The role of socioscientific issues in biology teaching: from the perspective of teachers

ABSTRACT

Previous research has documented that students who engage with socioscientific issues can acquire some of the complex competences and skills typically related to scientific literacy. But an emerging field of research on science teachers’ understanding and use of socioscientific issues, has documented that a range of challenges hinders the uptake of socioscientific issues. In this study, we investigated the interpretation and implementation of socioscientific issues among Danish biology teachers. We conducted five in-depth group interviews and validated the emergent themes from the teachers’ talk-in-interaction by distributing a questionnaire. Our findings suggest that the participating teachers generally harbour a content-centred interpretation of socioscientific issues which manifests itself in at least three separate ways. First, the teachers generally use socioscientific issues as a vehicle to teach factual biological content. Second, the teachers emphasised mastery of factual content in their assessment. Third, the teachers tended to reduce socioscientific issues to specific biological contents in a way may preclude students from engaging with the real socioscientific issue. Our findings are particularly significant for science educators, policy-makers and curriculum designers, as we argue that key aspects of this content-centred interpretation may be a coping strategy used to navigate a divided curriculum.     

Teaching controversial issues in the secondary school science classroom

A sample of fourteen secondary school biology teachers chosen from twelve schools were interviewed. The purpose was to determine their views on how controversial issues in science might be handled in the secondary school science classroom and whether the issues of surrogacy and human embryo experimentation were suitable controversial issues for discussion in schools. In general, teachers indicated that controversial issues deserve a more prominent place in the science curriculum because they have the potential to foster thinking, learning, and interest in science. The issues of surrogacy and human embryo experimentation were seen as appropriate contexts for learning, provided that teachers were well informed and sensitive to both the students and to the school environment. Specializations: controversial issues in human reproductive biology, teacher education.     

Providing for student voice in classroom management: teachers’ views

Recent research indicates that teachers would prefer to allow for more student voice in classroom discipline decision‐making than is currently the case. This paper identifies factors that teachers suggest inhibit them from implementing their ideas of best disciplinary practice. It also examines which classroom discipline issues teachers are willing to submit to student voice. Among the most important inhibitors of best disciplinary practice identified by almost 300 Australian secondary teachers were: too many things to do; classroom size and layout; and a lack of support from the school administration. When presented with 30 varying management issues, an independent group of approximately 250 primary and secondary teachers nominated classroom conventions (e.g. tidiness of the classroom) and issues related to teaching and learning (e.g. seating arrangements) as those that they were most prepared to negotiate with students. In contrast they would prefer to concentrate the power of decision‐making in their own hands when managing issues pertaining to safety of students and moral issues such as racial and sexual discrimination.     

Benefits of collaborative action research for the beginning teacher

Beginning teachers are confronted with many issues as they begin their teaching careers, issues, such as classroom management, individual differences, behaviour problems, dealing with parents, and so on. Many beginning teachers take professional development seminars in an attempt to deal with these and other issues. Professional development seminars, however, may not address the specific issues faced by beginning teachers but rather focus on approaches that are more global. In this paper, we argue that the best approach to professional development is through a collaborative action research model. By extending the partnerships established between student teachers, mentor teachers and university supervisors during student teaching into the beginning teachers' career, many of the everyday problems can be confronted within a supportive network. Several recommendations are offered for beginning and maintaining productive CAR relationships.     

Science teachers' social conscience and the role of controversial issues in the teaching of science

The increasing number and variety of controversial scientific and technological issues with which citizens are confronted has led, in recent years, to calls for a schooling of science which prepares future citizens for participation in resolving such issues. We examined the social conscience of science teachers as it bears on the teaching of controversial issues. The study was conducted by interviewing teachers in two widely different English-speaking locations, Scotland and the United States. The research explores the perceptions of teachers with regard to the teaching of controversial issues, the problem of handling personal value positions when dealing with issues, and the tension that exists between the teaching of controversial issues and traditional value-free science curricula. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Primary School Sex Education Programs: Views and experiences of teachers in four primary schools in Sydney,Australia

This small-scale study draws on qualitative data from four government primary schools in Sydney, Australia to investigate the sex education given to grade five and six primary school children by their teachers. This article explores the sexuality issues teachers find difficult to discuss, and reports the concerns teachers have when teaching sexuality education. The practices teachers adopt to encourage parent-teacher partnerships in sex education are also reported. School programs varied in the coverage that was given to contraception and sexually transmitted infections while no school program formally addressed sexual identity and orientation, issues that were brought up by the children through their questions. Teacher concerns included what parents might think about the program and how to manage the different levels of maturity, knowledge and comfort among the children in their class. The article concludes that teachers need to continue fostering their partnership with parents and that many teachers require more opportunities for training so that they can address with comfort the sexuality issues of concern to children and their parents.     

Pre-service teachers’ attempts at debating contemporary issues in science education: A case study from Botswana

This paper constitutes an attempt to explore trends, issues and challenges that emerge when three different cohorts of pre-service teachers debate contemporary issues in science education at the University of Botswana. Apart from the author's experience of teaching the course, the impetus for this study also comes from a growing interest in the contemporary literature in the need for teachers who, in the context of globalization and knowledge economy, are ‘self-reforming’ through continually addressing the key issues of their profession. Unfortunately, the current situation is such that this burden of interrogation falls heaviest on teachers, despite their lack of skills in undertaking the task.     

Introducing technology education: Using teachers' questions as a platform for professional development

This paper explores the issues and concems identified by a small group of teachers implementing technology ideas using the national document,A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994a), represented in four key questions they posed as a result of reflection upon their existing ideas and practices, early in the study. These same issues and concerns framed their later experiences as the study progressed. The case study of one of the teachers is used, to illustrate how the teachers implemented technology education working from their own perspectives and tackling issues and concerns that made sense to them. By reviewing the teachers' own questions about technology implementation, it is becoming, clear that what may be important for professional development in technology education is related to the questions that the teachers themselves are asking about their own, beliefs and practices.     

Framing Controversial Identity Issues in Schools: The Case of HB2, Bathroom Equity,and Transgender Students

This article explores how teachers might address controversial identity issues in their classrooms, using the 2016 North Carolina House Bill 2 that raised the issue of transgender bathroom rights to the forefront of societal discourse as an example. I analyze the issue using the three most commonly cited criteria for determining the openness of controversial issues: epistemic, political, and politically authentic. I then discuss the challenges teachers face when confronted with issues that are epistemically settled but publicly open and implicate students' identities. I conclude by arguing that in those cases in which there exists a clear empirical justification for teaching a controversial identity issue as settled, doing so may be prudent even if it limits democratic discourse or presents an inherent risk for teachers.     

Ethical dilemmas of youth participatory action research in a democratic setting

ABSTRACT

This article discusses ethical issues involved in facilitating the research of young people on controversial issues. This article considers the potential ethical dilemmas of teachers facilitating a particular form of activism – youth participatory action research (YPAR). We consider how teachers foster school-wide conversations on difficult issues and support students who wish to take a critical stand on issues of race, class and gender. The article also discusses how to scaffold the exploration of topics that require emotional maturity and might lead to shifts in beliefs that run counter to the values of one’s family.     

Beyond the binary: rethinking teachers’ understandings of and engagement with inclusion

This article presents research into Canadian elementary and secondary teachers’ understandings of inclusion. The research investigates how a sample of 120 teachers in the southern part of Ontario defined inclusion, and the extent to which they believed an inclusive classroom is an effective way to teach all students. The article draws upon literature into how inclusion is currently defined followed by research into the politics of diversity in inclusive education; the latter signals the socio-political aporia which attends many understandings of inclusion. The study employs Nancy Fraser’s conception of justice as requiring redistribution, recognition, and representation; Fraser’s approach also demands attention to issues of recognition as intimately connected with concerns about social status. The findings reveal teachers’ relative lack of attention to issues of resourcing, but considerable emphasis upon issues of representation. While issues of recognition are largely valued, there is a tendency to reify categories of student identity, rather than challenging concerns about the lack of social status attending such foci. The research reveals a push ‘beyond the binary’ of considering teachers’ practices as either inclusive or exclusive, and how teachers’ engagement with resource provision, recognition of learners, and representation of student needs exists along contingent and intersecting spectra.     

Learning how to respond to current events: Partner journals between U. S. preservice teachers and children

The representation of a variety of stakeholders' voices during the deliberation of public issues is vital for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. This qualitative study examined an activity involving deliberation among children and preservice teachers in the United States. In the activity that we call partner journals, children were partnered with preservice teachers as pen pals to deliberate shared current events texts. Data included partner journals, written reflections from preservice teachers, and interviews with the children's teachers. All students gained perspective consciousness of someone with a different social positioning, a higher-order thinking skill vital to social justice and democratic education. The issues of teacher disclosure and power were particularly important to preservice teachers. Findings suggest implications for future research on partner journals with other partnerings of different social positionings.     

Social studies teacher candidates' views on the controversial issues incorporated into their courses in Turkey

Incorporating controversial issues into pre-service teacher education provides teacher candidates with opportunities not only to gain effective civic competence but also to develop skills and experience in their teaching of controversial issues. The purpose of this study was to ascertain social studies teacher candidates' views on the controversial issues involved in their courses in Turkey. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with 15 teacher candidates. It was found that controversial issues were not sufficiently included in teacher candidates' courses and that teacher candidates have difficulty in discussing critical issues in class. This study also introduced the idea that teacher candidates experiencing controversial issues in pre-service teacher education can gain positive attitudes towards teaching such issues in their professional lives and can form their own teaching strategies. Teacher candidates came to believe that good teachers should include controversial issues related to the course content and both teachers and teacher candidates should prepare for their discussion phase.     

Discourse communities: A framework from which to consider professional development for rural teachers of science and mathematics

This paper explores aspects of professional development for teachers of science and mathematics in schools in rural Australia. The study identified a range of issues including tensions between government, school and individual professional learning priorities and their respective responsibilities; the shaping of professional development by rurality; and issues of generic versus subject-specific professional learning. The paper will focus on the needs of teachers, particularly secondary teachers, for subject-specific professional development and the capacity of different professional development approaches for satisfying these needs. The notion of discourse communities is proposed as a framework for considering this issue.     

Students’ perceptions of career conversations with their teachers

Internationally, schools acknowledge their responsibility in guiding students not only in their academic growth, but also in their lifelong career development. In relation to this development, vocational schools in the Netherlands are implementing integral career guidance in which teachers receive a new task in guiding students in developing their own learning and career paths. A questionnaire was developed to investigate students’ perceptions of career guidance by teachers during career conversations, and data involving 28 teachers were collected from 579 students. The study identified four different teacher guidance profiles. Remarkable is that teachers spoke very little about career issues, and school issues were mostly on the agenda. The results indicate that teachers struggle with the transition towards becoming a career guide of students, and aspects influencing the transition into this new role need to be considered.     

South African Primary Mathematics Teachers’ Experiences and Perspectives About Lesson Study

This study aims to investigate the perspectives of primary school teachers in South Africa, who participated in a Lesson Study (LS) project, on this professional development process and about their professional learning. The study followed a mixed approach, with data collected through a questionnaire, followed up by interviews. A novel approach in this study was to source teachers’ experiences of the individual stages of LS as well as of the integrated process. Teachers’ perspectives on LS were categorised into 5 themes: collaboration — commitment and the free rider effect, confidence issues, teachers’ knowledge and skills, misconceptions about the LS approach, and external issues including concerns over time of teachers and learners, systemic challenges and school management. Using teachers’ individual and focus group inputs in the questionnaire and the interviews, we report about their experiences.

     

论高中化学教师教学反思能力的提升

教学反思能力是新时期高中教师的必备能力.建议通过以下方式提升高中化学教师的教学反思能力:变革培训方式,增强化学培训的学科针对性;增强教师对问题的敏感意识,提升教师捕捉关键问题的能力;做好文本叙事,促进教师对教学实践的深度反思;开展课例研修,以集体反思帮助教师改进教学行为.     

Decision-making in Context: Swedish and Finnish Teachers’ Perceptions of Autonomy

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results from a survey investigating 708 Swedish and 1583 Finnish teachers’ perceived autonomy with a focus on the teachers’ perceptions of who makes the most important decisions in school. Teacher autonomy is seen as exercised at different levels; by teachers individually in the classroom or by teachers as a collective in school; and in different domains of teachers’ work, since the degree of decision-making by teachers is likely to differ between educational, social, developmental and administrational issues. Finnish and Swedish teachers’ perceived autonomy varied in somewhat different ways between the domains. Finnish teachers generally perceived themselves to be more individually autonomous, while Swedish teachers were more collegially oriented.