Conferentiebezoek en publicatie

Vandaag heeft onze curriculumcoördinator Ton van der Valk op de ESERA-conferentie in Malmö een paper met de titel Junior College Utrecht: Challenging Motivated Upper Secondary Science Students gepresenteerd over het JCU.

Op dezelfde conferentie presenteerde mede-auteur Harrie Eijkelhof een poster over het JCU, met als titel Junior College Utrecht: a Laboratory for Innovation of Science Education.

In de ESERA zijn alle Europese onderzoekers naar science-onderwijs verenigd.

Behalve de presentaties in Zweden is dit onderzoek naar het JCU-onderwijs ook gepubliceerd in de Amerikaanse School Science Review van juni 2007.

Junior College Utrecht: Challenging talented secondary school students to study science (pdf)

Ton van der Valk, Ed van den Berg and Harrie Eijkelhof

ABSTRACT

The Junior College Utrecht (JCU), an initiative of Utrecht University and 26 secondary schools, was established in 2004. It has a dual purpose: to offer a challenging science education to talented 17-18 year-old students (grades 11 and 12) in an academic environment; to create a laboratory for innovation in science curricula and teaching/learning.

Talented and science-motivated students are selected first by the partner schools and then through intake interviews. For two years they follow the JCU curriculum for mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology for two days a week at the university campus while taking other subjects at their respective schools during the remaining three days. This article describes the unique approach of the JCU and reflects on experiences during its first two years.