FEATURED AUTHOR
Magdalena Kersting
Magdalena Kersting is an educational researcher, physics educator & science communicator with a keen interest in getting students excited about Einsteinian physics. Based at the University of Oslo in Norway, Magdalena collaborates with scientists, educators, and teachers around the world to bring great science education to as many students as possible. She believes that Einsteinian physics education can help students think more clearly about complex ideas & enable them to build a better future.
Subjects: Education
Biography
What is space? What is time? What is inside a black hole? Magdalena has always been curious about the world and fascinated by science. That's why she studied mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and the University of Oslo, Norway.Over the years, Magdalena has become equally intrigued by humans and their ability to make meaning of science and the world around them. In her Ph.D. at the University of Oslo, Magdalena turned to physics education research to study this meaning perspective and to find better ways of teaching science.
Studying learning is a complex task because of the intricate interplay of parameters at multiple levels: from the biological bases of cognition to the individual psychological level of conceptual development and the collective sociocultural dimension of collaborative learning.
That's why Magdalena approaches her research with curiosity and an openness to theoretical and methodological approaches from other disciplines, among them philosophy, cognitive science, and the learning sciences. This intellectual openness and curiosity across disciplines are some of the reasons Magdalena finds science education research so exciting.
Research stays at the University of Western Australia, Swinburne University of Technology, and Karlstad University and talks at more than 40 conferences have allowed Magdalena to build a global network of like-minded colleagues. Together with the Einsteinian Physics Education Reserach (EPER) collaboration, Magdalena strives to modernise science education. "Teaching Einsteinian Physics in Schools" is an outcome of this shared vision of the EPER collaboration. Magdalena is proud to have worked with 30 colleagues from four continents to make humanity’s best understanding of reality available to all.
Education
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PhD, University of Oslo, Norway, 2019
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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In her research, Magdalena studies how learners experience abstract knowledge in digital and virtual learning environments in formal and informal learning contexts. She has a particular interest in embodied learning processes and how imagination can facilitate embodied interactions with disembodied concepts.
Currently, Magdalena works as a postdoctoral researcher in project LISSI (Linking Instruction in Science and Student Impact) to study embodied learning processes and the quality of instructional practices in science classrooms. LISSI is a collaboration between the University of Oslo and the University of Tromsø and funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training.
Besides, Magdalena collaborates with the Einstein-First team at the University of Western Australia to develop a seamless Einsteinian physics curriculum without paradigm clashes. Together with the Education and Public Outreach team of OzGrav, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Magdalena studies the benefits of using virtual reality in science education. Previously, Magdalena developed a digital learning environment about Einstein’s general theory of relativity as part of the ReleQuant project and in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Science Education.
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