Costas P. Constantinou

Sixth Graders' Co-Construction of Explanations of a Disturbance in an Ecosystem: Exploring Relationships between Grouping, Reflective Scaffolding, and Evidence-Based Explanations.

We report on a study investigating the relationship between cognitive ability grouping, reflective inquiry scaffolding, and students’ collaborative explanations of an ecosystem disturbance which took place when a number of flamingo birds died in a salt lake because of nearby intensive human activities. Twenty-six pairs of students from two intact sixth-grade classes participated in the study. All students investigated scientific data relating to the ecosystem problem using a web-based learning environment. One class was provided with web-based reflective inquiry scaffolding (WorkSpace), while the other class used PowerPoint. The main data analyzed for this study consisted of each pair’s written explanation and task-related artifacts. Findings show that the web-based reflective scaffolding supported students in providing valid evidence in support of their explanations. The analyses of the students’ collaborative explanations showed no statistically significant differences that could be attributed to prior achievement between students in the WorkSpace condition, while differences were found between the different cognitive ability pairs in the PowerPoint class. These findings suggest that the WorkSpace scaffolding may have provided more influential support to lower cognitive ability pairs in creating evidence-based explanations.

Students’ Perspectives on Peer Assessment

This chapter reports the results of three research studies on peer assessment carried out in different countries where it is an unusual practice (France, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic). The three research studies focus on different competences and different disciplines (sciences and mathematics), but they all involve inquiry-based approaches at primary and secondary school level. In the French study, the data reported in this chapter explore relationships between success in task processing and the ability to mark a peer’s written artefact on the same task. The Swiss research study examines the type of peer feedback students offer their peers while assessing their models, based on a fine-grained analysis of peer feedback comments. In the Czech Republic, the study focuses on students’ reflection on peer assessment in inquiry lessons. The three studies conclude the necessity of allowing the sharing of “knowledge authority” in the classroom to evolve and to be integrated into usual classroom practice. However, researchers have a divergent view on the sharing of responsibility for validation of knowledge between the student and the teacher. Moreover, we can conclude that peer assessment can be a way to trigger metacognitive work on knowledge and competences in science and on assessment criteria and teacher expectations, at a class level and individual student level.

Concluding Remarks: Theoretical Underpinnings in Implementing Inquiry-Based Science Teaching/Learning

This book is a compilation of edited chapters from different science education disciplines and contexts, aiming to provide resources for the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching/learning (IBST/L), and to highlight ways in which those approaches could be promoted across various contexts. The chapters in the book presented the efforts of a group of science education researchers and practicing science teachers to put theoretical ideas into practice and to bridge the gaps between broad policy perspectives, specific educational realities of local school traditions, and embedded practices ingrained in national educational cultures. In this concluding chapter, we provide a structured overview of the main theoretical ideas discussed throughout the book, seeking to help the reader situate all these efforts within a coherent theoretical framework of what inquiry-based approaches in science education involve and what they require from teachers in terms of knowledge and abilities. We focus on four main topics that appear across the chapters in the book: (1) application of scientific inquiry in authentic learning environments; (2) descriptions of six main theoretical frameworks underpinning IBST/L throughout the book, (i) theory and research in motivation, (ii) self-efficacy, (iii) scientific literacy, (iv) dialogic teaching, (v) the communicative approach, and (vi) the nature of science; (3) presentation of pedagogical content knowledge as a productive framework that can unite efforts for teachers’ professional development in IBST/L as presented in this book; and (4) description of effective strategies for professional development, specifically for helping teachers implement this approach for teaching science.

Policy Aspects: How to Change Practice and in What Direction

The ASSIST-ME project has a dual aim: (1) to provide a research base on the effective uptake of formative and summative assessment for inquiry-based, competence-oriented Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) education and (2) to use this research base to give policy-makers and other stakeholders guidelines for ensuring that assessment enhances learning in STM education. This chapter describes how the second aim, the policy-oriented aspects, was dealt with in ASSIST-ME. It describes the establishment of National Stakeholder Panels (NSP) through the use of social network analysis as well as the work and outcomes of the national NSPs. In a wider perspective, it analyses how research results have and can influence STM education, both the educational practices and the political climate and decisions framing education. At this point, the chapter goes beyond ASSIST-ME and draws upon other project experiences across Europe. Finally, the policy recommendations for the transformation process based on the ASSIST-ME experiences will be put forward.

What Is Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Learning?

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been proposed as a framework for conceptualizing the priorities and values of authentic science teaching and learning. The main features of this framework include active pupil engagement in the learning process with emphasis on supporting knowledge claims with observations, experiences or complementary sources of credible evidence; tackling of authentic and problem-based learning activities; consistent practice and development of the skills of systematic observation, questioning, planning and recording with a purpose to obtain credible evidence; committed participation in collaborative group work, peer interaction, construction of discursive argumentation and communication with others as the main process of learning; and the development of autonomy and self-regulation through experience as important goals of learning. IBSE has also been misconstrued as a teaching method for better engaging students or as scaffolding structure for designing learning environments. In this chapter, we will first elaborate on these distinctions and will discuss the implications for science education reform. We will present an overview of the educational policy priorities that have been formulated at European level for IBST/L, and we will discuss the opportunities and constraints that these efforts have generated for science education and science teacher professional development across European contexts. The chapter provides a framing text for the case studies in the remainder of the book. As such, it identifies issues and sets the tone for what follows, alerting the reader to both the problematics and the unavoidable complexity that emerge from efforts to highlight broad educational objectives at a level that is far removed from student and teacher experience as well as local societal priorities.

Concluding Remarks: Science Education Research for Enhancing Classroom Learning

The Social Sciences undertake a dual role. On the one hand, they take on the responsibility to study the phenomena relating to human interactions and, through these studies, to contribute to our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms in a way that is coherent and generalizable, to the extent possible. On the other hand, they also take on the responsibility to contribute, through local action, to the organization and function of systems that tend to be highly local in their features and often contextualized in their intents.