A longitudinal study of science teacher change and its impact on student change in scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills
Date
2011-07-27
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Abstract
Doktoritöö eemärgiks on looduainete õpetamise paradigmaatiliste muutuste võimalikkuse uurimine STL (loodusteaduslik ja tehnoloogia-alane kirjaoskus) filosoofiale tugineva õpetajate täienduskoolituse raames ning koolituse efektiivsuse hindamine õpikeskkonna ja õpilaste loodusteadusliku ja tehnoloogia-alase kirjaoskuse osaoskuste (loodusteadusliku loovuse ja sotsiaal-teadusliku põhjendamisoskuse) abil. Loodusainete õpetajate pikaajalise täienduskoolituse tervikkontseptsiooni välja töötamiseks uuriti ka õpilaste eelnimetatud loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse osaoskuste arengut mõjutavaid faktoreid (õpetajate professionaalsuse taset ja selle muutust, õpetajate omavahelist koostööd, õpilaste ainealaste teadmiste taset ning sugu).
STL kontseptsiooni realiseerimiseks viidi läbi pikaajaline õpetajate täienduskoolitus, mis koosnes kahest järjestikusest 8-kuulisest tsüklist, mille jooksul õpetajad töötasid interdistsiplinaarsete meeskondadena ning koostasid ühiselt STL õppematerjalid 4 õppemooduli jaoks, mida kasutati 8-nädalase õppeperioodi jooksul oma loodusainete tundides. Pikaajalise koolituse efektiivsust hinnati õpetajate muutuste ja õpilaste loodusteadusliku loovuse ja sotsiaal-teadusliku põhjendamisoskuse muutuse kaudu. Täienduskoolituse mõju püsivust kontrolliti aasta pärast koolitust järel-küsitluste ja -intervjuude abil. Koolitusmudeli ülekantavust uutesse tingimustesse kontrolliti rahvusvahelise FP 6 projekti PARSEL raames läbiviidud uuringuga.
Käesoleva töö tulemused kinnitavad õpetajate pikaajalise STL täienduskoolituse positiivset mõju kolmes suunas: õpetajate professionaalse taseme tõus, oluliselt õpilaskesksema õpikeskkonna loomine loodusainete tundides ning märkimisväärselt paranenud õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskusega seotud oskused, st loovus ning põhjendamis- ja argumenteerimisoskus. Uuringu käigus paranesid ka õpilaste hoiakud loodusteaduste õppimise suhtes, mis muutusid nende silmis relevantsemaks ning suurenesid kommunikatsiooni- ja koostöö võimalused nii õpetajate kui õpilaste vahel. Töö tulemused on rakendatavad uue loodusainete õppekava realiseerimisel.
In addressing the issues of unpopularity of science education for students, the main goals of this research were to investigate the effectiveness of scientific and technological literacy (STL) in-service courses for science teachers and the relationship between the course effectiveness and the readiness of these teachers to raise the level of their students’ scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills. The study focused on promoting teachers’ skills to foster students’ scientific creativity and reasoning skills through an approach using socio-scientific issues and then evaluating student gains related to outcomes. The influence of classroom environment factors on promoting students’ scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills and in particular the influence of teachers’ integrative teamwork was investigated. The persistence of the impact of the in-service was controlled by a delayed study, one year after the classroom intervention and, in addition, the effectiveness of the derived STL teaching in-service model, transferred to another situation, was investigated during a teacher in-service programme for a STL-based, European (PARSEL) project. The results of this research showed that the use of an interdisciplinary, science teacher, STL in-service programme (stressing increased motivation for both teachers and students through increased socially-derived teaching approaches, greater teacher/teacher and teacher/student communication and increased student-centred learning) was effective both in changing teachers’ perceptions about science teaching, with respect to scientific literacy components such as scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning (argumentation) skill, and in promoting students’ gains. This study confirmed that inducing changes in the classroom environment were very slow, but at the same time, showed that such changes were possible given appropriate conditions and motivation. The study pointed to the need for a substantive paradigm shift in the learning environment for science teaching, and hence the impact on students’ learning, to move forward.
In addressing the issues of unpopularity of science education for students, the main goals of this research were to investigate the effectiveness of scientific and technological literacy (STL) in-service courses for science teachers and the relationship between the course effectiveness and the readiness of these teachers to raise the level of their students’ scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills. The study focused on promoting teachers’ skills to foster students’ scientific creativity and reasoning skills through an approach using socio-scientific issues and then evaluating student gains related to outcomes. The influence of classroom environment factors on promoting students’ scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills and in particular the influence of teachers’ integrative teamwork was investigated. The persistence of the impact of the in-service was controlled by a delayed study, one year after the classroom intervention and, in addition, the effectiveness of the derived STL teaching in-service model, transferred to another situation, was investigated during a teacher in-service programme for a STL-based, European (PARSEL) project. The results of this research showed that the use of an interdisciplinary, science teacher, STL in-service programme (stressing increased motivation for both teachers and students through increased socially-derived teaching approaches, greater teacher/teacher and teacher/student communication and increased student-centred learning) was effective both in changing teachers’ perceptions about science teaching, with respect to scientific literacy components such as scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning (argumentation) skill, and in promoting students’ gains. This study confirmed that inducing changes in the classroom environment were very slow, but at the same time, showed that such changes were possible given appropriate conditions and motivation. The study pointed to the need for a substantive paradigm shift in the learning environment for science teaching, and hence the impact on students’ learning, to move forward.
Description
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Keywords
loodusteaduste õpetajad, õpilased, õpetajakoolitus, loovus, täienduskoolitus, loodusteaduslik haridus, science teachers, students, teacher training, science education, retraining