Practical work by laboratory stations: An innovation in experimental work

Experimental work is essential for the development of scientific skills and student motivation. However, students are not always involved in the experimental work, and the development of scientific skills is compromised. In this study, the model of experimental teaching of Chemistry and Physics by laboratory stations is presented and its contribution to the promotion of self-efficacy and self-regulation is discussed. This model had underlying active learning, neuroeducation and was developed using a collaborative Peer Instruction approach. The regular use of laboratory stations during two years, in two classes of basic education, allowed not only counteracting the distance between the students and Physics and Chemistry but also improving the students’ engagement in classrooms. The purposes of this implementation were to develop students' Chemistry and Physics knowledge, to engage students in the classroom activities, and develop scientific skills (handling equipment, making and describing observations, recording data, gave meaning to measurements, obtaining experimental results, discuss and analyse results, planning experiments to verify hypotheses). The promotion of collaborative work habits among students, critical thinking and the debate between peers as strategies to achieve significant learning were also other aims of this methodology.publishersversionpublishe

Engaging students in chemistry and physics with an active methodology

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) play an important role in the global economy through technological innovation, creation, and problem-solving in this century. But it is difficult to capture students’ attention to it, and the loss of students in the STEM field hinders society's development, and Portugal is no exception. The students feel that this field is difficult, they feel disappointed as the academic outcomes are more difficult to obtain in the upper secondary, and they easily give up on this area and/or choose other fields. To mesmerize students in the science area and reinforce their positive emotions a project was elaborated based on flipped classrooms with a laboratory station model and started in September 2021. A study case was designed to perceive the impact of the laboratory station methodology and flipped classrooms on the motivation of upper-secondary science students. Self-response questionnaires were applied before and after an intervention phase where students had flipped classrooms and laboratory stations, experimental classes, during one school year. This research concludes that this teaching methodology allows students to maintain motivation throughout the school year. The teacher´s attitudes regarding school, learning and teaching processes, influence students and can trigger positive emotions concerning overcoming school difficulties and barriers they found during their learning journey. It is essential to disseminate these results, as they can help teachers to face the difficulties of engaging students in the learning process in the science field. As the limitation of this study is the small sample (26 students), this study will be replicated with new students in 10th grade and students who were part of this study will continue to be followed as this methodology will continue to be applied in 11grade.publishersversionpublishe

Doctoral supervisors and PhD students' perceptions about the supervision process in a young European university

In the last decade with the Bologna implementation, doctoral supervision gained a new emphasis and emerged as crucial for developing the European research area. Research, on doctoral supervision practices, and the supervisor ideal profile was carried out in a TOP 10 young European university, at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The results show that meetings (individual or in groups) are the most implemented practice. Usually, students present orally, to a supervisor, the research that they already made regarding the initial work plane. Two supervisors’ profiles emerge from the students’ voices, the real and the ideal. The ideal supervisor profile that emerges from the questionnaires features supervisors who take students care, give feedback on work on time, and are honest and critical.publishersversionpublishe

The Supervisors' Mirror Image Regarding Doctoral Supervision

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Studies regarding doctoral education can focus the PhD student, the supervisor, higher education institution (policy, curriculum, professional career support, culture, among others). PhD students, supervisors and higher education institution, constitute three keys for the same door (doctoral education), and without one of them, the door can´t be well open. Choose which of them should be analyzed is the researcher responsibility, as present data and look carefully to it. During the last years' doctoral education and the doctoral supervision process at UNL as been studied, looking to PhD students, supervisors and institution [1-5]. In the present research, the focus is on supervisor perception. It is important to know supervisor opinion, to attempt and captures their perceptions regarding the doctoral supervision process. When the supervisor thinks and responds to surveys regarding supervision, he/she is presenting an image of himself/herself. This study occurred among the PhD supervisor population at a Science engineering school (Faculdade de Ciências Tecnologia) at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a Portuguese Higher education institution, with a footprint in the research area. It was possible to capture the image that reflected in the mirror when the supervisor looked. The unexpected image reflected is of a researcher and not a supervisor. When they look to their doctorates, they generally see future technicians/ qualified workers and not a future researcher. Nonetheless, they consider that to finish the PhD, doctorates have to acquire the research profile. This mismatch is consistent with the reality, where attrition exists and many students think to live the academy after the enrollment in the PhD.publishersversionpublishe

A reflection regarding the changes on it

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Doctoral education is the link between research and higher education, being a hybrid area. In this context, the doctoral research project must correspond to the demands of both areas. The PhD. supervisor must be a team leader and, at some time, a doctorate guide, and a teacher. The PhD students must learn how to be a part of the research team, and simultaneously develop their research skills and knowledge. But PhD continues to be an individual and solitary journey, being the justification for it, the originality of knowledge created during the PhD.In the last years, in Portugal, PhD students and PhD supervisors were auscultated. The supervisors’ rules were captured, doctorate experiences were collected, and supervision processes were analysed and deepened knowledge about doctoral education. But still, this vision is incomplete not only because few supervisors took part in the research (first because the sample population were limited to one Portuguese University (NOVA Lisbon University) and secondly, because most of the PhD supervisors didn´t respond to the surveys.The data presented in this paper is part of a larger study that started at UNL before the pandemic. It examines the supervisor’s opinion regarding the PhD curriculum, constraints faced in day-to-day supervisor life, changes that may improve doctoral education (completion rates, decrease in attrition, curriculum, team supervision). But he also captures the doctorate perceptions regarding the doctoral research monitorization activities and instruments, constraints, and positive aspects during the PhD journey and, changes to be made in the PhD curriculum.>publishersversionpublishe

PHD SUPERVISION: AN EXPLORATORY AND A PRELIMINARY STUDY ABOUT THE SUPERVISOR POINT OF VIEW

It is well known that PhD attrition is high, and that is a problem for higher education systems, but also to the society. The scientific and technological development (the research enterprise) of a society is intimately related to the knowledge that is developed and produced in higher education systems. The attrition is an obstacle to science and technology improvements since students don’t develop and conclude their research project, which would bring new knowledge to society. From the students’ point of view, this attrition has personal but also financial and career consequences. On opposite side is the excellence in supervision, which reduce attrition, promote a holistic formation of the students, as a person and as a researcher, and is a facilitator of learning and a sponsor of knowledge. There are few studies in Portugal related to the third cycle, and fewer related to supervision practices and experience. In this context and trying to identify the supervision practices and experience lived by the PhD students and supervisors, an exploratory survey regarding PhD supervision was developed, applied to Science Education PhD students and supervisors and analysed. Based on this exploratory study we developed another more extensive one - a preliminary survey- that was applied to Universidade Nova de Lisboa students and supervisors. In this paper, we will present the results related to supervisors. The results from the two populations have significant differences related to the socialization/integration process in the research area, but above all it was not possible to perceive how supervisor monitor and evaluated the research process and progress.&nbsp

The drop effect at the doctoral supervision sea surface: Observing the waves with the supervisor lens

Doctoral education can be seen as a conclusion of postgraduate Education and the highest achieving degree, remaining in the higher education area domain, or moves further towards the research area as the first stage of research careers (doctoral training). In this sense, it's the bridge between two areas, the education system and the research system. It is the particular characteristic that makes doctoral education so important to a developer and innovative society. In Portugal only a few years ago, the doctoral education started being a research object. To underpin the knowledge about doctoral education at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, research aimed to capture the supervisor conceptions and perceptions was implemented. This paper aims to describe what was found and what was, in the context of a Portuguese university (that doesn't demand as rule supervisors have a pedagogical or even a supervision course (formation)), unpredicted and unexpected. The first effect of this research was to start supervisors' self-reflection about their practices and aims of supervision. The second was the emergence of difficulties assumed by the supervisors during the supervision process, not only related to the institution, but also to the students' motivation and engagement in the research process and the perception of the necessity of development skills to manage conflicts.publishersversionpublishe

Doctoral supervision at Nova Lisbon University: an exploratory study

I am grateful for the support given by my doctoral supervisor, Profa. Mariana Gaio Alves, and for NOVA Lisbon University support.Since the implementation of the Bologna process and the Lisbon strategy, there has been an increase of the interest in higher education and in doctoral education in Europe. This political process aims to create not only a European area of higher education, but also research European area. Doctoral education is considered to be one of the keys to innovation and to the development of societies. The implementation of the proposals that emerged from the meetings of the ministers responsible for higher education (MMHE) and the European association universities (EUA), brought a new look to the third cycle (Dublin descriptor, 2004; Bergen framework of qualifications, 2005), and to the Doctoral education and supervision (ten principles of Salzburg, 2005). Within this context elements such as doctorate completion time, student's profile, skills and competence acquired in that period and mobility between institution assumed a greater importance (London Communique, 2007; Leuven Communique, 2009). In Portugal, it was only during the last decade that researchers began to publish papers whose object study is doctoral education, the quality of supervision of doctoral research, supervisor and student profile and relationship. In this context, these research article pretend to characterize and analyse how the two aspects of doctoral education, monitoring and evaluation, are institutionally implemented in the third cycle at NOVA Lisbon University (UNL) and what implications may have on the success rate and completion time. The regulations of the third cycle in the nine schools that constitute the UNL and public annual reports will be analyses enabling to highlight some data.publishersversionpublishe

Science Education PhD in Nova Lisbon University an overview

Doctoral supervision is quite important, as it involves the training of researchers at an early stage. Aiming at deepening knowledge about the doctoral student supervision experience in Nova Lisbon University, an exploratory study was conducted in the area of Science Education. The time to complete the doctoral degree in Educational Science at Nova Lisbon University (UNL) is not the ideal. This research work intends to bring some light to this issue and produce knowledge about it. The study focus the students‟ point of view regarding the doctoral supervision process. To accomplish the referred goal a survey was applied, to doctoral students that are enrolled in this doctoral program at UNL.authorsversionpublishe