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dissemination of good methods in Science Education.
Author Names:
Professor Geir Karlsen (1) and Dr Peter Gray, (1), Professor Doris Jorde (2)
Institution:
(1) Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
(2) University of Oslo
Contact email addresses
geir.karlsen@plu.ntnu.no
graypb@gmail.com (correspondence)
doris.jorde@ils.uio.no
Postal address
Prof. Geir Karlsen/ Dr Peter Gray
PLU/NTNU
Låven
Dragvoll gård
7491     Trondheim
Norway

b) Type of presentation preferred
Paper

Conference strand:
11. Educational Policy
 Policy and Practice issues: local, regional, national, or international issues of policy related to sci-ence education

ABSTRACT

(186

words)

This

paper

outlines

the

philosophy

and

ideas

behind

the

creation

of

two

major

projects

in

the

field

of

science

education.

  The

S-TEAM

(Science-Teaching

Advanced

Methods)

and

INQUEST

(In-quiry

Now

!

Quality

Enhancement

in

Science

Teaching)

projects

are

both

responses

to

Calls

within

the

Science

in

Society

(SiS)

strand

of

FP7

.

  These

calls

seek

to

drastically

increase

the

dissemina-tion

of

inquiry-based

science

teaching

methods

throughout

Europe.

The

paper

argues

that

researchers

and

teacher

educators

can

use

the

opportunities

presented

by

these

Calls

to

take

an

active

position

within

an

emerging

European

pedagogical

field,

in

order

to

achieve

long-term

improvements

in

the

teaching

and

learning

of

science.

In

order

to

do

this,

it

is

necessary

to

adopt

indicators

and

instruments

which

help

to

illuminate

the

problem

as

well

as

con-tribute

to

its

solution,

and

to

take

account

of

moral

and

ethical

debates

about

science

in

society.

  The

paper

outlines

our

approach

to

developing

indicators

and

instruments

and

shows

how

science

education

research

will

benefit

from

the

two

projects.

 Synopsis (1499

words)

Introduction

This

paper

describes

the

creation

and

philosophy

of

two

Framework

Programme

(FP)7

projects

in

the

field

of

science

education.

  The

S-TEAM

(Science-Teaching

Advanced

Methods)

and

INQUEST

(Inquiry

Now

!

Quality

Enhancement

in

Science

Teaching)

projects

are

both

responses

to

Calls

within

the

Science

in

Society

(SiS)

strand

of

FP7.

  S-TEAM

started in May 2009.

These

calls

concern

the

dissemination

of

inquiry-based

science

teaching

(IBST)

methods

throughout

Europe.

They

provide

opportunities

for

researchers

to

take

an

active

position

within

an

emerging

European

Pedagogical

Field,

in

order

to

achieve

long-term

improvements

in

pupil

attitudes

towards

science.

  A

recent

tender

document

,

states

that:

...

impact

[of

earlier

projects

]

  on

the

broader

community

of

science

teachers

and

other

users

in

Europe

-

those

not

directly

involved

in

specific

projects

(and

in

fact

the

over-whelming

majority)

-

is

far

from

being

optimal.

The

paper

suggests

ways

in

which

this

problem

can

be

addressed.

Background

The

Calls

make

three

assumptions:

(1)

improved

scientific

literacy

is

assumed

to

be

a

public

good;

(2)

It

is

desirable

that

more

students

enter scientific,

technological,

engineering

or

mathematics

(STEM)

careers

(EC,

2004);

(3)

Inquiry-based

science

teaching

(IBST)

is

assumed

to

be

capable

of

producing

the

desired

results

There

is

no

necessary

link

between

these

components.

As

Osborne

&

Dillon

(2008)

point

out,

(2)

might

be

framed

as

a

a

problem

of

the

labour

market

rather

than

a

problem

for

education,

whilst

(1)

is

subject

to

debate

as

to

the

nature

of

scientific

literacy

and

its

purpose

within

civil society  (Gräber

et

al

2002;

Evans

1997).

There

are

therefore

some

difficulties

to

overcome

in

both

dissemination

and

measurement.

Scientific

and

empirical

aspects

Our

initial

problem

in

designing

a

scientifically

justified

and

empirically

successful

project

is

therefore to

find

a

way

of

correlating

four

disparate

phenomena,

viz:

1.

Inquiry-based

methods

of

science

teaching

2.

Scientific

literacy

3.

Labour

market

conditions

for

STEM

graduates

4.

Teacher-led

inquiry

in

professional

development

The

paper

argues

that

teacher-led

inquiry

may

open

up

the

area

of

moral

purpose

within

science

education,

whilst

the

process

of

creating

indicators

for

contentious

concepts

within

science

educa-tion

is

itself

a

political

and

ethical

challenge.

Current

debates

around

public

perceptions

of

science

(e.g.

Wilsdon

et

al,

2005)

provide

an

argument

for

bringing

the

political

and

ethical

dimensions

of

science

into

science

teaching,

and the  phenomena towards which S-TEAM  is directed. Meanwhile, we need a way of connecting existing methods and research with national contexts.
The Pedagogical Field
Current evidence from projects such as ROSE (Relevance of Science Education)  is that pupil interest in science is declining. Meanwhile TIMMS and PISA have created competition between education systems. The problem for EU action on science education is that there is currently no space for collaboration equivalent to, e.g. the European Higher Education Area . The Principle of Subsidiarity   makes member states responsible for their own education systems, and the trend towards standards, accountability, 'evidence-based practice' and other instruments of management (Patrick et al 2003) increasingly determines who has the power to affect pedagogy. As differences between national systems become apparent however, so do the possibilities for European collaboration.
Here, we introduce the concept of the pedagogical field.  Drawing upon Bourdieu (1991) we define the pedagogical field as the totality of forces (discursive, normative, governmental etc) generated by actors within educational systems and which affect the pedagogical principles and practices adopted in a given context (Gray, 2008).  The strongest pedagogical fields are at national level, combining general aspects with subject-specific ideas, for example the combination of student-centred, con-structivist teaching and learning with inquiry-based teaching, or 'investigative' science (McNally 2006).
Indicators as formative, and as political and ethical instruments
In this section of the paper, we discuss empirical issues surrounding measurement, which is neces-sary if either S-TEAM or INQUEST are to have scientific credibility.  For example, it is difficult to produce convincing indicators and instruments for scientific literacy, due to the difficulty of relating science topics in the curriculum to possible test items in a consistent way across contexts (OECD 2006). There is even  doubt concerning numbers of science teachers and students in partner coun-tries. A further problem is introduced by the need for indicators which are valid and reliable within project timescales (3-4 yrs).
Whilst the two projects are 'support actions', having no research role, they will nevertheless gener-ate empirical data for researchers.  The nature of this empirical data and its significance will be de-termined by:
1. The need to demonstrate the effectiveness of project actions
2.  The resulting need to identify suitable indicators and instruments, in line with EC policy
3. The nature of these indicators and instruments
4. The nature of any analysis
5. The subsequent use of these analyses in academic articles and policy documents
The paper will develop the relationship between these factors.
Developing indicators
To give an example, the paper describe the hypothetical process of deriving indicators in relation to an S-TEAM sub-package:
WP5b (NTNU) will develop the use of practice placements in initial teacher education (ITE)...for the development of new methods in science education...through a DVD (with University of Strathclyde and Université Pierre Mendes-France) as a tool for reflection in ITE...[it] will be used as a basis for discussing relationships between teaching method and learning outcome.
The paper will discuss how the process of  developing effective, inter-related indicators can have a formative role in science education itself. This process will require new kinds of partnership be-tween stakeholders in science education. The kind of partnerships which will be created within the S-TEAM and INQUEST projects are therefore:
® Partnerships between science education researchers and teacher educators
® Partnerships between schools, teachers and teacher educators
® Partnerships between natural science, social science and humanities subjects
These ideas are not new in themselves, but within the S-TEAM and INQUEST projects, they will contribute to a European Pedagogical Field.  Such a field is not simply a forum for exchanging 'best practice',. By collaborating across borders, science teachers and teacher educators can work their way around some of the constraints of national systems and 're-enter' the national pedagogical field as stronger and more influential players.
These partnerships will thus be both the creators and disseminators of 'good' methods in science education.  We use the word 'good' here in the particular sense of having a moral purpose:
...Research with  an ambition to discover a difference that makes a  difference, and with an ambition to improve the life-conditions for living persons. Somehow this has to  be the le-gitimate basis of all educational activity...(Karlsen 2008)
Science on its own has been unable to provide answers, and we are thus entering the domain of philosophy and of democratic consensus. The process of defining, enhancing and sustaining a European Pedagogical Field provides a space for debate.  It should not be a vehicle for the top-down dissemination of fixed ideas about science teaching but a bottom-up, democratic laboratory for inquiry-based learning.
References
Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) Language and Symbolic Power Harvard University Press
EC (European Commission) (2004) Increasing Human Resources for Science and Technology in Europe: Report to be presented at the EC Conference "Europe needs More Scientists" Brussels,  European Commission.
Evans, R. H. (1997). A challenge to the science education community: Morris H. Shamos' The Myth of Scientific Literacy, in Gräber, W. & Bolte, C. (Eds.), Scientific Literacy (pp. 103-120). Kiel, Germany, IPN.
Gräber, W., Nentwig, P., Koballa, T. & Evans, R. (Hrsg.) (2002): Scientific Literacy. Der Beitrag der Naturwissenschaften zur Allgemeinen Bildung. (Scientific Literacy: The Value of Science in General Education) Opladen: Leske + Budrich
Gray, Peter (2008) Pedagogy and the Scottish Education System: an overview, report produced for the Norwegian Council of Higher Education Institutions, Oslo
Karlsen, Geir (2008) Improving and enhancing - useful,  usual or useless?:Contemporary  challenges to educational research -  read in a Buberian perspective paper presented at ECER 2008 Gothenburg.
McNally, J. (2006) Confidence and Loose Opportunism in the Science Classroom: Towards a pedagogy of investigative science for beginning teachers International Journal of Science Education 28, 14, 423-438
OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development) (2006) The Programme for international Student Assessment, (PISA) Paris, OECD.
Patrick, Fiona, Forde Christine & McPhee Alison (2003) Challenging the 'New Professionalism': From managerialism to Pedagogy, Journal of In-Service Education, 29/2, pp.237-254.
Wilsdon, James, Wynne, Brian & Stilgoe, Jack (2005) The Public Value of Science, or how to ensure science really matters, London, DEMOS.