Valda Kirkwood

Towards creating effective learning environments for science teachers: the role of a science educator in the tertiary setting

The paper examines a relatively neglected area: the role of the science education tutor in creating an environment that will encourage and enable teachers and student teachers to learn effectively. The discussion is based on the experiences of the authors in working in preservice and inservice courses for both secondary and primary teachers‐courses which have adopted a constructivist view of science learning. The assumptions that we have made in developing and maintaining effective learning environments have at their core the view that only through deep‐seated change in teacher beliefs, values and feelings about learning and teaching, science and technology will teachers substantially change their science teaching practices. The paper examines components of the science tutors role in assisting teachers through these changes which are likely to be marked by challenge, resistance, insecurity and some confusion. The inevitable tensions in the tutors role are explored including those associated with assessm...

Teaching and learning about energy in New Zealand secondary school junior science classrooms

The Learning in Science Project (Energy), abbreviated to LISP (Energy), is a three-year project funded by the New Zealand Department of Education to investigate teaching and learning about the energy concept in New Zealand primary and secondary schools. LISP (Energy) follows LISP and LISP (primary) in which the prior understandings which students bring to science lessons, and strategies to involve these ideas in teaching and learning, were explored. Substantial reports of these previous projects are Osborne and Freyberg (1985) and Biddulph and Osborne (1984).

Outcomes of the primary and early childhood science and technology education project at the university of Canberra

The aim of the Primary and Early Childhood Science and Technology Education Project (PECSTEP) is to improve teaching and learning in science and technology of by increasing the number of early childhood and primary teachers who are effective educators. PECSTEP is based on an interactive model of teaching and systematically links work on gender with the learning and teaching of science and technology. The project involves: a year-long inservice program which includes the development of a science curriculum unit by teachers in their schools; linking of the preservice and inservice programs; and the development of support networks for teachers. Each phase of PECSTEP has been researched by means of surveys, interviews and the use of diaries. Research questions have focussed particularly on changes in: teachers’ and student teachers’ attitudes to teaching science and technology; their perceptions of science and technology; their perceptions of their students’ responses and their understandings of how gender relates to these areas.

Innovation in a science curriculum: A Sierra Leone case study

This paper was designed to investigate an educational change process by introducing science teachers in Sierra Leone to an innovative approach to teaching science at the junior secondary school level. The aim was to help teachers develop a science curriculum that could relate to the everyday lives of students in their traditional setting. The study involved ten months of field work with selected science teachers developing, trialling and evaluating a junior secondary school general science curriculum patterned on constructivist science. The main thrust was to investigate the effects of the teachers’ interaction with the new curriculum on their professional development. The implications of the new curriculum brought home to the participating teachers just how isolated school science was from the learners everyday experiences. As a consequence of their action research experiences, the teachers showed evidence of appreciating recent constructivist views about the nature of science and the ways of acquiring ...

Learning in science project (teacher development): The framework

The Centre for Science and Mathematics Education Research at the University of Waikato is now undertaking the fourth Learning in Science Project, LISP(Teacher Development). The project builds on the findings of the previous three projects on the nature of learning and how to improve learning of science in classrooms. This two-year project is investigating the process of teacher development (as change in behaviour and beliefs) in the context of two kinds of teacher courses that acknowledge and take into account teachers’ existing ideas. This paper summarises the planning done for the first phase of the project as detailed in Bell, Kirkwood and Pearson (1990).

A valuable teaching approach: some insights from LISP (energy)

An alternative approach to teaching energy is outlined and, in particular, in collaboration with their teacher John Stonyer, its surprising success in a class of low ability pupils is examined.

LISP (Energy) — The framework

ConclusionsAlthough the formulated guiding principles may be too detailed, and are not readily accessible to teachers, the main features have proven to be of vital importance in our discussions with teachers. These are:(i)that establishing boundaries to systems undergoing change is a vital consideration.(ii)that real, and not infinitessimal, changes should be explored and carefully described. In this way the consideration is of observable phenomena rather than invisible constructs.

The pupil as philosopher

Discussion of the need for an understanding of the philosophy of science to inform classroom practice is mostly directed at clarifying the nature of science, the history of science, the nature of scientific evidence, and the nature of scientific method for curriculum developers and teachers. The discussion assumes no input from pupils. The constructivist perspective, however, assumes that pupils do not come to lessons with blank minds. What insights and questions do students bring to lessons about issues relevant to the philosophy and history of science? Can these be used to develop understanding? Classroom discussions about the energy concept imply that students have valuable ideas and questions related to the exploration of philosophical issues. Rather than developing curricula to tell students about the philosophy and history of science, this paper argues for exploration of student’s ideas and questions when abstract concepts are being discussed in the classroom.