Niklas Gericke(editor)

Niklas Gericke is an active researcher in the field of science education, that is, teaching and learning in the natural science subject areas. Gericke is director and head of research at the SMEER Centre (Centre of Science, Mathematics, Engineering Education Research, https://www.kau.se/en/smeer), which is the coordinating body of subject-specific education research in the natural sciences, mathematics and technology at Karlstad University.   A consistent focus of Gericke's research has been on how subject content is translated from academic discipline into subject knowledge taught in schools, and the impact of such transformations for students' understanding of content. The relationship between knowledge content in the form of theoretical models and how epistemological aspects of these are addressed in teaching are central issues in Gericke's studies. To a great extent his research has been related to genetics education in biology, and since 2017 Gericke  has been heading a project funded by the Research Council called "Epigenetic literacy and the implementation of epigenetics in school biology", aiming to explore how epigenetics can be transformed in biology education. A further area of interest is in the field of sustainability education. In 2012-2015 Gericke led the Research Council funded project "Investigating the underlying factors contributing to schools’ success in education for sustainable development", which took a large-scale quantitative approach to mapping and analysing the effects at student level regarding the implementation of sustainability education in Swedish schools. In addition, the importance of leadership and organisation in schools was studied to identify structural factors affecting the implementation process. Based on the results of this study, Gericke has initiated a major practice-related research and development project funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research called "Education for Sustainable Development: A Longitudinal Implementation Study", which, as indicated in the title, centred on the implementation process over time. In 2018, Gericke, in collaboration with the project leader Farhana Borg, Dalarna University, was granted funding by the Research Council for a project to study the importance of eco certified pre-schools for children's sustainability awareness.   Gericke is a member of the management team for the research group ROSE (Research on Subject-Specific Education, https://www.kau.se/en/rose), which receives additional research funding from Karlstad University on its way towards meeting the criteria of excellence as a research group. He is also the leader of a ROSE sub project, studying how the sustainability concept is translated into teaching content in different school subjects. Niklas Gericke is an active researcher in the field of science education, that is, teaching and learning in the natural science subject areas. Gericke is director and head of research at the SMEER Centre (Centre of Science, Mathematics, Engineering Education Research, https://www.kau.se/en/smeer), which is the coordinating body of subject-specific education research in the natural sciences, mathematics and technology at Karlstad University.   A consistent focus of Gericke's research has been on how subject content is translated from academic discipline into subject knowledge taught in schools, and the impact of such transformations for students' understanding of content. The relationship between knowledge content in the form of theoretical models and how epistemological aspects of these are addressed in teaching are central issues in Gericke's studies. To a great extent his research has been related to genetics education in biology, and since 2017 Gericke  has been heading a project funded by the Research Council called "Epigenetic literacy and the implementation of epigenetics in school biology", aiming to explore how epigenetics can be transformed in biology education. A further area of interest is in the field of sustainability education. In 2012-2015 Gericke led the Research Council funded project "Investigating the underlying factors contributing to schools’ success in education for sustainable development", which took a large-scale quantitative approach to mapping and analysing the effects at student level regarding the implementation of sustainability education in Swedish schools. In addition, the importance of leadership and organisation in schools was studied to identify structural factors affecting the implementation process. Based on the results of this study, Gericke has initiated a major practice-related research and development project funded by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research called "Education for Sustainable Development: A Longitudinal Implementation Study", which, as indicated in the title, centred on the implementation process over time. In 2018, Gericke, in collaboration with the project leader Farhana Borg, Dalarna University, was granted funding by the Research Council for a project to study the importance of eco certified pre-schools for children's sustainability awareness.   Gericke is a member of the management team for the research group ROSE (Research on Subject-Specific Education, https://www.kau.se/en/rose), which receives additional research funding from Karlstad University on its way towards meeting the criteria of excellence as a research group. He is also the leader of a ROSE sub project, studying how the sustainability concept is translated into teaching content in different school subjects.