Work package 2 Observatory for policy and practice in science teacher education

NEW: Preliminary report on results of the national workshops.  The report focuses on the country-by-country situation for IBST and Teacher Professional Development, across the national partners.
Work package description

Work Package 2, led by the University of Oslo (UIO), will be responsible for collecting and analysing data on policy and practice in order to produce an overview of the current and emerging  situation regarding teacher education, science teaching and innovative methods. This overview, produced in  the form of two reports together with pages on this website, will detail the complex interaction of policy,  research and practice in this area, using data from the consortium's National Liaison Partners (NLP) and from contact with  key actors in the policy community. WP2 will promote the development of a new network connecting teacher  education policy with science education policy. Its initial task will be to collect evidence about national policy and practice through a series of workshops in each of the consortium countries, attended by  staff members from WP2 and WP3. All national liaison partners will provide a description of the policy situation and thestate-of-the-art in science teacher education in their own countries.  These descriptions will be discussed during workshops which will be held in conjunction with the workshops for the consideration of SINUS modules in WP3, in order to avoid excessive travel.  The workshops will involve the national liaison partners (NLP) and key actors in science education.  NLPs have each been allocated 3PM in WP3 to cover the tasks of setting up and attending the workshops. see National workshops for more information, including an updated paper from Doris and Matthias.

WP2's preliminary report will incorporate findings from the ongoing Mind the Gap project, and will provide state-of-the-art knowledge of IBST/E and its effectiveness. An international policy workshop will be held within the first nine months of the project to bring together the key players in  European science education and teacher education.  WP2 will also be responsible for input to a major conference, to be held in Glasgow on 14/15 October 2010. These activities will be designed to  create a community of policymakers and academics which will be responsive both to research  findings and to teachers' practical situations. The work will be performed by a researcher based at UIO, under the direction of Prof.Doris Jorde with the assistance of Prof.Kirsti Klette.  Additionally, key players may be interviewed by the  assistant or by national partners to clarify areas of particularimportance. The impact of WP2 will be achieved through the  broad reach of the consortium, which provides the most authoritative network of science and  teacher educators in Europe.  It will also work through existing research networks, such as EERA,  ASE and ESERA.

Deliverables WP2:

2.1 Policy and practice workshops programme, combined national events x 15 with WP3 divided into part A (WP2) and part B (SINUS)  (M6)

2.2 Preliminary policy report (M9): suggested length - pp.20-30

2.3 International policy conference (M18)

2.4 Final report on policy and practice in science education (M33)

Persons involved: Doris Jorde, Kirste Klette, +?