Feminist choir for collective studies
Project presentations 2023
Here you can find abstracts and watch video recordings of the project presentations of 2023.
Faculty of Humanities
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Political Science
What and when do students learn in lectures? Lectures are the most widespread form of imparting knowledge to students at universities worldwide. However, studies suggest that lectures may be a suboptimal teaching method because students’ attention continually declines over the course of a class period. In order to find out what content students take away from a lecture, I conduct a survey among all participants at the end of a newly designed lecture. Students are asked to identify the correct statements from a randomized list of similarly difficult, topic-specific claims that were covered at equal intervals in the lecture. Empirical results from a quantitative analysis indicate that students acquire a significant amount of factual and conceptual knowledge. Interestingly, and in contrast to existing studies, this tends to happen after the first third of the lecture. In addition, the results show that students’ ability to recognize correct statements is independent of age, gender, language skills, course of study, physical location in the classroom, interest in the topic, and previous knowledge. This suggests that the studied lecture facilitated factual and conceptual learning across all student profiles. The results have implications for structuring future courses to maximize students' opportunities for active learning.
Department of Political science
This project aims at better understanding political science students’ demand for more diversity in the syllabus of the introduction to political theory course Politisk Teori 2 at the University of Copenhagen (Spring 2023). Based on a survey sent out to all students in the course and a focus group session with volunteers, it uncovers some of the reasons why students advance these demands, how widespread their concerns are, and what they consider could be done to accommodate these concerns in appropriate and feasible ways in the future. Turnout in the survey was only around 10%; but the contributions of those who did participate offer reflected, informed, nuanced, and benevolent insights into what they consider to be limitations of the 2023 syllabus and lecture and what could be done to mitigate them. Some of the main lessons include: (1) respondents perceive syllabi differently in terms of how diverse they are and should be, and their preferences sometimes conflict; (2) “diversity” seems to be primarily understood as diversity of perspectives, whereby specific emphasis is put on including critical insights from thinkers from marginalized groups and with “non-Western” perspectives; (3) respondents widely consider that they can benefit from having a diverse curriculum in terms of expanding the range of concepts and approaches they learn, gaining relevant knowledge about the limitations of classical works in political theory, and developing their abilities and skills for critical and argumentative thinking; (4) there is a special demand to diversify the syllabus of introduction to political theory courses compared to other courses in political science; and (5) what could be done by lecturers includes finding a balance between content and diversity, both in the readings and in the lectures, integrating “classics” and “critics” more systematically throughout the semester (avoid having a “core” + “add-ons”; focus on including authors from marginalized groups and with “non-Western” perspectives), and explicitly and honestly justifying the choices about what is included and what is left out.
Department of Anthropology
For a long time, educators and institutions merely considered writing a means of communication and emphasized correct usage of language. Many university assessments reflect this type of thinking: essays and short texts verify the presence or absence of knowledge. My intervention approaches writing as a generative teaching tool that can empower students to become self-regulated, independent learners. Drawing on the pedagogy of the Writing to Learn movement (WTL), as well as performative approaches to semiotics, this project seeks to activate writing to increase metacognitive skills in students. To this aim, I propose a formative assessment design that seeks to increase student self-awareness around learning processes throughout the duration of the course. The assessment design consists in a 4-part portfolio exam, representing a diversity of writing genres, purposes and audiences. The intervention produced evidence of the students’ individual learning processes via ongoing exercises. This evidence can lead to a) improved student awareness and regulation of their metacognitive skills, and b) a better ground for the teachers’ assessment of learning outcomes.
Political Science
Effective team-teaching (TT) is associated with a range of pedagogical benefits for students and professional benefits for participating teachers. It also presents a range of challenges that need to be taken into account in order to ensure effective learning. This project therefore develops a TT process-tool to improve an existing 15 ECTS political science course on gender and politics by synthesizing insights from the scholarship and elements of best-practice. It does so by first auditing team-teaching in the political science department to identify the range and depth of experience, then surveying 25 team teachers about their experiences, and finally interviewing 4 experienced colleagues. The research reveals (1) that TT is prevalent, well-institutionalised, and generally valued in the Department, (2) that most teachers experience similar challenges, mostly concerning logistics and ensuring coherence, and (3) there are four broad principles which are associated with effective TT. The project ends by translating these four principles into a concrete process tool to be piloted in the fall of 2024.
Department of Economics
A key challenge in introductory programming classes is that it is difficult to provide individual feedback and support for programming issues in a timely way during exercise sessions. Can we use AI tools such as ChatGPT to improve students’ learning experience? For example, AI can help debug code, interpret error messages, and answer basic programming questions. In the summer of 2023, we introduced ChatGPT as a learning aide in an intensive three-week programming class. At the beginning and the end of the course, we survey students. First, student adoption of AI tools increases substantially. Students report to mainly use ChatGPT for debugging. Second, students’ perceptions of AI become more polarized: Both very positive and very negative views about the usefulness of AI increase during the course. Qualitative evidence suggests that this is in part driven by students’ ability to write effective prompts. Finally, anecdotal evidence from the teaching assistants suggests that students use AI for basic questions and approach the teaching assistants with more advanced questions compared to previous years. In addition, the number of student questions decreased. This suggests that AI tools have the potential to improve students’ learning experiences.
Department of Sociology
This project centers on the development and implementation of a new obligatory innovation course for MA students at Sociology. The course differs fundamentally from other course formats at the department, and this project is concerned with student resistance and anxiety that may arise as a result of new and unfamiliar student roles, teaching formats, and project requirements. The course aims to advance students’ academic skills from critically analyzing complex problems to also designing new potentials and social innovations. Thereby, the course engages with needs for developing sustainable solutions to complex societal problems by proposing a more active role for Sociology in society to advance critical social science perspectives on how to organize innovation.
The course combines sociological theory and social science methods with innovation, entrepreneurship and design thinking frameworks and tools. Didactics center on experiental learning with a high degree of student engagement and collaboration with external partners and organizations to solve acute social problems. Through project-based group work and a combination of lectures, guest presentations, and design thinking workshops, the course trains new student roles requiring students to oscillate between researching complex problems to enabling and drive social change. In addition, students’ innovation projects include constant experimentation in unknown and diverse environments and a high tolerance for failure, which differs from traditional academic project work and can fuel anxiety.
Recognizing resistance towards new learning formats among some students, this project seeks to tackle an apparent paradox between ensuring stability and encouraging change by identifying structures that can guide students through a transformative (and open-ended) process of what Sociology is and can be/do.
Department of Psychology
Background
The mandatory Psychology MA-course in Psychological Assessment calls for a redesign for two reasons: First, student evaluations have pointed to course non-alignment and structural challenges, and second, it has to go down from the current 10 ECTS to 7.5 ECTS. The current project combines student evaluations from the last two years to identify gaps and misalignments and propose how to address those in a new course design.
Methods
From the last two years’ student evaluations, the project will analyze Likert-rated questions about alignment as well as free-text comments pertaining to course (non)alignment.
Results
While many students are happy with the course content and structure, it seems clear that alignment across course elements poses a problem for the students’ learning outcomes.
Tentative conclusions and way ahead
To achieve the goals of ECTS-reduction and increased alignment, the following steps will be taken: 1) Number of lectures will be reduced from 14 to 12; 2) Classroom teaching will reduced from 9 x 3 to 6 x 3 hours; 3) Classroom teaching will follow the same order for everyone, and it will match the topics of the lectures, 4) For each classroom teaching, there will be one psychological test, and there will be one specific psychometric concept in focus, which will be related to that test.
Department of Psychology
Background
It is argued that interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning is vital as it helps students see the big picture, tackle complex problems, and gain versatile skills. Nonetheless, there is limited guidance available for faculty members on practical methods to promote interdisciplinarity. The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate teaching components and pedagogical approaches that can promote interdisciplinary thinking within the elective course 'Mental Health Promotion in Theory and Practice' offered to BA-students across The Faculty of Social Sciences at UCHP.
Methods
In the elective course, various teaching elements and pedagogical and didactic techniques aimed at enhancing interdisciplinarity were incorporated including explicitly addressing interdisciplinarity, placing students in predefined interdisciplinary project groups, ‘interdisciplinary reflection journals’, organizing an interdisplinary panel debate and establishing partnerships with external case sites. To assess the impact of implemented teaching elements, I collected empirical data, including motivation letters, a mid-term evaluation, and an interdisciplinarity questionnaire.
Findings
Teaching activities, including the panel debate, interdisciplinary project groups, and the explicit emphasis on interdisciplinarity, received positive feedback from students as effective measures for enhancing interdisciplinary understanding. Generally, most students reported that the course had increased their competencies to collaborate, reflect, and think critically, to a high extent or to some extent. However, some students found it challenging to grasp the concept of interdisciplinary thinking, and the findings revealed a necessity to rethink the interdisplinary reflection journals.
Implications
A range of implications for the elective course, students, teachers, departments and faculty are suggested.
Centre for Arctic Security Studies
This poster explains my endeavour to gain a better understanding of the professional backgrounds and academic abilities of cadets in a semester course at the Royal Danish Military Academy. By employing a hermeneutic approach, I, the teacher, challenged my own preconceptions and sought a better understanding of the cadets’ varied backgrounds and needs in order to refine my approach and cultivate a constructive class culture. The study unfolds in three turns: The first phase involved a comprehensive class dialogue, aimed at fostering trust and honesty and providing initial impressions of the cadets and their relations. Through this, insights into a more diverse group of cadets emerged, challenging the initial assumptions about the class composition. The second phase employed a quantitative method through an anonymous, electronic questionnaire which revealed varying levels of understanding among the cadets. On that basis, I introduced additional support materials to bridge knowledge gaps. The third phase consisted of dialogic interviews with two cadets, where we merged perspectives and shaped a collective understanding of how the class could prepare best for the exam. This resulted in an examination role play and in exercises tailored the monologue that each exam would begin with. Student feedback regarding this approach to teaching underline the significance of tailored support mechanisms and leveraging diverse academic strengths to create a more constructive class culture. I suggest that such an approach fostering is particularly important to the Danish Defence which currently aims at enhancing recruitment and retention.
Department of Psychology
Master’s students at the department of psychology attend mandatory courses in clinical psychology - practical training. The courses typically involve an advanced introduction to specific therapeutic perspectives and methods, selected students conducting therapy with real-life clients, as well as (peer) supervision, and/or analyses and discussion of client cases. The courses vary in their formats, and in consequence the students’ exposure to practicing their basic therapeutic skills differs. Students often enter the courses not being adequately prepared. This study used a mixed method design employing surveys with a sample of 42 MA students currently attending practical training courses in clinical psychology. The aim of this study was to assess how well the students’ previous education at BA level prepared them for the MA level practical course in clinical psychology, and to use the students’ responses to inform further development of course format and content of the newly developed professional skills training course on the BA level. Further, the study aimed to investigate the students’ experiences and needs related to the practical training course at MA level, in terms of having sufficient opportunities to develop and practice their general therapeutic/clinical skills. The quantitative and qualitative results of the survey indicate that the students value education in clinical psychology, which can provide a good balance between theory and practice. Practice orientated education in psychology can enhance students’ confidence, and perceived clinical competence. The way forward involves creating more opportunities for psychology students to practice their general therapeutic/clinical skills at both BA and MA level.
See the poster here.
Centre for Military Studies
This project explores the benefits of utilizing popular culture as a teaching tool and assessment practice. I argue that far from a mere diversion, pop culture can enhance student interest in a set topic and provide an important bridge between abstract theory and empirical research. To validate this claim, I integrated pop culture into the first assignment of my “Security Studies” masters class at the University of Copenhagen. I also created a mandatory additional task, requiring the students to reflect on their experience with the exercise. This revealed that an overwhelming majority of my 71 students found the exercise fun, challenging, and instructive. The assignment has validated the growing body of supporting literature arguing that pop culture can potentially serve an important function in a classroom setting. It boosted student interest in, and enjoyment of, a theory-based item of assessment, and, more importantly, has broadened the conceptual horizon of the students regarding the applicability and explanatory value of security studies theory.
Department of Psychology
Mastering quantitative skills is challenging because skills are often to be acquired sequentially, with one skill stacking onto another. In teacher-paced courses, students that fail to finish mastering a given skill, are then typically required to move onto the next skill without having mastered the first. This can mean that learning is patchy, making mastery of the topic impossible. In this project, I will experiment with interactive python notebooks, where students can engage in self-paced interactive exercises from the same material as the lecturer lectures from. Class time is dedicated to lectures from the notebooks and self-paced interactive activities where the teacher floats around the classroom assisting students. I will evaluate the merits of this approach qualitatively via student questionnaires and peer feedback in comparison to similar content courses.
Department of Political Science
Participatory teaching requires student engagement. Yet the degree to which students prepare and partake in class activities varies substantially and systematically. Worse, those who would benefit the most from enhanced learning are sometimes those who partake the least. A first step to better foster active learning, is to know our student body. This project probes into how political science students at the KU prepare, participate and perceive their own abilities. To do so, it relies on data from digital questionnaires and quizzes distributed in class.
The study first establishes a link between preparation and participation: One in three students have read the entire material prior to plenary lectures; placing KU students on par with peers elsewhere. It also shows that student participation is contingent on their preparation. Most notably, unprepared students increasingly shun engagement as the questions zoom in on key takeaways and the likelihood of erroneous answers increases; even when participation is anonymous.
Second, the study establishes a discrepancy between students’ objective skill set and their own self-assessment at the beginning of a new course. Especially men and less experienced students (BA-level and students with lack of similar prior experiences) are in the risk-group. Such miscalculations may hamper students’ ability to allocate sufficient time for preparation.
The study shows indeed that the students whose self-assessment is the lowest, tend to allocate more time for preparation. However, this link is only visible among the experienced students; those who are better able to correctly self-assess. A possible explanation is that our beginner students are open to the idea that they may be wrong in their own assessment. As a group, they also invest more time for preparation.
The study has several implications for how we teach: While focus is often on how to make the classroom a “safe place” for oral participation, the first hurdle is to help students face academic challenges. Furthermore, students adjust their preparation time to their perceived skillset given the course requirements. While our syllabi emphasize information about the requirements for successful completion of a course, as teachers, we may consider how to help students place themselves according to these requirements in a way that encourages active learning.
Department of Sociology
Decolonizing sociology is about reconnecting, reordering, and reclaiming knowledges and teaching methodologies that have been submerged, hidden, or marginalized due to sociology’s entanglement with colonialism since the disciplines founding in the 19th century. At UCPH, a 2021 report on the distribution of gender and ethnicity among authors cited in the undergraduate sociology curriculum found that 74% were male and 94% were white. The Board of Studies in Sociology has since revised and relaunched two courses: ”Anti-Colonial and Postcolonial Theory” (elective, bachelors and masters) and “Gender, Ethnicity and Postcolonialism” (compulsory, 2nd semester bachelor students). This TLHEP project aims to further strengthen understanding of the theory and practice of decolonising sociology among staff and students.
Three pedagogical practices were used.
The first practice was a public lecture I organised with Ali Meghji (Assoc. Prof. at Cambridge Sociology) titled “Time to Fire the Sociological Canon? Sociology and the Coloniality of Knowledge”. Ali began by examining how sociology became entangled with colonial ways of knowing. He then traced how sociology has maintained its commitment to this coloniality of knowledge into the present day. Finally, he concluded by arguing for a sociology which stresses temporal, conceptual, and spatial links, advocating for a pluriversal sociology.
The second practice was a participatory workshop I organised using the world café method. This is a structured conversational process in which pre-defined questions are discussed at small tables. The assumption is that collective discussion can shift people's conceptions and encourage collective action. Each table was comprised of a member of staff, five 1st & 2nd year sociology students, and an invited expert. At one table, Lesley-Ann Brown (Brooklyn-born writer, educator and activist) facilitated a conversation about how counter-storytelling help us understand the lived experiences of social groups who are othered, marginalised or discriminated against. At another table, Julia Suárez-Krabbe (Assoc. Prof. in Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University) facilitated a conversation about how the concept of ‘coloniality’ can help us to better understand Danish society. Last but not least Ali Meghji (Assoc. Prof. at Cambridge Sociology) facilitated a conversation about how students and staff can go about decolonizing sociology in practice.
The third practice was a live visual summary of the lecture and workshop by a professional graphic illustrator to capture the main insights for staff and students who were unable to attend.
With regard to outcomes, the student research collective Forskerkollektivet is now organising a Decolonial Film Series in spring 2024. In addition, student reps. on the Board of Studies in Sociology have recommended a set of questions informed by a decolonial perspective for lecturers to consider when preparing course curriculum. And I’ve been invited to participate in a roundtable on curriculum diversity to showcase best practices across the Faculty of Social Sciences – organised by the gender@SAMF initiative. The challenge, though, is that decolonising is not a UCPH priority at the moment so change will have to come from the bottom up.