Session Information
10 SES 11 A, Research on Programmes and Pedagogical Approaches in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
As an EU Framework 7 project, the S-TEAM project aims to help European science teachers to use more inquiry-based methods. One issue is that national educational cultures vary, creating challenges for researchers in meeting this aim, or in arriving at a common interpretation of inquiry across the project. Also, the programme of national workshops conducted in S-TEAM partner countries has found that few national strategies exist for the professional development of science teachers in inquiry-based methods (S-TEAM 2010a), with implications for their philosophy, quality, coherence, efficacy and wider uptake. It is the understanding, however, that European collaboration may be desirable precisely because national players are constrained by local factors (S-TEAM 2010b), that led us to ask how to provide a model that might help science teachers internationally to examine their own practice, so that both they and their pupils are engaged in more inquiry-based education. Applying Whitehead’s (1989, 2000) living theory concept as a guide for resolving practitioners’ conflicts between actual practice and that desired, and Feist’s (2006) review of the cognitive activities of scientists in relation to children’s and adults’ everyday thinking, it is argued that the limitations of policy and research may be in denying teachers the ability usefully to conceptualise inquiry for themselves.
Drawing upon S-TEAM (2010c; d), Whitehead (1989, 2000) and Feist (2006), we offer a framework that allows academics to think about the first 'I' - inquiring into how to help teachers develop more inquiry-based methods within their own contexts; the second 'I' - teachers conceptualising the issues for themselves in their own contexts; and the third 'I' - pupils being better supported in developing aspects of scientific thinking. The framework is in the form of a continuing professional development module for science teachers that we believe can be applied internationally. It is the details of the learning that will vary for researchers, teachers and pupils in different international contexts.
The first I - the learning of researchers in their own contexts- will be through the data collected through recordings of sessions, the submission of artefacts by participants, and through the participant evaluation of the module delivery, and will include the teachers’ conceptions of inquiry; their conceptions of the issues that affect making their practice more inquiry-based; the intervention questions and practice methods they choose; how these changes better support scientific thinking; their own evaluations of the outcomes of their interventions; and their evaluation of our input.
The module is evaluated from our perspective through the question:
How does this programme further the empowerment of teachers to themselves further the empowerment of their pupils to engage effectively in inquiry-based learning?
The second I -the learning of teachers -will be through developing conceptual and practical solutions to making their own practice more inquiry-based and through evaluating the impacts on their pupils’ learning and development of scientific thinking.
The third I will develop as pupils become better able to understand and self-direct the process of scientific thinking in their learning, so using more inquiry themselves.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Angelides, P., Evangelou, M., & Leigh, J. (2005). Implementing a collaborative model of action research for teacher development. Educational Action Research, 13, 275–290. Evans, M., Lomax, P., & Morgan, H. (2000). Closing the circle: action research partnerships towards better learning and teaching in schools. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30, 405–419. Feist, G. J. (2006) The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientific Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press. Gillies, D. J. M. (2006) ‘A curriculum for excellence: a question of values’, Scottish Educational Review, 38, 25-36. The Scottish Government (2009) Curriculum for Excellence: Sciences, Principles and Practice, Edinburgh: The Scottish Government. Smith, C. (2010) ‘The implications of early professional learning for schools and local authorities’, in J. McNally, & A. Blake (eds) Improving learning in a professional context: A research perspective on the new teacher in school, London: Routledge. Smith C., Kelly, F. and Mackenzie, S. (2010) Support for Scientific Thinking in School Science Investigations: A Teaching Tool. In S-TEAM deliverable, 6.1, Developing Scientific Thinking in the Classroom Through Inquiry. S-TEAM: https://www.ntnu.no/wiki/download/attachments/8325736/Deliverable+6a+April+2010.pdf?version=1 Spradley, J. P. (1979) The ethnographic interview, New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston. S-TEAM (2010a) S-TEAM preliminary report, Trondheim: NTNU (Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet). S-TEAM (2010b) Science Fiction: Inquiries into the future of science education, Glasgow: University of Strathclyde. S-TEAM (2010c) Deliverable, 6.1, Developing Scientific Thinking in the Classroom Through Inquiry. S-TEAM: https://www.ntnu.no/wiki/download/attachments/8325736/Deliverable+6a+April+2010.pdf?version=1 S-TEAM (2010d) Baseline Report and Indicators Review, Munich: TUM School of Education/ Whitehead, J. (1989) ‘Creating a Living Educational Theory from Questions of the Kind, “How do I improve My Practice?”’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 19, 41-52. Whitehead, J. (2000) How Do I Improve My Practice? Creating and legitimating an epistemology of practice. Reflective Practice, 1, pp 91-104.
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