In what ways is Teacher’s competences for innovative science subjects a good example of CBL? Find out in the sections below.

The main objectives of this course are: 

• The student develops insight into the competencies of O&O-NLT teachers. 
• The student develops insight into the content of STEM domain courses and the nature of science in general. 
• The student has developed insight into how students learning related to the courses O&O and NLT  
• The student has developed insight into the role of the teacher with respect to the courses O&O and NLT. 
• The student has developed insight into the professional development of teachers and the involvement clients and experts in the educational context. 

This course is a relatively small course (5 till 15 students) and it covers different didactic themes of the high school courses O&O (research and development) and NLT (nature, living and technology).

There are weekly meetings with the students. Every week, the focus is on a different didactic theme. The teacher prepares slides and learning activities related to this theme. But the main learning activity of these session are the discussion between teacher and students with respect to the didactic theme. Preparation of the meetings is necessary. Students are provided a selection of readings and knowledge clips in advance. During at least one of the meetings a guest speaker is invited to share their perspectives and ideas related to the didactic topic of that week. Some workshops (coaching and writing a challenge description) provided by stichting Technasium are also part of this course. Besides the meetings, students work on small assignments which differ from each other in the level of openness, authenticity and whether students must work together or individually. Next to the smaller assignments students work together in a group on a larger real challenge.  

In particular, the course covers the following methods: 

• Group discussion 
• Preparing the group discussion by watching the knowledge clips and reading the recommended literature.  
• Attending / participating in a group discussion with a guest lecturer 
• Participate in a larger group challenge with a challenge owner. 
• Individual assignment which differs in openness and authenticity and sometimes have a real challenge owner.  
• Taking part in workshops (coaching and writing a challenge description) provided by third party.

The assessment of the course consists out of multiple parts: the workshops are graded with a pass or no pass. The smaller assignments are graded with use of a rubric. All grades together are 30% of the final grade. The larger challenge is graded with a rubric which focusses both on the process and product of the challenge and counts for 70% of the final grade. The group discussions are compulsory. When an extra assignment is provided to a student who misses more then 20% of the meetings. This assignment should be graded sufficient to pass the course.  

There is a group discussion about the quality of the course in the final meeting and students are asked to fill in the written survey at the end of the course.