John Cripps Clark

Successful Students – STEM Program: Teacher Learning Through a Multifaceted Vision for STEM Education

The current STEM education agenda is driven by the belief that STEM skills are crucial to innovation and development in our contemporary, technological, knowledge-based, competitive global economy (Office of the Chief Scientist, Science, technology, engineering and mathematics: Australia’s future. Australian Government, Canberra, 2014; Australia’s STEM workforce: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Australian Government, Canberra, 2016). This chapter articulates a comprehensive, multifaceted and coherent STEM vision that addresses the subtle and complex challenge of preparing “twenty-first-century” citizens within the constraints of a traditional school system and curriculum. For STEM education to be incorporated effectively and sustainably in schools, a STEM vision needs to be inclusive of school-specific needs. In this chapter, we report on our preliminary insights from a teacher professional development programme operating in ten schools in Victoria, Australia, designed to develop year 7 and 8 science, technology and mathematics teachers’ capacity to teach STEM. Evaluative data from the first year of this three-year programme is presented to illustrate the variety of classroom activities that can arise from a comprehensive STEM vision. The research is showing that a STEM vision needs to be more than discrete STEM-related activities slotted into an already bulging curriculum to be sustainable.

Towards a cultural historical theory of knowledge mapping: collaboration and activity in the zone of proximal development

This chapter locates knowledge mapping within the theoretical framework of cultural historical activity theory. Cultural historical activity theory provides an analytic tool for understanding how knowledge maps can act as “stimuli-means”: a cultural artefact that can mediate the performance of subjects (Vygotsky, 1978). Knowledge maps possess Vygotsky’s double nature: they not only enable students to enact academic practice but also allow reflection on that practice. They enable students to build an “internal cognitive schematisation of that practice” (Guile, 2005, p. 127). Further, cultural historical activity theory gives the tools to analyse the social context of our use of knowledge maps and thus consider the mediating rules (tacit and explicit) and division of labour that mediate our use of knowledge maps. Knowledge maps can be viewed as acting within Brandom’s (2000) space of reasons, which allows learners to use reasons to develop and exchange judgements based on shareable, theoretically articulated concepts and collectively develop the ability to restructure their knowledge and enact these judgements (Guile, 2011). In particular multimodal collaborative knowledge maps can act as Vygotsky’s (Vygotsky, 1978) zone of proximal development, where teacher and peer-to-peer interaction allow students to solve problems and learn concepts and skills that they would be otherwise unable to tackle.

Negotiating Partnerships in a STEM Teacher Professional Development Program: Applying the STEPS Interpretive Framework

This chapter describes the use and modification of the tools of the STEPS Interpretive Framework as part of a teacher professional development program for STEM teachers. The tools were used to assist with establishing partnerships with schools that were important for determining the content, timing and nature of the professional learning program cycles. The use of the Interpretive Framework as a mediating tool that both changes the nature of the activity and is also changed by the activity is discussed.

The Pedagogy of Using Video to Develop Reflective Practice in Learning to Teach Science

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to identify the pedagogical approaches that foster critical reflection using video among the pre-service teachers during tutorials. Methodology/approach The research is situated in a school-based teaching programme in which pairs of pre-service teachers taught small groups of primary aged children over a period of seven weeks. Volunteer pre-service teachers videotaped their lessons and selected video excerpts to share with their peers in the tutorial. The educator guided the pre-service teachers’ reflection using the video. A case study drawing on interviews with pre-service teachers and audio recordings of tutorials, charted the development of pedagogical decisions made by the educators to promote reflection. Findings The pre-service teachers had difficulties undertaking deep reflection of their own and peers’ teaching practice. The response by educators was to promote collaboration among pre-service teachers by discussing specific aspects of the teaching in small groups and to use a jigsaw approach. This enabled a deeper analysis of particular elements of the lesson that were then integrated to produce a more holistic understanding of the teaching. The video data are most suitable for reflection and provide valuable evidence for pre-service teachers to develop their practice. Practical implications For pre-service teachers to develop effective skills to analyse their own practice they need to experience teaching in a safe but challenging environment, over a sustained period; have opportunities to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes quality teaching; have opportunities to critically analyse their teaching in discussion with peers and educators and be able to be guided by a framework of reflective strategies.

Pathways in Real-Life Learning

The pathway to expertise is a long journey, and few make it. Regardless of discipline, the journey is similar; what differentiates the journey is the knowledge that underpins the profession. This research explores expert teachers and the knowledge that underpins the teaching profession. Much research in teacher education has concentrated on individual elements of expert teaching. There has been less emphasis on understanding the complex real-life process of expert teaching in its entirety. The model presented here looks at an integrated approach to understanding the development of expert teachers through real-life learning experiences and related factors