Open educational resources in support of science learning: tools for inquiry and observation

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the formal/informal spaces for inquiry learning. This is contrasted with an example of the use of free tools and community development for observation of scientific phenomena supported by open educational resources (OER) with a citizen science perspective. The article provides an assessment of how the availability of the resources has a potential for shaping the communities using OER for science learning and a discussion of the means of supporting inquiry.     

Primary teachers conducting inquiry projects: effects on attitudes towards teaching science and conducting inquiry

ABSTRACT

This study used an experimental, pretest-posttest control group design to investigate whether participation in a large-scale inquiry project would improve primary teachers’ attitudes towards teaching science and towards conducting inquiry. The inquiry project positively affected several elements of teachers’ attitudes. Teachers felt less anxious about teaching science and felt less dependent on contextual factors compared to the control group. With regard to attitude towards conducting inquiry, teachers felt less anxious and more able to conduct an inquiry project. There were no effects on other attitude components, such as self-efficacy beliefs or relevance beliefs, or on self-reported science teaching behaviour. These results indicate that practitioner research may have a partially positive effect on teachers’ attitudes, but that it may not be sufficient to fully change primary teachers’ attitudes and their actual science teaching behaviour. In comparison, a previous study showed that attitude-focused professional development in science education has a more profound impact on primary teachers’ attitudes and science teaching behaviour. In our view, future interventions aiming to stimulate science teaching should combine both approaches, an explicit focus on attitude change together with familiarisation with inquiry, in order to improve primary teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices.     

Teacher use of evidence to customize inquiry science instruction

This study investigated how professional development featuring evidence‐based customization of technology‐enhanced curriculum projects can improve inquiry science teaching and student knowledge integration in earth science. Participants included three middle school sixth‐grade teachers and their classes of students (N = 787) for three consecutive years. Teachers used evidence from their student work to revise the curriculum projects and rethink their teaching strategies. Data were collected through teacher interviews, written reflections, classroom observations, curriculum artifacts, and student assessments. Results suggest that the detailed information about the learning activities of students provided by the assessments embedded in the online curriculum motivated curricular and pedagogical customizations that resulted in both teacher and student learning. Customizations initiated by teachers included revisions of embedded questions, additions of hands‐on investigations, and modifications of teaching strategies. Student performance improved across the three cohorts of students with each year of instructional customization. Coupling evidence from student work with revisions of curriculum and instruction has promise for strengthening professional development and improving science learning. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1037–1063, 2010     

Exploring differences in online professional development seminars with the community of inquiry framework

Four sessions of two professional development seminars were offered to members of an organization. The seminars were voluntary, free of charge, and participants did not receive credit for their attendance. Participation rates and exit survey ratings for the four sessions varied. After the seminars, an analysis using the community of inquiry framework was conducted to better understand what occurred in the dialogue of the seminars to understand whether patterns of facilitator actions related to the amount of participation and exit survey ratings. The design of the seminars, the activities in the seminars, and the importance of the facilitator to plan and then help foster interaction in voluntary professional development seminars are discussed relative to the community of inquiry model.     

Exploring pre-service primary teachers’ progression towards inquiry-based science learning

ABSTRACT

Background

An in-depth understanding of pre-service primary teachers’ progression towards teaching science through inquiry is critical for improving teacher education programmes and, ultimately, improving the quality of science teaching and learning in the classroom.     

Inquiry-based science education: towards a pedagogical framework for primary school teachers

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open IBSE project, such as formulating a research question and designing and conducting an investigation. The current study aims to meet these challenges by presenting a pedagogical framework in which four domains of scientific knowledge are addressed in seven phases of inquiry. The framework is based on video analyses of pedagogical interventions by primary school teachers participating in open IBSE projects. Our results show that teachers can guide their pupils successfully through the process of open inquiry by explicitly addressing the conceptual, epistemic, social and/or procedural domain of scientific knowledge in the subsequent phases of inquiry. The paper concludes by suggesting further research to validate our framework and to develop a pedagogy for primary school teachers to guide their pupils through the different phases of open inquiry.     

Fostering online social construction of science knowledge with primary pre-service teachers working in virtual teams

As many primary pre-service teachers enter teacher education courses with little science background, it is essential in teacher education courses to provide opportunities for them to learn more science independently. The purpose of this study is to investigate an online pedagogical activity that fosters the social construction of science knowledge by primary pre-service teachers working in small virtual teams. The study investigated how the pre-service teachers collaborated online in virtual teams to complete set tasks, their attitudes toward and beliefs about the effectiveness of the online learning experience, and the types and quality of the resources developed. The findings indicated that the virtual team-produced science resource materials were generally of high quality, with nearly half the number of teams engaging with Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. wikis and blogs) to construct their product. The findings indicated positive attitudes toward the collaborative learning even though beliefs about online learning were mixed.     

Building an online community to support the professional development of casual teachers

Abstract

With the burgeoning casualisation of the higher education workforce, the precarious nature of casual teaching has become increasingly well documented. Universities are recognising that enhancing quality learning and teaching must include attention to the provision of services, support, and professional development for teachers employed on a sessional or casual basis. This paper presents a study investigating an online course for supporting and connecting dispersed and diverse casual teachers at an Australian university. The study explores the role of community and the impact of professional development for casual teachers across discipline boundaries in an institution-wide online course.     

我国小学科学教师专业素质现状调查

本文采用问卷调查、访谈和课堂观察等方法对小学科学教师的专业素质现状进行调查,从小学科学教师的知识素质、能力素质、专业态度和动机、个性特征上分析了存在的问题,以期真实反应我国小学科学教师的现状,引起各界重视。     

An evaluation of a professional learning network for computer science teachers

This paper describes and evaluates aspects of a professional development programme for existing CS teachers in secondary schools (PLAN C) which was designed to support teachers at a time of substantial curricular change. The paper’s particular focus is on the formation of a teacher professional development network across several hundred teachers and a wide geographical area. Evidence from a series of observations and teacher surveys over a two-year period is analysed with respect to the project’s programme theory in order to illustrate not only whether it worked as intended, by why. Results indicate that the PLAN C design has been successful in increasing teachers’ professional confidence and appears to have catalysed powerful change in attitudes to learning. Presentation of challenging pedagogical content knowledge and conceptual frameworks, high-quality teacher-led professional dialogue, along with the space for reflection and classroom trials, triggered examination of the teachers’ own current practices.     

Establishing an online community of inquiry at the Distance Education Centre,Victoria

This pilot intervention focused on three courses that were redesigned to utilize the online environment to establish an online community of inquiry (CoI). The setting for this research study was the Distance Education Centre, Victoria (DECV), an Australian co-educational school with approximately 3000 students who, for a variety of reasons, are studying one or more subjects via distance education. Despite the availability of information and communications technology, many students at the DECV remain socially isolated from their peers. The DECV recognizes that online student collaboration has the potential to bridge this divide. Results of this study suggest that the adaptation of these courses had led to improvements in students’ perception of their educational experience. These findings may be of use to other P–12 education providers who are attempting to promote online collaboration and student connectedness.     

Teaching nature of science through inquiry: Results of a 3‐year professional development program

This study assessed the influence of a 3‐year professional development program on elementary teachers' views of nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS‐B and associated interviews the researchers tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants throughout the professional development program. The teachers participated in explicit–reflective activities, embedded in a program that emphasized scientific inquiry and inquiry‐based instruction, to help them improve their own elementary students' views of NOS. Elementary students were interviewed using the VNOS‐D to track changes in their NOS views, using classroom observations to note teacher influences on student ideas. Analysis of the VNOS‐B and VNOS‐D showed that teachers and most grades of elementary students showed positive changes in their views of NOS. The teachers also improved in their science pedagogy, as evidenced by analysis of their teaching. Implications for teacher professional development programs are made. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 653–680, 2007     

Understanding distinctions in learning in hybrid,and online environments: an empirical investigation of the community of inquiry framework

This study of 723 college students seeks to assess the adequacy of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework for describing and explaining differences in learning outcomes in hybrid and fully online learning environments. Hypothesizing that the CoI model's theoretical constructs of presence reflect educational effectiveness in a variety of environments, this article seeks evidence of whether students in varying learning environments are likely to rank them differently with regard to teaching, social, and cognitive presence. The study utilizes factor-, hierarchical-regression-, and path analyses to determine the validity of the CoI constructs as well as to characterize the nature of relationships between them. Results suggest that the model is coherent and accounts for the small but significant differences recently reported in the literature regarding the superiority of hybrid environments relative to fully online environments (Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development). Recommendations for future research and practice are included.     

Traversing the context of professional learning communities: development and implementation of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of a primary science teacher

Background: Professional learning communities are increasingly recognized for their significance in building teachers’ competencies for educational reform. However, the knowledge development cycle of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through multiple professional learning communities is not well researched.

Purpose: This qualitative case study investigates a primary science teacher’s TPACK development in the context of two interdependent learning spaces: a joint-school and a within-school professional learning community. The school’s organizational and sociocultural influences on teacher learning are also examined.

Participant: Teacher Sean (pseudonym) embarked on a science innovation project after two years of teaching in a Singapore mainstream school. He was tasked to integrate mobile-based inquiry learning and visible thinking pedagogical approaches, and to pilot the designed lessons for a primary three class.

Design and methods: A case-study approach involving multiple sources of data with cultural historical activity theory as the analytical lens was employed, to unpack the complementary and contradictory interactions across different interrelated activity systems. The purpose was to understand the (mis)alignments within and between the two professional learning communities.

Results: The findings indicate that Sean’s (subject) learning from the joint-school professional learning community to the within-school professional learning community faced multiple tensions that hindered his TPACK development (object). He faced difficulty in manipulating tools (technology and visible thinking routines) to translate the joint-school co-designed lessons into classroom implementation. Additionally, the volatility of the school’s organizational routines (rules) and the lack of communicative leader–teacher partnership (division of labor) did not afford sufficient infrastructure or instructional support.

Conclusions: Interactions between the teacher’s personal and contextual factors inhibited the designed TPACK from being implemented successfully. For ambitious pedagogical undertakings as illustrated in this case, more perceptive and synergistic organizational design thinking is needed to support beginning teachers’ TPACK development.     

The impact of science content and professional learning communities on science teaching efficacy and standards‐based instruction

This study examines the impact of standards‐based professional development on teacher efficacy and instructional practice of elementary and middle school science teachers. Professional development activities were conducted over a period of 3 years and included content courses as well as teacher involvement in professional learning communities. Teacher efficacy was assessed at five time points using the Science Teacher Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI), and instructional practice was evaluated at four time points with classroom observations using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). Results indicate that there was significant growth in teacher self‐efficacy but not in outcome expectancy. There was also significant growth in the extent to which teachers implemented inquiry‐based instruction in the classroom. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between changes in self‐efficacy and changes in the use of inquiry‐based instructional practice. These results are discussed in terms of a model of teacher learning wherein changes in teacher beliefs and changes in classroom practice mutually influence each other, and also in terms of the impact of collaboration on teacher efficacy and practice. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 534–551, 2011     

Bridging the gap: teachers cooperating together to implement cooperative learning

Cooperative learning (CL), in spite of extensive research and documented benefits, is not widely used in England. A review of the literature shows that it requires a staged and sustained approach to implementation, which has led to a gap between its potential and actual use. The case study cited here provides one example of bridging that gap through schools working together, with a community of facilitators, or experts, to provide support. As interest grows internationally into teachers cooperating in professional learning communities, this article argues that collaborative cultures provide the key to implementing and sustaining CL. In other words: teachers cooperating together also support pupils learning together.