Improving an Inquiry-Based Science and Literacy Teaching Model Through Professional Development Courses
Author(s):
Marianne Odegaard (presenting / submitting) Sonja Merethe Mork Berit Synnøve Haug Gard Ove Sorvik
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Format:
Paper

Session Information

27 SES 03 B, Teacher Professional Developement in Didactics of Science

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-08
17:15-18:45
Room:
202.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Ingrid Maria Carlgren

Contribution

1. Introduction

The Budding Science and Literacy is a video-based classroom research project, which aims to continually improve a teaching model of integrated science inquiry and literacy instruction in collaboration with practicing science teachers. When the latest Norwegian curriculum reform emphasized both inquiry-based science and basic skills as focal points for science teaching in Norway, along with international trends (e.g. Rocard et al., 2007), teachers expressed the need for relevant professional development and supporting teacher resources. We therefore developed the Budding Science and Literacy (BSL) teaching model (Authors, 2009), inspired by the Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading program (Barber et al. 2007), and adapted to a Norwegian context. Through professional development courses, teachers tried out and adapted units of the Seeds/Roots curriculum in their science classrooms with help from science education scholars. The central educational principles were systematic variation of inquiry activities in both science and literacy, combined with explicit teaching. However, based on teachers’ reflections and video analyses from these classrooms, we have now come to a point where improvements to the teaching model can be made.

The Budding Science and Literacy project approaches literacy and scientific inquiry as fundamental elements of science education. They have a twofold role as support structures for learning science content, but are in themselves constitutive practices of science that are central to any science curriculum (Norris & Phillips, 2003). This is expressed by Pearson et al (2010) in terms of literacy and science each being in the service of the other—especially when inquiry is seen as the common core. These perspectives serve as underlying tenets to the entire research project and to the present study.

Whereas large-scale studies of integrated inquiry-based science and literacy activities have documented increased learning outcomes (e.g. Cervetti, et al. 2012) our research contributions are based on small-scale, in-depth video studies. The main purpose of the BSL research project was to explore how an integrated science and literacy approach might challenge and support teaching and learning of science at the classroom level. This has been done through several studies (e.g. Author, 2014; Authors, 2014; Author, 2015). Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to further improve the teaching model by synthesizing and discussing the empirical findings from these studies.

Our research questions are: In what ways do findings from the Budding Science and Literacy research project support and challenge the Budding Science and Literacy teaching model? How can the teaching model be improved, based on these findings?

Method

2. Method We studied 6 teachers from 4 schools and their students, during a sequence of science lessons. (5-10 lessons per teacher) The students ranged from 1st to 5th grade. The teachers all used adapted versions of Seeds/Roots (Barber et al. 2007) as curriculum resources. Each lesson was videotaped, and teachers and focus group students were interviewed. The classroom video data were then coded for learning modalities (oral, reading, writing, practical) and inquiry phases (preparation, data collection, discussion, communication) with Interact coding software (Authors, 2014). By doing video analyses of classroom activities we were able to get an overview of the variation (Authors, 2014), which formed a basis for more in-depth studies (e.g. Author, 2014; Author, 2015). These studies are here synthesized to improve the BSL teaching model.

Expected Outcomes

3. Discussion and conclusions The Budding Science and Literacy project can be considered as an iterative design-based project, improving the BSL teaching model. Because of interviews with teachers and preliminary findings early in the project, the teaching model was slightly altered to include emphasis on a restricted number of key concepts (Author, 2014). Through several of the BSL studies, we also find support for the model’s central principle of systematic variation of inquiry-based activities. Author (2014) found that a variety of activities promoted students’ conceptual learning and the teachers’ possibilities for formative assessment. Author (2015) revealed that science inquiry opened up for richer literacy practices. Explicit teaching, like linking inquiry and nature of science, were emphasized in both studies. In addition, teachers reported that students were engaged by “working like scientists”, and they started reflecting on how scientists read and write (Author, 2014; Author 2015). However, the main challenge of the teacher model is to ensure that students have sufficient opportunities to discuss their findings (Authors, 2014). Emphasizing and providing support to the consolidating phases of inquiry seems to be an important improvement of the teaching model. The Budding Science and Literacy studies also underline the importance of repeating activities and cycles of inquiry. This is clearly articulated by a teacher on a BSL course explaining how his students first were frustrated when asked to repeat an experiment, and how they gradually became more and more engaged doing the experiment again and again, investigating it just like researchers do. Conclusively, still more professional development courses continue to use the improved Budding Science and Literacy teaching model. This opens for new possibilities for additional improvement and support for integrated science inquiry and literacy instruction.

References

Author (2014) Author (2015) Authors (2009) Authors (2014) Barber, et al. (2007) Seeds of science. Roots of reading. Nashville: Delta Education. Cervetti, et al (2012) The impact of an integrated approach to science and literacy in elementary school classrooms. JRST, 49, 631–658. Crawford, B.A. (2014) From inquiry to scientific practices in the science classroom. InN. Lederman & S.Abell (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education. NY:Routledge. Norris, S.P., & Phillips, L.M. (2003) How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy. SciEdu, 87(2), 224–240. Pearson, et al (2010) Literacy and science Science, 328, 459–463. Rocard, et al. (2007) Science education NOW Brussels:European Commission.

Author Information

Marianne Odegaard (presenting / submitting)
University of Oslo
Department of Teacher Education and School Research
Oslo
Sonja Merethe Mork
University of Oslo, Norway
Berit Synnøve Haug
University of Oslo, Norway
Gard Ove Sorvik
University of Oslo, Norway

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