Jouni Viiri

Introducing Dialogic Teaching to Science Student Teachers

It is commonly believed that science teachers rely on language that allows only minor flexibility when it comes to taking into account contrasting views and pupil thoughts. Too frequently science teachers either pose questions that target predefined answers or simply lecture through lessons, a major concern from a sociocultural perspective. This study reports the experiences of science student teachers when introduced to the Communicative Approach to science education drawing on dialogic teacher-talk in addition to authoritative teacher-talk. This approach was introduced to the students in an interventional teaching program running parallel to the student teachers’ field practice. The practical implications of this approach during initial teacher education are the central focus of this study. The data consisting of videos of lessons and interviews indicate that the student teacher awareness of teacher-talk and alternative communicative options did increase. Student teachers reported greater awareness of the different functions of teacher-talk as well as the challenges when trying to implement dialogic teaching.

Pre-service Science Teacher Preparation in Europe: Comparing Pre-service Teacher Preparation Programs in England, France, Finland and Cyprus

A number of reports recently identify that the quality of science education in a number of European countries is lower than expected. One of the reasons for the apparent underachievement in this generally economically prosperous continent might be a pedagogy of science that lacks variety, or a pedagogy that is less engaging than other subjects. Given the diversity of European education systems, the purpose of this paper is to present aspects of four pre-service teacher preparation programs illustrating the similarities and differences that emerge. Specifically, we present the teacher preparation programs in England, Finland, France and Cyprus.

Od teorie k praxi: od plánování dialogického vyučování k jeho reflexi

Tato studie zkouma, jak ucitel obeznamený s teorii dialogickeho vyucovani dokaže v praxi realizovat adekvatni komunikacni postupy, a to v kontextu výuky přirodovědných předmětů. Dialogicky pojate vyucovani neni dosud caste, ale řada studii již poskytuje peclivě volene přiklady jeho uplatněni. Cilem dialogickeho vyucovani je umožnit žakům vyjadřovani myslenek nad ramec shromažďovani a memorovani fakt. Některe výzkumy se zabývaji i zacleněnim dialogickeho vyucovani do pregradualni ucitelske připravy, avsak bez toho, že by bylo sledovano, jak absolventi ucitelskeho studia nasledně uplatňuji techniky a principy dialogickeho vyucovani ve vlastni praxi. Nas výzkum ma za cil prověřit, zda zacinajici ucitel, který je obeznamen s různými komunikativnimi přistupy vcetně dialogickeho, umi přenest teorii do praxe. Prostřednictvim analýz y planů výuky a jejich reflexe z jisťujeme, zda teoreticky vybavený ucitel zvladne dialogický přistup ve výuce realně praktikovat. Zaroveň dokladame možne překažky i přiznive podminky pro realizaci tohoto přistupu. Výsledky ukazuji, že planovani vychazejici z teorie bylo uspěsne ve smyslu zavedeni dialogu do výuky. Naplanovane situace byly z větsiny reflektovany a hodnoceny jako dialogicke. Diskutujeme take o důsledcich pro vzdělavani a profesni rozvoj ucitelů.

A Case Study Evaluating Students’ Representational Coherence of Newton’s First and Second Laws

This paper presents a method to evaluate students’ representational coherence, i.e. their ability to use multiple representations and move between them in the case of Newton’s first and second laws. Results of five high school students are discussed.

Primetime learning: collaborative and technology-enhanced studying with genuine teacher presence

BackgroundProductive learning processes and good learning outcomes can be attained by applying the basic elements of active learning. The basic elements include fostering discussions and disputations, facing alternative conceptions, and focusing on conceptual understanding. However, in the face of poor course retention and high dropout rates, even learning outcomes can become of secondary importance. To address these challenges, we developed a research-based instructional strategy, the primetime learning model. We devised the model by organizing the basic elements of active learning into a theory-based four-step study process. The model is based on collaborative and technology-enhanced learning, on versatile formative assessment without a final exam, and on genuine teacher presence through intimate meetings between students and teachers.ResultsWe piloted the model in two university physics courses on thermodynamics and optics and observed persistent student activity, improved retention, and good learning outcomes. Feedback suggested that most students were satisfied with the learning experience.ConclusionsThe model suits particularly well for courses that, in addition to the teaching subject itself, focus on teaching balanced study habits and strengthening social integration. By its very construction, it also helps the propagation of research-based instructional strategies. Although the model does contain challenges, it represents a generic framework for learning and teaching that is flexible for further development and applicable to many subjects and levels.

Inquiry-Based Approaches in Primary Science Teacher Education

This chapter introduces an interactional graphic tool together with a model for inquiry-based science teaching (abbreviated as IBST). The combination of the graphic tool and model offers an approach to support the planning, implementation, reflection and analysis of dialogic IBST. The potential use is illustrated here using a case study in which student teachers used IBST to develop their teaching. The interactional graphic and the model are fundamentally related to three established approaches to science teaching: inquiry-based science teaching, dialogic teaching and the communicative approach. Together, these approaches draw attention to learner participation in inquiry-based science teaching, the joint construction of understanding as a dialogic teaching process and the alternative types of talk teachers can use to guide learning in science through communicative approaches. Combining these three approaches provides a broader ‘three-pronged’ approach to teaching and learning in science. On this basis, we designed our primary teacher science course to include ideas from both inquiry teaching and classroom interaction. During the course, in addition to analysing the content structure of climate change, examining textbooks, pupil thinking and their preconceptions, the student teachers also explored the fundamental ideas of dialogic IBST in primary schools. The analysis of the executed teaching sequences was supported by the use of the interactional graphic tool which helps in mapping teachers’ communicative pattern and the extent to which the IBST approach is taking place. The potential use of the interactional graphic tool and IBST approach for the professional development of teachers is discussed in the end.

Visualising the temporal aspects of collaborative inquiry-based learning processes in technology-enhanced physics learning

ABSTRACT This study presents new ways of visualising technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) processes in an undergraduate physics course. The data included screen-capture videos from a technology-enhanced learning environment and audio recordings of discussions between students. We performed a thematic analysis based on the phases of inquiry-based learning (IBL). The thematic analysis was complemented by a content analysis, in which we analysed whether the utilisation of technological tools was on a deep-level, surface-level, or non-existent basis. Student participation was measured in terms of frequency of contributions as well as in terms of impact. We visualised the sequence of the face-to-face interactions of two groups of five students by focussing on the temporal aspects of IBL, technology enhancement and collaborative learning. First, instead of the amount of time the groups spent on a specific IBL phase, the between-group differences in the most frequent transitions between the IBL phases determined their differential progress in the CIBL process. Second, we found that the transitions were triggered by the groups’ ways of utilising technological tools either at the deep level or at the surface level. Finally, we found that the level of participation inequity remained stable throughout the CIBL process. As a result, only some of the members of the groups played a role in the most frequent transitions. Furthermore, this study reveals the need for scaffolds focussing on inquiry, technological and collaborative skills at the beginning of the learning process.

ASR in Classroom Today: Automatic Visualization of Conceptual Network in Science Classrooms

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) field has improved substantially in the last years. We are in a point never saw before, where we can apply such algorithms in non-ideal conditions such as real classrooms. In these scenarios it is still not possible to reach perfect recognition rates, however we can already take advantage of these improvements. This paper shows preliminary results using ASR in Chilean and Finnish middle and high school to automatically provide teachers a visualization of the structure of concepts present in their discourse in science classrooms. These visualizations are conceptual networks that relate key concepts used by the teacher. This is an interesting tool that gives feedback to the teacher about his/her pedagogical practice in classes. The result of initial comparisons shows great similarity between conceptual networks generated in a manual way with those generated automatically.

Learning About Forces Using Multiple Representations

We present two research-based interventions to measure upper secondary student learning of forces using multiple representations (MRs). The first intervention is the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI) – a multiple-choice test for evaluating students’ representational consistency in answering triplets of isomorphic items in the context of forces. The second intervention is an interaction diagram (ID) – a visual representation that helps students to identify forces resulting from interactions between two objects. Students’ representational consistency on the R-FCI pre-test correlated with their normalised learning gain on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) suggesting that students representational skills before the intervention were related to their conceptions of forces. The interaction diagram (ID) for indentifying relevant interactions and constructing a corresponding free-body diagram (FBD) involved different instruction groups –– called heavy ID, light ID and no ID – depending on the extent that IDs were utilised in teaching. The heavy ID groups outperformed the light ID and the no ID groups in identifying forces and constructing the correct FBDs. In addition, the heavy ID groups learned Newton’s third law better than the other ID groups. Our studies provide further evidence of the benefits of MRs in learning the concept of force.

Seventh-Grade Pupils’ Epistemic Views in the Context of Model-Based Instruction

This paper relates to the research of personal epistemology. Different frameworks of the research area are discussed and the theoretical framework for studying young pupils’ epistemic views is presented. The epistemic views deal with pupils’ conceptions related both to justification and to certainty of knowledge in a science learning context. The empirical aim of this study was to discover pupils’ views of their own knowledge, their physics teacher’s knowledge and the scientists’ knowledge. The context of the study were science 12 hours of science lessons during which the pupils were taught the modelling idea connected to the topic ‘structure of matter’. The subjects in this case study were eighteen 13-year-old secondary school pupils. The results show that pupils have different views concerning the justification of knowledge and the certainty of knowledge depending on the person: a pupil, a teacher or a scientist. The results have implications for the development of science curriculula and new teaching approaches.