The 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) brought STEM education experts from all over the world to the Finnish capital, Helsinki, last week.
About 1300 participants–from almost 60 different countries –traveled to the ESERA 2015 conference in Helsinki to discuss and share research, designs and practices within the theme “Science education research: Engaging learners for a sustainable future”.
While underlining the importance of sustainability, the conference theme was flexible enough to allow the merging of different approaches and viewpoints. The programme was packed with interesting sessions, talks, posters and presentations. One could choose, for example, to focus on the role of context in science education or importance of pedagogical content knowledge.
It was not a great surprise that the poster session on informal, non-formal and outdoor education was one of the most popular ones on Wednesday September 2nd. The topic attracted a big crowd and soon the room was bustling with excited conversation.
Collaboration between teachers is the key to relevant science education
The session on Environment looked into climate change, sustainable development and even ecological considerations. Dr. Heba EL-Deghaidy from the American University in Cairo presented a conceptual model which integrates STEAM education with sustainable development.
“The model I’m presenting is trying to make science as relevant as possible – not only to the students to make use of it in their daily lives but also to address the needs of the society, which relates to the environmental and economical aspects of sustainable development,” she says.
EL-Deghaidy hopes that the model will progress to pilot testing in schools so that students and teachers will be able to implement the learning modules the project is producing.
She encourages teachers to work together in order to learn from each other and to make science more relevant to the students.
“Collaboration, that’s the key to it. [Teachers] need to work together with various teachers in the other disciplines and I think that requires –depending on the country –a shift in culture. Knowing that teachers work on their own, science teachers only deal with other science teachers, math teachers only deal with other math teachers –so I think it needs to change in terms of working culture so they can sit down and do some planning together.”
Visibility and international contacts
The ESERA conference is the largest Science education conference in Europe. Conference secretary Kaisa Hahl was happy that the participants were enjoying the event:
“We have received a lot of positive feedback –all the way from the start there has been a very positive energy, people are obviously so excited to be here. People have spontaneously given positive feedback about the arrangements. We’ve had some challaneges but mostly everything has gone smoothly. Our student assistants have been praised that they are cheerful, helpful, active and speak excellent English.”
According to Hahl the ESERA 2015 conference promotes the visibility of the University of Helsinki and the city itself. She also hopes that networking in the conference will help researchers establish international collaborations and contacts.
“And of course it would be great if STEM teachers could try out the new teaching ideas and methods that have been discussed here at the conference,” she says.
Text: Maija Pollari.
