Usefulness and value of a theoretical framework in science teachers’ practice

• In this presentation we show how the usefulness and value of a theoretical framework for planning, assessing, and modifying teaching were noticed by teachers in a science teacher professional development project.  The framework, called organizing purposes (Johansson & Wickman, 2011, Wickman & Ligozat, 2010), was introduced by the researchers at the beginning of two-year collaboration.  Data for this presentation comes from two cycles of teaching of a unit on the chemistry of food and human nutrition. We made video recordings of planning meetings between researchers and teachers, classroom teaching, and teachers’ reflections at the end of the cycle.  One of the teachers was interviewed two years after the end of the project. We used Clarke and Hollingsworth’s interconnected model of teacher professional growth to analyze how change in the domain of consequence (salient outcomes) was realized during the collaboration. Change in the domain of consequence, observed through the salient outcomes noticed by the teachers, occurred through the following sequence: (1) anticipation of particular benefits of the framework as a resource for assessing and modifying teaching, (2) recognition of actual student behavior i.e. a dramatic increase of student participation in the equivalent lesson of the second cycle, and (3) reflection on the framework’s role in one’s own practice. It may be significant that the first salient outcome that the teachers noticed was a consequence of the researchers using the framework to suggest concrete changes in teaching for cycle 2. Implications of this feature, and the observed sequence in general, will be discussed at the presentation.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik

Science Education

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)