From SER to STL: translating science
education research into science
teaching and learning
Peter E. Childs
Chemistry Education Research Group & National
Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science
Teaching and Learning
University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
[email protected]
The big questions
Why has science education research (SER) had little impact on
science teaching and learning (STL) over the past 30-40
years?
What is the main purpose of SER?
- for furthering academic careers and increasing our
knowledge or for improving the way science is taught and
learnt?
What are the barriers preventing the implementation of SER
in the school classroom and laboratory?
What role should SER play in initial science teacher training?
What can be done to transfer the findings of SER into
evidence-based STL?
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How can we bridge the gap?
STL
Teachers
SER
Researchers
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Outline
1. Introduction: SER is now a big enterprise
2. Why has SER not had more impact on STL?
3. What are the barriers preventing the
implementation of SER?
4. What role should SER play in initial teacher
training?
5. How can we turn SER into STL?
6. Conclusions
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1. Introduction: SER is now a big enterprise
Since the 1970s Science Education Research has
become a major enterprise.
e.g. 1990-2007 – 1401 articles published in 4 major
journals
(J. Educ. Technol. 2010, 19, 315-331)
2006-2008: 461 papers in 3 years in 3 journals
IJSE 188, JRST 146, SE 127 papers.
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Journals
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Books
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Of the making of many reports ....
(Ecclesiastes 12:12).
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The McKinsey Reports
– 2007 and 2010
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Some American publications
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International diagnostic reports
TIMSS2011 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study
(1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011)
http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2011/frameworks.html
Programme for International Student Assessment PISA
(2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012)
http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_322
35731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
Relevance of Science Education project (2004)
http://roseproject.no./
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European science education projects
http://www.scientix.eu/web/guest/home
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Why so little impact?
“How can there be so many published articles,
so many reports providing directions. So many
professional development sessions advocating
this or that method, so many parents and
politicians inventing new and better answers,
while classrooms are hardly different from 200
years ago? Why does this bounty of research
have so little impact?”
John Hattie, 2008, Visible Learning
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2. Why has SER not had more impact on
STL?
Negative media publicity:
• Are Teachers Hand-cuffed by Flawed
Education Research?
• We Must Stop the Avalanche of LowQuality Research
• Second-Class Science: Education research
gets an F.
Newsweek May 9, 2010
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The gap between research and practice
Greenwood and Abbot (2001) identified four factors
for the gap between research and practice:
• the separateness of the research and practice
communities;
• the limited relevance of educational research as
perceived by practitioners;
• the failure of researchers to produce usable
interventions; and
• the limited opportunities for meaningful
professional development by practitioners.
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A knowledge gap
“...there is a very large gap between the kind of
knowledge that good scholarly educational
research can at best provide and the kind of
knowledge that teachers most use in good
classroom teaching.”
Donald McIntyre (2005)
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3. What are the barriers preventing the
implementation of SER?
SER
STL
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a) The academic rat race
Academics who do SER often
have different goals and
priorities to teachers and seek
a different type of knowledge.
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Survival of the fittest
In academia
In schools
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b) The shortness of initial teacher training
“So much to do, so little time to do it”
Whether ITT is a 3-4 year concurrent course or a
1-2 year consecutive course there is too much
to cover in too little time.
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c) The communication gap with teachers
“Vital though this connection between research and
practice may be, in the field of education it still
remains relatively weak..”
Making use of evidence. Bridging the gap between research and
practice
Andrew Morris CPD Matters #1 Autumn 2011
http://www.ifl.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/25937/CPDMatters-Newsletter-Issue-1-2011-Online-final.pdf
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d) The irrelevance of much SER
Teachers do not perceive SER to be relevant to
their classroom situation.
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e) Lack of involvement in SER by teachers
Teachers often see research as something done
to them or on them – not for or by them.
SER is often seen as transfer from researcher to
teacher rather than as a partnership.
Researcher
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Teacher
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f) Teacher’s lack of time and expertise
Teachers are busy people and don’t have time
to keep up with SER.
Research papers are written in an obscure and
specialist language.
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g) Failure to influence policy makers
The curriculum and assessment are controlled
by governments.
Textbooks follow the curriculum and prepare for
state examinations.
Teachers teach the curriculum and to the
examination.
If SER does not influence curriculum and
assessment it does not affect STL.
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4. What role should SER play in initial
science teacher training?
• Pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) need to
be exposed to SER.
• SER needs to be integrated with both
education and science content and feed into
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK).
• PSSTs should be involved in SER.
• PSSTS need to be given the tools to use SER in
the future.
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Providing the tools
Set tasks that involve reading and reviewing the
SER and STL literature.
e.g.
a) Devise a context-based lesson plan using
ideas from the literature.
b) Identify suitable experiments or
demonstrations from the literature.
c) Identify a relevant SER article and relate to
the local curriculum.
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PSSTs Involvement in SER research
• PSSTs should be involved in SER either as a
final year project or as a research project as
part of a postgraduate course.
• Ideally SER should be integrated with teaching
practice as action research.
• SER opportunities should be provided to work
with science education researchers and with
experienced science teachers.
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5. How can we turn SER into STL?
• Three examples from the Chemistry Education
Research Group at the University of Limerick.
• We have been trying to use the findings from
SER to improve the teaching and learning of
chemistry at 2nd and 3rd level.
– TY Science
– Introducing Thinking Skills in Chemistry
– Organic Chemistry in Action!
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From SER to STL
It is possible to use SER to design more effective
teaching strategies and learning materials.
Implementation is limited by the constraints of
the curriculum and the assessment.
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6. Conclusions (1)
1. Every aspect of science teaching and learning
(STL) should be informed by science education
research (SER) – curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment.
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Research-informed Teaching
Curriculum
ResearchInformed
Pedagogy
Assessment
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Conclusions (2)
2. We should evaluate the effectiveness of new
teaching and learning strategies by reviewing
the research – and not just jump on the latest
bandwagon.
See John Hattie Visible Learning (2009)
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Conclusions (3)
3. Science teaching and learning is complex and
multidimensional and there is no ‘silver
bullet’ – we should use a mix of evidencebased strategies and approaches, tailored by
the teacher to suit the specific teaching and
learning situation.
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Conclusions (4)
4. We should develop partnerships between
researchers and teachers in order to transfer
SER into STL effectively and bridge the gap.
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Conclusions (5)
5. Teaching should become a Master’s level
profession across Europe.
Trainee teachers should be exposed more to
SER and be involved in research themselves.
CPD should be life-long and introduce and
involve teachers in SER.
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Conclusions (6)
6. We should take a systems approach to the
problem and seek to influence and change all
aspects of the education system.
Junior
2nd
cycle
Senior
2nd
cycle
Science
teaching
Teacher
training
3rd level
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Let’s not forget our goal
The principal goal of education is to create
[people] who are capable of doing new things,
not simply of repeating what other
generations have done—[people] who are
creative, inventive, and discoverers. The
second goal of education is to form minds
which can be critical, can verify, and not
accept everything they are offered.
Jean Piaget (1964)
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Thank you for your attention!
Any questions?
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