Il punto di vista degli insegnanti sul miglioramento delle competenze digitali professionali partecipando a TeachMeet

This study examines teachers’ experiences in fostering professional digital competence (PDC) by participating in TeachMeet. TeachMeet are bottom-up professional development events where teachers meet to share pedagogical ideas about teaching and learning using digital technology. The study also examines how this participation may nurture teachers’ transformative digital agency as competent digital practitioners. The study employs qualitative methods, drawing on data from open-ended questionnaire answers (n=36) and five in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis is performed by taking an inductive approach to identify themes and drawing on the Norwegian PDC Framework for Teachers as the analytical lens. The findings reveal that the teachers consider participation in TeachMeet useful for the development of their PDC and participation may nurture teachers’ transformative digital agency. These findings have implications for facilitating teachers’ continuing professional development by focussing not only on their pedagogical and technological competencies but also their agentic capacities.publishedVersio

Teacher educators’ professional agency in facilitating professional digital competence

This study builds on a comprehensive conceptualisation of teachers’ professional digital competence (PDC) that goes beyond the use of technology for teaching and learning. We investigate teacher educators’ facilitation of not only generic and didactic digital competence but also profession-oriented and transformative aspects. Drawing on professional agency, we analysed interviews with teacher educators in Norway. Most of them neglected the profession-oriented and transformative PDC aspects. The interplay of teacher educators’ competence, colleagues, task perception, and course descriptions contributes to their PDC facilitation. The findings imply the need to move beyond the tool focus and increase collaboration among teacher educators.publishedVersio

Digital nødundervisning under covid-19-nedstengning: Lærerutdanneres utvikling av profesjonsfaglig digital kompetanse

Denne studien handler om hvordan digital nødundervisning og samhandling med studenter under covid-19-nedstengningen har påvirket lærerutdanneres profesjonsfaglige digitale kompetanse. 222 tekstresponser fra en spørreundersøkelse distribuert til lærerutdannere ved 5 grunnskolelærerutdanninger i Norge er analysert. Den tematiske analysen viser at følgende forhold har hatt påvirkning på kompetanseutviklingen: lavere terskel og større verktøykasse, drivkraft for didaktisk refleksjon og digital interaksjon og relasjon. Resultatene fra studien viser at omleggingen fra fysisk til heldigital undervisning utfordret lærerutdanneres undervisningspraksis og profesjonsfaglige syn på undervisning og læring med digital teknologi.publishedVersio

Digital Competence in Teacher Education Curricula : What Should Teacher Educators Know, Be Aware of and Prepare Students for?

This qualitative study aims to contribute to the discourse on teacher educators’ knowledge by examining the impact of digitalisation. To explore how digital competence is addressed in local curricula and what is expected of teacher educators (TEDs) in terms of preparing student teachers for epistemic changes, I thematically analysed the programme descriptions, course descriptions, and plans for school practicum from six Norwegian teacher education institutions. The findings show that TEDs are expected to focus on the (pedagogical) use of digital tools. However, they are also supposed to teach student teachers how to foster pupils’ digital skills and digital responsibility while addressing digitalisation’s influences on society and culture, subjects’ contents, and educational practices. The findings imply that TEDs need an understanding of digitalisation’s implications for epistemic practices to foster student teachers’ digital competence and transformative digital agency

Peer Feedback with Video Annotation to Promote Student Teachers’ Reflections

Peer feedback är ett centralt element av bedömning för lärande, och användning av video och videoannotering har potential att främja lärarstudenters kritiska reflektioner kring deras undervisning. I den här designstudien undersökte vi feedback som första­årsstudenter gav med videoannoteringsverktyget Studio på sina medstudenters filmade muntliga presentationer och visar hur verktyget påverkade feedbackprocessen. Data består av den skrivna feedback som studenterna skapade med videoannoterings­verktyget, studenternas svar på en undersökning och två semistrukturerade fokusgrupp­intervjuer. Vi använde kvalitativa metoder för dataanalysen. Resultaten visar att mer än hälften av alla kommentarer var positiva och bekräftande (beröm) och bara ett fåtal erbjöd råd för förbättring. Studenterna tyckte att feedbacken var detaljerad, att video­annoteringsverktyget gjorde det möjligt att kommentera vid konkreta ögonblick i presentationen och drog slutsatsen att processen med att både ge och få denna typ av feedback ökade deras förmåga till självreflektion. Även om studenterna uttryckte oro över att ge feedback till medstudenter, så var de positiva till att använda videoannotering för att ge respons och beskrev att processen bidrog till deras lärande och var relevant för deras framtida verksamhet som lärare. Resultaten visar att det är viktigt att lärarutbildare är medvetna om potentialen och begränsningarna med videoannoteringsverktyg för att förbättra pedagogiska processer och studenters reflektion kring deras eget sätt att under­visa. Resultaten pekar också på att studenternas färdigheter i att ge feedback av hög kvalitet behöver utvecklas mer.Abstract Peer feedback is a central element of assessment for learning, and the use of videos and video annotation may enhance student teachers’ critical reflections on their teaching practices. In this design-based research study we examined feedback provided by first-year student teachers on video recordings of their peers’ oral presentations using the video annotation tool Studio, and showed how Studio contributed to the process of providing feedback. Data consists of the students’ written feedback provided via the video annotation tool, the students’ responses to a survey and two semi-structured focus group interviews. We used qualitative methods to analyse the data. We found that more than half of all feedback comments were affirmative (praise), with only a few offering advice for improvements. The students found the feedback to be concise, indicated that Studio allowed them to attach feedback to concrete moments in presentations, and they concluded that providing feedback on their peers’ video recorded oral presentations, and receiving such feedback, enhanced their capacity for self-reflection. Even though they expressed concerns about providing feedback to their peers, the students expressed a positive attitude towards the learning design of providing feedback with video anno­tation and described it as useful and relevant for their future as teachers. These findings emphasise the importance of teacher educators’ awareness of the benefits and limi­tations of video annotation tools for enhancing pedagogy and students’ reflections on their own teaching practices. The findings also indicate that student teachers’ skills for providing high-quality feedback to their peers need to be improved

Sequence-specific peptide aptamers, interacting with the intracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor, interfere with Stat3 activation and inhibit the growth of tumor cells

Receptor tyrosine kinases of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor family regulate essential cellular functions such as proliferation, survival, migration, and differentiation but also play central roles in the etiology and progression of tumors. We have identified short peptide sequences from a random peptide library integrated into the thioredoxin scaffold protein, which specifically bind to the intracellular domain of the EGF receptor (EGFR). These molecules have the potential to selectively inhibit specific aspects of EGF receptor signaling and might become valuable as anticancer agents. Intracellular expression of the aptamer encoding gene construct KDI1 or introduction of bacterially expressed KDI1 via a protein transduction domain into EGFR-expressing cells results in KDI1·EGF receptor complex formation, a slower proliferation, and reduced soft agar colony formation. Aptamer KDI1 did not summarily block the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase activity but selectively interfered with the EGF-induced phosphorylation of the tyrosine residues 845, 1068, and 1148 as well as the phosphorylation of tyrosine 317 of p46 Shc. EGF-induced phosphorylation of Stat3 at tyrosine 705 and Stat3-dependent transactivation were also impaired. Transduction of a short synthetic peptide aptamer sequence not embedded into the scaffold protein resulted in the same impairment of EGF-induced Stat3 activation