Ann Mutvei Berrez

Ann Mutvei Berrez

Senior Lecturer

Senior lecturer in cell biology. Research in science and technology didactics, involved in EU projects on young people's social engagement, systems thinking and digitalisation.

+46 8 608 47 58 +4686084758

Natural Sciences, Technology and Environmental Studies

MD366

I have been a senior lecturer in molecular cell biology at SH since 1999. I received my doctorate in biochemistry from Stockholm University in 1988 and spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) in Germany. After my postdoctoral period, I started my own research group with research on characterizing membrane proteins in the membrane of the cell nucleus in yeast.
Today, my research is focused on examining students' learning in different science teaching situations with the goal of improving teaching and leading to increased learning. The research has been directly linked to the learning situation and how to develop the learning of students in the science educations. I have been involved in developing a method to facilitate the evaluation of the quality of teaching and the learning process in students. By using the method on students' reflections, we have seen that structured reflections contribute to making learning visible in adults. A central part of science teaching is the development of the ability to observe in nature, during laboratory work and other practical steps to discover patterns and details. We have discovered that there are large individual differences in how people observe in the same situation and we have therefore developed methods for training observation in students and investigated the connection to scientific understanding. I have also developed and investigated how chemistry teaching can create independent and creative students in their own learning. Teaching that creates curiosity and that broadens perspectives together with others, deepens the understanding of chemistry and creates creative future teachers.

Projects
In recent years, I have been involved in various international research projects.
Two projects are included in school development programs within the Erasmus + strategic school partnership project. The first project aims to motivate and improve high school students' learning in science subjects and mathematics "Do Well Science"http://www.dowellscience.eu/project/index.php External link, opens in new window.. To achieve these goals, teachers from schools and universities in Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Sweden created an app with exercises on which high school students can practice problem solving. Through the app, teachers get a digital tool that increases students' ability for problem solving, critical thinking, active research and curiosity for scientific problems.
I am the coordinator for the second project about professional development of teachers in digital tools for teaching science and mathematics "Fiction" (Functional ICT Instruction On the Net), https://fiction.pixel-online.org/index.php External link, opens in new window.. This project is a collaboration with researchers at the department from media technology and with teachers at Ronnaskolan in Södertälje as well as partners in schools and universities in Italy and Ireland.
I am also coordinator for a three-year project recently launched, funded by Erasmus + strategic partnership higher education, is CoSy Thinking (https://cosy.pixel-online.org/news.php External link, opens in new window.) together with colleagues from media technology and environmental and development studies at NMT. The project aims to develop interdisciplinary teaching for students on complex systems and systems thinking in scientific, social science and technical subjects with a focus on sustainable development as it develops a holistic understanding of complex problems. The project is carried out in collaboration with partners from Greece (Ionian University), Italy (University of Perugia), Ireland (Limerick Institute of Technology) and Lithuania (Kaunas University of Technology).
I am also part of a three-year EU research and innovation program Horizon 2020: YouCount - Empowering youth and cocreating social innovations and policy making through youthfocuse citizen social science which started in February 2021. The project is about developing and testing different ways to increase young people's participation in society. Nine countries are participating in the three-year EU project, which is coordinated by OsloMet - the Metropolitan University of Oslo. VA (Science & Public), Södertörn University and Botkyrka Youth Council are responsible for the Swedish part of the project.
In addition to the European projects, I have been involved in two research projects funded by teacher education. One is about how aesthetic learning processes can improve students' understanding of science subjects. The second project is about teachers' use of digital tools in teaching science, mathematics and technology.

The projects contribute to strengthening scientific didactics research within the university and create international networks in which Södertörn University participates. The collaboration with Swedish schools and municipalities also contributes to increased collaboration.

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