A tool for changing the world: possibilities of cultural‐historical activity theory to reinvigorate science education

Cultural‐historical activity theory, an outcrop of socio‐psychological approaches toward human development, has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past two decades but has yet to be appropriated into science education to any large extent. In part, the difficulties Western scholars have had in adopting this framework arise from its ontology, which is materialist dialectical and, hence, does not allow easy absorption into non‐dialectical (classical logical) thinking underlying much of Western scholarship. Cultural‐historical activity theory has tremendous potential because it sublates traditional dichotomies in everyday teaching‐learning situations including individual/collective, body/mind, intra‐/inter‐psychological, cognitive/emotive and psychological/sociological. In this contribution, we not only review the existing literature that uses or develops this non‐dualistic approach, but also articulate an intelligible explication of the theory that is more accessible to Western scholars and describe possible future curriculum work and research in science education as an expression of the fruitfulness of the theory.     

Fostering teachers’ autonomous motivation during professional learning: a self-determination theory perspective

Employing a self-determination theory lens, this qualitative case study analyzed the impact of a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professional learning program on six elementary schoolteachers’ autonomous motivation. The outcomes revealed that the program was successful in accommodating the teachers’ needs to feel competent, related, and autonomous. The teachers reported that the program supported their volitional will to engage in self-directed learning by offering them choice, encouragement, and constructive feedback. The teachers were also provided with ample time and resources to enhance their instructional knowledge and showcase their new skills. Moreover, the teachers were able to strengthen existing relationships and expand their professional community. These relationships provided additional support for the teachers and contributed to their growth and development.     

Swedish teachers’ ethical reflections on a study visit to Central America

In this article we argue that culturally variable values and morals have a key role in educational initiatives that address a global dimension. The article suggests that looking at values and morals in relation to a teaching practice is a way of adding knowledge to this field. Our study inquires into how an intercultural experience can evoke ethical reflections on environmental and sustainability issues. The article is based on a qualitative empirical study of teachers’ experiences of a teacher development programme, where we analyse the variety of ethical reflections that emerge during a study visit to a Central American country. We build on a pragmatic analytical approach that takes John Dewey’s ethical thoughts on moral situations as a point of departure and deals with teachers’ ethical reflections in a way that takes the contextual and situated nature of morals into account.     

Questioning pedagogies: Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ dialogic reflections on a transnational school experience

There are increasing opportunities in many countries for pre-service teachers to engage in a transnational school-based experience as part of study abroad programmes. The transformative potential of such transnational teaching experiences is recorded in research studies, often supported by data from participant surveys. However, there has been a lack of evidence investigating shifts in professional understanding derived from such experiences. This qualitative study addresses this issue by exploring the perspectives of 16 pre-service teachers of English as a Second Language from Hong Kong, who engaged in transnational teaching activities with primary school pupils in Australia during their study abroad programme. Discourse analysis of participants’ dialogues traces how they encountered conflicting Discourses of ‘student-centredness’ in the Australian classroom. Reflecting dialogically on their experiences led participants to negotiate and reframe their understandings of language teaching pedagogy and themselves as language teachers. The findings demonstrate the importance of both peer and lecturer feedback into the process of dialogic reflection and the need for more longitudinal research into the impact of transnational school-based experience in pre-service teacher education.     

Teachers’ and principals’ reflections on student participation in a school science and technology competition

Background The European Union asks for renewed pedagogies in schools according to teaching strategies and necessary competences for the twenty-first century, instead of the often-used transmissive pedagogies. The national Swedish competition in science and technology for grade eight, The Technology Eight, provides an opportunity for teachers to work with instructional strategies in line with suggested pedagogies.

Purpose To investigate teachers’ and principals’ reflections on the competition in schools.

Sample Seventeen secondary school teachers and three principals from districts in the south-western part of Sweden participated in the study. All teachers had long experience of the competition, and their classes had reached at least the regional finals during the last year.

Design and methods Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then analysed using content analysis. Focus was put on why the teachers decided to participate, how the teachers integrated the competition in their education and roles of the principals.

Results There were various reasons for participating in the competition. Teachers reported development of twenty-first-century skills such as better cooperation between the students. They also noticed an increased interest in science and technology and how learning in the subjects was stimulated. Furthermore, the teachers found participation in the competition to be positive for them too. They integrated the competition in ordinary education and gained teaching ideas as well as found connections to the curriculum. Participating in the competition seemed to be a tradition in most of the schools. The principals’ role was to facilitate the organisation around the competition and to provide social support.

Conclusions Participation in a school competition was considered as an instructional strategy with several positive outcomes. Use of this strategy can be supported by earlier suggestions to use pedagogies that are opposite to transmissive methods, enhancing students’ development of important skills for the future.     

Student‐teachers’ conceptions of science,teaching and learning: a case study in preservice science education

The resort to experiment is considered to be essential for teaching physics. But it often consists of an inductivist method where students are supposed to be able to find physical laws by observing phenomena. In fact it is not as easy for the students as it is for the physicist. We propose and test another way. When studying a new phenomenon, an initial discussion is performed between students in the class. They can propose various (eventually contradictory) explanatory models. Experiments are then used to make a choice between these models. Sequences in class situation are described, with learning behaviour and results reported for pupils in French schools (grades 6 and 8, 11‐14‐year olds).     

Motivation theory in the school context: differences in preservice and practicing teachers’ experience,opinion, and knowledge

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Preservice teachers should learn about motivation theory during their university studies in order to be able to motivate their students in their future...     

Exploring preservice elementary teachers’ critique and adaptation of science curriculum materials in respect to socioscientific issues

The work presented here represents a preliminary effort undertaken to address the role of teachers in supporting students’ learning and decision-making about socioscientific issues (SSI) by characterizing preservice elementary teachers’ critique and adaptation of SSI-based science curriculum materials and identifying factors that serve to mediate this process. Four undergraduate preservice elementary teachers were studied over the course of one semester. Results indicate that the teachers navigated multiple learning goals, as well as their own subject-matter knowledge, informal reasoning about SSI, and role identity, in their critique and adaptation of SSI-oriented science instructional materials. Implications for science teacher education and the design of curriculum materials in respect to SSI are discussed.     

A Norwegian perspective: Student teachers’ orientations towards cultural and linguistic diversity in schools

This is a qualitative study about Norwegian preservice teachers’ orientations towards teaching in multilingual and multicultural classrooms – contributing to global research in this field. The theoretical approach, and tool for analyses, is a framework for Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy developed by Lucas and Villegas (2013). Main findings are that preservice teachers express value for linguistic diversity and a reflective discussion about the relation between identity/language and culture. Talking about race and colour is, however, uncomfortable. Suggestions for further development in Initial Teacher Education are given, and also suggestions for further research.     

Using a storybook prompt to uncover inservice and preservice teachers’ dispositions toward struggling students

Abstract

The NCATE performance standards include “dispositions,” which validate the importance of teacher beliefs and attitudes. This project was designed to measure preservice and inservice teachers’ beliefs and potential dispositions toward struggling students. The children's story, Next Year I'll be Special, was read to preservice teachers from two teacher education programs (n = 139) and one group of inservice teachers (n = 41). Marilyn, the main character, is struggling in first grade, but she anticipates second grade will be better because she will have a new teacher. Participants were asked to write their prognoses for Marilyn's second‐grade year. Responses were coded into three categories, Overall Impression, Ownership of Academic Challenges, and Ownership of Social Challenges. Respondents (56%) indicated that second grade would be as bad as or worse than first grade for Marilyn. Further, results revealed that experienced teachers were more negative in their predictions than beginning teacher education students. Results were replicated in the second teacher education sample.     

The effectiveness of a special school experience for improving preservice teachers’ efficacy to teach children with special educational needs and disabilities

Increasingly, preservice teachers are required to demonstrate their ability to effectively cater for the needs of a diverse range of learners, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Higher education institutions (HEI) delivering teacher education programmes are responsible for promoting the development of inclusive practices. This multi-method study assessed the effectiveness of a special school experience for preservice teachers at one HEI in England. A total population sample of 48 preservice teachers completed self-efficacy questionnaires at three time points during their training; and 13 took part in qualitative semi-structured interviews towards the end of the study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) findings from the questionnaire data showed that the experience had a significant positive impact on preservice teachers’ self-efficacy, improving knowledge, understanding and confidence to teach inclusively. A thematic analysis of the qualitative findings revealed that the experience challenged preservice teacher expectations about learners with SEND, developing understanding about learner needs and effective differentiation. This article concludes with recommendations for effective inclusion training for preservice teachers.     

Prospective elementary teachers’ aesthetic experience and relationships to mathematics

Previous research has adopted various approaches to examining teachers’ and students’ relationships to mathematics. The current study extended this line of research and investigated six prospective elementary school teachers’ experiences in mathematics and how they saw themselves as learners of mathematics. One-on-one interviews with the participants were conducted, and their written reflections were collected. A grounded-theory approach and a framework for analyzing mathematics identities were adopted in data analysis. The findings showed that the participants’ development of obligations-to-oneself was associated with not only their opportunity to exercise conceptual agency but also their aesthetic experience with mathematics. Their views on themselves as learners of mathematics had cognitive, affective, and aesthetic dimensions. The findings suggest that teachers and students can engage in a reflection on their aesthetic involvement in doing mathematics. There is a need for a local theory of aesthetics in K-12 mathematics.     

Water can be messy, but that’s OK: reflections on preparing elementary teachers to teach science

Building on Christina Siry and Johaira Lara’s account of one teacher’s (Johaira’s) identity formation, we describe how our own experiences with elementary teacher candidates inform, and are informed by, this account. Chris and Johaira provide a lens that helps us consider how experiences in elementary science teacher preparation courses and in elementary classrooms impact the development of a teacher candidate’s identity as a teacher. The course taught by Chris was one in which teacher candidates encountered uncertainty and ambiguity in the teaching process. While uncertainty and ambiguity can be uncomfortable, we suggest that uncertainty and ambiguity can help teacher candidates view science teaching as a process of continuous inquiry. Concomitantly, working within a context marked by ambiguity and uncertainty can prompt teacher candidates to confront—and possibly transform—their own assumptions about students and science. We suggest that the account by Chris and Johaira illustrates the importance of providing teacher candidates with a set of experiences and theoretical tools to assist them in conceptualizing the possibilities of practice as they construct their identities as teachers.     

Stories of self and science: preservice elementary teachers’ identity work through time and across contexts

Grounded in theoretical and empirical underpinnings related to identity work and figured worlds, this case study explores the nature of two preservice elementary teachers’ identities for science teaching and the experiences that impacted their development through time and across contexts. The participants in this study portray a range of competencies, interests and orientations to science and science teaching, and hence provide two different kinds of, almost contradicting, identity works. Various data were collected in a period of 3 years with the use of life history methods in order to trace the participants’ identity work over time and across contexts. The analysis of the data showed prevalent differences between the participants’ identity works and identified critical events and experiences in the context of various figured worlds: (a) figured world of family; (b) figured world of childhood; (c) figured world of schooling; (d) outside of school figured worlds; (e) figured world of university and (f) figured world of science. These findings are offered alongside implications for future research and teacher preparation.     

The influence of experience on pre-service and novice teachers – the Croatian perspective

This paper researches students’ and teacher trainees’ personal experience of student-centred teaching during their education in grades 1–4 of primary school. The questionnaire comprised 45 statements and was completed by 403 primary school teacher trainees and 535 students (future teachers) at Faculties of Teacher Education in Croatia. The research results show that students do not have sufficient prior experience that they could use as inspiration in their future teaching practice and that in the course of their education they were mainly exposed to traditional approach to teaching. The majority of teacher trainees are aware of the importance of student-centred teaching although they cannot fully give up the control of students and educational process. This research opens up the issue of a paradigm change within the teaching system and education in Croatia as well as the issue of changes within education and professional development of teachers.     

Psychological modeling of preservice science teachers’ argumentativeness,achievement goals,and epistemological beliefs: a mixed design

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among Turkish preservice science teachers’ argumentativeness, epistemological beliefs,...     

Primary teachers’ changing attitudes and cognition during a two‐year science in‐service programme and their effect on pupils

Changes in 70 teachers’ confidence, attitudes and science understanding were tested before and after a major in‐service programme. Attitudes were assessed using a 49‐item Likert‐scale test that probed attitudes to practical science teaching and in‐service training. Multi‐choice and open‐ended questions measured understanding of electricity; melting, dissolving and evaporation; forces; and investigations. Data on pupils’ attitudes and cognition were also collected. After in‐service, teachers’ confidence about science teaching had improved significantly. The majority, but not all, had developed satisfactory levels of understanding and more positive attitudes. Four broad types of response were identified: high attainers who improved attitudes and confidence; teachers with limited science knowledge who found the course difficult but made improvements; unaffected professionals who were already working well and for whom the course had little effect; and disaffected teachers who showed low levels of confidence and competence throughout. Pupil cognition and attitudinal differences related to these types were also found.     

Millennial generation preservice teachers’ intrinsic motivation to become a teacher,professional learning and professional competence

This mixed methods study examined how millennial generation preservice teachers’ intrinsic motivation affects their professional learning in ITE and professional competence. The quantitative findings showed Interest in teaching and subject taught and Self-development and ideal lifestyle as the two aspects of millennial preservice teachers’ intrinsic motivation, and confirmed a significant, positive, mediated effect from preservice teachers’ intrinsic motivation on their perceived professional competence: Subject matter, pedagogical and educational knowledge, via their professional learning in ITE coursework and interaction with others. The qualitative findings showed four underpinning linkages with illustrations from six preservice teacher cases. Implications for ITE are discussed.     

What ‘ideas-about-science’ should be taught in school science? A chemistry teachers’ perspective

The objective of this study is to facilitate in-service chemistry teachers’ understanding of nature of science and what ‘ideas-about-science’ can be included in the classroom. The study is based on 17 in-service teachers who had registered for a 11-week course on ‘Epistemology of Science Teaching’ as part of their Master’s degree program. The course is based on 17 readings drawing on nature of science and its critical evaluation. Course activities included written reports, classroom discussions based on participants’ presentations and written exams. Based on the results obtained this study has the following educational implications: (a) Experimental data need to be interpreted carefully due to underdetermination of theories by data; (b) Kuhn’s normal science manifests itself in the science curriculum through the scientific method and wields considerable influence; (c) Trilemma posed by Collins (Stud Sci Educ 35:169–173, 2000), viz., creation of new knowledge ⇔ Kuhn’s normal science ⇔ teaching nature of science, provided a big challenge and was thought provoking; (d) Of the different aspects of nature of science suggested by experts, these teachers endorsed the following as most important: Creativity, Historical development of scientific knowledge, Diversity of scientific thinking and Scientific method and critical testing; (e) With respect to the contradiction between the positions of Lederman et al. (J Res Sci Teach 39:497–521, 2002) and Osborne et al. (J Res Sci Teach 40:692–720, 2003), few supported the position of latter, viz., inclusion of scientific method in the classroom and a majority supported the former, viz., scientific method as a myth; and (f) Participants were critical of the present stage of research with respect to the scientific method and suggested the introduction of history, philosophy and epistemology of science to counteract its influence.