Socio-scientific Issues in National Tests: Discerning Selective Traditions in Science Teaching

Author(s):

Per Sund(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 05 B, Teacher's Practice and Professionalism in ESE

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B115 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Per Sund

Contribution

In 2010 national tests in biology, physics and chemistry were introduced in the Swedish comprehensive school, year 9 (15-16 years). The tests are to be used in order to create better conditions for a more equal and fair assessment of students. This initiative rests on the assumption that all teachers will approach the test and the actual science content in a uniform way and mark the tests in the same manner. However, results from earlier research show that there are different ways to approach science teaching in general. There are patterns in teachers’ preferences in educational situations concerning for example views on what knowledge is important, the purposes and benefits of learning science and how teaching should be connected to community and/or students’ everyday lives. When these choices are made systematically over time they are developed into what is named in this article as selective traditions in science teaching. The methodology is inspired by earlier research in the area of environmental and sustainability education. A well-developed analytical tool is applied on responses from semi-structured interviews with twenty-nine science teachers.

In the national science tests there are many questions focusing ‘canonical’ science knowledge for example facts and figures about pH and electricity, but also matters starting in contexts connected to societal development with consequences for example environmental and sustainability issues are introduced. These matters deals with questions like for example problems with acid rain, different challenges for energy production and a better use of natural resources when recycling waste (Lundqvist, Lidar, & Almqvist, 2013).

Some of the questions in are thus well connected to socio-scientific issues. SSI can be regarded as real world issues that are socially significant and rooted in science (Zeidler, Walker, Ackett, & Simmons, 2002) and well-connected to sustainability issues (Summers, Childs, & Corney, 2005). The tendency to incorporate more socio-scientific issues in science curricula is common world- wide (Levinson, 2010; Prain, 2012), but this shift is not undisputed. There are ‘gatekeepers’ in the science education community who are significantly troubled by this and fear that the amount of core science content will decrease (Tytler, 2012). SSI are though entering science education more generally (Robottom, 2012).

Purpose

An initial web-based inquiry to 1003 (response from 42%) teachers gave some patterns in science teachers approaches to science teaching, but a follow-up study was necessary to be conducted. The purpose of this study is to discern patterns in science teachers’ responses observed in the initial inquiry and show that they are a type of collective institutionalized habits.

The research question is:

What selective traditions are visible in science teachers’ descriptions of their teaching when discussing the introduction of national test encompassing socio-scientific issues?

These traditions can be apprehended as concealed possible obstacles towards a fairer grading and they need to be made increasingly visible. These habits, customs and material institutions make up a substantial part of a teacher’s knowledge. Of course, we cannot simply find a ‘cause for our actions, remove it, and then replace it with another cause’ so that our experience and acting in the world will change in a predictable manner (Wickman, 2012). To reach fairer marking in an easy way seems not be practically possible, but by enhancing the knowledge of selective teaching traditions the discussions about the possibilities of a introduction of national tests in relation to grading perhaps will be conducted in a more informed way.

Method

An earlier well-developed methodology from environmental and sustainability education research is applied (Sund & Wickman, 2011). Selective traditions in science education can be understood as collective habits. A habit is something that is continuously developed as a result of encounters between earlier and current experiences. If many individuals act in similar ways in similar situations, they can be described as having collective habits. Individuals develop their personal habits or customs on the basis of the contextual situations created by earlier generations of teachers or disciplinary traditions. An individual does not live in a vacuum (Dewey, 1938/1997). These collective habits can be regarded as traditions, where individual habits follow similar patterns in similar situations. Dewey’s (1922) discussion of individual habits, and their interplay at an individual and collective level, seems to be an accurate description of how selective traditions in science education evolve and are consolidated in the formal school system. Analytical tool for discerning socialization content The word ‘aspect’ is used here to indicate that the points of departure for the analytical questions were extremely varied and included, for example, the power relation between teachers and students as well as more overarching dimensions of educational content (Sund, 2008). The four questions used here to discern educational aspects in the data from the teachers’ interviews are: 1) What is the teaching aiming to change? 2) What different inter-human relations are established? 3) How useful is school knowledge on environmental and development issues? 4) What role do students play in education and environmental work? Selection In total 29 teachers from 27 schools were interviewed by two researchers from the survey study from a sample of more than 400 teachers. The objective with the sample is also to provide a balance of teachers’ gender, subject and years in teaching. All teachers are teaching at secondary level. Consequently the selection is made to get a maximum variation in the way teachers talk about and describe their science teaching. Interviews Teacher responses are gathered in 35-60 minutes semi-structured telephone interviews. All interviews are audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. The teachers are asked to describe how they conducted their teaching by repeatedly answering questions about the content, for example: What is to be learned in the course? How is the teaching conducted? Why should students learn this content?

Expected Outcomes

The findings in this study show that there are three selective science teaching traditions related to teachers’ discussions about socio-scientific issues in the national tests. The four qualitative aspects of each selective tradition are described below. These descriptions make it easier to understand the qualitative differences in the pedagogical approaches. Science disciplinary tradition 1) Purpose of the education: Focus on scientific knowledge and skills. 2) Teaching relation: School – Society: School centered/classroom centered 3) Power relation: Teacher – Student: Lecturing and sporadically, by teacher well-prepared, group work (teacher centered) 4) Ethical dimension: neutral facts – value-laden opinions: Contextualization within the discipline. Value discussions (moral) hardly occur. Scientific informal application tradition 1) Focus on scientific knowledge and skills and everyday applications 2) Collect examples from society and link to /apply on societal issues 3) Teacher centered, teacher initiated group work occur. Teacher care and show students’ consideration 4) Some ethical/moral shifting in for example issues about lifestyle and health Scientific democratic/societal tradition 1) Focused on applying scientific knowledge in everyday situations and in issues on societal level 2) School is co-operating, influencing and trying to make change in surrounding society 3) Teachers are acting more as guide to learning in group work and discussions 4) There is a strong shift towards moral questions including social and cultural development in issues for example regarding environment and sustainability. This study will discern and identify three different traditions in teachers’ responses about their science teaching in relation to national tests. The results will be discussed in relation to research on ‘scientific literacy’ (Roberts, 2007) and how research can support teachers practice by making conceptual schemes such as selective teaching traditions increasingly visible (Wickman, 2012).

References

Dewey, J. (1922). Human Nature and Conduct: an Introduction to Social Psychology. New York: Holt. Dewey, J. (1938/1997). Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster. Levinson, R. (2010). Science Education and democratic participation: an uneasy congruence. Studies in Science Education, 46(1), 69-119. Lundqvist, E., Lidar, M., & Almqvist, J. (2013). What content is assessed in the Swedish national tests in biology, chemistry and physics? . Paper presented at the ESERA, Nicosia, Cyprus. Prain, V. (2012). Acting on Sustainability. Research in Science Education, 42, 149-154. Roberts, D. A. (2007). Scientific literacy/Science literacy. In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Science Education (pp. 729-780). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Robottom, I. (2012). Socio-scientific Issues in Education: Innovative Practices and Contending Epistemologies. Research in Science Education, 42, 95-107. Summers, M., Childs, A., & Corney, G. (2005). Education for sustainable development in initial teacher training: Issues for interdisciplinary collaboration. Environmental Education Research, 11(5), 623-647. Sund, P. (2008). Discerning the extras in ESD teaching: A democratic issue. In J. Öhman (Ed.), Values and Democracy in Education for Sustainable Development - Contributions from Swedish Research (pp. 57-74). Stockholm: Liber. Sund, P., & Wickman, P.-O. (2011). Socialization Content in Schools and Education for Sustainable Development - I. A study of Teachers’ Selective Traditions. Environmental Education Research, 17(5), 599-624. Tytler, R. (2012). Socio-Scientific Issues, Sustainability and Science Education. Research in Science Education, 42, 155-163. Wickman, P.-O. (2012). How can conceptual schemes change teaching? Cultural Studies of Science Education, 7, 127-136. Zeidler, D., Walker, K., Ackett, W., & Simmons, M. (2002). Tangled up in views: Beliefs in the nature of science and responses to socioscientific dilemmas. Science Education, 86(3), 343-367.

Author Information

Per Sund (presenting / submitting)

Mälardalen university

The academy of education, culture and communication

Eskilstuna

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