PEDAGOGIC PORTFOLIO

GORDANA DODIG-CRNKOVIC
PhD Physics, PhD Computer Science

Department of Computer Science and Electronics,
Mälardalen University, Västerås

 

I. PEDAGOGIC PHILOSOPHY
 Min pedagogiska grundsynFundamental Stance

 

“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means”. Immanuel Kant, Second formulation of the categorical imperative.

Kant’s maxim summarizes the most important aim of my teaching as well as my research – it is human-centered which for my teaching means that the student (and not an abstract goal) is in the center of the educational process.

My ideal is humanist holism, which on an individual-level helps understanding the world and on a group-level facilitates interaction between people with different backgrounds. The concrete consequence of this holistic view is that I firmly believe in the need for the students of sciences and technologies to learn about “soft” subjects like ethics and the societal aspects of their profession. Similarly, it is essential for students of liberal arts and humanities to learn about “hard” sciences and technology in order to get state of the art knowledge of the physical world including technical artifacts provided by science and technology. It is of utmost importance to facilitate communication between those two academic worlds and to make possible sharing of common knowledge, and engage all the available potentials in building of the nascent humanist knowledge society.

As already mentioned, in all of my teaching, values are part of the course. I insist on answering not only the question “how?” which in itself is the focus and the most relevant question in many technical and mathematical courses, but also try to discuss the question “why?”.

Typical of my teaching is an interdisciplinary and global view. I want my students to feel they are citizens of the world, to create and share their knowledge to benefit humanity. It is becoming increasingly important with the current trend of internationalization of the university. We have new students from abroad, coming from different cultures and it is important for me to create a “world citizen” feeling in my class – that all of the participants feel regardless of their cultural, religious or school background.

In the holistic approach teaching and research are naturally connected. It is the interconnectedness of teaching and research that lies at the heart of the definition of a ‘university’ and informs the professional identity of university teaching. My experience is that nothing makes people more enthusiastic and engaged than the feeling that they are sharing the best and most up-to- date knowledge, and that they can also contribute to its development.

“Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular forms of power... it is produced and transmitted under the control, dominant if not exclusive, of a few great political and economic apparatuses (university, army, writing, media); finally it is the issue of a whole political debate and social confrontation ('ideological' struggles)”. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault, Pantheon

As Foucault pointed out, knowledge generation and its institutions are power mediators and the educational system is a social structure for mediating power. Power of logical and scientific argument is a good thing, but the institutional power which certain positions (such as professor) traditionally have, must be handled with great care.

Important for my relationship with my students is the feeling of collegiality[1]. Not so long ago, starting my third career within computing, I had an opportunity to experience anew how it feels to sit in a bench as an ordinary student. From that perspective one sees very well the power structure of the educational system represented by the teacher with the right answer (“facit”) in his/her hand. I do really hope that I will never become an authoritarian and arrogant teacher who looks at the student from above. My deepest conviction is that learning should happen in a friendly atmosphere and without elements of aggression, threat and humiliation. As a pedagogue I have a humble attitude towards both my own and my students’ ignorance. It is good to have in mind that all our “absolute truths” will become either obsolete or proved to be insufficiently well-defined in the future.

From thinking in terms of power structures of the educational system comes my active engagement in gender and equality questions. I have introduced different strategies to assure both female and male students good results in the Formal languages, automata and theory of computation, which is basically a mathematical course, in which female students traditionally showed systematically lower results.[2] I also have gender aspects in my courses in Theory of Science (Vetenskapsmetodik) and Professional Ethics.

I have been active in the planning and execution of a ”gender pedagogical project” at the department, addressing the problem of low female representation and gender related issues in computer science and technology led by Christina Björkman, see Appendix B. I am a member of an MDH jury that every year is selecting the best diploma work with respect to gender issues. This gives me an insight in the current diploma work production with its methodological and quality aspects, as well as an opportunity to encourage positive developments towards gender equity.

Understanding of Learning as a Process

“The world is unfinished.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom – Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage

For me education is a continuously developing field, in the same way as science is always improving and scientific knowledge always growing. The absolute state of ideal education is not only unattainable, but also impossible, and what’s more – undesirable! There is always place for everybody to both learn about what is known today and to contribute to the future knowledge. We are continuously re-constructing the world we live in, and I like the idea that all of us have a part in sustaining the existing knowledge and adding our own interpretations and experiences.

As an educator I have a pragmatic view and adopt a combination of different theories on learning. I rely on cognitive theories (especially on Thagard) as well as constructivist developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Even some of the principles of behaviourism are still usable in practice exercises based on the principle of positive reinforcement in labs and learning math problem solving techniques.

Piaget and Vygotsky claim that learning takes place through storage and structuring of information. Their view is very close to my own research results in information semantics. Contemporary theorists suggest that learning is a process where knowledge is constructed both individually and socially with learners actively engaged in a process of integrating new experiences and information with existing concepts. In that way the pre-existing knowledge, skills, beliefs and concepts influence how learners conceptualize the world and how they interpret and organize it. Research shows that education is most effective when used to enhance constructivist strategies because they support interactivity, learner control and student engagement. (Vygotsky, Piaget, Thagard, Bransford et al.)

In short, I agree with Cranton and Carusetta (2002, p169) who define teaching as “a specialized form of communication with the goal of fostering student learning”. In addition to its communicative nature they emphasize that teaching is constructed socially within a specific context and is acquired by “experience, reflection and discourse” (p169). In my view, the teacher plays a decisive role as a catalyst in that dynamic process of knowledge construction as (s)he provides support, motivation and shares the enthusiasm with the students. Emotional setting is a very important factor that influences rational acting, and also our learning, as Thagard clearly shows.

 

II. DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS LEARNING
- Hur jag arbetar med studenternas lärutveckling

Goals

My goal as a pedagogue is not just promoting students learning of the subject and developing their technical skills. I am also training students to think critically (which implies using logic and understanding of context), help them learn problem-solving strategies and techniques, and improve writing and argumentation skills. In addition, I encourage students to see the course material in a holistic context by requiring them to integrate various concepts of the course by applying them in a range of contexts. Those critical thinking and expressive skills will be invaluable in the student’s future life – as an individual and as a professional.

One of the most difficult skills to teach, but also a very important one to be aware of when thinking of student’s future use of their knowledge in practice, is the ability to make the right judgment in a concrete situation.

“Judgment is the faculty of subsuming under rules; that is, of distinguishing whether something does or does not stand under a given rule . . . judgment is a peculiar talent which can be practiced only, and cannot be taught . . . [an individual] may comprehend the universal in abstracto, and yet not be able to distinguish whether a case in concreto comes under it.” Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.

Judgment is difficult to teach because it is a result of practice in a concrete context, but what one can learn as a student is to be aware of the crucial importance of judgment, its relationship to abstract knowledge and its essential dependence on the context. If one is to connect all “school knowledge” with “real life” problems, one needs the ability to make correct judgments.

Methods

In my teaching I use different approaches, dependent on subject (course) and class. In my Formal languages, automata and theory of computation course I use the positive reinforcement approach by encouraging and confirming the proper handling of a problem. Those classes deal with mathematical problems and are for second year students, who need a lot of support and encouragement. In other subjects, such as Ethics, Theory of Science and Research Methodology I often use the Socratic Method where the dialogue with the student leads to her/his own insights in the subject under discussion. The character of the subject and the maturity of the students determine which pedagogical approach will be the most suitable one. Here are examples of some of the methods and tools I apply.

In-class activities - lectures and discussions. I try to begin each class with a brief summary of the previous class session, and a reminder of where we are in the topic we are currently working on. I usually begin the lecture with a brief outline and a list of objectives. I encourage questions and take time to answer them. In graduate classes I often incorporate class discussion into the lecture. As much as possible, I try to present course material in different contexts.

Co-operative learning. In the past several years, I have incorporated more cooperative learning techniques into the class sessions. These usually involve working in pairs or groups of three on a specific topic. In FABER course we have bigger groups (usually 5-6 students) who work together on problem solving, and two-student groups in labs. Seminars in Theory of Science, Research Methodology and Ethics are usually done in groups of two students. Collaborative work has several purposes – in the first place to contribute to better learning of the subject matter and also to prepare students for future collaborative work in their professional life.

Homework. When it comes to FABER, which basically is mathematics, I believe that the only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. For this reason, I assign plenty of homework, which afterwards is discussed in groups in the classroom. In Theory of Science, homework is given in a form of several essays which are followed by the subsequent class discussions.

Compendia. Both for FABER and for Theory of Science and History of Computing I have written compendia, which are available at no cost on the web. Three FABER compendia contain exercises with solutions, and some more advanced examples to be solved in the classroom. See Appendix D.

Grading. The purpose of grading in my view is mostly motivational. The grade in a course is based on a mixture of class performance, results of continuous examination (mid-terms, “duggor”), essay writing, in-class activities, labs and seminars.

Feedback. I have a lively communication with my students. I encourage the use of the web and e-mail. I have a web page for each class, which allows students to access all class information (see the Course Syllabi and Information in the Appendix A1). I make an e-mail list of the class so that I can quickly contact students and I also send this list to the class so that students can contact each other for collaborative study. Also, in graduate courses where I have research paper writing and a seminar, I read the first draft of the paper, correct and comment on them and try to give each student suggestions for improvement. After that improvement is made, I correct and grade the final version of the paper that is presented at the seminar/mini conference.

Availability. For my classes I am available at virtually any time by e-mail. I also tell my students they are welcome to come by my office when they need any additional help.

Exams. In all my courses I have a continuous examination [essays, labs, seminars, mid-terms (“duggor”) etc.]. FABER is the only course where I also have a classical exam (“salstenta”). Before each exam, we spend one lecture discussing topics to be covered and we solve exercises from an old exam as an example. On the course web page there is a collection of old exams with solutions. Learning is an important purpose for any exam and especially for midterm exams.

Course syllabi and information about courses. At the first class meeting, I present the class with the syllabus which gives the basic information for the course: the homepage for the course which also contains my contact information. It also informs the students about the prerequisites, text, schedule and planned lectures content, the exams and quizzes, information on homework assignments, grading policy and latest news. (See Appendix A1)

Use of technology. I use computer for all my lectures, also for labs. Each of my courses has a web page which allows students to access all class information. The syllabus and class results are available on the web, lists of homework assignments and reading assignments, and the literature and web resources needed. I have a "Latest News" section that informs the students of what is coming next, etc.

Examples of sample course materials from my courses FABER (formal languages and theory of computation) and Vetenskapsmetodik are given in Appendix A3 and A4, while Appendix D contains two selected compendia I have written for those courses.

Appendix C gives a detailed example of the Swedish National Course in Philosophy of Computer Science held at MDH during 2004. Participants from a number of Swedish universities attended this cross-disciplinary course, organized for the first time, with the aim of introducing the research field of Computing Philosophy in Sweden. I was the examiner and the responsible organizer. The course consisted of lectures given by specialists within different fields of philosophy and computing, class discussions and the writing of individual research papers. The results of the course included ten papers which have been published in journals and conference proceedings or are included as chapters in PhD theses.

To sum up, my conclusion from experiences made so far is that the mixture of different learning techniques makes it possible for a student to develop his/her own learning strategies and approaches to the subject matter, so that they as a rule are capable to fulfill high standards of examination. In order to be sure about the sufficiently high criteria, I compare examination forms in my courses with corresponding examinations at international level. It is also very important for me that students develop independent and creative critical attitude, providing encouragement and help when needed.

 

III PEDAGOGIC DEVELOPMENT - Hur jag arbetar med min egen lärutveckling

My Education and Experiences

During my education I have tried to obtain the holistic word view through the study of sciences, humanities and arts. My academic background is in theoretical physics. The first part of my scientific career I worked for ten years as a researcher at the research institute for physics, where I practiced scientific methods as well as traditional academic skills by participation in scientific seminars, conferences, teaching and such. The next roughly ten years-period I spent within industry, where I learned to apply theoretical results in real-life settings of criticality safety analyses. I have written a handbook on criticality safety, and participated in the training of safety personnel. I found questions of continuous learning and knowledge transfer very essential for high technological organizations. That was an interesting experience, and an excellent opportunity for me to see the complex relationship between a rule-based control system (handbook, theory) and real-life situations (applications). During the third part of my research career I moved from physics to computing, theory of science and philosophy of science. Throughout that period I gained knowledge about humanities and their different research traditions and cultural heritage. I became more and more aware of the underlying value system and the importance of agency – the step which connects our rational understanding with our practical acting in the world, which led me to the study of ethics.

I consider my present day teaching philosophy a synthesis of my more than twenty years of teaching and research experience. I have been active within a number of different teaching cultures because of the fact that I worked as a researcher or teacher for extended periods of time in several countries (Croatia [Rudjer Boskovic Research Institute and University in Zagreb], Sweden [Manne Siegbahn Institute Stockholm, and MDH], Italy [The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics] and Denmark [Niels Bohr Instuitute Copenhagen]), and I learned from each of them. From being inspired by lectures given by world-renowned scientists and researchers, to being given an opportunity to lecture myself and learn from different kinds of audiences. In the first place, experiences with various teaching cultures for me are the source of new ideas about variety of possible ways to approach teaching. There is no one single recipe for success- there are many factors that play in – from relevance and freshness of the subject itself, preexisting knowledge and motivation of the class to different didactical approaches.

Throughout my career I have considerably modified my views about the learning process. Gradually I shifted the focus from my own teaching as the presentation of the most important and most beautiful ideas in the most “elegant” manner (very common in physics and mathematics) towards motivating the reasons of formations of these ideas in their context and their mutual relationships. In that process I am moving towards the student’s active participation in the learning process. In my teaching I am using a combination of methods and tools (lectures, seminars, laboratories, in-class discussions, role-play, computer simulations, etc) and from course evaluations I can conclude that the parts of the course students value the most are those in which they play an active role.

Learning from Course Evaluations

Among the most important impulses to the improvement in my teaching are course evaluations. (For examples see Appendix A2). The precondition for a helpful course evaluation is a trustful contact between the teacher and the class. The class must feel that their opinions are important and that they can make a difference – this means serious and sincere effort on the part of both students and teachers to at the same time think critically and constructively. I have received excellent evaluations in PI- Swedish National Course in Computer Science and in graduate courses in Ethics, and good evaluations in other courses. See enclosures for a detailed listing of my course evaluations. My explanation of the higher evaluation results in specialized courses is that those courses attract very motivated students who are ready to work hard and enjoy challenges, while some of B-level courses were often times compulsory, which means that some of the students attended the course of that reason exclusively. However, all the course evaluations I have ever received give a course in total grade above 4 on a scale 1-5, which I consider to be good.

For me even more important than the average evaluation grade for the course are the specific comments, suggestions and opinions that student express. See enclosures for a more extensive collection of student comments. Here are some of the changes I have incorporated into my classes as a result of course evaluations:

        Extensive use of the web. Virtual Libraries. The basic principle in all my courses is that all course materials (readings, lectures, lab instructions, programs) are free available on the web.

        More discussions and students work and less lecturing. Group work on assignments.

        Comments on draft papers in higher level theory classes.

        More feedback from students mid-semester examination.

        The work load more evenly distributed during the whole semester.

Development Priorities

Apart from the direct contacts with students and course evaluations, I improve my courses by learning from experiences of similar courses at well reputed universities. What I find important for me as a teacher is the following:

-         Enthusiasm for my subjects and command of the subject matter, including the integration of recent research results and methods in teaching.

-         Ability to stimulate curiosity, critical thought and independent learning.

-         Inventiveness in the organization, design and presentation of course materials.

-         Collegiality in contact with students.

-         Prompt feedback to students on their learning.

-         Sensitivity for equality and gender aspects of learning. Help for students from minority groups.

-         Systematic approach to teaching development.

-         Interdisciplinary, crossdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach.

-         Holistic, global view and ability to manage diversity.

-         Values/Ethics incorporated into courses.

I am planning several future projects:

-         Learn more about natural computation, adaptive systems, including artificial life.

-         Revision of the Theory of Science compendium. Much more focus on evolution.

-         Distance courses in Philosophy of Computing.

-         Develop interdisciplinarity and crossdisciplinarity even more in the future. At present we are collaborating with several departments developing a new course in Interdisciplinary Theory of Science. Even that course will be a common PhD course for the whole of the MDH.

-         Record lectures in Theory of science for a course in Research Methodology, that from this year will be a combination between campus-based and distance course. Make recorded lectures available on the web.

An important source of inspiration and new insights comes as a result of participation in pedagogic courses, seminars, conferences, lectures, and other contacts with professionals dedicated to pedagogical questions. From the first introductory course in 2000 until today I have met people who inspired me in my own work, and reinforced my own ideas about what is good pedagogy and how it is achieved. (See Appendix B)

My research in information semantics, theory of science and ethics is in many cases closely related to epistemology – theory of knowledge. It makes me observant of my own and students ways of constructing knowledge, search for knowledge, reinforcement mechanisms, value systems and similar. Lately, reading Thagard I started to reflect over the emotional aspects of learning, and I apply that knowledge in my everyday work with students.

One of the ways for me to develop as a pedagogue is to publish articles about my teaching experiences and expose my work for critical peer review of my colleagues. I have got an opportunity to both share my own knowledge and to learn from my colleagues that way.

 

IV CONTRIBUTION ON THE ORGANISATIONAL PLANE
- Hur jag bidrar till den organisatoriska utvecklingen

On the organizational plane, I am trying to make a contribution at the level of MDH, nationally and internationally, by establishing structures that promote values and ideas which I consider central for the future development. Here are the activities that I participate in, and some of them I have initiated and realized myself in collaboration with other colleagues.

Contribution to Curriculum Development

        Introduced courses in Professional Ethics and Research Ethics

        Introduction of cross-disciplinary course- Developing course in Cross-Disciplinary Theory of Science

Contribution as a member of the MDH Research-Ethics Committee

Ethics is one of the fields I research in, so taking part in this committee is a natural consequence. The Committee’s role is to promote ethical conduct among students and work proactively to implement ethical approach in courses, diploma work and similar. In 2005 I gave a brief introduction in Ethics for the members of MDH Research-Ethics Committee. http://www.mdh.se/namnder/fet/ledamoter.shtml

Contribution through Dissemination of Ideas

An efficient mechanism for disseminating new ideas and propagating new initiatives are public talks. Here is the list with my recent talks in which I propagate the idea of “Bildning”, inter-disciplinarity and ethics.

        Bildning & Computing. Invited talk on Swedish National Conference of University Teachers in Computing, (Ämneskonferens i datavetenskap och numerisk analys), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, June 14, 2006

        Professional Ethics in Software Engineering Curricula. Cross-disciplinarity in Engineering Education, 3rd CeTUSS workshop, Uppsala University, Sweden, 6 Dec 2005

        Professional Ethics in Science and Engineering. Invited talk on Annual Workshop of CUGS (The Swedish National Computer Science Graduate School) 2004

        Om vikten av att undervisa datavetare och datatekniker i professionell etik. Den femte nationella kvalitetskonferensen - Högskoleverket i samarbete med Malmö högskola, 2003

        Professional Ethics in Computing and Intelligent Systems on SCAI 2006,
Espoo, Finland, October 25-27, 2006. AI –Finlad conference

        On Introducing Courses in Professional Ethics, E-CAP 2004 Pavia

For a more extensive list with my pedagogic publications and popularization work, see Appendix F.

Grants for Pedagogic Work

        In 2004 KKS grant for the Swedish National Course in Philosophy of Computing.

        In 2007 NSH grant PIFF project connecting diploma work (ex-jobb) with research and industry in collaboration with Lund University and Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Collaboration with Colleagues, National and International

I find the collaborations with my colleagues, both at the MDH, Sweden and internationally absolutely essential in my work. I have developed courses in collaboration with PI-network:

Ulla Ahonen-Jonnarth and Jan Odelstad from Gävle University; Björn Lisper, Peter Funk, and Jan Gustafsson from MDH; Torbjörn Lager, Göteborg University and Joakim Nivre, Växjö University. Also Kimmo Ericsson, MDH and Luciano Floridi, Oxford University and Lars-Göran Johansson from Uppsala University who contributed as invited speakers to the course.

In my courses in Theory of science and Ethics I have guest lectures from different disciplines and departments. Some of my invited speakers include: Jan Gustafsson, Ylva Bäcklund, and Ivica Crnkovic IDE, Kimmo Eriksson, Sten Lindstam and Hillevi Gavel, IMa, BirgittaBergsten and Sture Packalén, IHu, Tord Heljeberg, Library, Lennart Harnefors, IEl, Kersti Malmsten-Gedda, IVF, Monica Eiborn, SKI and Vincent C. Müller, American College of Thessaloniki; Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, USA.

Future Plans

My future plans include further development of PI-course, making it global, in collaboration with Peter Boltuc of Illinois University (see Appendix G) with colleagues from USA (William J Rapaport, The State University of New York), Spain (Jordi Vallverdú, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Greece (Vincent Müller, American College of Thessaloniki & Princeton University), Italy (Teresa Numerico, University of Bologna and the University of Salerno and Gaetano Aurelio Lanzarone, Department of Informatics and Communication, Varese).

 

Why do I believe international collaboration is not only good and inspiring in the pedagogic work, but also inevitable? One of the processes we are witnessing today is the emergence of a new global networked society which starts to show up as a result of information technology. The sooner we learn to collaborate, also internationally, the better our prospects to contribute to the development and to influence forming of nascent global knowledge society.

 

 

References

 

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, #9

Bondestam Fredrik. Könsmedveten pedagogik för högskolelärare. Liber, 2005. ISBN 91-47-05237-6.

Björkman Christina. Varför väljer kvinnor inte datavetenskap? In Kvinnor och matematik 4, Uppsala, 1999.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (eds). 2000. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. The National Academy Press. Washington, D.C.
Online: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9853.html#toc

Kant Immanuel, translated by James W. Ellington [1785] (1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed.. Hackett.

Freire Paulo. Pedagogy of freedom : ethics, democracy, and civic courage Critical perspectives series. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998.

Jörgensen Winther, Marianne & Phillips, Anne (2000) Diskursanalys som teori och metod, Studentlitteratur, Lund

Noddings Nel, Caring, a Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education

Piaget, Jean. (1960). The Child's Conception of The World. Littlefield, Adams & CO.

Thagard, Paul. (2006). Hot thought: Mechanisms and applications of emotional cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Thagard, Paul. (2002). Coherence in thought and action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Thagard, P. (2005). Mind: Introduction to cognitive science, second edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Thagard, P. (2006). Desires are not propositional attitudes. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, 45: 151-156. PDF.

Thagard, P. (2007). Abductive inference: From philosophical analysis to neural mechanisms. In A. Feeney & E. Heit (Eds.), Inductive reasoning: Cognitive, mathematical, and neuroscientific approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thagard, P. (2007). The moral psychology of conflicts of interest: Insights from affective neuroscience. Journal of Applied Philosophy.

Thagard, P., & Litt, A. (2007). Models of scientific explanation. In R. Sun (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of computational cognitive modeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PDF

Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt,Reinhart, & Winston.

 


APPENDICES

 

This list of appendices contains direct information about activities or lists of references, and also pointers to additional information which is given in directories named Appendix A-G, within which separate files can be found denoted by A1, E21, G12 and similar.

Appendix A: Education Achievements - Undervisningsinsatser

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-A

Courses taught. http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/teaching.html
I have taught a variety of courses, both on undergraduate and graduate levels. At the graduate level, I have taught Research Methodology, Professional Ethics, and Philosophy of Computing. On the undergraduate level, I have taught Formal Languages, Automata and Theory of Computation (FABER).

Diploma work supervision http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/students.html

Hanna Lindblom and Quy Van Luu, 2005 - Testing Simulators for Automata and Formal Langage Education

Samuel Bjurhager, 2005 - Privacy vs. Security at the Workplace

Amel Muftic, 2005 - The Ethics of Safety-Critical Software Systems

Virginia Horniak, 2004 - Privacy of Communication - Ethics and Technology

Supervising doctoral students. I have completed the Course for supervisors in postgraduate education at the universities and colleges. As scientific theory and research methodology are the areas of my expertise, during the years, I have been consulted by number of PhD students and helped in questions of method and scientific approach (Rikard Land, Christina Vallin, Magnus Larsson, Stig Larsson, Carina Andersson, Shahina Begum). Especially with those PhD students who included ethical aspect into their dissertations I discussed extensively. In spite of the fact that my role never was formalized, my experiences in effective supervising suggests that the role as a formal PhD supervisor will be a natural continuation of my present work.

Links to class web pages for my courses:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5560/ Formal Languages, Automata  and Theory of Computation

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ct3340/ Research Methods for Computer Science and Engineering 

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ct3620/ Vetenskapsmetodik för teknikområdet

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590/ Professional Ethics in Science and Engineering

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/ Research Ethics and Professionalism interdepartmental PhD

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/interdisciplinary_research.htm/ Interdisciplinary Research and Co-Production of Knowledge

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/PI_04/ Philosophy of Computer Science (2004)

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/comphil/ Readings in Computing and Philosophy - Global course

 


A1:
Course syllabi and information

A2: Course evaluation summaries

A21-VetenskapsmetodikKursv-06

A22-VetenskapsteoriKursanalys-04

A23-FABER-kursanalys-04

A24-ProfessionalEthicsCourseEvaluationCharts-03

A25-PI-CourseEvaluation

A3: Sample course materials from the Formal Languages course

A31-Lecture08-06.pdf

A32-LabInstructions.pdf

A33-ProblemEx-TM.pdf

A34-DUGGA2-solution.pdf

A35-FABER-exam.pdf

A4: Sample course materials from the Professional Ethics course

A41-Lecture1-intro.pdf

A42-StudentPapers.pdf

 

Appendix B: Pedagogic education - Pedagogisk utbildning

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-B

2007 Pedagogic Portfolio (Pedagogisk meritportfölj)

2006 Gender Informed Pedagogy in Computer Science – seminar series organized by Christina Björkman at the Department of Computer Science and Electronics, MDH.

2006 PhD Supervisor course

2005 Fredrik Bondestams seminars Könsmedveten pedagogic

2004 WebCT course, number of seminars and lectures in NT (Natural sciences and Technology), didactics, distance courses and gender aspects for students in NT

2003 Den femte nationella kvalitetskonferensen - Högskoleverket i samarbete med Malmö högskola, 2003. I presented the paper Om vikten av att undervisa datavetare och datatekniker i professionell etik.

2001-2002 I attended two of Britt Englund’s short courses in pedagogy.

2000 January Christina Nilsson Scheutz An introductory pedagogic course.

 

Appendix C: Development work and pedagogic research
 - Utvecklingsarbete och forskning om utbildning

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-C

C1: PI-Course presentation

C2: Proceedings of PI-course

 

Appendix D: Development of textbooks and teaching aids
 - Utveckling av läromedel och undervisningsmedier

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-D

D1: Theory of Science compendium

D2: FABER compendium for Regular Languages
(one of three compendia written for this course)

 

Appendix E: Experiences of planning and administration of education
- Erfarenhet av utbildningsplanering och administration

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-E

        Independent responsibility for organizing and carrying out of The Swedish National Course in Philosophy of Computing

        Member of MDH jury yearly selecting the best diploma work with respect to gender issues.

        Member of the MDH Research-Ethics Committee

 

Appendix F: Pedagogic publications and popularization work
- Populärvetenskapligt arbete

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-F

F1: Pedagogic Publications http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/publications.html

F11: Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana. Professional Ethics in Computing and Intelligent Systems.
Proceedings of the Ninth Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence (SCAI 2006), Espoo, Finland, October 25-27, 2006.

F12: Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana, Larsson Thomas. Game Ethics - Homo Ludens as a Computer Game Designer and Consumer. International Journal of Information Ethics, Special Issue on The Ethics of E-Games, Vol. 4 - December 2005

F13: Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana. Computing Curricula: Social, Ethical, and Professional Issues. Proc. Conf. for the Promotion of Research in IT at New Universities and at University Colleges in Sweden, (2003)

F14: Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana. Scientific Methods in Computer Science. Proc. Conf. for the Promotion of Research in IT at New Universities and at University Colleges in Sweden, (2002)

Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana. On the Importance of Teaching Professional Ethics to Computer Science Students. Computing and Philosophy Conference, E-CAP 2004, Pavia, Italy. In: L. Magnani, Computing and Philosophy, Associated International Academic Publishers, Pavia, 2006

Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana and Crnkovic Ivica. Computing Curricula: Teaching Theory of Science to Computer Science Students. Proc. Hawaii International Conference on Education (January 2003)

Dodig-Crnkovic Gordana and Crnkovic Ivica. Professional Ethics in Software Engineering Curricula. Cross-disciplinarity in Engineering Education, CeTUSS, Uppsala, December, 2005

F2: Popularization Work http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/presentations.html

F21: Bildning & Computing, Swedish National Conference of University Teachers in Computing, (Ämneskonferens i datavetenskap och numerisk analys), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, June 14, 2006

F22: Research Methodology and Theory of Science: Science, Knowledge, Method

Department of Innovation, Design and Product Development, MDH (May 29, 2006)

Swedish National Course in Philosophy of Computer Science. North American Computing and Philosophy Conference, NA-CAP 2006 @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA, (Panel on Issues in Distance Learning). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, August 10-12, 2006

PI Swedish National Course in Philosophy of Computer Science. European Conference on Computing and Philosophy, E-CAP 2006, Norwegian University for Science and Technology - NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, June 22-24, 2006

Ethics - MIMA lectures, August 2004 & 2006

Philosophy and Ethics of Computing. MDH Popular Education Lecture, 26 Nov 2003

Science, Philosophy and Ethics of Computing. Uppsala University, Seminar in Theoretical Philosophy , 22 Nov 2002

Appendix G: Miscellaneous – Övrigt http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PedagogogicCareerLadder/Appendices/Appendix-G/ 

Two recommended colleagues who know my pedagogic work:

Jan Gustafsson, IDE, jan.gustafsson@mdh.se, http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/jgn/

Thomas Larsson, IDE, thomas.larsson@mdh.se, http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/tla/

G1: Curriculum Vitae

G2: Pedagogic Portfolio course certificate

G3: PhD supervisor course certificate

G4: Mentorship: Within Mentorsprojektet led by Birgitta Bergsten, I was mentor for Dr Margareta Enghag, Institutionen för matematik och fysik.

G5: Recommendation by Prof. Peter Boltuc of Illinois University
which includes his opinion on my course development and collaboration.

G6: NSHU decision about PIFF project grant, http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/PIFF-NSHU.htm

G7: Excellent lärare - diploma [After reviewing process I was awarded the  “Excellent lärare” - Teaching Excellence degree which is the highest level on a pedagogic career ladder.]


 

[1] Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and respecting each others’ abilities to work toward that purpose.

 

[2] Based on the observation that females as a minority in the course were marginalized and never took part in sharing of solutions to the problems and other important information in the class, I introduced “räknestugor” lections in problem-solving, where mixed-sex groups were given exercises with the support of teaching assistant. In that way information was evenly distributed in the group, and female students subsequently showed performance results equal to those of  their male colleagues.