The project is developed and led by students and staff at BIO-UiB. It is an important goal and principle that universities should conduct research-based education. Traditionally, this has been interpreted to mean that the students, through their education, will gain knowledge of and experience with the academic research front in the subject area they are studying. However, recent years’ focus on more student-active learning has clear consequences for how to understand and set up research-based education. Developing student-active teaching methods is in itself an expression of the fact that not only the content, but also the learning methods must be research-based, that is, based on what educational research shows gives the best learning. This project wants to build on both of these understandings of research-based education, but also add a third dimension, namely that the education must be research-based in the sense that the students get authentic experiences with research as practice, i.e. with the working methods and not least the forms of collaboration and collegial culture that characterize the research. This project wants to develop, test, and document the effect of three learning programs in biology that actively use the opportunities that lie in the three understandings of research-based education. The three learning programs complement each other in that they meet the student at different levels, put different demands on the students, set up diverse forms of collaboration between students and between students and supervisors/mentors, and thus they also provide diverse learning outcomes. 

Contact persons: Vigdis Vandvik, Oddfrid Førland and Ragnhild Gya

The project is financially supported by the Olav Thon Foundation (NOK 1.5 million over 3 years).