Key Note
Evidence-Based Education
Eleni Chatzichristou
CityUnity College
1st Pedagogical Conference
City Unity College &
Liverpool John Moores University
Science Education – Europe
• Decline in the number of university students enrolling
in engineering and scientific disciplines.
• Existing Science Education approaches are inefficient in
creating STEM vocations and achieving scientific
literacy for students.
• Do not enhance critical thinking, creativity, problem
solving capacities, cooperative abilities, communication
skills, job-embedded learning and intrinsic motivation.
• European authorities and the international scientific
community have acknowledged IBSE's relevance to the
teaching of STEM subjects from an early age.
Inquiry Based Science Education
• The IBSE framework is bringing authenticity to the
practice of teaching and learning science in school, by
introducing science through inquiry just as scientists
practice it.
• It aims to use authentic scientific questions and
problems to be dealt with by applying authentic
procedural and reasoning skills and practices, in
authentic scientific contexts, to produce authentic
scientific knowledge.
• It aims to convert what scientists know and do into
something a student can learn about and learn how
to do at her/his level.
IBSE-Current Challenges
• Efforts of European projects such as Pollen (FP6),
Mind the Gap, S-Team, Scienceduc, Fibonacci and
MaterialsScience, EU-HOU (FP7), among others, have
been directed to implement IBSE among teachers and
pupils.
• However, it is very difficult to find a problem in the
STEM field that is relevant for students and can be
solved in school labs, with the use of school-based
data.
• Often there is lack of a sophisticated and effective
training, support and material strategy for teachers
facing the challenge of changing their habitual
practice of teaching science in a traditional way.
Science Education Perspectives
• IBSE is a pedagogical method that benefits from the
knowledge-creating potential of scientific practice
(modeling, argumentation, inquiry), focusing on scientific
concepts, procedures, attitudes and values.
• It has to provide opportunities that lead students to face
challenging problems that require creating possible
explanations, testing these ideas against sophisticated
data and constructing more sophisticated explanations.
• Students, like scientists, should work collaboratively and
independently to solve complex data-rich problems,
construct evidence-based explanations of natural
phenomena and share and communicate them.
• IBSE should promote an image of science being
profoundly human, a social and cultural activity that
allows us to achieve some meaning.
.
Science Education Perspectives
• Provision of collaborative and on-going support and
mentoring structures for science teachers.
• Teacher communities (collaborate among themselves
and with others to reinvent practice and share
professional growth): Communities of Practice (CoP),
Professional Learning Communities (PLC).
• Provision of sophisticated and easily adaptable
learning environments (e.g. STOCHASMOS platform).
• Change the content of Science Curricula introducing
contemporary science to promote engagement.
• Personal contact with scientists (in particular young
people, women or local scientists).
Space Research for IBSE
• Space research interdisciplinary profile makes it a
suitable context where to learn about basic physics,
chemistry, biology, geology, technology, mathematics
and engineering, among other subjects.
• Space is a natural research laboratory where the
products and resources that will contribute to the
progress of society can be tested.
• Space can convey the challenges and successes ofern
scientific endeavor to the younger generation in a
comprehensive and inspiring way.
• Students hold “intrinsically” deep interest in Space
Science.
Science Education Greece
• The Greek Ministry of Education and Life-Long
Learning is currently engaged in a major effort to
upgrade the national education system.
• Special emphasis is placed in
modernizing the teaching practices
and moving from the current school
paradigm of passive learning to a
new school model centered on the
student.
Towards the New School (source: ME-LLL)
Science Education Greece
• In the scope of improving education at all levels (from
primary to higher) the government promotes
digitization of learning material, interactive teaching
methods in classroom, and hands-on activities.
• The student becomes a “young
researcher”, a “young intellectual”,
a “young scientist”. The new teaching
paradigm hopes to develop within the
young people the spirit of creativity
and innovation.
Digitized learning (source: ME-LLL)
Current Teacher Training System
• In the center of this major effort, the Ministry places
the School Teacher.
• Particular effort on the training of teachers nationwide, focusing on pedagogical methods in classroom,
on the application of new technologies in education
and on alternative student evaluation methods.
• The teacher training at national level takes place
through interactive workshops, distance and on-line
training, and feedback seminars.
• The Ministry foresees 200 hrs of training per teacher
(split equally between face-to-face and distance
training activities).
Education Stake Holders
• Pedagogical Department of the National University of
Athens: involved in several teacher training programs and
European collaborations (e.g. European Pedagogical ICT).
Offers Masters programs for education professionals,
including Science Teaching.
• Eugenides Foundation: developed a multi-disciplinary
Interactive Exhibition Center of Research and Technology
and a digital planetarium; involved in the preparation of
educational scenarios promoting IBSE methods.
• Noesis Science Centre and Technology Museum: includes
interactive technology park, cosmo-theater, digital
planetarium,
virtual
reality
simulator,
mobile
amphitheater for demonstration of science experiments,
and the Centre for Creativity and Innovation where novel
educational activities take place.
National Observatory of Athens
• It is the oldest research institute in Greece and in the Balkan
area. It offers high-level research and expertise, and
educational services of multi-disciplinary nature.
• It is involved in several public outreach and educational
activities: yearly seminar series and workshops delivered by
the Observatory’s researchers to secondary education
teachers and summer schools including hands-on activities. I
• SARS has also been involved with the HOU and Europlanet
projects (Greek coordinator), thus has rich experience in
inquiry based astronomy education and has established
strong connections with teacher associations nationwide.
• Regular field trips of schools to the Observatory campus give
to teachers and pupils the opportunity to interact with
scientists at work.
School and Teacher Networks
Very active in promoting new material, exchanging
ideas, announcing workshops, contests, best teaching
practices:
– National School Network (http://www.sch.gr/)
– Education Gate for digital content (http://www.eyliko.gr/default.aspx)
– 13 nation-wide Peripheral Directorates of Primary and
2ndary Education (http://www.doe.gr/diaf/perdie.pdf)
– Union of Greek Teachers of Physics and Technology
(http://www.eef.gr/)
– Hellenic Mathematics Society (http://www.hms.gr/)