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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1347085
This article is part of the Research Topic Interdisciplinary or Interprofessional Learning as Catalyst of Change in Healthcare and Higher Education View all 3 articles

Promoting Institutional Collaboration through a Joint Project-based Learning Course: A Case Study of Upper-secondary School and University Students' Experienced Relevance

Provisionally accepted
Topias Ikävalko Topias Ikävalko 1*Johannes Pernaa Johannes Pernaa 1,2Outi Haatainen Outi Haatainen 1Maija Aksela Maija Aksela 1
  • 1 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • 2 University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    There is a great need to develop research-based models for supporting collaboration between educational institutions. Collaboration models are needed, for example, to assist the transition from lower educational level to higher education or from higher education to working life. In this research, collaboration was conducted through a joint upper-secondary school and university course that addressed global challenges by using a project-based learning approach. There is a shortage of research exploring students' perceptions of collaboration. Therefore, the main purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the relevance of the joint course for upper secondary school students and university students. The research was guided by the following research question: What kind of relevance did the students experience in the joint project-based learning course? The data was gathered using questionnaires, interviews, and reflective study reports. The data was analyzed via theory-based content analysis where research-oriented relevance model was used as the analysis framework. The analysis framework enabled categorizing experienced relevance on individual, vocational and societal dimensions. Altogether, the analysis produced 7 relevance categories for upper-secondary students and 9 for university students. According to the analysis, upper-secondary school students felt that the course offered the most on an individual relevance dimension whereas university students experienced the vocational relevance dimension most diverse. As the main conclusion, this research produced new insights on the experienced relevance of upper-secondary level and higher education cooperation from the students' point of view. The acquired knowledge can be useful for everyone developing new cross-institutional cooperation models.

    Keywords: upper-secondary school, higher education, collaboration, cooperation, project-based learning, students' perceptions, relevance

    Received: 30 Nov 2023; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ikävalko, Pernaa, Haatainen and Aksela. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Topias Ikävalko, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.