How to develop the professional identity of prospective science teachers?

Author(s):

Anja LembensSimone Abels Anneliese Wellensiek Markus Rehm

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 D, Research on Professional Identity, Beliefs and Understanding of Teaching and Learning in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

15:30-17:00

Room:

NIG, HS 3A

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

“The reasons why young people do not develop an interest for science are complex; however, there is firm evidence that indicates a connection between attitudes towards science and the way science is taught” (European Commission 2007, Sec1:8). The international research association NETTS “Networking in European Science Teacher Training: Use of the inquiry approach based on findings of ‘Nature of Science’ (NOS)”, has made it its business to improve science teacher training through “project seminars” involving teacher training institutions, local schools, and institutions of science research and industry. The goal of scientific literacy, defined as an individual’s “scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify questions, to acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena and to draw evidence-based conclusions about science-related issues” as well as the “willingness to engage in science-related issues and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen” (OECD 2006, 23), forms the normative didactic basis for realising these project seminars. Accordingly there are two aspects to this definition of scientific literacy: - First, there is the knowledge and understanding of scientific phenomena, and - second, the competence to be able to use that knowledge to draw conclusions and make decisions of societal relevance. Thus, at least two objectives for general science education become apparent. On the one hand, the majority of pupils must be prepared for their roles as “participative” laypersons. On the other hand, those pupils who will later choose a profession in science must also be armed with skills that will enable them to become capable experts. However, ideally, both groups must become equally enabled to participate in discussions of ethical importance (Skorupinski 1996) - this presents a third objective for science education. With what kind of teachers, with what kind of professional (self-)identity can we achieve these three goals, in particular, the third one? Teacher training students often find themselves between two contradicting “partial identities” (Keupp u.a. 2002): that of subject matter expert (logotrop, science-oriented) or that of pedagogue (paidotrop, subject-oriented) (Caselmann 1970, 42). A successful mediation between these poles needs highly developed reflection competencies. Thus one emphasis in the project seminars is on reflective thinking, noted as being one of the most important skills for teachers (Korthagen 2002). Among other things we are interested in how teacher training students' professional identities develop while taking part in the project seminars and which identity type reaches deeper reflection competencies.

Method

Following Kutschmann (1999) and the identity model of Keupp et al (2002), we developed two constructs which we applied to several projects. We could prove these constructs in the different projects independently by using confirmatory factor analyses to assess internal validity. The items of the scales (subject, ped) load basically on two factors; only loadings of bigger than .3 were taken into account. Our results satisfy the definitions of Caselmanns' (1970) logotrop and paidotrop identity traits: - Logotrop: “As a teacher I am a subject expert” (construct subject) - Paidotrop: “As a teacher I am a pedagogue” (construct ped) Using these professional identity constructs, we devised a questionnaire that was distributed to the participants of the project seminars (Rehm 2007). These data shall be related to the students’ didactic reflection competence, which will be evaluated on the basis of their written reports (Mayring 2007, 82ff). For more details see proposal no. 121.

Expected Outcomes

At writing, only preliminary results are available, as presented above. Two hypotheses are being tested: Students identifying themselves as primarily pedagogues show a higher level of didactic reflective competence; or students who consider themselves to be more subject matter oriented show a higher level of reflection. The results of four semesters (N = 124, αsubject = .718, αped = .772) show large scatter in the data for students that tend towards identifying themselves as “subject experts” and rather high correlation among students who view themselves as “pedagogues”. These results will suggest what measures in teacher training programmes should be taken to enable teachers to be able to meet the three main objectives of science education – providing future scientific experts, a sophisticated laity, and respectful dialogue between the two populations. We expect that the data interpretation will be concluded by spring 2009.

References

Abels, S. & Wellensiek, A. (2008). EU-Projekt „Ambassadors for Women and Science – Pallas Athene". Abschließende Evaluation des Projektverbundes. In D. Höttecke (Hrsg.), Gesellschaft für die Didaktik der Chemie und Physik.Kompetenzen, Kompetenzmodelle, Kompetenzentwicklung. (27). (S.335-337). Berlin: LIT. Caselmann, C. (1970). Wesensformen des Lehrers. (4). Stuttgart: Klett. Combe, A. (2006). „Hatten die schon Schuhe?" Zur Theorie des Erfahrungslernens. Pädagogik, 632-36. European Commission. Science Education Now: A Renewed Pedagogy for the Future of Europe. http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/report-rocard-on-science-education_en.pdf . 2007. 18-3-2008. Keupp, H., Ahbe, T., Gmür, W., Höfer, R., Mitzscherlich, B., Kraus, W., & Straus, F. (2002). Identitätskonstruktionen. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. Korthagen, F. A. J. (2002). Eine Reflexion über Reflexion. In F. A. J. Korthagen, J. Kessels, B. Koster, B. Lagerwerf, & T. Wubbels (Hrsg.), Schulwirklichkeit und Lehrerbildung: Reflexion der Lehrertätigkeit. (S.55-73). Hamburg: EB-Verlag. Kutschmann, W. (1999). Zwischen Naturerkenntnis und Selbsterkenntnis. Die pädagogische Dimension der Naturwissenschaften. Neue Sammlung, 39 (1), 131-142. Lembens, A. & Rehm, M. (2008). EU-Projekt "Ambassadors for Women and Science – Pallas Athene". Erfahrungen und Konsequenzen aus dem Projektverbund. In D. Höttecke (Hrsg.), Gesellschaft für die Didaktik der Chemie und Physik.Kompetenzen, Kompetenzmodelle, Kompetenzentwicklung. (27). Berlin: LIT. Mayring, P. (2007). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. (9). Weinheim und Basel: Beltz. McComas, W. F. (1998). The Nature of Science in Science Education: Rationales and Strategies. Dordrecht u.a.: Kluwer Acad. Publ. OECD. Assessing Scientific, Reading and Mathematical Literacy. A Framework for PISA 2006. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/44/47/41732058.pdf . 2006. Reh, S. & Schelle, C. (2000). Biographie und Professionalität. Die Reflexivität berufsbiographischer Erzählungen. In J. Bastian, W. Helsper, S. Reh, & C. Schelle (Hrsg.), Professionalisierung im Lehrerberuf.Opladen: Leske und Budrich. Rehm, M. (2005). Der Sprung von PISA nach Bologna – und umgekehrt – wie eine Kluft entsteht. Ein Beitrag zur LehrerInnenbildung in den Naturwissenschaften. Informationsschrift zur Lehrerbildung, 7114-23. Rehm, M. (2007). Berufsidentität im Lehramtsstudium – Eine empirische Studie. In D.Höttecke (Hrsg.), Gesellschaft für die Didaktik der Chemie und Physik. Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht im internationalen Vergleich, 26, Berlin: LIT. Skorupinski, B. (1996). Gentechnik für die Schädlingsbekämpfung : eine ethische Bewertung der Freisetzung gentechnisch veränderter Organismen in der Landwirtschaft. Stutgart: Enke. Wellensiek, A. (2005). Gentechnik verstehen und beurteilen. Ein Beitrag zur Untersuchung der Strukturen eines Verständnisses von Naturwissenschaften im Medium sozialisatorischer Interaktion. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz.

Author Information

Anja Lembens

Vienna University

Austrian Educational Competence Center Chemistry

Wien

Simone Abels

Hamburg University, Germany

Anneliese Wellensiek

Hamburg University, Germany

Markus Rehm

Ludwigsburg University of Eduction, Germany

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