My research concerns the development of empirically grounded didactic (in the sense of ‘belonging to the teacher profession' or ‘teacher science') tools or models that may be of use to science teachers in their day-to-day practice. I am interested both in methodological and theoretical questions of how to best develop such models in close collaboration with practicing teachers, and in producing actual didactic models. Didactic models and other didactic tools may range from specific heuristics aimed at teaching certain content, over conceptual frameworks which help teachers plan, conduct, and evaluate their teaching, to more general hypotheses for how to reach certain purposes through different ways of teaching. That these models and tools are empirically grounded requires (1) that they build on detailed analyses of teaching and its consequences for learning, and that (2) that they are tested and refined in close collaboration with teachers.

In the project RiskEdu (2018-2021) financed by The Swedish Institute for Educational Research (and formerly financed by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation 2014-2018), science education researchers, subject experts, and expert teachers worked together to develop both concrete didactic tools and more general principles and models for teaching about risk and risk assessment in upper-secondary science.

In a long standing collaboration with Prof. Jonas Almqvist (Uppsala University) and Prof. Anette Olin Almqvist (Gothenburg University) we have developed a methodology for developing teaching practice as well as generating new knowledge about that practice, together with practicing teachers. The methodology is called Didactic Developmental Dialogue (DDD, or DUD in Swedish).

I currently supervise two PhD-students, Matti Karlström (main supervisor) and Maria Weiland (co-supervisor). Matti has a focus on teaching at university. He is studying how pre-service science teachers reason as they plan teaching, how they learn to reflect on their practice also in on-campus courses, and how university teachers may support the teacher students' to develop towards actively reflective practitioners. Maria's PhD-project concerns the development of a didactic model for science teaching in early years. She is interested both in the actual development (mangling) of the model, and the conditions for making the interaction between teachers and researchers in the mangling process productive.

Research Projects

RiskEdu (PI: Karim Hamza)

In this project a team of teachers and researchers collaborate to develop didactically relevant and functional principles, or tools, for teaching about risk and risk assessment as a way to support students' scientific literacy. In order to do this we employ a set of research-based resources for teaching about risk assessment as part of a science teaching focusing on Socio-Scientific Issues, in particular issues about radiation and biotechnology, together with knowledge of how to develop professional tools for teaching through repeated cycles of planning, teaching, and analysis. Cycles are audio-recorded and the lessons analyzed for the effects that teaching about risk assessment has on students' ability to make decisions and formulate alternative courses of action in relation to socio-scientific issues, as well as for their learning of science proper. The analyses are then used by the team to draw conclusions about how teaching needs to be modified from one cycle to another. The conclusions are used for developing didactic models and principles for teaching certain science content related to risk issues. The emerging principles are repeatedly tested and refined through each consecutive cycle. Thus, the results from the project will provide a better theoretical as well as practical understanding of the conditions for students' learning of science as part of teaching about risk assessment through socio-scientific issues.