Malmö University

Malmö University was founded in 1998 and has today about 15 000 students, most of them in professional programmes educated to become teachers, dentists, social workers and engineers. The university is structured to cope with our ever-changing jobs market through a multi-disciplinary approach that crosses traditional school and faculty borders. The Faculty of Education and Society has approximately 7 000 students and is one of the largest institutions for teacher education in Sweden.

Malmö University has both pre-service and in-service teacher education for teacher students and teachers in primary and secondary school. Malmö University is involved in two EU FP7 projects about IBSE, ESTABLISH and SAILS. The main part of the research at the department of Nature, Environment and Society concerns socio-scientific issues (SSI).

MAH works mainly with lower and upper secondary school. Their main task in WP3 and 4 is to develop modules and teacher training about health and SSIBL. MAH also brings in knowledge about informal learning and how science centers can contribute to SSIBL among secondary school students. Another task for this partner is to cover how all students may be involved in the issue.

MAH hosted the third consortium meeting in month 18.

Teacher Professional Development in SSIBL-Lower Secondary Education (WP3), Upper Secondary Education (WP4)

MAH local webpage [sv]

MAH PARRISE brochure [sv]

Dr. Mats Lundström is a senior lecturer at Malmö University. He works as a researcher and teacher at the Faculty of Education and Society, Department of Nature, Environment and Society. In his PhD-thesis: Decision-making in health issues – Teenagers’ use of science and other discourses, he investigated young individuals’ reasoning and how they justify their standpoints concerning trustworthiness and decision-making in issues connected to health where available information is contradictory or uncertain. He is the national leader of the SAILS-project (EU FP7) and also works with the construction of national tests in biology, chemistry and physics in grade 6.

Dr. Jesper Sjöström is a senior lecturer at Malmö University. He works as a researcher, teacher and deputy head of department at the Department of Science-Environment-Society, Faculty of Education and Society. He holds a Master of Education aimed at general science and chemistry teaching and a PhD in physical chemistry. Furthermore, he has post-doctoral research experience from both the fields of Science Education (SE) and Science and Technology Studies (STS). For example he has studied Green Chemistry as a meta-field of chemistry. His current research interests are in the field of humanistic science education, with a particular focus on the links between science (particularly molecular sciences), education, philosophy, media, general public and sustainability issues. Some keywords describing his current research are: Vision III of scientific literacy (science for transformation), critical-reflexive science education, Bildung and Didaktik.

Dr. Helen Hasslöf is a senior lecturer at Malmö University. She works as a researcher and teacher at the Faculty of Education and Society, Department of Nature-Environment-Society. Helen has a master of education in biology/ecology and a PhD in Science education with a focus on sustainability issues. The main research interests are focusing social, cultural and political perspectives of science education and democratic processes of education. Outdoor education and sustainability perspectives are major teaching perspectives. Helen also works with construction of national assessment material in biology in grade 4-6.