Transformative Research Activities. Cultural diversities and Education in Science

Final Report Summary - TRACES (Transformative Research Activities. Cultural diversities and Education in Science)

Executive summary:

This report summarizes the outcomes and impact of TRACES, a two-year Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) research project on the relationship between research and practice in Science education implemented in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Italy and Spain.

The TRACES research programme included desk research, national surveys based on large-scale questionnaires and in-depth interviews and focus groups, 24 four case studies involving schools of all grades, and an international workshop involving teachers, principals, administrators and researchers from the six partner countries.

The research developed produced a rich body of data and insights that go beyond the research focus of the project. This is consistent with the project's research approach, aimed at identifying the actual constraints that influence research-based practice in science education and the actions developed in order to promote it and to address the project's research questions in terms of the complex system of factors involved.

Project context and objectives:

A number of findings from research in science education are well known and broadly accepted. They refer e.g. to inquiry based, learning by doing, social dimension of learning, active learning, diversity of learning styles, based on individual, cultural, gender-related factors.

While much research commitment has been put into looking at students learning, recently also in terms of neural, cognitive and psychological processes, in the effort of identifying effective methodologies for science education, little attention has been paid at barriers that oppose to a broad acceptance of research findings in everyday practice of science teaching in our schools. For researchers working side by side with school teachers, it is everyday experience to see how difficult it is to receive indications coming from research and transform them into teaching practice: there are cultural barriers, preparation barriers, time and resource constraints.

On the other hand, the research on education in sciences is going through a process of re-examination and reflection on the results obtained and on the problems still open. Compared to the remarkable amount of information about initial knowledge of the students there is a nearly total lack of information on the potentialities of development of scientific proficiency in effective conditions of instruction. The attention consequently has been moved, from a prevailing concern about spontaneous misconceptions, that may hinder the conceptual changes necessary to access accepted scientific knowledge, to the investigation on how to obtain an adequate and effective connection between the teaching proposals and the cognitive and cultural (individual and social) background of learners. It is also recognized that the improvement of effective decision making about education programmes requires systematic studies on the ways that programs themselves are implemented in different educational settings. Nevertheless the research that examines the interaction between efforts to enhance educational practices and the structural elements of school settings remain still 'critical, underfunded, and underappreciated' (see e.g. [1,2,3,4]).

Through a close coordination between researchers and practitioners, TRACES wanted to pay attention to the complexity [5] of educational settings, regarding as its principal feature the values of stakeholders (i.e. their views about individual human potential, their hopes and expectations of what society can become, their ideas about how social problems can be alleviated), the variability of educational programmes (due to variability of policies), the organization of education (as a multi-layered system of poorly-connected levels, for example low versus high grade or school versus family context), diversity (linguistic and socio-cultural differences influence the learning processes).

Therefore, TRACES promoted transformative [6] research activities and investigated the factors that contribute to the research-practice gap, in order to identify innovative policies in science education that can contribute to fill that gap.

It did so through both desk and field research, in a cyclic process of analysis, action, reflection, looking for answers to questions such as: What can research in science education bring to school practice? What are the barriers opposing to this process? What changes are necessary in order to address the problem? The most relevant part of the research activity consisted in the development of field actions in each involved country.

In detail the main objectives of the project were to contribute to:

- identify in the involved countries the actual barriers to link teachers' practice and indications coming from research in science education;

- define exemplar ways (models) to produce communities (made of students, teachers, parents, researchers, policy makers) allowing for an operative development of effective practices in science education;

- provide recommendations to overcome criticalities in science education practices;

- realize a web site as a resource centre where all project materials could be published, including surveys and state-of-the art reports, field action documentation, case studies and cross-national comparisons, external evaluation results and final recommendations to be used for future actions.

The final recommendations aim at informing teachers' work, principals' management, policy makers' decisions, and researchers' activities. At the same time, the other main project outcomes (e.g. case studies) aim at authorities, policy makers, funding institutions, people in charge for curriculum development, teachers' preparation and professional development. Secondary target groups are teachers and students (e.g. for what concerns educational materials produced throughout the project development in several school involved in the field actions).

The project was structured in four main stages:

Stage 1: A survey of teachers' (and other stakeholders') perceptions about science teaching conducted in all the six partner countries;

Stage 2: Implementation in each partner country of field actions involving hundreds of teachers in the design, carrying out and analysis of educational activities in classrooms and in a process of critical reflection on their practice;

Stage 3: Production of several case studies in each partner countries, analysing the process of implementation of the field actions and the lesson learnt during their development;

Stage 4: Elaboration of the project final recommendations based on the surveys' results and on findings from case studies.

The research methodology was based on a mixed qualitative-quantitative evaluation strategy based on a common evaluation framework previously shared at the consortium level. Field actions were documented using audio and video recordings and logbooks kept by teachers and researchers. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were used to look at both teachers and pupils beliefs, interests, goals, understandings, and learning. The materials produced by teachers and pupils throughout the activities were also be collected and analysed.

Although the project has continually been informed by all the well-known extensive international surveys on science education already available (TALIS, TIMMS, OECD-Pisa), we decided to start TRACES with a specifically designed survey for three main reasons:

- having a chance to investigate more specifically the stakeholders' perception about the reasons for the actual distance between schools and the other actors involved in science education;

- posing the basis for the subsequent steps of the project, starting to directly involve teachers (and other relevant actors) in the participative process of development of the TRACES activities;

- gaining a deeper understanding of the actual educational contexts in which the field actions had to be implemented.

After having accomplished the survey phase during the first six months of the project (the related analysis is reported in the deliverables D2.1-2.6) the TRACES consortium used hints coming from a compared analysis of the national surveys in order to design a general framework for the implementation of the national field actions (deliverable D3.1).

Then TRACES researchers spent over a year working side by side with teachers at the development of educational activities on the field.

Based on a common rationale and action-research strategy, in each partner country, we created a team of researchers, teachers and principals who worked on shared objectives and met periodically to plan, analyse, reflect on the progress toward the project objectives.

In the process, we looked at teachers' difficulties and strengths in facing the challenge of revising their activities in progress taking pupils' diversities into account and linking to the curriculum and resources limitations. This also gave us insights on the adequateness of teachers' preparation and professional development and help us identify recommendations for future practice.

The findings emerging from these experiences were collected in the case study reports (deliverables D4.1-4.6).

Although the main focus of the field actions was the investigation of the research-to-practice gap, the strongly participative nature of the activities resulted in a huge variety of directions undertaken in order to fulfil local needs and expectations.

The consortium made a further compared analysis of the case study findings in order to come out with a draft of the TRACES final recommendations that was discussed with representatives of all the involved stakeholders during the project final conference (deliverables D5.1 and D6.1). Due to the richness of emerged elements, the final recommendations are not exclusively focused on the gap, but also on a number of related issues such as the exploitation of internal resources in schools or the relationship of schools with the socio-cultural context in which they are based.

The TRACES recommendations are aimed at all the stakeholders in the science education area: teachers, researchers, educators, school administrators, principals, policy makers. In fact, the findings that emerged from case studies suggested the tension between research and practice have to be mitigated alongside with other tensions and gaps involving the relationships of schools with educational authorities, other educational institutions, local communities. The recommendations are aimed at sharing the lessons learnt during the two years of the project and at giving recommendations on actual initiatives to be undertaken in order to exploit already existing resources at their best and favour the establishment of communities involving different stakeholders in order to improve the way science is taught in schools.

Project results:

Surveys

TRACES surveys (WP2) included both a Desk Research part and a Field Investigation part. The Field Investigation aimed at researching into structural difficulties to accept and translate in actual practices research results and institutional indications on science education and the perceptions of the social role of science and function of science education for a particular target group.

The Desk Research aimed at giving a picture of the scenario of science education in the school system of each partner country, with a special focus on the relevant national initiatives devoted to improve science education during a defined period.

Criteria for the Desk Research included: a period of approximately 10 years as a reasonable time window in which to look at national initiatives and reform programmes; a list of eligible existing documents on the school system scenario. Partner countries developed local plans for the Desk Research as appropriate to corresponding national peculiarities.

In each partner country, researchers looked at the significant reforms and initiatives related to (science) education and the way these have shifted pedagogical and didactic paradigms, the foci of science education, the methodologies fostered.

Desk Research in each survey accounted for aspects of the school system addressed in the large-scale teacher questionnaire and other relevant themes including: national curricula (for science); number of years of compulsory school; how science teaching is arranged at the various grades (e.g. one common science subject or different subjects like physics, chemistry, biology, etc.); pre- and in-service teacher training; teacher selection; assessment of learning; interaction among teachers; availability of laboratories and other experimental resources; relationship to research; funding of research and development programmes.

The main objective of the national surveys was to inform the design of the following field actions, whose analysis was developed in form of case studies. Therefore, what we expected to obtain from the Field Investigation was a deeper understanding of the educational contexts in which the field actions will have been implemented. On the one side, this means understanding if our basic research assumptions seemed reasonable and if we were missing some relevant aspects of the way the school system functions. On the other side, we wanted to investigate stakeholders' strategies, beliefs, experiences, difficulties, perceptions and analyse qualitatively their correlation with specific cultural contexts.

The field investigation was conducted on a large scale by means of questionnaires administered to teachers (mainly); on the small scale by means of interviews with teachers, principals, local schools authorities, policy makers, researchers by means of focus groups with other involved stakeholders.

The discussion among the researchers in the consortium coagulated in a common questionnaire to be administered to teachers in all partner countries, with small changes related to national peculiarities and translation. Questionnaires were piloted with a small number of teacher and fine-tuned before being administered (see appendix A in deliverable D3.1 for the English version of the common questionnaire).

The themes addressed included: beliefs about founding ideas (theories) of science teaching and their connection to practice; aims and social role of science and/or science education; interaction with colleagues; perception of national initiatives and official indications on science education; perception of pre- and in-service training; barriers to effective practice; sources of materials/ideas for teaching; role of assessment procedures; sources vision of effective science teaching; role of external actors in school practice; gender related issues in teaching/learning.

In each partner country, the same themes were inquired in greater depth conducting personal interviews and focus groups with smaller sample populations. Besides teachers, other actors involved in the system of education were included: school principals, local and national administrators and policy makers, researchers in science education and teacher trainers.

Whereas personal interviews provided qualitative data in order to gain deeper insight into individual perspectives, focus groups allowed for elements to emerge from debate among different individuals both in the same category (teachers, principals etc.) and from different categories in mixed groups.

As a consequence of their more context-dependent nature and the necessity of being based the preliminary results of the national surveys, interviews and focus groups had their protocols designed locally in each partner countries (see annexes to deliverables D2.1-D2.6). All protocols were nevertheless shared within the consortium prior to their implementation. The interviews and the focus groups provided a deeper understanding of topics connected with the research focus. Teachers, principals, policy makers, researchers in science education were interviewed or involved in focus groups. The topics to be treated referred to the general themes reported for the Filed Investigation.

Stratification of the samples

Coherently with the abovementioned objectives, we were not aiming at a statistically representative sampling, but to a sampling which was stratified enough to be significant for a qualitative data analysis, which means it included a reasonable variety in terms of some aspects that we identified as peculiar of the specific national contexts. The identification of relevant stratification criteria was therefore the most important point in the definition of the national samples.

A section of the questionnaire was devoted to collect information about each teacher in the sample, in particular about gender, training and research experiences, school grade in which he/she teaches and other topics, which could be useful to characterize the teacher according to the stratification criteria. Any request for data allowing personal identification was excluded.

Among all partner countries 1900 completed questionnaires were collected and 165 people participated in interviews and focus groups.

Sample in each country

Italy. The survey was conducted at national level. Five criteria were identified for sample: geographic area (northern, central, southern); social context (big city-centre, big city-peripheral, medium city, small city); school grade (elementary, 1st and 2nd grade secondary); presence of foreign students (more or less than 20%). The total number of collected questionnaires was 790 (709 teachers and 81 principals). In addition, four focus groups were conducted with four different groups of teachers. Altogether, 32 teachers were involved in focus groups. Another 8 teachers, 4 researchers and 1 technical officer of the Ministry of Education were interviewed.

Argentina. The survey was conducted in the province of Salta. The large-scale sample was stratified along to the following dimensions: social context; geographic area; school level (kindergarten and primary school). The total number of collected questionnaires was 478. On the small scale, 12 individuals were involved in personal semi-structured interviews, including 4 Researchers in science education, 1 policy maker, 3 primary school teachers and 3 teacher trainers.

Brazil. The survey was conducted in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The sample was stratified according to four dimensions: geographic area (centre, south and north); type of school (state, municipal and private); school level (secondary school and high school); social context (urban, suburban, and small town). The total completed questionnaires were 145. On the small scale, 29 individuals were involved in interviews and focus groups, including: 8 school principals, 5 policy makers, 9 researchers in science education and 7 teachers.

Colombia. Three Colombian regions were selected for the national survey: Andean, Orinoco and Caribbean. For the specific national context, the stratification criteria assumed were: socio-economics context (urban, rural, suburban); administrative organization (city, region); kind of migration (for work activities, for conflicts); school level (primary, secondary). In total, 215 complete questionnaires were collected and 30 teachers were involved in interviews and focus groups.

Israel. The Israeli survey was mainly conducted through a large number of in-depth interviews. In total, 65 completed questionnaires were collected. On the small scale, 34 in-depth interviews were carried out with a sample of stakeholders composed as follows: 10 science teaching researchers; 6 policy makers; 7 teacher educators; 3 school principals; 8 science teachers.

Spain. The Spanish survey was restricted to the Autonomous Community of Catalonia. The large-scale Spanish survey sample was designed in order to cover consistently three dimensions: type of school (public, private); immigration rates in the geographical area (high, low); school level (primary, secondary). The total completed questionnaires were 207. On the small scale the sample includes 5 school administrators and 7 teachers, 1 researcher and 2 policy makers.

Elements emerging from the national surveys

In this chapter we want to present a cross-comparison of the data coming from the field investigations in the TRACES national surveys (deliverables D2.1-D2.6) trying to connect stakeholders' perceptions with the scenario of the national contexts as emerging from the Desk Research part of the surveys. We want to present the main issues that emerged by cross-comparing the national surveys, using both quantitative data from the answers to the teacher questionnaire and qualitative data form interviews and focus groups with teachers, principals, researchers and policy makers.

As a general reference for the following discussion, the one concerning actions to improve science teaching. The graph gathers together the answers given by the overall sample of teachers obtained by aggregating the national samples. The total number of answers collected is approximately 1800 (different numbers of answers have been collected for each item).

Although the overall sample is biased by the different number of questionnaires collected in the partner countries (ranging from 64 in Israel to about 700 in Italy), some common trends emerge from the analysis of the answers to this question.

First of all, it is quite evident that the majority of the teachers perceives all the mentioned actions as at least relevant in order to improve science teaching, expressing therefore a strong need for structural changes in their actual practice. Nevertheless, a ranking in the importance attributed to the different actions by teachers is also quite evident: the need for more material resources (including laboratorial facilities and connection to the internet) is chiefly felt as strongly relevant, followed closely by the need for circulation of ideas and materials (exchanging ideas among colleagues, connecting educational research and practice, producing new teaching materials). Interventions on the general organization of their work (changing teacher training, reorganizing teachers work, changing selection procedures) are a bit less valued, while the interventions that are most poorly valued are the one regarding changes in the assessment criteria, involvement of external actors and changing curricula and official guidelines.

The picture emerging from this analysis is one of teachers who want to be provided with resources (material and not material) to sustain their work and don't believe they can profit of structural reforms or external intervention (including the interaction with researchers). In the rest of this section we will detail this general picture.

Impact of official guidelines on actual teaching practice

On the one hand, the desk research analysis carried out in each partner country highlights strong efforts towards the enactment of science curricula that are strongly rooted in up-to-date educational principles and goals and towards the implementation of initiatives for the improvement of science education that could enhance the actual impact of curricula and official guidelines on science teaching. On the other hand, the analysis of pre-existent research materials about the national school systems and of the data collected within the field research part of the TRACES national surveys show a wide separation between the aims of national policies and their impact on the actual work of science teachers in the classroom. The TRACES surveys identified (or confirmed) a number of reasons for this separation as they are perceived by the different stakeholders in the school system. Most of these reasons are shared transversally although they emerge with nuances that are characteristic of the different national contexts. Among these reasons are the lack of involvement of different actors (researchers, teachers) in the design of policies, the weak connection between official guidelines and the actual teaching/learning contexts, the lack of knowledge of the guidelines by teachers also in connection with the lack of relevant teacher training initiatives and teachers' inertia with regard to didactical experimentation.

In all countries teachers expressed poor interest in changes in the official requests in order to improve science teaching. This is particularly evident in Italy and Colombia, where the majority of the teachers (59,5% and 51,1%, respectively) in the survey had a judgement of poor relevance for this item when answering to the question about action to improve science teaching (Question 8 ). In other countries the answers to this same question were different (ranging from judgement of poor relevance expressed by 15,6% of the Israeli sample to a 38,4% in Brazil), but the item is everywhere one of the less valued when compared with the others. The hint coming from the answers to Question 8, is confirmed in the answers to Question 1 (sources of the important ideas for science teaching mentioned) and Question 9 (sources of ideas to improve teaching practice), where the item 'official documents' is very poorly represented (by far the less mentioned item).

Choices of the other items in the answers to Question 1 and Question 9, show that the general trend is to value mainly one's own professional experience as a source of big ideas for science teaching, while resources available online, teacher training, colleagues and sometimes books and magazines are mentioned with difference strengths as sources of ideas to improve science teaching.

Let us summarize the reasons for the poor relevance (or bad perception) of official requests and documents as emerging from the national surveys.

A particular aspect in stakeholders' perceptions about the impact of official guidelines is connected with the introduction of standardized procedures for the assessment of learning, which is quite a topical issue in recent school reforms worldwide. There is almost general agreement in teachers' negative perception of this kind of tests as long as they expose to the risk of shifting the focus of teaching/learning towards the achievement of good results in the tests.

Teacher training

All the national surveys highlight teachers' general need for more specific training in order to be able to manage the contents of science curricula. The lack of specific training programmes developed in connection with the latest science education reforms is also referred to in almost all partner countries. The perceived inadequacy of preparation often leads to a difficulty in acknowledging the official requests because they are badly understood and hardly translated into practice. Teachers often refer to their own professional experience as the main instrument allowing them to manage their work in the classroom. This scenario is well represented in the answers to the teachers questionnaire. With the exception of Israel and Argentine (where the percentages are almost equal), professional experience is by far more strongly considered than teacher training.

Among the issues emerging from the analysis of the survey data, we want to underline the stronger need for specific training in science education expressed by primary school teachers when compared to secondary school ones. This last emerging issue is common to almost all countries.

Interaction among teachers

Collaboration among teachers and sharing of competencies and ideas are considered as a founding value and as an important resource by most of the teachers in the overall TRACES sample. Strong relevance is attributed to training among peers and more in general to the construction of networks of collaboration at different scales. At the same time, actual communication among teachers is often limited to issues related to the solution of organizational problems and institutional opportunities for dialogue usually do not foster a more significant interaction.

The results of our surveys show that teachers in the sample perceive interaction among colleagues as fundamental. In all countries, a large majority of the sample indicated the enhancement of the exchange of ideas among colleagues as a strongly relevant action to improve science teaching (Question 8), while colleagues are always mentioned as one of the most valuable sources of ideas for science teaching (Question 1 and 9). Nevertheless, interviews and focus groups showed that the actual situation of practicing collaboration is rather more complex. The attitude of everyone to question his/her own beliefs is considered as a necessary premise for a fruitful collaboration. Collaboration can be particularly effective when an interdisciplinary approach is used and, more in general, among colleagues who share the same concerns on students learning. One of the teachers interviewed in Italy identified a number of barriers towards an effective collaboration aimed at promoting innovations in science teaching: lack of esteem among colleagues and unwillingness of everyone to move from the balance reached after years of experience; lack of external motivation: no benefits (also economical) for the additional work to be done and poor interest by principals towards quality of educational activities; lack of training: without stimuli coming from training experience is even more difficult to be motivated to abandon well-established certainties.

In parallel with the appreciation of collaboration and networking as opportunities for a collective cultural growth, teachers in all countries notice that unfortunately most of the interaction among colleagues is generally devoted to organizational issues, such as students' misbehaviours, the management of conflicts or the accomplishment of bureaucratic duties, that are often the main priorities in teachers' work. Official modalities of interaction are often not mandatory and does not represent (at all school grades) a guarantee for actual cooperation and are on the contrary often perceived as very poorly constructive.

School organization

Another main issue emerging from the surveys is connected to structural barriers towards the improvement of science education that are characteristic of the national school organization. Among these barriers the more recurrent ones are the organization of teachers' work (mainly in terms of timetables) and the lack of materials resources. Interaction with school administrators is another point on which attention has to be focused, confronting teachers' perception about structural issue with the one expressed by principals. In fact, principals' main claim is shared with teachers and concerns the general perception of a strong lack of material resources, with special reference to the lack of lab-facilities addressed to the improvement of science teaching. In all countries, principals also claim the lack of teachers' adequate preparation in scientific contents and teaching methodologies, together with the lack of motivation among teachers that makes it hard to implement innovation programmes. Teachers are seen as pursuing out-of-date teaching approaches, mainly based on the use of textbooks as the main resource. The structural need for a better selection of teachers is connected to the limitations in the role of the principal him/herself.

Socio-cultural issues

The possible differentiation among kind of schools or among school experiences (conceived for different students) seems to be an interesting topic coming out of the national surveys. The interest in this issue should lead us to deal with many themes, embracing problems we are not able to unravel exhaustively in the framework of our inquiry. Nevertheless, we would like to underline the link between this point and the wide reference to necessity of contextualisation in science education practice. According to the answers to open-ended questions the idea that science has to be contextualised to everyday and/or modern situations is recurrently highlighted. However, if we look at all the collected answers, we notice that 'sense' is made explicit less than it is evoked. The question about what are the most adequate goals for science education is a very critical knot, which concerns the meaning itself and the articulated interpretation of 'scientific literacy' and of its aims. Actually explicit teachers' beliefs reveal different ways to detail the usually-mentioned relationship between science education and everyday life, with the idea that scientific rigour could be 'displaced' by interest in education for healthy living, balanced and well-being for all. On the other hand, there is a prominence of interest in developing of skills for individual life, in contrast to the interest in developing skills useful to belonging society. Obviously, a reflection about the aims of science education involve a parallel consideration of motivational aspects. In each survey it is outlined that teachers are mainly satisfied at the intellectual and the relational level, and in a lower measure at the social one (in the sense of social merit of their job).

Main factors of professional satisfaction are success with students' achievements, respect from students and contact with them, students' motivation and engagement, working conditions, professional interest, development and renewal. It is important to outline that the socio-cultural composition of classes is one of the aspects that show a controversial profile according to teachers, being of none or bad influence for some teachers while having a positive one for others. Generally diversity of abilities in the classroom is problematic and relates with family situations and in some teachers' opinion it entail special strategies for the management of classroom. But it seems that teachers' think to deal with this theme without a link with outsider actors. In fact, involvement of external actors in the educational practice is a very few ranked option by most teachers, in particular those with more experience and who participate in research. On the contrary, it is an important factor for primary school teachers. However, when asked to comment on bad or good administrative initiatives, none of the mentioned teachers' initiatives open the school to the society. A possible explanation for this lack of interest in involving external actors is teachers' (rather widespread) perception of the value society attributes to their work. The linguistic skills are priority and preparatory to science education, which appears referring to a well-said. In other cases, for example for what concerns the laboratory activities in second grade secondary school, the reference is also to a well-done, understood in a procedural meaning: skills in collecting and processing data, capacity to give a formally correct report. According to this perspective, many teachers mention the necessity to base science education activities on 'practical work' and underline the importance to increase the material resources devoted to this kind of activity. Nevertheless, as a widespread attitude, laboratories are meant as a special context in which non-ordinary activities can be carried out. Moreover the typical description of lab activities given by teachers seems to present a naïve conception of laboratory activities, which is strongly based on pre-defined procedures and often lacks of the direct participation of the pupils.

Research vs. practice

A theme emerging from the answers to the questionnaire is connected to the judgement of poor relevance about the involvement of external actors expressed by the majority of the teachers in the sample. This perception is again in line with the strong relevance of professional experience as source of important idea expressed in the answers. Moreover, expressing their view about the factors that positively (or negatively) influence their teaching, teachers mostly mentioned their training, what appears students have learnt and their skill in managing scientific topics.

Gender related issues

As evidenced by a wide literature, gender difference does play a role in individual and societal attitudes towards science and science teaching/learning. TRACES' surveys addressed the problem with three specific questions included in the teacher questionnaire in all partner countries. We asked teachers if they experience differences of interests in boys and girls towards different scientific themes (Question 13) or engagement in different types of activities (Question 14). We know, for example, from research that girls are more sensitive to those aspects of science that are related to societal issues, such as the preservation of ecosystems or health care. We also know that girls are usually more engaged by activities that involve communication and interaction with peers. We have also asked our sample teacher populations if they take any difference into account when they plan their activities in the classroom or if they revise their practice according to emerging differences (Question 12).

Case studies

TRACES field actions (WP5) were carried out over a period of 15 months, form January 2011 until March 2012. following a timetable composed of four main stages. The analysis of the documentation and evaluation materials collected during the actions was devoted to produce case studies describing the entire design and carrying out process. The design and implementation of the field actions were informed by the general criteria coming from the cross-comparison of the national survey: distance between official guidelines and actual teaching practice; relationship between school teachers and external actors; impact of assessment methods on science teaching; teaching practice as a research work; interactions among teachers; role of experimental activities in science teaching; teachers' self-perception of the adequateness of own preparation (training); gender related issues; impact of structural constraints on science teaching; role of the contextual dimension in science teaching.

Structure

Based on these insights, the TRACES coordination team produced common indications for the upcoming field actions (see deliverable D3.1). The wide degree of freedom agreed about the nature of the field actions gave rise to a reach variety of kind of interventions in schools including small or large groups of teachers, single schools or groups of schools, different dynamics of interaction (classroom activities entirely designed together with teachers or adaptation of proposal coming from science education research), strongly varied socio-cultural contexts. The Steering Committee (as scientific board) worked in order to define a common structure for the case studies: on the one hand, the structure had to be flexible enough in order to favour a narrative description of what happened more than a schematic reconstruction; on the other hand, a common set of analysis categories allowing comparisons among widely different contexts had to be provided. The process towards the definition of the final template for the case studies was therefore long and complex but the end the consortium succeeded in defining a suitable structure leaving room for both a qualitative interpretative description of the development of the field action and on a more focused analysis of six main research issues (meta-analysis questions) included: what role teacher education plays (official training; colleagues / community); what role educational authorities plays (official curriculum and official indications; supervisors / inspectors; external assessment; incentives / teacher career); what role the school structure plays (teachers' culture / tradition; administrative staff; students' culture; time available; school duties); what role educational resources play (access to ICT structures; available laboratories; adequate classrooms); what role the social community plays (parents; civil structures / social-economic context; economic activity / industrial context); what role research in science education plays (researchers; teachers´ access to research results; teachers´ perception of research; research findings).

Field actions were developed in a large number of schools in all partner countries. The choice of the schools to be involved tried to follow the same stratification criteria used during the national surveys and exploited the contacts established during the surveys themselves. The general vision of the field actions shared at the consortium level implied a collaborative research approach involving both teachers and university researchers in stable project workgroups designing and refocusing the actions during devoted periodic meetings. Based on field actions, several case studies were produced in each partner country (3 in Argentina, 3 in Brazil, 4 in Colombia, 3 in Israel, 8 in Italy, 3 in Spain). In the following section the main findings are reported, coming out from a cross-comparison of national case studies (deliverables D4.1 D4.6).

Findings

Findings and recommendations presented in this report are based on a meta-analysis of case studies produced in each partner country.

In a first step of the analysis, a preliminary set of categories was produced, which could effectively organize the emerging issues. The categories produced by each researcher were then compared in terms of the related issues and a final set of seven categories (referred to as themes in what follows) was selected.

On the basis of the selected categories, a second-step review of the materials was carried out. This process, which again was conducted, by means of a set of preliminary findings coded in terms of the seven selected categories. Based on these preliminary findings we drafted a first version of recommendations.

Introduction to themes

Research carried out in the framework of the TRACES activities over a period of almost two years in six countries provides a vast richness of insights that often go well beyond the research focus of the project, i.e. the relationship between research and practice in science education.

This is consistent with the project's research approach, aimed at identifying the actual constraints that influence research-based practice in science education and the actions developed in order to promote it and to address the project's research questions in terms of the complex system of factors involved. This applies in particular to the case studies, which constitute the core of the TRACES research programme.

Theme 1: Cooperation among teachers

Even if teachers spend most of their working time alone with their students, the relationship with colleagues plays an important role in their everyday practice. Along with the tasks institutionally appointed to collegial organs such as the school or class council, the science department etc., teachers share their experience, beliefs, perceptions in many formal and informal situations. In smaller or larger groups, teachers take decisions about curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, in-service training and work organization that are then reflected in their classroom practice.

A large majority of the teachers involved in the TRACES large-scale national surveys referred to better opportunities of cooperation and exchange with colleagues as one of the most relevant factors for improving science teaching in their schools. When asked about sources of conceptual stimuli about teaching and factors that influence their practice, teachers in our sample mentioned interaction with their colleagues among the most important elements.

Theme 2: Exploiting existing resources

The question of limited resources available to schools, in terms of personnel, materials, opportunities for in-service training etc. is perceived as paramount by most teachers involved in TRACES research. In the large-scale national surveys, teachers referred in particular to a higher provision of material resources, laboratorial facilities, connection to the internet as the most relevant factors for improving science education. TRACES research suggests that relevant resources exist in the school system which it is sometimes difficult to identify, acknowledge and effectively exploit.

Many teachers and groups of teachers develop rich professional knowledge through practice and in-service training. Many teachers have consolidated competencies in specific areas such as laboratorial activities, disciplinary content, pedagogical approaches, interaction with the informal sector, involvement in school- or university-based research programmes and may play the role of experts and support their colleagues' practice and professional development with limited impact on schools' budgets.

Theme 3: Cooperation between teachers and researchers

Teachers very broadly expressed great appreciation for their interaction with academic researchers. In particular they remarked in several circumstances and in different contexts the advisability of setting up stable communities of practice formed by teachers and researchers cooperating as peers so that each member, by the means of active participation, provides meaningful contribution for the each other's job. Some teachers (Spain, CS1, p. 152) suggested this kind of interaction should be compulsory and regular.

Theme 4: Teacher training

The direct and participative involvement of teachers in training programmes seemed to play a very relevant role in TRACES field actions. Actually, teachers in different contexts acknowledged a great usefulness of training activities in which they were involved in a participative form. Training sessions were particularly appreciated when they were centred on dynamics that typically develop in the ordinary processes of science teaching and learning. These activities were considered effective and motivating, being able to support the teachers' commitment in the development of innovative paths in science teaching.

In several contexts emerged that an imposed training programme could be little meaningful and badly received by teachers. Generally, groups of teachers expressed the need for autonomously deciding forms, ways and contents of in-service training activities.

The possibility of setting up training contexts based on peer-to-peer interaction was broadly acknowledged as relevant.

Theme 5: Relationship between local and central

The need largely emerged for involving several stakeholders, at the local level, in open debates about pedagogical issues concerning science education and related specific actions, which should be undertaken. This position appeared to stand out against initiatives imposed from on high, which are not able to take into account local needs.

In several contexts the relevance of socio-cultural issues is so strong that it heavily address the teachers' pedagogical choices, as well as those ones of entire schools, for what concerns both the way learning experiences are managed and the choice of the contents that are developed with classes. This happened both in European urban contexts, with a large part of population being low-income (Italy, CS7; cs8), and in Latin-American countries, in situations where population had poor access to resources (Argentina, CS2) or had need for contrasting conditions of environmental degradation (Colombia, CS3).

Theme 6: Long-term sustainability

Initiatives promoting innovation and experimentation in science education are more likely to involve entire schools and large numbers of teachers when they are sustained by people responsible for educational policies, granting them a more structural nature (Israel, CS3, p.84). Whenever this support is lacking, the results obtained by this kind of initiatives often become discouraging.

Particularly favourable circumstances for the development of effective innovation initiatives emerged in those cases (Argentina, CS1, 2, 3) where educational authorities were committed to follow and coordinate the development of the actions through the work of supervisors having a school teaching background.

Theme 7: Relationship between school and society

In a number of different cases, a lack of active involvement in the development of the learning experience by the side of students (especially those in higher grades) emerged. Students often perceive a lack of relevance in both the content of school topics and the way school activities are carried out. Discussing with Italian students in grade 12 (Italy, CS5, p.141) students seemed to express a quite naïve vision about the social function of science literacy, assigning actual relevance to elementary competences and skills only, while perceiving more complex disciplinary contents as part of a coherent (and self-referential) scholastic knowledge.

Workshops

Researchers, teachers, principals and administrators, together with external experts in the field of science education and the project's external evaluators, were invited from all six partner countries to discuss three main themes emerging as paramount from a preliminary analysis of TRACES research findings. About one hundred people attended to the workshops. The three themes include: teacher education; teaching and school context/policies; teaching and the local community.

On each theme, four workshops, each one lasting about two hours, were held involving mixed groups including all different actors and participants from all six partner countries. A special role was of course played by teachers, who represented the largest part of the participants in each workshop.

All the discussions held within the workshops and the plenary session were audio-recorded. The following reports were produced basing on the related files.

Group A Teacher education

The group A has been engaged in a discussion about the theme of science teacher preparation, which was one of the three topics for the workshops.

In the first place, a strong necessity is recognized, by the side of teachers, for feeling self-confident in the possibility of autonomously undertaking paths and experiences in science education, which are meaningful for both pupils and teachers on the one hand and which are also well structured at the disciplinary level.

The necessity of meaningfulness can be read in a double way. In fact, it was differently highlighted by several contributions, which recognized as central issue the possibility that science teachers give sense to their job and, at the same time that their job consists in making sense.

Group B Teaching and school/political context

The discussion group was focused on the structural constraints of the school system and how they can favour or hinder effective science teaching.

A first relevant aspects concerned the fact that national assessment test are made for language and mathematics and not for sciences. The situation is quite similar in all the other TRACES countries. It was agreed that science curricula should structurally create links among the different disciplines: reading science can be interesting for young children and could be a good tool for teaching language. In some countries official indications already go in this direction but there is often a strong lack of coherence with the way supervisors judge school teaching and with the approach used in teacher training.

Group C Teaching and the local community

The group mainly focussed on two issues: the relationship between school and community and the relationship researchers-school. Generally, it was difficult to let the proposed link between the two issues emerge. What did emerge are some common characteristics participants identified as key factors in both relationships considered: namely aspects of ownership, relevance, involvement.

An element on which the group showed broad agreement is that the school should be seen as an integral part of the community, that it belongs to the community and that a mutual recognition is needed. On the other side, the group also pointed out that the community is an integral part of the learning process of the pupils and that it is necessary for the community to take responsibility in what happens at school. An expression which recurred in the discussion was that of co-responsibility.

Recommendations

The analysis of the surveys, of the findings coming from case studies and of contents of discussions held during the workshops lead to formulate seven recommendation (one for each theme selected in the analysis of case studies), which are here synthetically reported (for a broader discussion about their meaning and implications see deliverable D5.2)

Recommendation 1

Cooperation and sharing represent fundamental components in teachers' practice and professional development. Systemic elements such as pre- and in-service training, organization of work time and spaces, documentation and communication tools should be so designed as to promote a culture of cooperation and sharing among teachers in each school.

Recommendation 2

A rich patrimony of experience and competencies related to science education exists in all schools and should be valued and exploited. Many teachers can be recognized as experts with specific competencies and can effectively contribute to their colleagues' practice and professional development as well as to the broader science education research debate. In particular, cooperation and sharing among teachers from different school cycles and scientific disciplines should be promoted.

Recommendation 3

School is the most significant place where research on learning and teaching can be developed. In order to make the research activity sustainable and effective, teachers should have opportunities to meet and share ideas and practices with external actors, engaged in research in the field of science education. This kind of research should aim, on the one hand, at producing general frameworks of reference. On the other hand, it should aim at developing proposals feasible and compatible with forms and features of school practice.

Recommendation 4

Teacher training as a continuous process should largely involve peer-to-peer professional development and have a compulsory nature. Training programmes should include activities concerning the planning, the evaluation and the interpretation of teaching/learning dynamics as they actually develop in the classroom.

Recommendation 5

Curricula and evaluation strategies and tools should be designed that enable teachers take local specificities into account. Curricula should be flexible enough in to be adaptable to needs related to local educational contexts. Standardised tests should be aimed mainly at gathering data that allow schools to understand how their students' performance are related to the national standards and at refocusing general educational policies.

Recommendation 6

Schools should be able to autonomously develop educational experiences that are shared within the school itself in a community dimension, giving continuity to the educational choices made and making the school capable to consider and exploit the opportunities of support offered by the school system and the interaction with external actors.

Recommendation N 7

Relevant actors within the social community should be involved in a debate about the aims of science education, allowing societal and local community issues to be considered and included in the educational work made in schools.

Potential impact:

During its two-year development, TRACES directly and indirectly set in action a series of activities with a relevant impact on different elements within and beyond science education. One may categorize these elements in terms of four dimensions of impact: teacher training, school administration, schools, and research.

Teacher training

The progressive and final outcomes of the project have informed and will inform teacher training programmes in the universities involved in the project, which all play a significant role in the teacher training system in each partner country.

School administration

In many partner countries, TRACES teams have established relationships and agreements with local and national authorities and promoted agreements between the authorities and schools involved in the project, presented opportunities and raised awareness in a way that has informed and will inform future policy.

Schools

TRACES activities have involved relevant numbers of schools, teachers, principals in reflection, debate and common work with researchers in a way that has informed and will inform perceptions, beliefs and practice. Involvement in TRACES at various levels has questioned ordinary practice and experimented new approaches for what regards not only classroom teaching, but also the relationship with colleagues, researchers, families and the local community.

Research

Also for what regards researchers involved in the project's activities in all partner countries, TRACES has questioned consolidated practice and explored innovative approaches of ways of involving teachers and other stakeholders in actions aimed at improving science education. Especially with teachers, TRACES researchers have experimented in participative models of interaction aimed at promoting participant's motivation through an enhanced perception of ownership and relevance of the activities to their everyday practice. TRACES researchers have worked in a more teacher-centred approach and raised their awareness and understanding of the constraints that affect research-based practice. TRACES process and findings will inform the practice of the researchers involved in the project and therefore impact further research projects in which they are and will be involved. Dissemination of the TRACES outcomes through participation in conferences and academic publications provides for an impact on the broader research community.

Overall impact

TRACES research programme implied a direct impact on a large number of stakeholders involved. Approximately 2000 teachers, principals, researchers and administrators were involved in the national surveys. On the large-scale, stakeholders were informed about the project's research issues and administered a questionnaire including related questions, both closed and open. On the small-scale, stakeholders were involved in in-depth personal interviews and focus groups stirring reflection and debate in the first phase of the project and in long-term (10-15 months) field actions in the second phase.

In order to collect to reach a relevant sample for the surveys, information about the project and an invitation to be involved in the surveys were sent to over one thousand schools in the six partner countries.

TRACES final conference

The project final conference involved researchers, teachers, school principals, administrators and policy makers from all partner countries, two members of the external evaluation committee (Prof. Michela Mayer, Dr. Mónika Réti; Prof. Rut Jiménez Liso was not able to attend), two keynote speakers (Prof. Maurìcio Pietrocola from the University of Sao Paulo and Prof. Paolo Guidoni, formerly at the University of Naples) and the Project Officer in charge Noora Eronen.

TRACES website

A website aimed at disseminating TRACES outcomes and manage communication among stakeholders involved in the project is online since Month 6 (December 2010). Website's target groups are teachers, researchers, educators, administrators and policy makers. The section devoted to the project description has been translated into all partner languages (except Hebrew). Through the website, all project activities have been publicized (main articles) and all project outcomes (surveys, criteria for the field actions, case studies, findings and recommendations etc.) have been made available to the broader public, together with all project deliverables, newsletter issues and external evaluation reports. The website is also meant to work as a resource centre offering selected research materials (What's relevant section on the homepage) to a varied audience including both the people directly involved in the project and a wider audience of stakeholders involved in the science education arena. The website is highly ranked on the main internet search engines and this ensures it already reached strong visibility and that the website can be used beyond the lifespan of TRACES as a dissemination channel aimed at a reaching a potentially unlimited audience. By now the website has collected around 20000 content view hits.

Impact related to each partner country

In Argentina, a collaboration was established with the local (province of Salta) coordinators of the Scientific and Technological Activities for Youth, a national initiative fostering school projects in Science and Technology (S&T). In order to establish contact with the schools in the sample, an agreement was settled with the Directorate of Primary and Early Childhood Education, which provided official authorization for the survey.

The interaction with the Directorate proved to be a strategic move for the overall impact of the project. The Board of Supervisors recognized the topic of TRACES as one addressing important issues of the local school system and offered full cooperation during the survey phase and beyond. The Board requested and was provided access to the results of the investigation as a source of information meant to inform curricular policy. Due to the particular geography of the region, some schools in the sample required special transportation means to be reached. For this reason, another collaboration was established with the General Directorate for National Parks.

Altogether, 3500 questionnaires were distributed in Argentina. Many schools were later contacted by phone in order to encourage participation and some questionnaires are collected personally by the research team. The total number of collected questionnaires at the time when the analysis was started was 478. On the small scale, 12 individuals were involved in personal semi-structured interviews, including 4 researchers in science education, 1 policy maker (the Province general supervisor for primary school), 3 primary school teachers and 3 teacher trainers.

List of websites:

http://www.traces-project.eu

Final Report Summary - TRACES (Transformative Research Activities. Cultural diversities and Education in Science)

Related documents

Share this page

Download