Reseach-based teaching fundamentals in Secondary Schools by

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:03:19 UTC

A state Secondary School in northern Italy is trying to figure out how to develop the competences defined in the GreenComp document, particularly those related to systems thinking, critical thinking, problem framing. At the same time, the School Management wants to promote professional development and empowerment among teachers as key to an enduring change.

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:04:25 UTC

The educational team believes that the School would benefit from introducing research-based teaching systematically. They first introduce evidence that research-based teaching implemented in school contexts are beneficial to both students and teachers; the second one focuses on the quality of teaching. Lastly, the team suggest a first step in the organizational change that is a quality research around teachers’ beliefs on the matter.

Bergmark, U. (2023). Teachers’ professional learning when building a research-based education: context-specific, collaborative and teacher-driven professional development.

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:05:51 UTC

Professional Development in Education, 49(2), 210–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2020.1827011

Kersting, M.,Karlsen, S., et al. (2023) Studying the quality of inquiry-based teaching in science classrooms. A systematic video study of inquiry-based science teaching in primary and lower-secondary schools

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:06:39 UTC

International Journal of Science Education, 45(17), 1463-1484.

DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2023.2213386

Research aim

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:09:44 UTC

“The study offers insights into the importance of a professional development process being based ona bottom-up perspective, collaborative, context-specific and integratedin teachers’ work. Lastly, the study points to the benefit of engagement onmultiple levels – principals, lead teachers, teachers and researchers – to achieve lasting success in building research-based education.”

Research aim

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:10:02 UTC

“understand better the factors that influence the quality of inquiry-based teaching and use this knowledge to help teachers empower students in the science classroom”

Research question(s)

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:10:36 UTC

What and how experienced teachers learn and develop when moving towards a research-based education.

Research question(s)

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:10:59 UTC

RQ1. What characterizes the quality of inquiry-based science teaching in the observed primary- and lower-secondary classrooms?

RQ2. What are the links between inquiry-based science teaching and the quality of student participation in the observed classrooms?

Methods of data collection

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:11:49 UTC

Action research projects: 50 teachers participated and each project designated one teacher as a ‘lead teacher’; over a 12-month period;
Once a month collegial conversations with teachers on different topics relating to different stages of the process;
Teachers kept a reflective journal where they regularly recorded their own reflections (approximately once a week).

Methods of data collection

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:12:10 UTC

Video data

Methods of data analysis

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:12:38 UTC

Content analysis.

Methods of data analysis

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:12:44 UTC

Mangold INTERACT software to analyse the video observations and took the recordings from the two stationary cameras.

Author's conclusions

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:13:55 UTC

The author concludes that teachers' engagement and ownership are key to success when it comes to buildin a research-based curriculum and fro their overall professianl development. I agree with the scholar and firmly believe that teachers can benefit from an empowering approach that revolves around critical thinking. In fact, this allows for personal and professional development and paves the way for a deeper understanding of things.

Ethics

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:14:00 UTC

No ethical concerned were raised.

Relevance

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:14:05 UTC

This paper gives precious insight on the positive effects reasearch driven teaching/learning has to the professionals. Particularly, over the time of the reseach, teachers learned about three areas: teaching, research and collaboration. A relavant consequence of the introduction of the research-based approach is that “the teachers’ professional learning was integrated in their work”and was “collaborative in nature as the teachers engaged in a community of practice with a joint domain, mutual engagement and shared repertoire”, which predicts positive fallouts on the long term for the whole school system.

Authors' conclusions

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:14:15 UTC

The authors conclude that implementing a research-based approach in (science) classes is beneficial to either students and teachers. The challenges posed by the inquiry-based appproach are beleieved to be positive in terms of teachers' professional development and students' participation and empowering.

As a former IB PYP teacher fror 10 years, I am well aware of the challenges that teachers face in while building research-based curricula. At the same time it represent an opportunity fro transformation and growth for either students and teachers, and has implication in terms of systems thinking and critical thinking.

Ethics

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:14:20 UTC

Research submitted and approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (project number 61288).

Relevance

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:14:25 UTC

This study helps putting into perspective the role of inquiry-based teaching in a science classes, that are generally considered to be the natural setting for this approach. “Findings from international large-scale assessment studies, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), suggest that inquiry in the classroom has a curvilinear relationship with the science achievements of students: more inquiry does not necessarily lead to better achievements (Cairns & Areepattamannil, 2019; Chi et al., 2018; Teig, 2021; Teig et al., 2018). These findings point to the necessity of studying the quality of inquiry-based teaching since increasing the frequency of inquiry activities will not necessarily translate into better science achievements”.

This paper points to “specific opportunities for improving the quality of instructional practices in different inquiry phases, which, in turn, can increase student participation and empower students in the classroom.” In the authors’ words, “empowering means strengthening students’ participation, their power to act, and, ultimately, their agency, i.e. their will and ability to play an active role in their education by setting goals, using their knowledge to effect change, and influence positively their own lives and the world around them (OECD, 2019). Empowering students leads to a transformative process of growth, and such transformation is one quality sign of good education (Wittek & Kvernbekk, 2011).” Eventually, “through detailed descriptions of observable characteristics of good science teaching, this study can help teachers and teacher educators reflect on their inquiry practices and suggest how to vary them in line with students’ needs.”

Aims & goals

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:15:13 UTC

This research aims at finding out teachers’ perception of the reaserch-based approach in terms of teaching their curriculum and professional development.

Research question

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:15:25 UTC

What are the most common assumptions around research-based teaching and how are they sustained?

Data collection

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:18:43 UTC

Individual interviews and focus groups over a period of 4 months.

Data alanysis

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:18:51 UTC

Thematic analysis;
Content analysis.

Ethics

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:19:07 UTC

I am going to have them sing a privacy agreement that guarantees anonimity.

Report

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:19:28 UTC

I will write a narrative report that will be delivered to the School management at the end of the intervention which will lead to further converstation on how to move on from the findings.

Risks and issues

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:19:51 UTC

Focus groups can potentially lead to a leak of information; people can have different understandings of what research-based teaching is.

Reccomendation for further steps

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:20:20 UTC

Making sure participants have a clear and shared definition of the subject in order to minimize the impact of individual interpretation by the target group on the outcomes.

monicacallegher1 — 2024-08-09 08:43:31 UTC

My intervention is a preliminary study on teachers' assumptions on research-based education that aims at building common ground and shared meanings. The main concerns, at this stage, are in terms of anonimity and confidentiality of data, as well as the information leak that can be traced back to focus groups.