Science Teacher Education Advanced Methods Project

Work Package 6 OverviewInquiry-based methods and professional

development

Management Board Meeting

Lefkosia, May 2010

1

WP6: Objective• To incorporate state-of-the-art knowledge about inquiry-

based 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 European University-Cyprus (CYCO)

Czech Rep. University of Southern Bohemia (USB)

Denmark Aarhus University (AU)

University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

England University of Leeds (UNIVLEEDS)

Finland Åbo Akademi University (ABO)

University of Helsinki (HU)

University of Jyväskylä (JyU)

Lithuania Vilnius Pedagogical University (VPU)

Norway Norwegian Univ. Science & Technology (NTNU)

Sweden Mälardalen University (MDU)

Turkey Gazi University (GU)

4

Deliverables

Del. No Description Del. Details Due

6a WP6 Training materials Part 1 ABO: 6.10NTNU: 6.12

M12

6b WP6 Training materials Part 2 CYCO: 6.1VPU: 6.13GU: 6.14

M18

6c WP6 Training materials Part 3

CYCO: 6.2USB: 6.3, 6.4 UniLeeds, MDU, JyU: 6.5, 6.6UCPH: 6.7, 6.8AU: 6.9HU: 6.11

M24

6d WP6 Training materials update Part 4

ALL partners M30

6e Book ALL partners M30 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 implementation of the PDP.

12

Supporting Classroom-based 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 the lessons’ objectives

15

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.

• Videos: examples of science teaching practices IBST/E

16

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 situations20

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 Self-

Determination 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 - USBData 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 two-

day 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 inquiry29

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 scientific

literacy goals. 32

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 feedback on making inquiry teaching videos was very positive with teachers and

teacher-educators - criticism mostly over the technical hurdles in producing them.

33

Other Areas

34

Abo Akademi University - ABO

• Contact person: Berit Kurtén-Finnäs, Finland• Area of focus: The use of open investigations and V-heuristics

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 science teachers.

38

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 teaching.40

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 in-service 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 and needs of

TRE and IBST/E;

42

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 teacher-education 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