Science Teacher Education
Advanced Methods Project
Work Package 6 Overview
Inquiry-based methods and professional
development
Management Board Meeting
Lefkosia, May 2010
1
WP6: Objective
• To incorporate state-of-the-art knowledge about inquirybased methods in science into effective professional
development programmes for teachers, with the intent to
improve pupils’ attitudes, motivation and career choice
disposition towards science.
– Professional development packages
– Implementation / Evaluation data
– Case studies
NOTES
• The co-ordination effort concentrates on facilitating coherence
and uniform interpretations of inquiry-oriented teaching and
learning as well as safeguarding the enrichment of the
different deliverables with case studies and other supporting
examples that will be useful for teachers in diverse contexts.
• Aligned with the activities of WP5 to achieve coherence
between the activities of the project in professional
development and in initial teacher education.
2
Deliverable categories
1. Professional Development Training
packages/workshop activities
2. Guides
–
–
–
For teachers
For teacher educators
For university-school collaboration
3. Book of Case Studies with DVD of classroom
data
3
WP6 Partners
Cyprus
Czech Rep.
Denmark
England
Finland
Lithuania
Norway
Sweden
Turkey
European University-Cyprus
University of Southern Bohemia
Aarhus University
University of Copenhagen
University of Leeds
Åbo Akademi University
University of Helsinki
University of Jyväskylä
Vilnius Pedagogical University
Norwegian Univ. Science & Technology
Mälardalen University
Gazi University
(CYCO)
(USB)
(AU)
(UCPH)
(UNIVLEEDS)
(ABO)
(HU)
(JyU)
(VPU)
(NTNU)
(MDU)
(GU)
4
Deliverables
Del. No
Description
Del. Details
Due
6a
WP6 Training materials Part 1
ABO: 6.10
NTNU: 6.12
M12
WP6 Training materials Part 2
CYCO: 6.1
VPU: 6.13
GU: 6.14
M18
6c
WP6 Training materials Part 3
CYCO: 6.2
USB: 6.3, 6.4
UniLeeds, MDU, JyU: 6.5, 6.6
UCPH: 6.7, 6.8
AU: 6.9
HU: 6.11
M24
6d
WP6 Training materials update
Part 4
ALL partners
M30
6e
Book
ALL partners
M30
6b
5
WP6 Year 1 in detail...
• Literature Review
M1 – M6
– To identify needs of science teaching communities to be addressed through the
Professional Development Programmes (PDPs)
• Methodology Design
M6 – M8
– The procedural plans for data collection and analysis on which the PDPs will be
based
• Evaluation Design
M7 – M9
– Methods for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the training package
• Data Collection Report
M12
– Description of the data collected and their role in shaping the PDP
• Data Analysis Report
M13 – M15
– The findings derived from the analysis of the data collected and the ways that this
will support the design of the PDP
6
WP6: Partner Contributions
Year 1
7
Inquiry in science education
• Numerous calls for
promoting inquiry in
school science.
• However, the agenda
has not yet transferred
widely to instructional
practice for a number of
reasons.
8
Scientific Inquiry: Where we started from…
• Diverse interpretations of what is important about inquiry
• Disagreements about the development of abilities for
scientific inquiry
– Developmental perspective
– Critique to developmental perspectives
– Perspective that abilities can be explicitly taught
• Disagreements regarding what productive inquiry entails
– Scientific Inquiry refers to
• the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose
explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.
• the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and
understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how
scientists study the natural world
– An important aspect of inquiry is the pursuit of causal, increasingly
coherent explanations of natural phenomena (Hammer, 2004)
9
WP6: Professional Development Packages
• Teacher Responsiveness to Student Scientific Inquiry
•
CYCO
• Supporting classroom-based (dialogic) inquiry in IBST/E
– JyU
– MDU
– UnivLeeds
• Supporting Student Motivation in science through IBST/E
– USB
– HU
– AU
• Promoting Scientific Literacy
– UCPH
• The use of open investigations and V-heuristics within IBST/E
– ABO
• The use of interdisciplinary approaches in IBST/E - the context of
problem-based teaching
– VPU
• The use of cross-curricular projects in design and technology in IBST/E
– NTNU
• The use of interactive computer animations in IBST/E
– GU
10
However…
• A variety of focal areas
• But… a common structure:
• To develop PDP:
– Review of literature and local contexts
– Collect CSm (analysis of data)
– Develop evaluation programs for pilot PDP
– Structure of PDP
– Pilot (test), collect data, evaluate process and outcomes of PDP
– Revise PDP
11
WP6 Year 1
• Collection, analysis and organization of Case Study
materials (CSm)
• CSm refer to the data collection upon which the
PDP will be based and developed
– (a) investigation(s) of the current needs of the science
teacher/student community in the corresponding domain;
the outcome can then be used as guidance for the
development of the PDP approach and content;
– (b) examples of teaching practice in science that
include implementation of IBST/E; these can be used as
part of the PDP to guide teacher thinking & discussion;
– (c) other ways that can support the development and
12
implementation of the PDP.
Supporting Classroombased Inquiry
13
European University Cyprus - CYCO
• Contact person: Costas Constantinou, Loucas Louca, Cyprus
• Area of focus: develop teaching strategies for supporting
student abilities for scientific inquiry (Teacher Responsiveness
to Student Scientific Inquiry): teachers’ abilities to identify,
interpret, and appropriately respond to their students’ in-class
scientific thinking and reasoning abilities
• PDP: 3 separate small-scale (twelve 3-hour meetings) PDP for
Kindergarten, Elementary and Middle School levels.
• Data collection: current needs of science teaching in Cyprus




Policy makers - workshop
Science teachers – focus group
Videos of exemplary science teaching practices
Teaching practices for supporting student inquiry
14
European University Cyprus - CYCO
• Data Analysis
 policy makers – principles for PDP:




school-based PDPs
long term and systematic PDPs
teachers should identified focus areas relating to daily teaching needs
reflection on daily teaching practices
 focus group discussions
 pedagogical and pedagogical-content knowledge



teachers’ lack of knowledge / confidence concerning IBSE
a need for pedagogic support and materials especially for younger
children
a need to develop science teaching skills/strategies and coherent
thinking on how to relate these strategies to classroom situations
 Epistemic and epistemological knowledge

need deep understanding of science & science topics, so as to
respond effectively to students’ questions especially those beyond
15
the lessons’ objectives
European University Cyprus - CYCO
 Teaching practices for supporting student inquiry
– A large repertoire of instructional practices that teachers choose from
during instruction
– There is much more in teacher discourse than simple questions
– The use of those practices depend on the context and the
epistemological characteristics of the content of the student
discourse
– Showing sophistication in identifying and evaluating student
contributions to the conversation prior to any instructional response.
– Develop a repertoire of teacher actions and responses including
questions, teacher prompts, clarifications, evaluations and
restatements of student contributions.
– Take student contributions to include not only knowledge claims and
ideas, but also student reasoning and inquiry, student
epistemologies, and student’s use of empirical data and everyday
experiences to support their ideas.
•
16
Videos: examples of science teaching practices IBST/E
Principles for PDPs
• School-based PDPs
– Groups of teachers from school volunteer
– Create communities of science teachers – but mostly within schools for
starters!
• Collaboration with the wider education community
– Two Universities, Ministry of Education
– Submitted to be recognized as a credits for promotion
• Relate theoretical pedagogical principles to daily teaching
practice
– Participating teaches identify the focus area(s) of the PDPs based on
their daily teaching needs
– Use reflection on daily teaching practices
– Relate to the National Curriculum
• Long –term systematic Professional development
– Kick-of meeting
– Over 6 months (October – April)
– National conference
• Quality assessment
17
Structure for PDPs
• Theoretical framework
• Examples of inquiring teaching and learning from
local contexts
• Investigations in science
• Design, implement, evaluate, reflect (Action
research approach…)
18
University of Jyväskylä - JyU
• Contact person: Ilkka Ratinen, Finland
• Area of focus: Classroom-based dialogic inquiry
• PDP: PDP for developing primary student-teachers’ skills
in supporting dialogic inquiry (thematic focus: global
warming).
• Data collection




Student-teachers’ preconceptions about science teaching and
learning (pre/post ‘informal’ written answers)
Student-teachers’ interviews - inquiry-based and dialogic
teaching (mid point of course)
Student-teachers’ observation reports on communicative
approaches in lessons
Student-teachers’ study project report
19
University of Jyväskylä - JyU
• Data Analysis
 Student-teachers’ preconceptions focused mostly on:
 teaching methods - traditional authoritative science teaching, no
modeling of scientific study process.
 pedagogy - using pupils’ own experiences, otherwise they
reflected traditional ideas of teaching
 communication
 interviews – need to support
 learning as a process
 problem based science teaching
 planning study
 observation reports on communicative approaches
 dialogic teaching is not typical
 study project report - need to support
 students’ content and pedagogical content knowledge in dialogic
teaching situations
20
Mälardalen University- MDU
• Contact person: Margareta Enghag, Sweden
• Area of focus: Classroom-based dialogic inquiry
• PDP: The PDP will concentrate on five science teachers
in lower secondary schools and will consist of ten
meetings with each teacher.
• Data collection





audio-recorded interviews with teachers
video-recorded teaching sequences
pupils’ written texts, teacher’s writing during science lessons
pupils’ evaluations and reflections
written reviews from teachers
21
Mälardalen University- MDU
• Data Analysis
 video-recorded teaching sequences and researchers’
notes (pre & post PDP pilot)



support pedagogical content knowledge
increase dialogic teaching and use of inquiry
support the use of more science concepts and writing to make
the concepts explicit.
• Evaluation is still being carried out on the following
points:




pupils’ written texts, teacher’s writing during science lessons
pupils’ evaluations and reflections
written reviews from teacher
audio-recorded interviews with teachers
22
University of Leeds - UnivLeeds
• Contact person: Jaume Ametller, UK
• Area of focus: Classroom-based dialogic inquiry
• PDP: One PDP for secondary school science teachers
over one semester
• Data collection and Data Analysis reports
these are still pending as the dates for data collection
were pushed back by the schools involved in the project
leading to a delay of about 1 month
23
Promoting Student
Motivation in Science
24
Aarhus University - AU
• Contact person: Lars Brian Krogh, Denmark
• Area of focus: Improving upper secondary science
teachers’ capacities to motivate students.
• PDP: Motivation in Practice - an in-service-training
programme for science teachers in Danish upper
secondary school (5 workshops, 4 months).
• Data collection:
 research-based evidence for the identification of current needs
 empirical data on students’ interest in science subjects and
perceptions on learning environments and teacher interaction
 teachers’ reflective essays on motivation
 workshop videos and evaluation of implemented lessons
25
Aarhus University - AU
Data Analysis
 empirical data on students’ interest in science subjects and
perceptions on learning environments and teacher interaction
 students’ motivation is largely understood in terms of SelfDetermination Theory (emphasis on students’ Relatedness,
Autonomy, Competence)
 IBSE approaches balancing student Autonomy and Learning
Environment Structure tended to support students’ motivation
 teachers’ reflective essays on motivation
 narrow range of motivational strategies with essential gaps in
their thinking suggesting need for a multi-dimensional PDP
intervention
 workshop videos and evaluation of implemented lessons
 identification of rationales, categories, and quality criteria of video
clips for use in PDP
26
University of South Bohemia - USB
• Contact person: Jan Petr, Czech Republic
• Area of focus: Use of science-centred competitions to
improve student motivation in science
• PDP: two training packages
– one day workshop for in-service teachers
– pre-service PDP over 14 lessons - one term
• Data collection
 students’ motivation in prospective and active participation in
science competitions
 semi-structured interview/questionnaire data of pre & in-service
teachers’ opinions about Biology Olympiad and their own needs
to support /prepare for science competitions
 analysis of a series of available tasks used in science centred
competitions with a potential value for IBST/E
27
University of South Bohemia - USB
Data Analysis
 Students’ motivation - open coding of the students’ questionnaires
 values and attitudes of significant others play an important role
 inquiry/mastery orientation is important
 adaptive goal orientation with strong commitment to their goals and
strong emotional pay off of the effort investment.
 Pre & in-service teachers’ opinions of BiO
 limited information and knowledge concerning IBSE
 BiO only for motivated students not an integral link for science learning
 want ‘ready’ IBSE tasks, demonstrations and experiments for use
 teachers do not have experience and knowledge to transform selected
BiO tasks into pupils motivation and lessons based on IBSE.
 Analysis of available tasks used in science centred competitions
 Many tasks develop creative thinking, knowledge communication,
intellectual operation with knowledge, skills and know-how in
laboratory experiments and observation
 they incorporate practical laboratory tasks or hands-on activities with
preparation and management methods and will be useful in PDPs.
28
Helsinki University - HU
• Contact person: Kalle Juuti, Finland
• Area of focus: student motivation & inquiry
• PDP: a 6-month in-service programme including 3 twoday seminars and various school activities
• Data collection:





literature, policy documents (WP2)
teacher interviews (pre and post interviews)
observations of participating teachers’ lessons (videos pre and
post PDP)
observations from piloted PDPs (teachers’ recorded reflections
on their lessons)
pupils’ opinions on the motivational features of the teaching and
the features of the implemented inquiry
29
Helsinki University - HU
Data Analysis
• teacher interviews
– Identified different teacher views about teaching practices IBST/E related to
the nature of science, the design of investigations, the communication of
findings among peers, and the role of scientific models in teaching and
learning in IBST/E
• observations of lessons to validate the results from teacher interviews.
– Portion of time spend of various activities in relation with what teachers
indicate in the interviews.
• Teachers’ reflections on their lessons
– The teachers expressed a feeling of unexpectedness describing each
science lesson in which inquiry teaching was more effective than their
expectation.
– Such surprise was revealed to be linked with their previous belief and
practice measured by the semi-structured interview and lesson videos
collected.
30
Promoting Student
Scientific Literacy
31
University of Copenhagen - UCPH
• Contact person: Robert Evans, Denmark
• Area of focus: Scientific literacy
• PDP: support cross-curricular science education and scientific
literacy
• Data collection: 4 pilot implementations of the PDP with both
in-service and pre-service secondary science teachers.
Feedback from the video analyses and questionnaires of
earlier trials were used to modify the later trials.




pre and post questionnaires - teachers’ perceptions about inquiry
open-ended feedback questionnaire - on the three essential workshop
elements (the concept maps, inquiry video samples and participant
sample teaching)
self-efficacy questionnaire - assesses the participants’ capacity beliefs
videos analysed for evidence of inquiry teaching targeted at specific
32
scientific literacy goals.
University of Copenhagen - UCPH
• Data Analysis
 teachers’ perceptions about inquiry
–
–
Cairo - teachers all ‘knew’ about ‘inquiry’ but in a theoretical sense rather than a
practical day-to-day teaching way.
Trondheim - teacher educators were quite familiar with inquiry instruction but not
likely to see it in its most constructivistic experimental form.
 self efficacy generally improved where pre/post comparison possible
 videos made in Cairo had beginning elements of IBST but were not all good
examples of its use. The live inquiry teaching lessons in Trondheim mostly
showed good if incomplete applications of inquiry teaching
 concept maps, inquiry video samples and participant sample teaching




near consensus about the value of video teaching examples despite technical
problems
maps seen as potentially useful, but comments were not as positive as for videos
criticisms about the complexity of some of the maps and about unclear
directions about their use
33 and
feedback on making inquiry teaching videos was very positive with teachers
teacher-educators - criticism mostly over the technical hurdles in producing them.
Other Areas
34
Abo Akademi University - ABO
• Contact person: Berit Kurtén-Finnäs, Finland
• Area of focus: The use of open investigations and Vheuristics within science education, including how the
learning of students from non-mainstream backgrounds
can be supported
• PDP: a web-based course package for Chemistry
Didactics (grade 7).
• Data collection: (taken from a research paper which
was submitted in place of a lit review)





21 students in investigations group - 383 in control group
students’ beliefs, attitudes, self-concept and interest
communication in the laboratory group
teacher beliefs and attitudes
teachers’ attitudes to laboratory work
35
Work to catch up with…
• ABO Finland
– It is not clear whether the group will engage with the case
study methodology and the process we have decided upon
36
Vilinius Pedagogical University - VPU
• Contact person: Dalius Dapkus, Lithuania
• Area of focus: promote the use of interdisciplinary
approaches of IBST/E in the context of problem-based
teaching
• PDP: three PDP (biology, chemistry and physics) for the
realisation of interdisciplinary relationships using
problem-based teaching for pre-service and in-service
teachers of lower secondary science
• Data collection


student-teachers’ attitudes on the use of interdisciplinary
relationships
in-service science teacher interviews about the PDP and the
experience of implementing problem-based teaching
37
Vilnius Pedagogical University - VPU
• Data Analysis
 Currently:



information transferred/explained from textbooks
pupils acquire theoretical knowledge, but lack abilities to plan and realize
experiments, to read and analyse measurements, to use different
sources of information.
pupils lack deeper understanding of concepts, processes and
phenomena, how to use knowledge in practice, observe or perform
experiments or laboratory works, and do not formulate hypothesis
 Need to
 focus on PCK in pre-service teacher preparation




weak competencies in using new teaching methods,
poor understanding of advantages and disadvantages of integration
of different subjects and
weak competencies to find relationships among science subjects
address problems related to didactic competencies of practising
38
science teachers.
Norwegian University of Science &
Technology - NTNU
• Contact person: Berit Bungum, Norway
• Area of focus: how science can be used and learnt in a
cross-curricular project in design and technology and
how a technological setting can act as an arena for
inquiry-based learning in science
PDP: provide a teacher guide and DVD which together
form a training package. It will showcase a best practice
case, where an extensive and innovative cross-curricular
project in design and technology is run for two entire
weeks
• Data collection


a research study utilising video material on the potential for
inquiry-based learning in technological contexts
Informal talks with teachers and pupils
39
Norwegian University of Science &
Technology - NTNU

the teaching project in itself does not have a specific focus on inquiry
learning but situations where inquiry occurs with the purpose of
exposing and exploring the potential cross-curricular technology
projects have for learning by inquiry have been highlighted.
 it is clear from the field work that important requirements for inquiry in
this setting are
 high quality standards are set
 pupils get enough time to develop a high quality product. When
these requirements are met, pupils go intensively into inquiry
processes led by their own motivation and desire to succeed.
 learning science in a practical, technological context has the potential
of providing pupils with more authentic experiences of how scientists
work in modern society, enhance learning by situating the knowledge
in the contexts of use and finally enhancing pupils’ motivation by
counteracting ‘the tyranny of school science’ (Bencze, 2001) by
advocating ‘technoscience’ as alternative to traditional science
40
teaching.
Some work to catch up with…
• NTNU Norway
– No full literature review document, only a draft workplan – no
response to feedback given
– Short Methodology document
– Short evaluation document
– It is not clear whether the group will be able to produce a full
case study
41
Gazi University - GU
• Contact person: Mehmet Fatih Tasar, Turkey
• Area of focus: the use of interactive computer animations
in inquiry-based science teaching/education.
• PDP: Develop in-service science teachers’ technological
pedagogical content knowledge
• Data collection
• Current teaching practices concerning TRE, pre and inservice science teachers’ needs related to TRE and IBST/E
and difficult science subjects.



questionnaire on teachers’ classroom practices and perceptions of
technology rich environments (TRE) and
questionnaire and semi-structured interviews- difficult science
subject to teach and learn (grades 6-8)
semi-structured interviews with pre and in-service teachers –views
42
and needs of TRE and IBST/E;
Gazi University - GU
• Data Analysis
 Student and teacher difficulties in learning and teaching about force
and motion
 teachers’ classroom practices and perceptions of technology rich
environments (TRE). Teachers need support in order to


use IT in science lesson for TRE
develop technological pedagogical content knowledge
 pre and in-service teachers’ views and needs of TRE


lack of technology competences to create a TRE in science teaching
difficult to find and create technology rich materials such as animations,
simulations, video for every subject,
–
Need to develop teachers’ technological pedagogical content
knowledge
 pre and in service teachers’ views and needs of IBST/E;

–
do not know how to use inquiry-based science in their instruction.
Need for a professional development program to develop their
competencies in inquiry-based teaching.
43
WP6 – The next steps…
Year 2
44
WP6 the coming months
• Development of the PDP
M15 – M18
– Common structure
– Meeting during mid-project conference for sharing and feedback
• Implementation of the PDP
M19 – M25
– Collection of pilot data for evaluation of the PDP
• Evaluation of the PDP
M24 – M25
– Analysis of data
• Book Chapters - Case Study Reports
M23 – M30
– Provide the science teacher-education community with examples
of PDP and the data they were based on, how these worked and
in what ways, how their implementation was evaluated and
gradually improved them.
• Revisions to PDP
M30 – M33
45
Case Studies Book
• Editorial Board
–
–
–
–
–
–
Costas Constantinou (WP6)
Loucas Louca (WP6)
Peter Gray (WP10)
Matthias Stadler (WP3)
Allan Blake (WP5)
Marit Honerød Hoveid (WP6)
• The book will use IBST/E as a theoretical framework,
seeking to develop and illustrate connections between
knowledge deriving from
– the science education research community (scientific knowledge),
– the science educators’ community (teaching practices), and
– educational innovation,
• Thus, the book seeks to provide the science teachereducation community with new knowledge related to
innovative ways of developing and implementing PDP. 46
Guidelines for the Book
• The book will aim to provide the STEC with
– (a) examples of materials for professional development,
– (b) descriptions of the process of developing research-validated
PDP, and
– (c) examples of implementation of PDP in particular contexts.
• The book will also include a limited number of reports
regarding case study materials (CSm) which will be used
for the development of the case study research report.
• Contributions from other WPs may deviate from this
format but they will also need to adopt a Case Study
approach and include data from implementation
activities.
47