This descriptive pilot study investigates and evaluates nursing students' perceptions of their learning gains and the factors contributing to academic integration within a one-week Intensive Programme (IP) course, part of the Nordplus Programme. Nordplus encourages mobility and curriculum development across Nordic and Baltic higher education. The…

Purpose: This paper presents a qualitative systematic review of Swedish research on vocational education and training (VET) at the upper secondary school level over the past 20 years. The review is based on a theoretical model on curriculum making as social practice that may serve as model for comparative studies between countries. By introducing…

Apprenticeships are required for many trades and can take different forms. In Sweden, one form can be viewed as a pathway where students complete a three-year-long vocational education in upper secondary school followed by a post-secondary apprenticeship in a particular trade. Another takes the form of vocational training within the framework of…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to critically explore the complex relations among the triad comprising standards-based curriculum, the curriculum concept of 'competences' and the subject of civics in Swedish curricula. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical framework is based on Bernstein's (2000) two models of pedagogy, the competence…

In times of rapid transformation of society in general and domains of technology in particular, questions are raised on how to effectively organise higher engineering education. As a response, this study examines the curriculum composition of eleven engineering programs to investigate curriculum nativeness, a novel approach for assessing…

The maintenance management function requires staff to possess a truly multidisciplinary set of skills. This includes competencies from engineering and information technology to health and safety, management and finance, while also taking into account the normative and legislative issues. This body of knowledge is rarely readily available within a…

A first-year undergraduate course at Uppsala University has been redesigned in a process exploring different levels of student participation. In the first part of the project, the student voice was heard through interviews focusing on the role of the course in the degree program. In the second part, a student-teacher team was formed to develop…

Considering the Bologna process and the consequent creation of the European Higher Education Area, which aims to create comparable and compatible academic degrees, and the fact that teachers must develop skills to thrive in our ever-changing society, we decided to study two initial teacher education programs of two different European higher…

In Sweden a Revised National Curriculum for Preschool (Lpfö 98, revised 2010) was implemented on 1 July 2011. The purpose of the revised curriculum was to increase the quality in the Swedish preschool by stressing the scientific basis. The aim was to explore how four heads of preschool reflect on the curriculum and the quality in preschool. This…

"An International Study in Competency Education: Postcards from Abroad" seeks to highlight components of competency education in international practice, to inform US policymakers and decision makers seeking to implement high-quality competency pathways at the state or local level. Other countries are studying our innovations, and we are…

This article presents the implementation of the constructive alignment theory (CAT) in a power system analysis course through a consensus-based course design process. The consensus-based design process involves both the instructor and graduate-level students and it aims to develop the CAT framework in a holistic manner with the goal of including…

Purpose: Based on an in-depth comparison of 20 multicultural university curricula, this article aims to provide practical and implementable suggestions about how to improve such curricula in order to ensure highest and globally compatible academic quality. The recently founded developmental Master's curriculum "Global Studies" (GS) at…

In sport, schools and physical education (PE) ability has invariably been understood as an inherent and relatively immutable capacity, amendable to varying degrees by interventions such as training regimes and education. Differences in achievement are assumed to be an inevitable consequence of natural variations in ability and an indication of…

Purpose: It is widely acknowledged that aspects of sustainable development (SD) should be integrated into higher level operations management (OM) education. The aim of the paper is to outline the experiences gained at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden from integrating aspects of SD into OM courses. Design/methodology/approach: The paper…

This study looks at the curricula for mathematics, science and literacy, comparing England's curricula with those of other countries based on performance in international comparative surveys. The main objective was to answer the question: How does the content of the Primary Curriculum in England at Key stage 2 compare in literacy, math and science…