evaluation, the integrity of grading processes, and the evolving role of educators in this context.

The focus of the ongoing projects is on Higher Education but your project could also focus on K-12 if this is more relevant to you and your personal/professional development. Such interventions could involve several programs at Utrecht University including lectures and seminars, tutoring programs, teacher qualification courses, and professional development workshops for staff, among others. Whether you have questions, want to discuss research opportunities, or simply want to chat about these topics you can email: c.chytas@uu.nl

To investigate and identify promising practices in equitable STEM education, the capacity for education researchers to conduct this research must be rapidly built globally, particularly in light of concerns that have arisen over the quality of research and the lack of a strong focus on equity.

To address these issues, our consortium, composed of eight researchers from six countries and educational knowledge from an additional eight countries, investigated how existing research standards can inform high-quality, equity-focused K-12 STEM education research. We have meticulously synthesized key features from these standards (McGill et al., in press) in the context of equity-focused education research, with the aim of providing a comprehensive framework that ensures not only the quality of research but also its alignment with equity principles.

This project aims at understanding how these synthesized recommendations are applied in educational research, identifying successful practices, and highlighting areas where further refinement of the recommendations is needed.  

The division between science and art has been a subject of interest throughout the history of human civilization. In his inspiring book, Douglas Hofstadter argues that such division is, in fact, artificial (Hofstadter, 1980). Geometrical and mathematical patterns such as the Fibonacci sequence can be found practically everywhere (from the number and configuration of petals in flowers to the spiral patterns of shells), although they are often unnoticed by an untrained eye. Concepts such as the golden ratio and congruences have inspired generations of artists, from the sculptures of Phidias, the Islamic geometric ornaments of Alhambra, the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci to the most recognizable brand logos designed by modern graphic designers. Apart from sculptures and paintings, mathematical properties also shaped tensions in architecture, poetry, music and dance.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in preparing students for the 21st century. At the same time, there is an increasing interest in incorporating the arts into educational curricula to foster creativity and critical thinking, among others.

In this project you will investigate the impact of arts integration on STEM education, aiming to provide empirical evidence and insights into the potential benefits of a more holistic approach to education. This project is highly adaptable and open to customization. If you have a background in a specific STEM discipline, e.g., such as biology, physics, or computer science, you can focus your research on how arts integration impacts that specific field. Think of Biomimicry Fashion Design, Bacterial Painting and Bio Art, Algorithmic Music Composition, Mathematical Origami, Geometric Art, Computational Design, Kaleidoscope Making, 3D Printing for Mathematics and Science, and more. 

Literature

• Kafai, Y. B. (2020). Twenty Things to Make with Biology. Proceedings of Constructionism 2020.
• Chytas, C., Diethelm, I., & Tsilingiris, A. (2018, April). Learning programming through design: An analysis of parametric design projects in digital fabrication labs and an online makerspace. In 2018 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 1978-1987). IEEE.
• Liao, C. (2016). From interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary: An arts-integrated approach to STEAM education. Art Education, 69(6), 44-49.

Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM): only 15% of the people in the STEM industry is women, with only 2,4% in the tech sector (Starr, 2018). This is problematic, as diversity is important for new breakthroughs, deeper research and fresh perspectives: research showed that diverse groups of problem-solvers outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers  (Hong & Page, 2004) .

In an attempt to increase the representation of women in STEM, Utrecht University organizes a pre-university program (Girls Club WIN, note: this program is facilitated in Dutch) for girls. Girls aged 13-15 years old visit Utrecht University five times in a year, to delve into the subjects mathematics, informatics and physics and to get acquainted with female role models from these study areas. They do this in a safe and positive environment.

We are interested to get more insight in the effects of (programs like) the Girls Club WIN. Possible research questions for a master thesis could be:

• To what extent does participation in girls-science-intervention-programs impact the academic subject selection (profielkeuze) of 2nd and 3rd-year pre-university (vwo) students, relative to non-participating peers within the same school context?
• What are the underlying factors influencing students' decisions to engage or abstain from participation in such a program as an extracurricular activity?
• What is the efficacy of integrating components of the program into standard curricular offerings for 2nd and 3rd-year students in terms of increasing participation rates?

It is also possible to set up your own research question. For researching your research question, you may observe, survey and/or interview participants from the next group of high school students within this program.

For more information about the Girls Club WIN, you can visit the website: https://u-talent.nl/leerlingen/meerjarige-programmas/girlsclub/. The contact persons for this research project are Michiel Doorman (m.doorman@uu.nl) and Marjolein Gelauff (m.n.a.gelauff@uu.nl).

References:

Hong, L. & Page, S.E. (2004) Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high ability problem solvers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(46), 16385–16389. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0403723101

Starr, C. R. (2018). “I’m Not a Science Nerd!”: STEM Stereotypes, Identity, and Motivation Among  Undergraduate Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 42(4), 489-503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684318793848

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has been advocated by science and mathematics educators as a means to make students be actively engaged in content-related problem solving processes and in reflecting on the nature of science. Several reasons created the need for IBL varying from improving content-learning, fostering motivation, creating opportunities for learning 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking and working collaboratively. However, a discrepancy can be found between the need to make IBL accessible to students and teachers’ current classroom practices. Three research projects are proposed in close cooperation with these running projects on this issue.

The first research project accompanies the implementation process of IBL by selected teachers within a case study design. The teachers will be guided in this process and data is retrieved on their beliefs and implementation strategies (e.g., necessary aids and evaluation tools), classroom implementation is observed and students’ responses during and after the implemented unit are considered (e.g., creativity and levels of inquiry). A sample collection of students’ responses is available for an initial explorative study.

In the second project, the central focus is on the redesign of traditional tasks within teacher professional development units. Teachers will be supported and observed during the process of redesigning a closed textbook task into an IBL-oriented task and interviewed afterwards. The aim is to extract the determinants for successful redesigning processes to be able to enhance a research-based tool kit containing redesigning aids to guarantee successful implementation of tasks. The tasks can be selected from subjects within the science or mathematics domain.

The third project concerns a textbook analysis in one or more science domains. You will analyze to what extent textbooks provide opportunities for inquiry-based learning and opportunities for experiencing how scientists think and work. This textbook analysis can be performed in close collaboration with a PhD student who investigates similarities and differences between China and the Netherlands on this issue in lower secondary mathematics education.

References:

Capps, D. K., & Crawford, B. A. (2013). Inquiry-based instruction and teaching about nature of science: Are they happening?. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(3), 497-526.

Minner, D. D., Levy, A. J., & Century, J. (2010). Inquiry‐based science instruction—what is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002. Journal of research in science teaching, 47(4), 474-496.

Swan, M., Pead, D., Doorman, L.M. & Mooldijk, A.H. (2013). Designing and using professional development resources for inquiry based learning. ZDM - International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45 (7), (pp. 945-957) (13 p.).

Master Theses from previous students in the project:

Nur Rahmah Sangkala (2018). The influence of inquiry based learning on Indonesian students’ attitude towards science.

Lysanne Smit (2016). A better understanding of 21st century skills in mathematics education and a view on these skills in current practice.

Contact: Ralph Meulenbroeks and Michiel Doorman

Men and women are regularly treated as unequal in society, but also in science. Quite often the presence of gender-bias in science and society hampers girls to become who and what they want to become. This research topic aims to study the issue in the domain of (secondary) science education.

While the overall gender-gap in the Netherlands has been decreasing in the last couple of decades, females have not yet reached an equal footing in the different fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). One of the reasons may be the fact that there are less female role models available in educational methods and in popular media.  

Role models have been found to have a lasting impact on the feeling of belonging and sense of possibilities for a career in a certain industry or field. They give students the idea that a career path is something that they could pursue and achieve too. Without proper role models in STEM, female students tend to feel that they do not belong in STEM fields and that a career in the fields of physics, computer science and engineering “just isn’t for them” (Kalender et al., 2019).

So in this research topic one can study for instance at what stage of education the gender-gap in STEM becomes apparent. This can be done for the different disciplines, or different school types in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the world, and for different aspects of gender bias in different media, be it visual, audio or written.

Depending on interest in theme / practice / target audience the influence of communication or education (interventions) on gender-issues or gender-bias in education will be studied. An approach suitable for the issue under investigation will be selected: the study may be descriptive or may use a design based approach (production of an intervention) in combination with qualitative interviews with a target audience of choice.

A recent master thesis focused on an explorative study on the availability of role models for physics and computer science students in Dutch high schools. New projects can be developed inspired by the findings of this study. Maybe you would like to design new educational content featuring female role models and test how that influences students’ perception of STEM subjects?

Interested? Please contact Ralph Meulenbroeks or Michiel Doorman for more information: R.F.G.Meulenbroeks@uu.nl; m.doorman@uu.nl

Core literature

Bax, J. (2021) Gender bias in secondary education – An explorative study on the availability of role models for physics and computer science students in Dutch high schools, Master thesis UU.

Kalender, Z. Y., Marshman, E., Schunn, C. D., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Singh, C. (2019). Why female science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors do not identify with physics: They do not think others see them that way. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 15(2), 020148. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020148

Supervisors: Wouter van Joolingen (FI, W.R.vanJoolingen@uu.nl),  Roland Geraerts (CS)

This project is a collaboration between Department of Computer science, University Museum and Freudenthal Institute.

At big events, such as pop concerts, sports events and demonstrations, large numbers of people get together in a relatively small space. This can cause problems: due to congestions, people may not be able to reach their goals in time, emergency services (ambulances, fire fighters) may not be able to get through the crowds and even accidents due to suffocation may occur. For this reason it is important to study how such crowds can be managed.

In order to understand how such large numbers of people can be controlled to ensure fluid passage and avoid dangerous situations, the department of computer science develops a crowd simulation that allows for specifying the characteristics of a situation (roads, obstacles, sources and targets of people (e.g. entrances and exits, toilets, viewing positions for a sports event, …). The simulation then computes and visualizes the flows of people in the environment, indicating people flow and problematic points. By adjusting the environment, users can see how the environment influences the flow of the crowd.

The crowd simulations can also have an educational function. By interacting with the simulation, students (the target group is 8-14 year old children) can study the effects of the environment on the people flows and, moreover, study the properties of the model behind the crowd simulation. In such a way, students engage in inquiry-based learning and learn to assess the role of models and modeling in scientific understanding.

The University Museum plans to include a large scale model of the crowd simulator in its new exhibition. This model will allow for physical interaction with the simulation, by moving blocks that represent buildings and other obstacles. Scenarios of use of such a setup are (1) free interaction and exploration by museum visitors in the target age and (2) guided interaction under supervision of a museum guide.

The goal of this master student project will be to investigate the constraints and possibilities for these two scenarios and develop and evaluate test scenarios. For instance, a question is what good starting questions are for students, or how a guide can engage children in active exploration. The scenarios developed will be tested in practice in the Teaching and Learning Lab.

Biology textbooks typically depict molecular and cellular processes such as enzyme operation and protein synthesis with iconic representations of macro-molecules. Whereas this representation is useful to obtain a global view of the processes there are aspects that are not covered but are important for understanding the essence of the processes involved. For example, apart from the ‘lock and key’ idea of enzyme that is involved in order for molecules to ‘snap’ into each other, the molecules themselves are dynamic structures and their movement within the cells adds to the dynamics. Whereas the textbook representation may give rise to the misconception that molecules display purposeful behavior, a representation that incorporates dynamics can give rise to a more accurate ‘mechanistic way’ of reasoning that is capable of explaining the effects of external factors such as temperature and pH value in the cell.

Virtual reality can provide such a dynamic representation. In an environment where students can play with 3D models of molecular processes and in which they can modify the model, students can experiment with the molecular processes and literary see how they come to life and operate together. In this project we will use SimSketch as a modeling tool with which students can modify the dynamic behavior of the molecules and VR software from the lab of Prof. CAI Yiyu at NTU to display the 3D behavior. The research question is how this combination of representations can be integrated in the biology class.

In a team in which you will work together with students from Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Zwolle), supervised by Dr. Teresa Dias Pedro Gomes and students from Nanyang Technical University (Singapore), you will develop and evaluate lessons around this topic. The validation of the designed pedagogies and lesson plans will be done via the Lesson Study method as developed by Professor Sui Lin Goei (Windesheim) implementing this method widely in Dutch schools in the Netherlands. The student teams will meet using videoconferences and once a year face-to-face during conferences and workshops to discuss the design of the lessons. Both master theses will focus on subtopics of the study, one will be related to the way students use and appreciate the VR aspects in learning about the molecular processes; the second will focus more on the modeling aspect and the specification of the dynamic behavior of the processes.

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille and Wouter van Joolingen

In 2013, we developed the website plasticadrift.org[1], where visitors can explore how ocean currents transport floating material such as plastic litter around the globe. While the website is a huge success, more than 350,000 visitors and exposure on platforms including the Guardian[2], the website is not much more now than a fun tool for most visitors.

Ideally, the plasticadrift.org website would have more background and for example a lesson plan associated with it, that schoolteachers can use to discuss the problem of plastic pollution with their pupils. Content can be drawn from the ‘All about plastic soup’ webportal, hosted at Utrecht University[3]. Also, students could get interested in the backgrounds and methods behind the model that drives the site; this could also more clearly be explained.  

In this project, you will develop, implement and test a lesson plan for either primary or secondary school (tbd), based around the plasticadrift.org website. You will make sure the lesson plan aligns with the relevant curricula. You will create a set of questions and assignments based on the plasticadrift.org website and research how they influence students’ reasoning about the way plastics are transported over the oceans and/or how we are able to predict these plastic flows, i.e. understanding the science behind plastic pollution.

[1] See http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2014.09.002 for a scientific publication on the method behind the tool

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/29/if-you-drop-plastic-in-the-ocean-where-does-it-end-up

[3] https://plasticsoep.sites.uu.nl/en/

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille and Wouter van Joolingen

Climate Change and Plastic Pollution are two of the most pressing environmental problems. Both are linked to overconsumption and our wasteful lifestyle. Hence, for many people the two are expressions of the same underlying cause.

On the other hand, effective solutions to Climate Change might increase the amount of Plastic Pollution. An example of this is the case of the shrink-wrapped cucumber in the supermarket: the extra plastic wrapper increases shelf life and hence reduced spillage in the supermarket, and thereby the amount of energy per sold cucumber[1]. Similarly, effective solutions to the Plastic Pollution problem, such as glass recyclable containers, might increase carbon emissions for transport, thereby exacerbating Climate Change.

In the public discussion, the two topics are also differently viewed. Where the causes and impacts of climate change are (still) fiercely debated in some communities and media, plastic pollution is far less contested; there are hardly any ‘plastic-sceptics’.

For academics working on climate change and plastic pollution, these ‘confusions’ in the public perceptions and debate complicate engagement. The two topics are intertwined in some respects but clearly different in others. The question is thus how the public perceives this nexus between plastic pollution and climate change. How can the relation between climate change and plastic pollution best be discussed?

In this project, you will work within the ‘Tracking Of Plastics In Our Seas’ (topios.org) project and the Freudenthal Institute to explore the nexus between plastic pollution and climate change in public engagement, and to help the team with their outreach activities.

[1] https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/why-shrink-wrap-a-cucumber-16-10-2012

Contact: Wouter van Joolingen (W.R.vanJoolingen@uu.nl) and Ad Mooldijk A.H.Mooldijk@uu.nl)

In the first round of the physics Olympiad for lower secondary education whole classes participate. The percentage of girls is then around 50%. In the second round of 2018 and 2019, the percentage of girls already diminished to about  20%. Boys score better on the digital questions in the first round. In the final round the girls percentage is still about 20% and the score on the questions is the same as that of the boys.

In the Physics Olympiad for upper secondary education, the percentage of women in the first round is about 40%. In the second round with about 100 students, the percentage of girls is only 15%. In the final round only 1 girl out of 20 participants was present.

When 40% of the girls in lower secondary education in the Netherlands choose for a more science oriented path in upper secondary, you may expect that at least 40% of the girls will reach the second round of the lower secondary Physics Olympiad. What is the course of the lower achievement?

In this project you will search for possible causes of this lower achievement. A former project investigated the questions but found no indications that the kind of questions or formulation is a cause. Some schools score better with girls, what makes the difference in these schools that girls score better? Are there other possible causes? We can use one or two students in this research.

The preliminary rounds of the Physics Olympiads are digital now. The answers can therefore be used for research on gender, preconceptions and alike.

Literature

McCullough L (2004) Gender, Context, and Physics Assessment, Journal of international Women’s Studies 5-4, p 20-30

OECD. (2016b). PISA 2015 results: Excellence and equity in education (Vol. 1). Paris, France: Author.

Lorenzo M etal (2006) Reducing the gender gap in the physics classroom, am j phys 74-2, p 118-122

Nafis I Karim et al (2018) Do evidence-based active-engagement courses reduce the gender gap in introductory physics? Eur. J. Phys. 39-2,

Mooldijk A & van der Laan J (2019) De Natuurkunde Olympiade Digitaal, NVOX,  44-1, p 8-9

Contact: Rayendra Bachtiar

Supervisor: Ralph Meulenbroeks or Wouter van Joolingen

Mechanistic reasoning is a valuable thinking strategy, in which physical phenomena are systematically organized in “entities” and “activities of entities” (Russ, Scherr, Hammer, & Mikeska, 2008). Many studies show that engaging students in certain types of modeling stimulates them to reason mechanistically. However, full mechanistic reasoning appears to be difficult to reach.

In the present study we ask students to construct a model of a physical phenomenon by having them create a stop-motion animation and ask them to explain their animation afterwards. So far we have found that the nature of the construction of a stop-motion animation, chunking and sequencing” (Hoban & Nielsen, 2010), does induce students reasoning in mechanistic ways. We found that 9th-grade students’ level of mechanistic reasoning increased during the construction of stop-motion animations about a ball’s parabolic movement. Furthermore, students appeared to be stimulated to use more abstract reasoning, i.e., make more use of abstract entities, during the course of the process.

A further study is proposed to investigate how the development of concrete and abstract levels of mechanistic reasoning using stop-motion animations occurs. Furthermore, we want to see how the use of stop-motion animation works in an actual classroom. For these challenging projects, we have room for one or more research students.

Reference

Hoban, G., & Nielsen, W. (2010). The 5 Rs: a new teaching approach to encourage slowmations (studentgenerated animations) of science concepts. Teaching Science, 3(3), 33–38.

Russ, R. S., Scherr, R. E., Hammer, D., & Mikeska, J. (2008). Recognizing mechanistic reasoning in student scientific inquiry: A framework for discourse analysis developed from philosophy of science. Science Education, 92(3), 499–525. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20264

Development in science and technology such as, artificial intelligence and renewable energy impact society and our personal lives. They often improve our wellbeing but also carry with them scientific uncertainties and social risks. This asks for scientifically literate citizens who are able to make informed decisions about these emerging socio-scientific issues (SSIs); an important aim of our current science curricula.

Education through an inquiry approach in science and technology prepares young citizens to participate in socio-scientific debate. For this purpose, students need to have an understanding of the process and products of science and technology and to appreciate them as human endeavour. In addition, students need to exercise informed decision-making, i.e. considering and balancing relevant facts, interests, values, costs and benefits.

The PARRISE project, aimed to introduce the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation in science and mathematics education to contribute to a scientifically literate society (21st century skills). It does so by combining socio-scientific issues (SSI) and inquiry-based learning (IBL) to foster citizenship (CE) in science education; The SSIBL-approach.

Implementing the SSIBL-approach in science classrooms and teacher training programs is challenging. Many aspects still have to be investigated .We are in need of evidence-based teaching and learning activities to foster informed opinion forming and decision-making in the classroom. Focus of your study can be on aspects such as:
 

• Fostering democratic dialogue in the classroom
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Reliability of sources/ fake news
• Dealing with the complexity of SSIs / multiple stakeholders
• Introducing students to authentic (local) SSIs
• Involving local stakeholders in students inquiry
• Scaffolding inquiry-based learning
• Dealing with personal values and beliefs, and societal and ethical aspects of science

Literature

• Levinson, R. (2018) Introducing socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL). School Science Review, 100(371), 31-35.
• Ariza, M.R.; Christodoulou, A.; van Harskamp, M.; Knippels,M.-C.P.J.; Kyza, E.A.; Levinson, R.;Agesilaou, A. (2021)Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning as a Means toward Environmental Citizenship. Sustainability, 13, 11509. https://doi.org/10.3390/
• Knippels, M.C.P.J. & van Harskamp, M. (2018). An educational sequence for implementing socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL). School Science Review, 100 (371), 46-52.

Within our platform we have a code editor for Python that is used in our Python course. Within this editor, the standard error messages of Python are shown in case of an error. However, these are not always clear to students and they struggle sometimes to proceed to fix the problems. Within this project you are going to study how to make these error messages more accessible for students: should there be hints to help students, or should we create custom error messages? Moreover, you can study whether the code editor could be improved to help students. For example by adding colours or suggestions.

Within this project you can combine technical skills (by making a prototype) with educational skills (how to give the right feedback at the right moment). Your research question could be: How can you support students to interpret error messages better?

It is possible to combine this topic with one of the other suggested topics. 

We currently have a visualization of learning goals in a graph, but during a pilot study we found that students did not use the graph and found it hard to understand. Based on an existing learning goals graph for computer science you will design a visualization that can be used by students and teachers. To design this graph you will work with the target audience and build different mock-up visualizations to evaluate.  

Your research question could be: How to visualize learning goals to students & teachers? 

It is possible to combine this topic with one of the other suggested topics.

Students in the Co-Teach Informatica program can only receive remote support as their teacher does not have any content knowledge. 

You will study, together with the target audience, how you can help those students with their problems, for example by providing (personalized) hints during assignments. Aside from that you will think about ways to help students to verbalize their problems so that they can efficiently communicate those problems with the student assistants. You can create prototypes of additional features that can be added to the platform we are developing. 

Your research question could be: How to provide students with support in their tasks and how to facilitate easier communication with TA’s? 

It is possible to combine this topic with one of the other suggested topics. 

Programming activities are currently often self-assessed by the students. Problems with this approach are that students might incorrectly evaluate themselves and we cannot determine which learning goals were and were not met. Therefore, we would like to add some form of autograding that can be linked to learning goals. 

You will work on an algorithm that can detect which learning goals are met in an assignment to create a more precise evaluation. You can test this using existing data and talk with the target audience. 

Your research question could be: Can an autograding tool correctly detect learning goals in programming assignments? 

It is possible to combine this topic with one of the other suggested topics. 

Currently, we have to create all programming assignments by hand, which limits the number of assignments that students can use to practice. You will build a tool, using existing tools like ChatGPT if helpful, to automatically create additional practice assignments. It is important that the created assignments are correct and suitable alternatives for existing assignments and the learning goals linked to these assignments. You will also study how this can be applied to other modules in our platform that are not related to programming.  

Your research question could be: Can we generate practice assignments as suitable alternatives to existing assignments? 

It is possible to combine this topic with one of the other suggested topics. 

The use of Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies is an fast emerging aspect in education. Several nice applications have been developed for the subjects of geography and history in which students can interactively learn about concepts or their environment. In the field of chemistry the introduction of this technology has mainly been restricted to the 3D visualization of molecules. In this institute, several projects have been started to determine the effectiveness of this technology with respect to learning effect in the understanding of both models and concepts in biology and chemistry secondary education. For this reason applications are developed and build. Topics are scrutinized and evaluated using the principle of design cycle for further investigation and construction. Upon completion of the design cycle the obtained product is tested and analyzed using the Lesson Study approach or cycle. With this approach the product (an app) is tested in a classroom setting, whereby several teachers meticulously devise a research lesson. During the execution of the research lesson several students are the closely monitored to see if predicted behaviour is observed. This cycle is repeated after evaluation and revision of the lesson. This approach is furthermore a beneficial tool for teacher professionalization. It should be noted that several research projects are conceivable within the research into the effectiveness of AVR technologies in science education. One of the participating partners in this project is www.epic-xs.eu.

Nico Rutten, Wouter R. van Joolingen, Jan T. van der Veen (2012) The learning effects of computer simulations in science education, Computers & Education 58  136–153, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.07.017

Dunleavy, M., Dede, C. & Mitchell, R. J Sci Educ Technol (2009) 18: 7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-008-9119-1

Fer Coenders & Nellie Verhoef (2018): Lesson Study: professional development (PD) for beginning and experienced teachers, Professional Development in Education, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2018.1430050

If you have an idea that does not fit with any of the proposals below, but for which you feel very strongly, please contact me and we will have a chat about your views. Very often we can find a way and create a new project together. Feel free to contact me!

Mathematics teachers view assessment and grading generally as one of their most important and demanding tasks outside of teaching (Moons & Vandervieren, 2022). However, there is remarkably little research on what choices teachers make when assigning partial scores to student responses. While there is indeed a broad theoretical framework on what quality requirements good assessments in mathematics should meet, remarkably little is known about the grading process itself. 

Filip Moons' doctoral research has already shown that teachers, for example, use two calculation methods to convert the sub-scores of a question into a total score: some - the so-called "adders" - start counting from 0 and add points when they see good (partial) steps, some - the so-called "subtractors" - start from the maximum and then subtract points for every error found. Many teachers are somewhere in between. 

In this thesis, using an existing dataset in which 45 mathematics teachers assigned partial scores and feedback to 3 questions from 1 test taken from 60 students, you look for patterns, similarities and differences in improvement methods. You link the analysis of this dataset to theoretical models from your literature review. 

In the thesis, you synthesize your findings into a new framework that gives insight into which improvement styles are common in Flemish mathematics education. 

Relevant literature

• Moons, Filip, Ellen Vandervieren, en Jozef Colpaert. ‘Atomic, Reusable Feedback: A Semi-Automated Solution for Assessing Handwritten Tasks? A Crossover Experiment with Mathematics Teachers.’ Computers and Education Open 3 (december 2022): 100086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100086 .
• J. Stenmark. Mathematics Assessment: Myths, Models, Good Questions and Practical Suggestions. NCTM (1991). 
• Romagnano, L (2001). lmplementing the Assessment Standards for School Mathematics. The Mathematics Teacher. NCTM. 
• Lewis, C. H. (1982). Using the "Thinking Aloud" Method In Cognitive Interface Design (Technical report). IBM. RC-9265. 
• Mogens N. Assessment in Mathematics Education and Its Effects: An Introduction (1993). Investigations into Assessment in Mathematics Education, Volume 2 

Feedback is the most powerful engine of any learning process. In mathematics education, the possibilities to assess automatedly are thoroughly explored. However, students face difficulties expressing themselves mathematically on a computer and learning systems can often only assess the outcome, not the solving method. Research indicates that automated tests focus too much on procedural fluency at the expense of higher-order thinking questions. It takes much effort to develop digital tests, and teachers are skeptical of using automated assessments, meaning that paper-and-pencil tests still dominate mathematics classrooms. One of the characteristics of mathematical assessment is that wrong answers tend to exhibit patterns among the student population. Consequently, teachers often repeat their feedback and grades, bringing us to the idea of semi-automated feedback and assessment: by correcting handwritten tasks digitally, feedback can be saved and reused. This could lead to more elaborate feedback, time savings, and enhanced inter-rater reliability.  

One developed & researched semi-automated assessment approach consists of teachers writing feedback for a student, and the computer saves it so that it can be reused when subsequent students make the same or similar mistakes. The concept of atomic feedback has been introduced to train teachers on how to write reusable feedback. Atomic feedback consists of a set of format requirements for mathematical feedback items, which has been shown to increase the reusability of feedback. A remarkable result was discovered during a crossover experiment with 45 mathematics teachers: the semi-automated approach led teachers to give significantly more feedback instead of saving time. Moreover, the teachers’ feedback with the semi-automatic tool did not always have better properties than classic pen-and-paper feedback.  

However, many teachers acknowledged they sometimes forget how they had phrased feedback items using the SA tool. As such, they could not find the feedback item they needed, although they knew they had already written a fitting item. This caused them to formulate already given feedback again instead of reusing feedback, which was confirmed by the identification of nearly identical feedback items in their databases. This was due to the non-intelligent suggestion system: it only literally matched what teachers were typing with their items in the database. Improving the suggestion system by incorporating ideas from the extensive literature on recommender systems (Mohanty et al., 2020) is a priority for further research. It is a vital gap to make the semi-automated approach described in the first part valuable and adopted by teachers. It is also a necessary step before making the software available. To feed such a recommender system with information on which feedback items might be appropriate, one solution is to allow teachers to indicate where an error has occurred in a handwritten solution, which provides helpful information about which feedback items are appropriate. Additionally, patterns of the use of feedback items can be unravelled (e.g. which items are popular, which often co-occur together) and added to the suggestion system’s predictive ability to suggest appropriate items. 

You will also test your improved system with teachers. 

Relevant literature

• Moons, F. (2023). Semi-automated assessment of handwritten mathematics tasks: Atomic, reusable feedback for assessing student tests by teachers and exams by a group of assessors. https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1980770151162165141 .
• Moons, Filip, Ellen Vandervieren, en Jozef Colpaert. ‘Atomic, Reusable Feedback: A Semi-Automated Solution for Assessing Handwritten Tasks? A Crossover Experiment with Mathematics Teachers.’ Computers and Education Open 3 (december 2022): 100086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100086 .
• Mohanty, S., Chatterjee, J., Jain, S., Elngar, A., & Gupta, P. (2020). Recommender system with machine learning and artificial intelligence: Practical tools and applications in medical, agricultural and other industries. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119711582 .

During the initial seminar of Subject Methodology 2 of Mathematics at our teacher training at Utrecht University, the newly arrived students have to fill in a ‘Science-Beliefs’ questionnaire that maps their scientific beliefs to three dimensions: the epistemological, the ontological and the relational- epistemological dimension. This questionnaire is a foundational tool, paving the way for an enlightening philosophical lecture that delves into diverse perspectives on mathematics and mathematics education. However, the questionnaire is focused on science beliefs and not specifically on mathematics, making some connections a bit far-fetched.  

Therefore, in this project, you aspire to refine and elevate this questionnaire that maps prospective mathematics teachers' beliefs to the philosophical dimensions of views on mathematics and mathematics education. To achieve this, you make an overview of the relevant literature, create a test questionnaire and validate the developed questionnaire with prospective mathematics teachers in the Netherlands and Flanders using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). You will get support to get the data collection running. 

If you are interested in the more philosophical side of mathematics (education) and don’t fear a little statistics, this project is for you! 

Relevant literature 

• Mohamad Adam Bujang, Hon Yoon Khee, & Lee Keng Yee. (2022). A Step-By-Step Guide to Questionnaire Validation Research. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6801209
• Sierpinska, A., Lerman, S. (1996). Epistemologies of Mathematics and of Mathematics Education. In: Bishop, A.J., Clements, K., Keitel, C., Kilpatrick, J., Laborde, C. (eds) International Handbook of Mathematics Education. Kluwer International Handbooks of Education, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1465-0_23
• Ernest, P. (2023). The Ontological Problems of Mathematics and Mathematics Education. In: Bicudo, M.A.V., Czarnocha, B., Rosa, M., Marciniak, M. (eds) Ongoing Advancements in Philosophy of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35209-6_1

Sustainability has become a prominent theme in society and having a grounded opinion on this can be considered as an integral part of scientific citizenship. In the last decades, several strategies have been proposed to make society more sustainable, such as the cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design, green engineering and eco-technology. These movements are focussed on the design of products and processes which maximise resource and energy efficiency, minimise - or preferably eliminate - waste and cause less harm to the environment. In order to achieve a more sustainable future, it is important that the current generation lives in such a way that they do not jeopardize the opportunities for future generations. Education about and for sustainability is one of the routes to address sustainability issues among students. Central concepts in Education for Sustainability (ESD) are skills related to validation and justification of claims, argumentation, morality, decision making and the ability to discuss. Chemistry education takes a central role in teaching future generations on sustainability and to motivate them to act sustainable. In this institute, several projects have been started the aim to design high-quality teaching materials, addressing above mentioned concepts and skills related to sustainability. The design of the teaching materials follows several stages, i.e. a conceptual analysis of the sustainability issue at hand, mapping prior knowledge in students, iterative design of teaching materials followed by empirical testing of developed materials (mostly secondary school chemistry classes). 

Anastas, P. T., & Zimmerman, J. B. (2003). Design through the 12 principles of green engineering. Environmental Science & Technology, 37(5), 95A–101A. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMR.2007.4296421

Burmeister, M., & Eilks, I. (2012). An example of learning about plastics and their evaluation as a contribution to Education for Sustainable Development in secondary school chemistry teaching. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 13(2), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1039/C1RP90067F

Juntunen, M. K., & Aksela, M. K. (2014). Improving students’ argumentation skills through a product life-cycle analysis project in chemistry education. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 15(4), 639–649. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4rp00068d

Molecular Modeling is one of the fastest growing fields in science. It may vary from building and visualizing simple molecules (in 3-Dimensions) to performing complex computer simulations on large protein molecules. Using various molecular modeling software, one can visualize, rotate, manipulate, and optimize models on a computer display. Molecular Modelling is used, for instance, for designing drugs and new materials. In secondary chemistry education students should become acquainted with and gain insights in the technique of Molecular Modelling. This urges for high quality teaching materials in which students are meaningfully engaged in molecular modelling. In our institute an innovative curriculum unit has been developed, in which students perform a lead optimalisation for designing a new drug against the malaria disease. The authentic practice of drug design is used as a context for learning. The designed curriculum unit, however, is only tested once among students grade 11. The results were positive, although it became apparent that the unit needs a thorough revision and a second try-out using the method of educational design research.

Dori, Y. J., & Kaberman, Z. (2012). Assessing high school chemistry students' modeling sub-skills in a computerized molecular modeling learning environment. Instructional Science, 40(1), 69-91. doi: 10.1007/s11251-011-9172-7.

Prins, G. T., Bulte, A. M. W., Driel, van J. H., & Pilot, A. (2009). Students' involvement in authentic modelling practices as context in chemistry education. Research in Science Education, 39, 681-700. doi: 10.1007/s11165-008-9099-4.

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille and Wouter van Joolingen

In 2013, we developed the website plasticadrift.org[1], where visitors can explore how ocean currents transport floating material such as plastic litter around the globe. While the website is a huge success, more than 350,000 visitors and exposure on platforms including the Guardian[2], the website is not much more now than a fun tool for most visitors.

Ideally, the plasticadrift.org website would have more background and for example a lesson plan associated with it, that schoolteachers can use to discuss the problem of plastic pollution with their pupils. Content can be drawn from the ‘All about plastic soup’ webportal, hosted at Utrecht University[3]. Also, students could get interested in the backgrounds and methods behind the model that drives the site; this could also more clearly be explained.  

In this project, you will develop, implement and test a lesson plan for either primary or secondary school (tbd), based around the plasticadrift.org website. You will make sure the lesson plan aligns with the relevant curricula. You will create a set of questions and assignments based on the plasticadrift.org website and research how they influence students’ reasoning about the way plastics are transported over the oceans and/or how we are able to predict these plastic flows, i.e. understanding the science behind plastic pollution.

[1] See http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2014.09.002 for a scientific publication on the method behind the tool

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/29/if-you-drop-plastic-in-the-ocean-where-does-it-end-up

[3] https://plasticsoep.sites.uu.nl/en/

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille and Wouter van Joolingen

Climate Change and Plastic Pollution are two of the most pressing environmental problems. Both are linked to overconsumption and our wasteful lifestyle. Hence, for many people the two are expressions of the same underlying cause.

On the other hand, effective solutions to Climate Change might increase the amount of Plastic Pollution. An example of this is the case of the shrink-wrapped cucumber in the supermarket: the extra plastic wrapper increases shelf life and hence reduced spillage in the supermarket, and thereby the amount of energy per sold cucumber[1]. Similarly, effective solutions to the Plastic Pollution problem, such as glass recyclable containers, might increase carbon emissions for transport, thereby exacerbating Climate Change.

In the public discussion, the two topics are also differently viewed. Where the causes and impacts of climate change are (still) fiercely debated in some communities and media, plastic pollution is far less contested; there are hardly any ‘plastic-sceptics’.

For academics working on climate change and plastic pollution, these ‘confusions’ in the public perceptions and debate complicate engagement. The two topics are intertwined in some respects but clearly different in others. The question is thus how the public perceives this nexus between plastic pollution and climate change. How can the relation between climate change and plastic pollution best be discussed?

In this project, you will work within the ‘Tracking Of Plastics In Our Seas’ (topios.org) project and the Freudenthal Institute to explore the nexus between plastic pollution and climate change in public engagement, and to help the team with their outreach activities.

[1] https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/why-shrink-wrap-a-cucumber-16-10-2012

Project supervisors: Erik van Sebille (e.vansebille@uu.nl) and Mark Bos (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl)

The KlimaatHelpdesk is a unique and accessible communications platform that connects the general public with scientists and experts, run by a volunteer group and meant to become the go-to place for people with climate-related questions. These may cover the whole range of academic disciplines and range from physics, economy, geography, psychology, history, biology, etc. As such, it highlights the need for a multi- and interdisciplinary approach to address climate change. The questions are answered by a network of active experts who write evidence-based responses in an accessible language and each answer will be reviewed by at least one other expert.

The aim of the KlimaatHelpdesk is to provide an easily accessible source of reliable and evidence-based information, as well as insight into how science works. This is of crucial importance in a time in which the validity of available information is difficult to check for non-specialists and sometimes deliberately undermined  [Howe et al 2019, Petersen et al 2019].

The general public submits the questions, drawn to the KlimaatHelpdesk via social media (twitter, Instagram), national media (e.g. NOS.nl) and partnerships with klimaatakkoord.nl and Teachers4Climate. The platform stores the exchange of questions and answers, thereby becoming a source of easily accessible and reliable information. This procedure improves the quality of information and demonstrates to a broad audience how research works.

Since the official launch of the KlimaatHelpdesk in November 2020, it has assembled a database of 200 enthusiastic experts ready to answer questions, published more than 100 questions and answers on the website and attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

By lowering the threshold of engagement for a variety of leading experts, through providing access to a well-developed platform and broad audience, the platform motivates high level public scientific communication. The KlimaatHelpdesk is run by approximately 40 (UU) volunteers, with two part-time student-assistants to coordinate them. While all tiers in academia are represented in the team, most are (MSc) students or PhD candidates.

However, it is unclear how effective the method and vision of the KlimaatHelpdesk is [Corbett 2021]. Which target groups are reached with the KH (are people that ask the questions the same as those that are using the website as a source for reliable information) and what are they using the information for? What are key factors that can be used to predict whether a question (as well as an answer) is effective?

In this project, you will work together with the KlimaatHelpdesk team to measure and assess the effectiveness of the platform. 

Interested? Just get in touch with Erik (e.vansebille@uu.nl) and/or Mark (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl).

References

Corbett JB (2021) Communicating the Climate Crisis: New Directions for Facing What Lies Ahead (Lexington Books)

Howe LC, B MacInnis, JA Krosnick, EM Markowitz and R Socolow (2019) Acknowledging uncertainty impacts public acceptance of climate scientists’ predictions. Nature Climate Change, 9, 863–7

Petersen AM, EM Vincent and AL Westerling (2019) Discrepancy in scientific authority and media visibility of climate change scientists and contrarians. Nature Communications, 10, 3502

Imagine a traditional classroom: a teacher is giving a lecture and the students are trying hard to follow the explanations. For some students, the material is boring, as they know everything ahead, and the others are barely able to follow as new terms are popping up all the time in the teacher’s speech without any obvious connection with drawings on the blackboard. New interactive technology promises to provide adaptive education by paving individual learning trajectory for any student. The problem is that technological tools are still much slower than the dynamics of individual tutors’ scaffolding of the students (Belland, 2017). This project aims to understand the complexity of effective student-tutor interaction in one-to-one settings with a distant aim of contributing to the technologically supported adaptive learning. 

Joint visual attention between a student and a tutor means focusing on the same objects and similar understanding of their meanings. How do students come to see and name mathematical objects in a way that is similar to the teachers? Investigation of infants shows that naming the objects, which are in the focus of infants' attention is more effective for vocabulary learning than redirecting their attention to new objects (Tomasello & Farah, 1986). Theoretically, this project relies on an embodied approach to teaching and learning that stresses the complexity of student-teacher interaction. A student does not just follow the teacher, but actively participates in multimodal flow of teaching-learning interaction, where speech is combined with gestures to the visual display. It is crucial for the student to connect different modalities into one meaningful node (Radford, 2009). To understand the key aspect on this interaction, we introduce a notion of micro-zone of proximal development, which is a moment when a student and a tutor are coordinated in one modality (e.g., attending to the same visual display), but are discoordinated in other modality (e.g., they do not have a shared language to refer to it) (Shvarts & Abrahamson, 2019). In this project, we will investigate if micro-zone of proximal development is a moment when a teacher's intervention is particularly effective and lead to joint attention to the same mathematically meaningful object.

The methodology of the project lies on the crossroads of two technological innovations: touchscreens’ advantages for mathematical learning and dual eye-tracking’ advantages for investigation of the interaction between students and teachers. The tutors will support students’ problem-solving in technological activities for trigonometry (Shvarts, Alberto, Bakker, Doorman, Drijvers), that are designed in the Digital Mathematics Environment (DME) of the Freudenthal Institute. Dual eye-tracking, namely a synchronous tracking of two people's overt attention, will provide information about the visual perception of a student and a tutor's (see a video with a sample of data). At the same time, video and audio records will provide information about the participant's verbal and gestural utterances. Analysis of coordination and discoordination between modalities will shed light on the teaching-learning progress. 

The study is a part of a broader experimental investigation of embodied processes in the introduction of mathematical tools. We invite the mastery students, who are interested in technology in mathematics education, in embodied processes and/or in acquiring skills of conducting research with innovative equipment such as dual eye-tracking.   

Belland, B. R. (2017). Instructional scaffolding in STEM education. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02565-0

Radford, L. (2009). Why do gestures matter? Sensuous cognition and the palpability of mathematical meanings. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 70(2), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-008-9127-3

Shvarts, A., & Abrahamson, D. (2019). Dual-eye-tracking Vygotsky: A microgenetic account of a teaching/learning collaboration in an embodied-interaction technological tutorial for mathematics. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 22, 100316. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.LCSI.2019.05.003

Shvarts, A., Alberto, R., Bakker, A., Doorman M., Drijvers P., (in press) Embodied instrumentation: Reification of sensorimotor activity into a mathematical artifact. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Technology in Mathematics Teaching

Tomasello, M., & Farrar, M. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development, 57(6), 1454. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130423

New technologies transform the world of professionals: video conferences and collaboration on joint documents became a basis of everyday professional activity. The innovations now include bodily interactions with the technologies, starting from touch screens and continuing to virtual reality. Such technological innovations lead to major transformations in the professionals that include operating with 3D space: think of designers, architects, and engineers. These transformations call for updating the educational curriculum and developing new teaching methods that involve 3D space.

Virtual reality provides a unique opportunity to explore and actively construct geometrical objects in 3D. However, concrete opportunities and limitations of VR environments in learning about 3D space are still at the very beginning of their investigation (e.g., Price et al., 2020; Walkington, Gravell, & Huang, 2021).

Technological developments coincide with the development of new theoretical understandings of how cognition works: computer metaphor and information processing ideas give way to the new embodied cognition theories. Those theories highlight bodily interactions with the environment and talk about affordances—possibilities for actions—that the environment provides (e.g., Wilson & Golonka, 2013). Embodied perspective to learning with technology highlights that learners need to develop body-artifact systems so that they can fluently use technological tools (Shvarts et al., 2021).

In the master's project, you will work on design-based research (Bakker, 2018): you will design embodied environments (see Abrahamson et al., 2020) to teach the geometrical properties of 3D objects and explore the opportunities and limitations of constructing such objects in VR.

References:

Abrahamson, D., Nathan, M. J., Williams-Pierce, C., Walkington, C., Ottmar, E. R., Soto, H., & Alibali, M. W. (2020). The Future of Embodied Design for Mathematics Teaching and Learning. Frontiers in Education, 5, 147. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00147

Bakker, A. (2018). Design research in education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203701010

Price, S., Yiannoutsou, N. & Vezzoli, Y. Making the Body Tangible: Elementary Geometry Learning through VR. Digit Exp Math Educ 6, 213–232 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40751-020-00071-7

Shvarts, A., Alberto, R., Bakker, A., Doorman, M., & Drijvers, P. (2021). Embodied instrumentation in learning mathematics as the genesis of a body-artifact functional system. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 107(3), 447–469. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-021-10053-0

Walkington, C., Gravell, J. & Huang, W. (2021). Using Virtual Reality During Remote Learning to Change the Way Teachers Think About Geometry, Collaboration, and Technology. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 21(4), 713-743. Waynesville, NC USA: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219556/

Wilson, A., & Golonka, S. (2013). Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 58.

Gender differences in mathematics learning attract intensive attention due to the under-representation of women in STEM professions, including the fields tightly related to mathematics. This issue has a long history of investigation in mathematics education research, and now researchers question the mechanisms of how gender differences arise (Leder, 2019).

One of the theoretical visions of gender differences comes from theories of embodiment that assume different bodies are being treated differently in culture (de Freitas, 2008). Embodied cognition is a quickly developing approach that highlights that knowing anything, including very abstract notions, is grounded in the personal experiences of solving problems with their bodies, not just brains (Wilson & Golonka, 2013).

Applying this theory to practice, we can expect that embodied design—special activities designed to build mathematical knowledge from personal sensory-motor experience (Abrahamson et al., 2021)—can help create opportunities for people with various bodies to study mathematics fruitfully. Within the embodied design approach, we develop technological embodied activities to promote students’ deep understanding of mathematical concepts (Alberto et al., 2021). Those activities account for various idiosyncratic experiences and, theoretically, should open space for various bodies. However, we do not know yet how students of different genders approach embodied activities. More specifically, we need to know what kind of different support they might need when describing their experiences depending on the gender differences.

In the research project, you will work with one of the embodied activities developed in our previous studies. You may focus on investigating gender differences in experiencing and/or on teaching support needed to facilitate such diversity in embodied learning.

Sources:

Try out embodied activities at https://embodieddesign.sites.uu.nl/         

Abrahamson, D., Nathan, M. J., Williams-Pierce, C., Walkington, C., Ottmar, E. R., Soto, H., & Alibali, M. W. (2020). The Future of Embodied Design for Mathematics Teaching and Learning. Frontiers in Education, 5, 147. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00147

Alberto, R., Shvarts, A., Drijvers, P., & Bakker, A. (2021). Action-based embodied design for mathematics learning: A decade of variations on a theme. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 100419. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100419

de Freitas, E. (2008). Mathematics and its other: (dis)locating the feminine. Gender and Education, 20(3), 281–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250801964189

Leder, G. C. (2019). Gender and Mathematics Education: An Overview In G. Kaiser & N. Presmeg (eds.) Compendium for Early Career Researchers in Mathematics Education  (pp. 289–308). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15636-7_13

Wilson, A., & Golonka, S. (2013). Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 58.

New technologies can help in achieving the ambition to make mathematics learning an exciting and memorable experience. Students have an opportunity to study mathematical content in a new form by manipulating mathematical objects on tablets or interactive whiteboards and smart tables, which become more and more accessible in ordinary classrooms. These technological enhancements require educational researchers to provide clear answers about the efficiency and limitations of interactive educational designs.

Context-based approaches generally improve students’ engagement by situating science learning in contexts that represent the real world, which helps students appreciate the role science plays in their lives and in society. This research project focuses on one specific form of context-based education: the concept-context approach. According to this approach, a context is defined as a representation of an existing scientific, professional, or real-life community of practice in which participants perform goal-oriented activities.  

One of the challenges in biology education is changing the educational practice towards the intended context-based innovation. So far, several new editions of biology textbooks have been introduced with a rich variety of sources that refer to authentic social practices. It is a challenge for biology teachers to transform such an authentic social practice into usable contexts for classroom use, to engage students in meaningful learning tasks in which they develop a coherent conceptual understanding (Wieringa et al., 2011; Ummels et al. 2015). 

This project aims to design, conduct and evaluate learning-teaching (LT) activities for context-based biology lessons. Students learning goals for these lessons could be focused on domain-specific thinking skills, such as biological system thinking, biological (causal) reasoning, or understanding of biological models and modeling. An example of a recent design study in this project shows how secondary students learn causal reasoning using evolutionary concepts through a place-based approach creating a meaningful context for learning biology (Hoogland & Ummels, 2023).  

If you are interested please contact me.  

Micha Ummels, M.H.J.ummels@uu.nl
 

Nienke Wieringa, Fred J. J. M. Janssen & Jan H. Van Driel (2011) Biology Teachers Designing Context-Based Lessons for Their Classroom Practice—The importance of rules-of-thumb, International Journal of Science Education, 33:17, 2437-2462, https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2011.553969

Ummels, M.H.J., Kamp, M.J.A., De, Kroon, H. and Boersma, K.T. (2015), Promoting Conceptual Coherence Within Context‐Based Biology Education. Sci. Ed., 99: 958-985.  https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21179

Hoogland, E. E., & Ummels, M. H. J. (2023). Fictional placemaking creating meaningful contexts for  causal reasoning in secondary school biology education. Journal of Biological Education, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2023.2244975 

The phenomenon of escape rooms in education emerged spontaneously in all levels of education around the world. This development was not driven by national curricula, educational research institutes or schoolboards. Science teachers make up a large portion of the pioneering teachers adapting the escape room concept to the classroom. My PhD study explores the rise of educational escape rooms, with the guiding questions: “What is its educational potential for secondary science education?” and “What are adequate principles and guidelines for designing and implementing escape rooms in secondary science education?”

Escape rooms for science education provide authentic environments containing meaningful activities which require the use of content knowledge and skills, while working in teams under time restrictions. The framework and guidelines will help educators to create escape rooms that foster science learning and support students’ feeling of autonomy, discovery, and victory.

New research strand

• How to increase chemistry students’  belonging through representation and participation in diversified chemistry course including an escape game
• Room for your idea

Sources

Veldkamp, A., Daemen, J., Teekens, S., Koelewijn, S., Knippels, M.C.P.J. & van Joolingen, W.R. (2020a). Escape boxes: Bringing escape room experience into the classroom. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(4), 1220–1239. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12935

Veldkamp, A., van de Grint, L., Knippels, M. C. P. J., & van Joolingen, W. R. (2020b). Escape education: A systematic review on escape rooms in education. Educational Research Review, 31(11), 1–18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100364

Veldkamp, A., Knippels, M. C. P. J., & van Joolingen, W. R. (2021a). Beyond the Early Adopters: Escape Rooms in Science Education. Frontiers in Education, 6(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.622860

Veldkamp, A., Merx, S., & van Winden, J., (2021b). Educational Escape Rooms, Challenges in aligning game and education. Well Played, 10(1), 109–136. 

The end game: is there a future for physical games in education? (literature review)

Today is also called The age of gaming or The age of gamification. The attracts of games for many people have led scientific research to increasingly focus on their potential role in learning processes. Currently, their effectiveness in motivating learners and fostering experiential learning and skill acquisition in several areas is already supported by the existing evidence. However the data and articles mainly focus on the potential of digital games. Paradoxically, the current post-digital era seems to have led to a growing popularity of analog games. This leads to interesting questions on the pro’s and con’s of physical or board games in education. What can be the advantage of boardgames over digital games?

If you are interested in these or other questions on serious games or playful learning, or If you have an idea on the topic, feel free to share and explore the possibilities. 

Sources

Sousa, C., Rye, S., Sousa, M., Torres, P. J., Perim, C., Mansuklal, S. A., & Ennami, F. (2023). Playing at the school table: Systematic literature review of board, tabletop, and other analog game-based learning approaches. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1160591.

DeJong, S. (2023, July). Making the Digital Tangible Through Analog Games: Design Retrospective of Digital Literacy Games. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 66-80). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

In this research strand dr. Alice Veldkamp and dr. Mark Bos work together

Currently, we live in a visual world; messages are communicated through visual communication (Rodríguez Estrada & Davis, 2015).

We want to investigation the design, use and effect of visuals in science communication and education. The expertise of Mark is science communication, Alice is expert on biology education. Based on work of people like Alberto Cairo and Jos van den Broek, and with your help, we plan to contribute to both theoretical and practical insights and practices in visuals.

We are interested in all aspects of visuals and their use, so in

1. the creation by artist(s) and/or knowledge expert(s),
2. the content that is supposed to be communicated, and
3. the effect on the reader,
4. the (development of) visual literacy needed to interpret these visuals

Your master research can be directed on one of these aspects or a combination (in either science education or communication).

Examples of previous and current research

Together with two students, we have researched how professional artists design visuals for complex biological process; resulting in insights into experiential knowledge and potential guidelines for future designs (and testing of these guidelines).

One student developed a data base with 3000 visuals from two leading methods for upper secondary schools.  What types of visuals are used in the methods, what is the relation with text, and how do they differ from the type of visuals used in national exams?

Another student looked at how scientists (visiting COP27) communicate about their visit on social media, investigating if, and if so, how, they communicate values in their posts and if this leads to higher levels of engagement among their followers.

Finally, together with the Dutch National Health Institute (RIVM), a student investigated the effects of adding visuals (infographics) to information leaflets about vaccination aimed at pregnant women on appreciation of the leaflet, understanding of its contents, their related health beliefs, and intent to get vaccinated.

Mark and  Aike Vonk are interested in the visuals used by scientists (in press releases for example) vs journalists (in news articles for example) to communicate about climate change and ocean plastics (e.g., how do visual frames compare to textual frames) and the effects thereof (e.g., how do people interpret what they see and what are the effects of potential incongruence between text and visual).

Other projects are possible (e.g., the use of pictograms to enhance treatment adherence), or the use of visuals in musea or the botanical garden (Science Park).

Interested? Please contact me, Alice Veldkamp (a.veldkamp@uu.nl) or Mark Bos (m.j.w.bos@uu.nl)

Sources

Visual Language – Jos van den Broek, Willem Koetsenruijter, Jaap de Jong, Laetitia Smit

Praktijkgids infographics ontwerpen – Jos van den Broek

Cairo, A. (2019). How charts lie: Getting smarter about visual information. WW Norton & Company.

Cairo, A. (2012). The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. New Riders.

van Beusekom, M. M., Kerkhoven, A. H., Bos, M. J., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. M. (2018). The extent and effects of patient involvement in pictogram design for written drug information: a short systematic review. Drug Discovery Today, 23(6), 1312-1318.

van Beusekom, M. M., Grootens-Wiegers, P., Bos, M. J., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. M. (2016). Low literacy and written drug information: information-seeking, leaflet evaluation and preferences, and roles for images. International journal of clinical pharmacy, 38(6), 1372-1379.

Van Beusekom, M., Bos, M., Wolterbeek, R., Guchelaar, H. J., & van den Broek, J. (2015). Patients’ preferences for visuals: Differences in the preferred level of detail, type of background and type of frame of icons depicting organs between literate and low-literate people. Patient education and counseling, 98(2), 226-233.

For this strand of research the skill of Dutch reading and writing is needed.

Therefore the text will continue in Dutch after the quote of David Ausubel.

The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.

Deze beroemde uitspraak van David Ausubel vat de kern van ons project samen. Het is bekend dat leerlingen wanneer ze beginnen met formeel leren al denkbeelden hebben over de werkelijkheid om hen heen. Veel ideeën over natuurlijke processen worden ‘naïef’ te noemen of zijn gebaseerd op misinformatie en in tegenspraak met wetenschappelijke ideeën. Een voorbeeld is de misvatting dat micro-organismen schadelijk zijn, ziektes veroorzaken en leven in vuile omgevingen (Simard, 2023). Zo’n denkbeeld blijkt het leren van correcte concepten over micro-organismen te hinderen, want leerlingdenkbeelden die niet expliciet opgehaald en uitgedaagd worden blijven aanwezig (Ausubel, 1968; McCloskey, 1983). Bovendien wijst onderzoek uit dat leerlingen deze misvattingen in de les niet ‘deleten’ en vervangen door aangeboden informatie. Leerlingen blijken bijvoorbeeld deze informatie te negeren of aan te passen aan hun (foutieve) denkbeelden (Duschl, Hamilton & Grandy, 1992; Vosniadou, 1994). Daarnaast blijken deze denkbeelden hardnekkig, dwz dat ze in (aangepaste vorm) terugkomen. Kortom, het expliciet en herhaaldelijk aan de orde laten komen van leerlingdenkbeelden tijdens een leertraject is noodzakelijk.   

In klaslokalen blijft de kennis waarmee leerlingen binnenkomen vaak impliciet. Leerlingen zijn zich zelden bewust van de denkbeelden waarmee ze de nieuwe informatie tegemoet treden. Leerlingen worden sporadisch aangemoedigd om te vertellen of beschrijven wat zij zelf al denken. Daarnaast zijn leraren zich vaak niet bewust van bestaande denkbeelden die het leren kunnen belemmeren, wat zeker geldt bij nieuwe inhouden van curricula. Daarbij komt dat informatie uit onderzoeken slecht toegankelijk en tijdrovend is.

Docenten kunnen dit aanpakken als ze toegang hebben tot open leermateriaal(OLM) met de belangrijkste leerlingdenkbeelden over een onderwerp. Zeker als deze gekoppeld worden aan middelen die docenten kunnen inzetten om misvattingen te herkennen en wegwerken (zie Engelstalig voorbeeld https://spark.iop.org/misconceptions).

In het verleden heeft de Ruud-de-Moor stichting leerlingdenkbeelden verzameld voor natuurkunde, scheikunde en biologie. Helaas worden deze zogenaamde kennisbanken sinds 2009 niet meer onderhouden. Deze kennisbanken zijn recent door de aanvragers weer online gezet omdat veel docenten aangaven deze te gebruiken. Echter, vanwege de gedateerde inhouden en zeer beperkte metadatering (http://www.ecent.nl/kennisbanken) is actualisatie en doorontwikkeling gewenst.

Dit project richt zich op de actualisatie van OLM over misvattingen in de biologie. De huidige verouderde verzameling en bovenbouw havo/vwo georiënteerd, dus beperkt toepasbaar. Er is gericht behoefte aan leerlingdenkbeelden van onderbouw en vmbo leerlingen (Almekinders, 2022). Daarnaast worden de curricula vernieuwd en de nieuwe inhouden zijn niet of nauwelijks onderzocht met betrekking tot leerlingdenkbeelden.

Kortom, foutieve denkbeelden belemmeren leerlingen in hun leren. Voor docenten biologie is de kennis over deze denkbeelden nu achterhaald, beperkt en/of niet goed toegankelijk.

In dit project gaan diverse partijen samen voor het open leermateriaal:                                          

1. In kaart brengen welke denkbeelden wel of niet in de kennisbank staan in relatie tot concepten in nieuwe curricula,
2. Verzamelen van leerlingdenkbeelden in relatie tot de nieuwe concepten uit literatuuronderzoek en praktijkkennis van docenten,
3. Deze denkbeelden koppelen aan diagnostische middelen (bijv.www.diagnostischevragen.nl) en architectuur huidige kennisbank verbeteren.
4. Onderzoeken hoe docenten ontwikkelde OLM inzetten

Afhankelijk van je interesse en de fase van het project zal je masterresearch over de onderdelen 1,2 of 4 gaan.

Referentielijst

Almekinders, R (2020) Misconcept of preconcept? Onderzoek naar percepties over het begrip misconcept bij studenten en opleiders van lerarenopleidingen biologie.

Ausubel, D.P. (1968) Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View. Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. New York.  

Duschl, R. A., Hamilton, R., & Grandy, R. E. (1990). Psychology and epistemology: match or mismatch when applied to science education?. International Journal of Science Education, 12(3), 230-243.

Hill, S. (2020). The difference between troublesome knowledge and threshold concepts. Studies in Higher Education, 45(3), 665-676. 

Kinchin, I. M. (2010). Solving Cordelia's dilemma: Threshold concepts within a punctuated model of learning. Journal of Biological Education, 44(2), 53-57. 

Clement, J. (1993). Using bridging analogies and anchoring intuitions to deal with students' preconceptions in physics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(10), 1241-1257.

McCloskey, M. (1983) Naive theories of motion. Mental models, 14.2: 299-324.

Muller, D. A. (2008). Designing effective multimedia for physics education. Sydney: University of Sydney

Ross, P. M., Taylor, C. E., Hughes, C., Whitaker, N., Lutze-Mann, L., Kofod, M., & Tzioumis, V. (2010). Threshold concepts in learning biology and evolution. Biology International, 47, 47-54. 

Simard, C. (2023) Microorganism education: misconceptions and obstacles, Journal of Biological Education, 57:2, 308-316, DOI: 10.1080/00219266.2021.1909636

Vosniadou, S. (1994). Capturing and modeling the process of conceptual change. Learning and instruction, 4(1), 45-69.

Almost every day, press officers, communications consultants and editors from all over Utrecht University publish news articles on the university website. These articles are very diverse in form and content: press releases, interviews, background stories, about academic publications, research facilities, PhD defences, awards, grants, education… Some of these stories get tens of thousands of views over the span of a few days, while others are hardly read at all.

Even though the number of views is not the main indicator of a story’s success, we are still curious if there’s anything we may be able to learn from it. For example: are news items with portrait photos generally read more than those without? How about the length of the article, the presence or absence of a name in the title, or the link to a topic that’s currently in the news? Such insights could help us tweak our news articles to be more interesting for our readers.

In this project, you will be supervised by Nieske Vergunst and Aike Vonk. Nieske works as a strategic communications consultant at the Faculty of Science and as a postdoc researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. The factor that most strongly connects these two jobs is the analytical look at science communication: what are we doing, what are the outcomes and impacts, and what can we learn from that? Aike is doing her PhD research on the uptake of science press releases in the media. She investigates how frames and storytelling are used to communicate about ocean plastic and ocean climate change research. Moreover, she analyses how these communication tools influence the eventual representation of ocean scientific studies in the media.

In this master’s thesis project, you will create a dataset consisting of news articles that were recently published on UU.nl. Analytics data, such as the number of views over a certain period of time can be used to asses the ‘success’ of the news articles. You will conduct a content analysis on the news articles text and look for certain properties, such as the use of (different types of) image material and news factors: the textual elements that make a story more attractive for journalists to write about (Badenschier & Wormer, 2012; Harcup & O’Neill, 2017), and calculate the influence of these properties on the number of views.

Badenschier, F., & Wormer, H. (2012). Issue Selection in Science Journalism: Towards a Special Theory of News Values for Science News? In S. Rödder, M. Franzen, & P. Weingart (Eds.), The Sciences’ Media Connection –Public Communication and its Repercussions (Vol. 28, pp. 59–85). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2085-5_4

Harcup, T., & O’Neill, D. (2017). What is News?: News values revisited (again). Journalism Studies, 18(12), 1470–1488. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193

Background

The climate crisis is a pressing public emergency that demands urgent attention to mitigate its escalating effects on both the environment and human health (Campbell et al., 2023; Ripple et al., 2023). In the face of this emergency, we all have a role to fulfil. To enhance our support for addressing the climate crisis, it is essential to begin by collecting insights from Utrecht University (UU) students and understanding their information needs concerning climate change. This understanding can then be used to shape communication strategies and policies within the university (Fernandez et al., 2019). Therefore, in this project, our objective is to gather information on the perspectives of Utrecht University students regarding climate change, and the role of universities and scientists in climate change discourse. The possible implications of this project are as follows:
 

1. A better understanding of how climate change is perceived by university students and how their information needs can inform curriculum development and educational strategies.
2. The insights into preferred communication channels and trusted sources of information, which can enhance climate change policies and communications within universities.
3. The exploration of university students' views on scientists' and universities’ role in the climate change debate, which can shape research priorities and engagement.
4. The understanding of university students’ perception and engagement with climate crisis, which can inform climate action initiatives.

These outcomes closely align with the initiatives undertaken by the "Sustainability Education and Engagement" community. We encourage you to contact them in order to identify any areas of convergence between the goals of your project and their activities.

Research Questions

Here is a list of potential research areas and questions that you can choose as the central focus of your thesis. You have the flexibility to select one or more of these topics based on your personal interests.

A. Climate change

1. How do university students perceive the concept of climate change?

2. Is climate change relevant to university students, and why or why not?

3. What are the perceived impacts of climate change on the lives of university students?

B. Climate change communication

4. What are the information needs of university students regarding climate change?

5. What communication channels do/did university students prefer for receiving information about climate change?

6. Which sources of information do university students consider most trustworthy in the context of climate change?

C. Role of scientists and universities

7. What are the opinions of university students regarding the role of scientists in the climate change debate and their involvement?

8. How do university students perceive the role of universities in the climate change debate?

Study design

In this study, you will collect data from Utrecht University students using a survey that includes both closed and open-ended questions. The selection of the specific target group will be determined in agreement with the student. You have the option to either include all Utrecht University students or narrow your focus to particular faculties of interest (e.g., Faculty of Science) or, for instance, exclusively Master's or Bachelor's students. The analysis of data will require both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Supervision

In this project, you will be supervised by Tugce Varol, Nieske Vergunst and Mark Bos.

Nieske Vergunst works as a strategic communications consultant at the Faculty of Science and as a postdoc researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. She studies the impact of public engagement on audiences with different science capital.

Tugce Varol has a PhD in Health and Social Psychology, specializing in behavior change. She works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. Her research focuses on public engagement with climate change.

Mark Bos has a PhD in Science Communication, specializing in visuals used in various contexts, but in general in climate and health communication. He works as an assistant professor in the Public Engagement and Science Communication group and coordinates the course Communicating Science with the Public.

References

Campbell, E., Uppalapati, S. S., Kotcher, J., & Maibach, E. (2023). Communication research to improve engagement with climate change and human health: A review. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 1086858. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1086858

Fernandez, M. E., Ruiter, R. A., Markham, C. M., & Kok, G. (2019). Intervention mapping: theory-and evidence-based health promotion program planning: Perspective and examples. Frontiers in Public Health, 209. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00209

Ripple, W. J., Wolf, C., Gregg, J. W., Rockström, J., Newsome, T. M., Law, B. E., Marques, L., Lenton, T. M., Xu, C., Huq, S., Simons, L., & King, S. D. A. (2023). The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territory. BioScience, biad080. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad080

Click here for the most awesome master’s thesis opportunity in science communication in the history of science communication!

You probably know them, flashy news headlines that make you just have to click on an article. The so-called ‘clickbait’. These news headlines have an important role, as they are the most prominently visible part of a news article and aim to attract as many people as possible to a news site (Kuiken et al., 2017). In addition, headlines provide a certain "framing" of the news and can influence the reader's perception of the article (Dor, 2003).

Not only news consumers like you and me are influenced by these catchy titles, but also journalists are when they have to decide on what topic they write an article about. In fact, journalists can receive as many as 4,000 to 5,000 potential news stories a day (Boyer, 2011, p. 10). Of all these stories, they must decide in a short period of time which ones will be aired and how they will be covered.

My name is Aike Vonk, I am doing doctoral research at the Freudenthal Institute. My research is focused on how scientific organizations communicate about ocean science and the effect this communication has on the representation of science in the media. For my research, I investigate scientific press releases written about ocean plastic- and ocean climate change studies. For each press release, I look at how the research is framed. I also look at news factors, which are textual elements that make a story more attractive for journalists to write about (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). In the research I do, I only look at the texts of press releases and how they affect the inclusion of a press release in the media. I do not look at the titles of these press releases, although my hypothesis is that, because of the quick decisions journalists have to make in newsrooms, titles may well influence whether or not a press release is covered.

During this master's thesis project, you will construct a dataset containing all the titles of press releases about ocean plastic research and the media articles written about these press releases. You will examine the titles on framing and develop a method to measure the "catchiness" of titles. We will calculate the influence of these catchy titles on the uptake of press releases in the media by looking at the amount of media articles that are written about these press releases. In addition, you will analyze the relationship between the framing present in the title and the framing I found in the text of the press release. This way we can see if the title influences the media coverage of press releases and what the possible influence of title framing is on people’s perception of the story.

If you like this master thesis project or want to know more about it, you can email me (a.n.vonk@uu.nl) or stop by my office (BBG 3.71).
 

• Harcup, T., & O’Neill, D. (2017). What is News?: News values revisited (again). Journalism Studies, 18(12), 1470–1488. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193
• Kuiken, J., Schuth, A., Spitters, M., & Marx, M. (2017). Effective headlines of newspaper articles in a digital environment. Digital Journalism, 5(10), 1300-1314.
• Dor, D. (2003). On newspaper headlines as relevance optimizers. Journal of Pragmatics, 35(5), 695-721.
• Boyer, D. (2011). News agency and news mediation in the digital era. Social Anthropology, 19(1), 6-22.

The way scientific institutions portray themselves varies, and can be quite influential in how they are perceived. Research shows visual communication may be more appealing and can be used to draw attention, but does it help establish trust? Similarly, research shows communicating values, for example promoting inclusive science, can help increase public engagement with science, but what happens when receivers hold different values?

For scientific organizations, how scientists, and the science they do, is portrayed, is important. Because visual communication can make it more attractive for the media to write about certain research. But other interests may also play a role, for example, promoting inclusive science, showing that science is for everyone and done by everyone.

I (Aike Vonk) am researching press releases that are written about scientific research regarding climate change and ocean plastic. What we see is that many of these press releases have images. However, we also see that many of these images change when the press release is featured in the media. There is research on visual framing of, for example, climate change, so we know that the media uses certain images to achieve certain goals. For example, when images of disasters are shown to evoke an emotion reaction in the reader. The goals that scientific organizations, or the media outlets who write about science, want to achieve with their visual framing are (still) unknown.

What I would like to know is what purpose the communication professionals who write scientific press releases have with the image they choose to accompany the press release. This will require researching the images of press releases, looking at whether the image is an image of a scientist, a graphic, or whether a particular theme has been used in the image, what the source is of the image, Etc. Next, interviews will be conducted with the writers of the press releases to find out their intention for using a specific image.

Next, the same will be done for the media articles written in response to the press release. For this, interviews will be conducted with editors to investigate why certain visuals were changed and what the goals were of the editor for using certain visuals. We want to answer the questions: Do they use the same images with the same intent, do they change visuals but with the same intent, do they change the visuals but with different intent, or do they use the same images but with different intent?

By answering these questions, we can find out whether certain images from research institutions are more successful in being adopted in media coverage than other images. Moreover, we might understand if there are certain criteria that visuals need to contain for the different stakeholders, and how these differences in criteria might influence media portrayal. This information can be used directly by science communicators when communicating research to the media.

Who do you think of when you think of a scientist? Do you think of that old gray-haired man with an Erlenmeyer flask? Of a smooth gentleman on stilettos or do you think of a lady with purple hair? Or do you have no image at all of what a scientist would (should?) look like? The way scientists and science is portrayed affects the way we see these scientists and also science.

Hence, for scientific organizations, the way scientists and the science they do are portrayed is important. Because this visual communication can make it more attractive for the media to write about certain research. But other interests may also play a role, for example, promoting inclusive science, showing that science is for everyone and done by everyone, and not just by the "classic image" of the old white male professor.

The scientific press releases and news articles I (Aike Vonk) research often depict scientists in different ways. At the communication department of the beta faculty at UU, the question is how best to portray scientists and what effect certain images have on how people see these scientists.

It is this question the study is based on. You will compile a dataset of pictures of scientists used in communication about ocean climate change and ocean plastic research. Then you will need to categorize the ways in which these scientists have been depicted and investigate the effect of the visual framing of scientists that is used. This will be an experimental study, investigating the effect of how scientists are portrayed on how the public perceives these scientists.

The purpose of this research is to learn more about the effects that the visual framing of scientists has on the perceptions of people looking at these pictures. So that communication professionals (and scientists) will have a better idea of what pictures they can use to achieve certain communication goals.

Almost every day, press officers, communications consultants and editors from all over Utrecht University publish news articles on the university website. These articles are very diverse in form and content: press releases, interviews, background stories, about academic publications, research facilities, PhD defences, awards, grants, education… Some of these stories get tens of thousands of views over the span of a few days, while others are hardly read at all.

Even though the number of views is not the main indicator of a story’s success, we are still curious if there’s anything we may be able to learn from it. For example: are news items with portrait photos generally read more than those without? How about the length of the article, the presence or absence of a name in the title, or the link to a topic that’s currently in the news? Such insights could help us tweak our news articles to be more interesting for our readers.

In this project, you will be supervised by Nieske Vergunst and Aike Vonk. Nieske works as a strategic communications consultant at the Faculty of Science and as a postdoc researcher in the Public Engagement & Science Communication group. The factor that most strongly connects these two jobs is the analytical look at science communication: what are we doing, what are the outcomes and impacts, and what can we learn from that? Aike is doing her PhD research on the uptake of science press releases in the media. She investigates how frames and storytelling are used to communicate about ocean plastic and ocean climate change research. Moreover, she analyses how these communication tools influence the eventual representation of ocean scientific studies in the media.

In this master’s thesis project, you will create a dataset consisting of news articles that were recently published on UU.nl. Analytics data, such as the number of views over a certain period of time can be used to asses the ‘success’ of the news articles. You will conduct a content analysis on the news articles text and look for certain properties, such as the use of (different types of) image material and news factors: the textual elements that make a story more attractive for journalists to write about (Badenschier & Wormer, 2012; Harcup & O’Neill, 2017), and calculate the influence of these properties on the number of views.

Badenschier, F., & Wormer, H. (2012). Issue Selection in Science Journalism: Towards a Special Theory of News Values for Science News? In S. Rödder, M. Franzen, & P. Weingart (Eds.), The Sciences’ Media Connection –Public Communication and its Repercussions (Vol. 28, pp. 59–85). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2085-5_4

Harcup, T., & O’Neill, D. (2017). What is News?: News values revisited (again). Journalism Studies, 18(12), 1470–1488. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193