Science Plaza Professional development in an online habitat

Svava Pétursdóttir Ed.D

Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education

Helsinki June 2014

Perceived needs

• I am the only science teacher in this

school and have nobody to talk to

• I learn most from talking to other teachers

• It is ridiculous that we are each working in

our own corner

• This subject is difficult to teach, my

knowledge is not strong enough

What is a plaza?

A plaza …

• A project with diverse connections to

stakeholders, in which the aim is to

strengthen a specific curricular area with

the help of digital tools.

• A community of practice

Teacher community

Pedagogical knowledge

Technical knowledge

Content knowledge

Government

Tech steward

Educational community

Education

Plaza

Aims of the Plaza – to strengthen

science education • To increase cooperation between science

teachers.

• To establish a collection of teaching resources.

• To facilitate increased professional development

opportunities.

• To support the use of ICT in science education.

Research questions- Evaluation

• What features of the project meet the set

goals?

• To what extent is the project meeting its

goals?

• What lessons can be learned about the

role of the tech steward?

Online community Facebook

11

Website

Events f2f

Venue to : • Ask questions • Give and receive

advice • Share resources • Discuss teaching

practices e.g. practical work

Online community:

Purpose:

• Community building

• Facilitate sharing of knowledge and experience between peers

• Project start spring 2011 • Spring 2012 108 members • Spring 2013 180 members • Spring 2014 312 members

•From all educational levels • Experienced • Newly qualified • Textbook writers

What demonstrations do you

use when teaching chemical

reactions and where do you get

the materials?

Many ideas and discussions

about pupil reactions

13 comments, 15 ,,likes”

The word density has always disturbed me..... Discussion about the use and meaning of scientific concepts

+ guidance in using Facebook;)

Just saw a fun experiment on youtube, here is a link to instuctions to a lot of experiments , a handy website.

Cool, to put a stopwatch on the projector if you are measuring heartrates with pupils

Menntakvika 2011

Any ideas for teaching nuclear energy to year 10? 13 replies. Material for a whole teaching sequence.

Nature of activity in the group

2012-2013 2011-2012

Total posts 388 226

Posts receiving comments 70% 56%

Posts receiving comments

and/or likes 89% 73%

1% 2% 1% 2% 3%

49%

42%

Individual posts 12-13 from 54 participants

yfir 100 innlegg

81-100

61-80

41-60

21-40

1-20

0

Over 100 posts

Comments from user

survey about the

Facebook group

All good

discussions,

I follow them

though I have

not been very

active. I though

have contacted

teachers

directly to get

good advice.

Good ideas

that people

post that

make you

think about

what you

can change

and

improve :-)

Do keep up

this group and

get more

people

involved in

bringing in

ideas and

something

interesting

and educative

for science

education.

F2f activities • Meetings, Edu-Camps and workshops

• Peer learning

• Give access to expertise

• Support community building

• Narrow themes/topics

• Different target groups by school level

• Participants contribute

• Ideas and advice flow freely during events

• Events held in schools = no cost

• Contributions recorded and presented on the

SciencePlaza

Educamps

Impact from Edu-Camps

• Courage and knowledge to

do practical work.

• Opportunities for peer

learning and professional

development.

EduCamps have been great in all regards. It was good to meet other

teachers and get good ideas. My participation has had a positive

influence on me as a teacher, better teacher, better teaching. I have

used these ideas with good results.

The webpage http://natturutorg

• A necessary front

• Growing content

• User created

“I have visited the webpage

and used materials from

it.”

Good to be able to go

to the resource bank,

that you do not have

to look everywhere

for resources and

ideas and try to

remember where this

and that webpage is

and so on….

I think it should be

linked to all the ideas

from the edu-camps

and where teacher

could share more

ideas and pupil

tasks. A resource

bank with teaching

ideas, worksheets

and such

Results – Future – Next steps

• The project is meeting its aims to a degree

– Wider catchment area (urban areas)

• There is a need for leadership and

organisation

• Activities complements each other

• Resource banks

• Smaller communities

• Formal CPD

No longer paddling alone!

Still lone canoers out there, active community too small

Collaboration, cooperation,

community of practice

Takk!

Kiitos!

Tack!

Takk!

Tak!

Thanks!

http://slideshare.net/svavap/

svavap@hi.is

@svavap