In one chapter of the new edited volume “Learning, Understanding, and Shaping University Teaching,” Petra Siegele, Head of the OeAD Public Science Department, and Claudia Fahrenwald, Professor of Organizational Education, present the added value that Citizen Science, as an innovative and participatory research approach, offers for higher education teaching—and how it can strengthen societal engagement.
The focus lies on collaboration between universities and schools. Examples from the Sparkling Science program, which supports Citizen Science projects with schools, as well as results from a pilot project by the OeAD Center for Citizen Science and the University College of Teacher Education Upper Austria—in which students conducted interviews with school principals and project leaders at Young Science quality-label schools—illustrate how Citizen Science can be integrated into higher education teaching to sustainably strengthen cooperation.
Overall, the volume, edited by Andreas Hebbel-Seeger, offers diverse perspectives on higher-education didactics, innovative teaching concepts, and practice-oriented experiences from various disciplines.