A presentation from a Scientix meeting held in Reykjavík September 26th. 2015 Credit to Birgir Ásgeirsson and Ester Ýr Jónsdóttir who presented with me from the NaNo project, and collaborators in research Gunnhildur Óskarsdóttir and Allyson Macdonald.

1. Science education in Iceland:
Status, challenges and projects
Birgir U. Ásgeirsson, Ester Ýr Jónsdóttir & Svava Pétursdóttir
Scientix meeting in Reykjavík, September 26 2015
#scientix #scientix_rvk

2. Structure
• Icelandic educational system
• Teachers education
• STEM education/curriculum
• Challenges in STEM
• What are we doing?

3. 329.100 people
167 schools
30th August 2015

4. Educational system
Age Type
Financial
Responsibility
Compulsory
1-6 Pre-primaryschool Municipality NO
6-16 Primary school Municipality YES
16-19/20 Secondary school Government NO
≥ 19 Higher education Government NO
≥ 18 Adult/continous Varies NO

5. Teachers‘ education
Age of students Type Education requirements by law
1-6 Pre-primaryschool M.Ed.
6-16 Primary school M.Ed.
16-19/20
Secondary school
(General academic and
vocational education)
Bachelor in subject + M.Ed. or
Master in subject + diplom in education
≥ 19 Higher education Ph.D. / None
≥ 18 Adult/continous None

6. Context for teaching science in Iceland
• Standardized testing
• From 2002 - 2008
• Long tradition of using textbooks
• Only one publisher of science textbooks
• Textbooks and 1999 curriculum were well-
aligned
• New materials for middle school after
1999
• Digital materials now provide teachers
with more choice, even if material is in
English

7. STEM education
• National curriculum
• Competnece based
• Six fundamental
concerns

8. Challenges in STEM
Lack of science teachers
• Science teachers
About half are trained as science teachers
Generally weak PCK

9. Challenges in STEM
Teachers‘ isolation
• Small schools, 157/167 fewer than 600
pupils
Often only once science teacher

10. Challenges - facilities
Image: http://www.ruv.is/frett/stytting-nams-hluti-af-tillogum

12. Challenges in STEM
Out-dated resources

13. Learning materials
0
1
2
3
4
5
Textbooks Videos
(online or
DVD)
Online
educational
resources
Puplic
learning
resources
Resources
for
practical
work
Teaching
guides
Handbooks Educational
software
(including
apps in
smart
devices)
Very often
Very
seldom

14. Physical resources
29% say there
is no science
room
24% say there
is no outdoor
classroom/area
1
2
3
4
5
Often
Seldom

15. Challenges in STEM
Lack of students

16. NaNO-project
• The NaNO-project focuses on upper and
lower secondary level science education in
Iceland.
– It is funded by the 2011 Birthday Fund, University
of Iceland and other funds.
• Project managers NaNO work with other
specialists on
– developing courses, a resource bank, Science
Plaza (Náttúrutorg) and EduCamps.

17. Science Plaza and EduCamps

18. Perceived needs
• I am the only science teacher in this
school and have nobody to talk to
• I learn most from talking to other teachers
• It is ridiculous that we are each working in
our own corner
• This subject is difficult to teach, my
knowledge is not strong enough

19. Aims of the Plaza – to strengthen
science education
• To increase cooperation between science
teachers.
• To establish a collection of teaching resources.
• To facilitate increased professional development
opportunities.
• To support the use of ICT in science education.

20. Ester Ýr
Jónsdóttir
Birgir
Ásgeirsson
Svava
Pétursdóttir
Hafdís
Ragnarsdóttir
Margrét Júlía
Rafnsdóttir
Support for STEM from School of
Ecucation
Sjálfbærni

21. Online
community
Facebook
21
Website
Events f2f

22. Teachers :
• Ask questions
• Give advice
• Share resources
• Discuss issues
400+ members
Science teachers
Trainee teachers
University
Institutions
Community on
Facebook

23. What demonstrations do you
use when teaching chemical
reactions and where do you get
the materials?
Many ideas and discussions
about pupil reactions
13 comments, 15 ,,likes”

24. The word density has
always disturbed me.....
Discussion about the use
and meaning of scientific
concepts
+ guidance in using
Facebook;)

25. Just saw a fun experiment on
youtube, here is a link to
instuctions to a lot of experiments ,
a handy website.
Cool, to put a stopwatch
on the projector if you are
measuring heartrates with
pupils

26. Menntakvika 2011
Any ideas for teaching nuclear
energy to year 10?
13 replies.
Material for a whole teaching
sequence.

27. F2f activities
• Meetings, Edu-Camps and workshops
• Peer learning
• Give access to expertise
• Support community building

28. Educamps
Peer to peer

29. • Narrow themes/topics
• Different target groups by school level
• Participants contribute
• Ideas and advice flow freely during events
• Events held in schools = no cost
• Contributions recorded and presented on the
SciencePlaza
Educamps

30. Impact from Edu-Camps
• Courage and knowledge to
do practical work.
• Opportunities for peer
learning and professional
development.
EduCamps have been great in all regards. It was good to meet other teachers
and get good ideas. My participation has had a positive influence on me as a
teacher, better teacher, better teaching. I have used these ideas with good
results.

31. The webpage
http://natturutorg
• A necessary front
• Growing content
• User created
“I have visited the webpage
and used materials from
it.”

32. Good to be able to go
to the resource bank,
that you do not have
to look everywhere
for resources and
ideas and try to
remember where this
and that webpage is
and so on….
I think it should be
linked to all the ideas
from the Edu-Camps
and where teacher
could share more
ideas and pupil
tasks. A resource
bank with teaching
ideas, worksheets
and such

33. No longer paddling alone!
Still lone
canoers out
there, active
community
too small
Collaboration,
cooperation,
community of
practice

34. Visits to companies and institutions

35. NaNO resource bank
07.11.2014

36. Courses
• Teacher-students and in-service teachers

37. Conferences, events, ect.

38. Other Icelandic activities

39. Takk!
birgira@hi.is
esteryj@hi.is
svavap@hi.is
@svavap
@birgirua
@Ester_Yr
#scientix
#scientix_rvkhttp://slideshare.net/svavap/
@svavap