Open Access Journals at Aalborg University
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Peer Feedback as a Future Competence: Improving Reflective Practice-based Learning
Get PDFBackgroundIn clinical health education, limited time and resources for supervision often hinder students’ development of professional competencies and reflective practice. Reflective Practice-Based Learning (RPL) emphasises peer learning and feedback as potential strategies to enhance knowledge sharing and competence development. However, empirical evidence on the strengths and limitations of peer feedback in healthcare remains scarce. This study explores how students and clinical supervisors experience formal and informal peer activities and their influence on student learning.
Method
Data were collected through six semi-structured interviews involving 32 students and 13 clinical supervisors from nursing and physiotherapy programs. Thematic analysis was conducted following Braun and Clarke’s framework. Two health education students were involved throughout the research process, contributing to the development of the interview guide and the analysis.
Results
Four themes emerged: (1) Creating a safe learning environment, (2) Learning through peer activities, (3) Possibilities and limitations for peer feedback, and (4) Positions in clinical practice. Peer activities were perceived as informal and equal, fostering open dialogue, reflection, and critical thinking. Students reported enhanced academic and clinical learning, including leadership development. However, peer learning alone may risk exclusion from the broader clinical community. The findings underscore the importance of structured frameworks, clearly defined roles, and adequate preparation for effective peer feedback. Junior students benefit from experienced peers, while senior students gain from providing feedback. Limitations include uneven responsibility distribution, skill gaps, and organisational challenges.
Conclusion
Peer learning should be viewed as a complementary approach within clinical education, supported by institutional structures and supervisory engagement
Reflecting for Change: How Pedagogical Diploma Assignments Become Reflective Boundary Objects for Change of Practice
Get PDFThis study explores how pedagogical diploma assignments act as reflective boundary objects that support teachers in transforming their practice. Drawing on 212 assignments written by in-service teachers participating in a workplace-embedded diploma program in a Danish municipality, the study investigates how teachers reflect on and initiate pedagogical change by asking the following research questions:
1: Which pedagogical practices do the teachers notice and choose to investigate – and how?
2: What improvements to their own practice do they bring forward as a result of their investigations?
Anchored in Dewey’s pragmatism, Benner’s praxeological approach, and Mason’s theory of noticing, the analysis reveals that teachers frequently focused on differentiated instruction, student motivation, inclusive practices, and classroom dynamics. These investigations lead teachers to critically examine their teaching through self-initiated inquiry. The assignments not only document changes in teaching methods but also demonstrate a shift in teachers’ professional self-understanding and conceptual framing of pedagogy. Teachers often narrate their learning processes, linking personal experiences to broader educational theories, thereby bridging formal coursework with the realities of everyday classroom practice. The findings highlight the transformative potential of diploma assignments when integrated within institutional models like the University School, which supports situated, autonomous inquiry. These reflective artifacts serve as tools for noticing, principled experimentation, and ethical reflection, enabling teachers to engage deeply with their practice. The study contributes to the field of reflective teacher education by presenting a model of partnership-based profession-didactical learning that emphasizes teacher agency and boundary-crossing reflection. It suggests that structured, experience-based inquiry can lead to meaningful, context-sensitive pedagogical development when embedded in supportive professional environments
Integrating Virtual Reality in Occupational Therapy Education
Get PDFIn the early semesters of the occupational therapy education, students often struggle to develop a deeper un-derstanding of clinical practice, their professional responsibilities, and the challenges faced by future clients. Vir-tual reality (VR) offers the potential to immerse students in specific situations, such as everyday life scenarios or health-related experiences, thereby enhancing their understanding. This study builds on the theoretical founda-tion that VR can support reflection and subsequent action, contributing to practice-based learning. The teaching was guided by the Reflective Practice-Based Learning (RPL) principle 4: ‘The Good Example’, in which students share a common experience that serves as a basis for collective reflection. The study aimed to explore the ex-periences of both students and educators when integrating VR into occupational therapy education. Two types of data were collected: 1) Evaluation data – four VR sessions were conducted during relevant teaching activi-ties, followed by short questionnaires addressing the experiences of both students and educators; 2) Workshop data – students tested VR and brainstormed possible applications in education. The TPACK model, along with the analytic elements from RPL Experience, Thinking, and Action, was used to support the analysis. Findings indicate that VR provides a safe and realistic environment in which students can observe and experience clini-cally relevant scenarios. It enhances empathy, deepens understanding of client challenges, and helps bridge the gap between theory and practice. Overall, based on the students’ expressed interests and suggestions, there is clear potential for further development and exploration of VR in occupational therapy education
The WOW Project: An Experiential Learning Approach to Developing Teamwork and Project Management Competencies in South African Engineering Education
Get PDFThis paper examines the implementation and impact of a Workplace Orientation Workshop within a South African industrial engineering programme, designed to cultivate essential graduate attributes mandated by the Engineering Council of South Africa. The study was guided by three research questions: how the WOW Project aligned with ECSA’s GA8 criteria, how student participation contributed to teamwork and project management competencies, and what insights student reflections offered about the role of experiential learning in shaping responsible engineering practice. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study analyses student reflections on their participation in the Workplace Orientation Workshop Project. The analysis revealed three prominent themes: (i) preparation for professional transition; (ii) project management and leadership experience; and (iii) enhanced communication and interpersonal skills. Grounded in situated learning theory and problem-based learning principles, the WOW Project provided a practical platform for students to apply engineering management principles and develop critical competencies through experiential learning. Findings highlight the effectiveness of the WOW Project in bridging the gap between academic learning and professional readiness, fostering responsible engineering practices. Recommendations include expanding the scope of future Workplace Orientation Workshop Events and implementing structured feedback mechanisms to enhance student learning outcomes. 
Building Towards Better Learning: Evolution of Practical Design, Build and Test Activities in an Introductory Mechanical Engineering Design Course
Get PDFWe describe the iteration of a practical design and prototype testing activity in our 2nd year Mechanical Design course. The initial implementation was a low complexity, low risk design task where only FDM 3D printing was used for manufacturing a static structural part. Subsequent implementations involved more complex design tasks, where prototypes required moving machine elements, and the manufacturing “toolkit” expanded to include LASER cutting and carpentry tools. We discuss challenges encountered, either due to logistical difficulties or poor estimation of student preparedness for workshop tasks. Our students have embraced the experience and we intend to retain this activity, noting some logistical and scheduling improvements that will facilitate future iterations. 
Traditional to Transformative: Empowering Dducation with Computational Thinking
Get PDFIn 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended global routines, compelling a re-evaluation of established systems and daily life. Educational institutions faced the challenge of transitioning traditional teaching and learning practices to online platforms. This paper presents the continued collaboration, catalysed by COVID-19 lockdown, of industry partners, Opti-Num Solutions, MathWorks and the University of the Witwatersrand (School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering), on the second-year computing for process engineering course. The course lends itself favourably to online learning and assessments and is the ideal case study to explore the delivery of computational thinking-based coursework. We present findings from 5 years of this collaboration with purposeful interventions to enhance student learning and feature computational thinking relevant to the current climate. This includes the implementation of self-paced online courses and integration of an automated assessment tool. Results from a student survey show that approximately 95% of students had little to no experience in programming due to the absence of related courses in high school, limited opportunities, lack of resources, and no prior need or requirement to learn programming. However, after completing the self-paced online course, most students felt competent and empowered in their programming skills showing that these and future interventions impact computational learning. 
Challenges, Opportunities and Educational Design for Interdisciplinarity in a PBL Environment
Get PDFIn this article, we examine the challenges and opportunities perceived by university staff when planning and executing interdisciplinary activities for students in the problem-based and project-centred environment at Aalborg University. Using a qualitative approach, we interviewed 15 participants from nine pilot projects organizing interdisciplinary activities in higher education. The findings highlight various challenges to interdisciplinarities, such as building common ground to be “comfortable being uncomfortable”, framing and facilitating interdisciplinarity and balancing different disciplines in student recruitment. They also present multiple opportunities, including increased awareness of one’s own professional identity, a positive relationship with employability, the possibility of asking more fundamental questions about disciplinary practice, increased outlook when facing complex problems and the use of problem-based learning (PBL) as a frame of reference for interdisciplinarity. Based on the findings dimensions of educational design that are critical to interdisciplinary activity planning.
On the verge of tears and the brink of death: A distinctive multivariate analysis of two functionally overlapping idiomatic constructions in English
Get PDFThe two idiomatic constructions verge of and brink of are often considered overlapping constructions that express impending future events. Moreover, it is held that brink of in particular tends to express negative events such as disasters, misfortune, and the like. While both are documented in many dictionaries of English, and verge of is sometimes described in English grammars, neither construction had really been systematically studied before Wiliński published a research article in 2017 in which a distinctive collexeme analysis mapped distinctive patterns in the lexical items appearing after of in either construction. Taking a step further, the present study, drawing on data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, applies a corpus-based multivariate version of distinctive collexeme analysis to the two constructions, which not only takes collexemes into consideration but involves 11 additional variables, such as, for example, the preposition before verge and brink, semantic prosody, and discourse prosody as well as register. Thus, this article presents usage-based distinctive collo-profiles pertaining to the two constructions that offer more detailed pictures than traditional monovariate analyses can
Collective Soma : The Aesthetics of Maggi
Get PDFTaking Maggi cubes as a case study, the article explores the aesthetics of mass consumption among populations whose choices are limited. Rather than being passive actors of biopolitical imposition or a capitalist ploy, consumers agentively appropriated global commodities into local ethics and aesthetics of mutual bodily care. In fact, collectivities experiencing a shift of habitus due to modernisation and the industrial commodities it brought co-appeared together in a dense weave of material-semiotic relations marked by what could be termed as a “tension of information”
bodies at burning man
Get PDFI explore the nature of bodies and bodily encounters at the Burning Man Project in the context of art circulation and reception, from the perspective of an anthropologist who is also a poet. My poem probes the interplay of hexis and habit that informs this temporary artworld, focusing both on installed and enacted bodies. Finally, I incorporate complementary retouched field photos to create an enhanced, evocative account of my experience of the sensuous artgift