MIND Research Group / TechKnowModes MIND Lab (Data) Sessions, Autumn 2026

We are happy to announce this semester’s MIND hybrid (data) sessions and TechKnowModes MIND lab activities!

In addition to data sessions organised by our colleagues at Mälardalen University, the programme features our regular MARG X MIND crossover data sessions organised in collaboration with Newcastle University, as well as a data session with Prof Hansun Waring from Teachers College, Columbia University, another partner university that we work with.

MIND research group is also starting to organise activities under the umbrella of our practice-based research environment at Mälardalen University: TechKnowModes. We will contribute to this new, exciting research and practice environment as the “TechKnowModes MIND lab”. We look forward to working in cooperation with other labs and making MDU a knowledge hub that connects theory and practice, bridges research and teaching, and inspires students, teachers, lecturers, and researchers in the region and beyond.

Our first TechknowModes MIND Lab event is a data visualisation workshop to be organised by Eva-Lena Forslind. We are planning to run workshops and other activities for students and teachers once our practice environment is up and running with its simulation rooms, labs, design studio, and other premises.

Please see the list of our sessions and our poster below.

We look forward to seeing you online or in person in Västerås! Please get in touch (olcay.sert@mdu.se) if you want to attend the sessions and/or enroll in the email list.

On behalf of MIND

Olcay Sert

  1. 24 September: MIND x MARG data session

Adam Brandt (Newcastle University)

L2 English conversation practice with an AI conversational agent

U3-083 (Västerås) and Teams, 13:15-14:45

2. 8 October

Shut up and analyse!

U3-083 (Västerås), 13:15-14:45

3. 15 October: Data analysis session

Umut Özçelik (Linköping University)

Learning during L2 game-oriented interactions

U3-083 (Västerås) and Teams, 13:15-14:45

4. 22 October: Data session

Hansun Waring (Teachers College, Columbia University)

Troubleshooting dynamics in a piano lesson

U3-083 (Västerås) and Teams, 14:15-15:45

5. 27 October: MARG x MIND data session

Olcay Sert (Mälardalen University)

Peer interactions during AI-assisted revision activities

U3-083 (Västerås) and Zoom, 13:15-14:45

6. 29 October: TechKnowModes MIND Interaction Lab data visualization event

Eva-Lena Forslind (Mälardalen University)

Art meets multimodal data: A data visualisation workshop to represent embodiment in education research

U1-049 / U3-104 (Västerås), 13:15-14:45

7. 5 November: Data session

Helene Tegler (Mälardalen University)

Classroom Interactions that involve students with moderate/severe intellectual and physical impairment

U3-083 (Västerås) and Teams, 13:15-14:45

8. 12 November: Data session

Merve Bozbıyık (Mälardalen University), Olcay Sert (Mälardalen University), Teppo Jakonen (University of Turku)

Student engagement in group discussion Tasks

U3-083 (Västerås) and Teams, 13:15-14:45

9. 26 November

The 5 MIND mini-symposium (detailes to follow)

U3-104 (Västerås), 09:00-17:00

Higher Seminar, 20 February, 2026: Marwa Amri – Doing project work in the English language classroom

On the 20th of February, 2026 (13:15: 15:00, CET), our very own Marwa Amri will have her final seminar (slutseminarium) in her PhD studies in Educational Sciences at Mälardalen University. Marwa has conducted her PhD studies within MIND Research group and has published three research articles on project work in English language classrooms. Her first study, published in the Modern Language Journal, looks into student-group work in a project at an upper-secondary school in Sweden. Her second and third studies, published in the Cambridge Journal of Education and Linguistics and Education, focus on between-desk interactions during project work in final year upper-secondary classrooms.

The (preliminary) title of Marwa’s PhD dissertation is “Doing project work in the English language classroom: The interactional accomplishment of project tasks, between-desk encounters and post-presentation discussions“.

The discussant for the seminar is Prof Erica Sandlund (Karlstad University). The internal examiner is Prof Nina Klang (Mälardalen University). The seminar will take place in Västerås (Ypsilon, U2-020).

The 4th MIND Mini-Symposium (20 November, 2025)

The 4th MIND (Mälardalen INteraction and Didactics Research Group) mini-symposium will take place at Mälardalen University, Västerås, on the 20th of November, 2025. The theme of our symposium this year is “Beyond the binary of progressive vs. formal: interactional research on learning and teaching on the way to hybrid intelligence”. Teppo Jakonen (University of Turku) will be joining us in person – the title of his talk is “Learning by doing? The interplay of progressive and formal education in scripted VR-based medical simulation training”. In addition to our MIND researchers at Mälardalen University, we will welcome researchers like Nigel Musk, Silvia Kunitz, and Amanda Hoskins from Linköping University.

We will have research presentations, discussions, and events to facilitate collaborations. We will revisit the progressive vs. formal debate in education with a focus on interactional research. More updates will be sent out in late October.

MIND Data Sessions, Autumn 2025/26

We are happy to announce our data sessions for the current academic semester. The sessions are in hybrid mode and can be attended online or in person.

Our programme includes researchers based in Japan, Finland, the UK, Sweden and Türkiye. The topics and contexts include second language classrooms for young learners in Japan, an immersive virtual reality nursing simulation in L2 Finnish, and language classrooms in Sweden and Türkiye.

Please get in touch with Marwa Amri (marwa.amri@mdu.se) or Merve Bozbıyık (merve.bozbiyik@mdu.se) to receive the links and to register for our mailing list. We look forward to seeing you in Västerås or online.

Pedagog Mälardalen: The 3rd MIND (Mälardalen INteraction and Didactics) mini-symposium

Pedagog Mälardalen has published a very good recap (på svenska) of the 3rd MIND (Mälardalen INteraction and Didactics) mini-symposium held at Mälardalen University. We engaged in discussions about research that is at the intersection of interaction and education, as well as research grants & collaboration between our research groups. We had a fantastic line up of presenters from Mälardalen University, Linköping University, and Stockholm University, who presented research on human-robot interaction in educational settings, CARM and teachers’ self-efficacy, student participation and well-being, children’s interactions during coding with a storyboard, project-based language teaching, interaction and learning through drama, and task-based interactions. Stay tuned for our research events in 2025!

MIND Data sessions, Autumn 2024

We are happy to announce the list of data sessions to be organised by Mälardalen INteraction & Didactics (MIND) Research Group (in collaboration with MARG Research group at Newcastle University) during Autumn 2024!
Our data sessions take place in hybrid mode. Please send an email to Merve Bozbıyık (merve.bozbiyik [at] mdu.se) and Marwa Amri (marwa.amri [at] mdu.se) if you want to attend sessions, receive updates from us, and present data in one of our future sessions.

Olcay Sert

On behalf of Mälardalen INteraction and Didactics (MIND) Research Group

MIND Data Sessions – Spring 2024

We are happy to announce our line up of data sessions for Spring 2024! ın addition to our own researchers at Mälardalen University, we will host data sessions led by researchers at Penn State University (US), University of Jyväskylä (Finland), Doshisha University (Japan), and Newcastle University (UK). We are glad that Christopher Leyland (Newcastle) and Leila Kääntä (Jyväskylä) will join us in person in Västerås.

This semester also marks the beginning of a collaboration between MARG (Multimodal Analysis Research Group, Newcastle University) and MIND (Mälardalen INteraction & Didactics Research Group), as two groups join their forces in organising data sessions. This is part of a growing collaboration between Newcastle University and Mälardalen University.

Our data sessions take place in hybrid mode. Please send an email to Merve Bozbıyık (merve.bozbiyik [at] mdu.se) and Marwa Amri (marwa.amri [at] mdu.se) if you want to attend sessions, receive updates from us, and present data in one of our future sessions.

The 2nd MIND Symposium

At the crossroads of collaboration, interaction and development: A MIND map for research on teaching and learning

On the 14th of December, MIND (Mälardalen INteraction and Didactics) research group organised the 2nd MIND mini-symposium: “At the crossroads of collaboration, interaction and development – A MIND map for research on teaching and learning”. With MIND researchers from Mälardalen University Turun yliopisto – University of Turku Masaryk University and our guests from Stockholm University & Linköping University, we started the day with 7 presentations on #AI-assisted #teacher #education, #classroom interaction with #telepresence #robots, human-#robot interaction, oral #proficiency exams, #online teaching in #university classrooms #EMI, aided-communication in special education, and #drama-based teaching. MIND research day showcased the diversity of interests around which similar minded researchers and educators can come together and discuss, cooperate, and collaborate. After the presentations, we had three newly-tested collaborative activities: (1) Collaborative MIND-mapping / (Re)imagining MIND (ReMINDing), (2) Research Speed Dating – Pairing and teaming for future research, and (3) Imagining and visualising future research proposals. We are building MIND together, co-imagining our future with INTERACTION at the centre for research that matters and education for all.

We do not just believe, but also repeatedly demonstrate through our research that without a focus on the complex details of interaction one cannot truly understand the underlying dynamics of teaching, learning, and education.

Stay tuned for our data sessions, forthcoming publications, projects, and events for researchers and teachers. I would like to thank the members of this dedicated group (Annaliina Gynne Maria Larsson, Marwa Amri, Merve BOZBIYIK, David Ryška, Teppo Jakonen, Helena Tegler), including the friends of MIND (Christa Roux Sparreskog, Nina Klang, Silvia Kunitz, Klara Skogmyr Marian).

Special thanks to Christa Roux Sparreskog Merve BOZBIYIK & Marwa Amri for the organisation of the event.

See below the list of presentations:

9:00 Introduction

9:15 David Ryška, Masaryk University

Transitioning between task prompts during EFL oral proficiency exams

9:35 Merve Bozbiyik, Mälardalen University

Displays of Co-Constructed Content Knowledge using Translanguaging in Breakout and Main Sessions of online EMI classrooms

9:55 Silvia Kunitz, Linköping University

Experiences with materials design in education research: from L2 oral task design to the design of HRI experiments in educational robotics

10:15 Teppo Jakonen, University of Turku

Situation awareness in telepresence robot -mediated interaction

10:35 Fika Break

10:55 Olcay Sert, Mälardalen University

AI-Assisted reflective practice in teacher education: preliminary observations from a pilot study

11:15 Helena Tegler and Nina Klang, Mälardalen University

Teacher scaffolding in aided communication in a special school for students with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities

11:35 Klara Skogmyr Marian, Stockholm University 

Drama-based L2 teaching from an interactional and multimodal perspective

12:00 Lunch

U3-012

13:15 – 14:15        Collaborative MIND-mapping / (Re)imagining MIND

14:30 – 15:15        Research Speed Dating  – Pairing and teaming for future

research

15:15 – 16:00        Imagining and visualising future research proposals

Helena Tegler’s research seminar

Helena Tegler’s higher seminar (Högre seminariet i didaktik) takes place on the 8th of November at Mälardalen University in Västerås.  The event can also be attended on Teams – so please get in touch with Helena or Olcay Sert if you want to receive the Teams link.

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8 November: 

Helena Tegler (MDU) 

Teacher-fronted classroom interaction involving aided-speaking students with speech generating devices or communication boards

Time: 13:15-15:00 

Venue: U2-020 (Ypsilon), Västerås (also on Teams)

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MIND Data sessions – Autumn 2023

Our data session programme for Autumn 2023 is now out! All sessions will take place in Västerås (Thursdays, 13:15, Central European Time), with a possibility to attend online. Let us know if you are interested in joining in, and also present in one of our data sessions in Spring.