Elementary Teachers’ Experiences of Coconstructive Approaches to Supporting Reasoning in German Science Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 105
  In Roundtable Session: A Cross-National Exploration of Quality Learning and Reasoning in Elementary Science

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
Many countries face the problem that their elementary teachers are expected to provide high quality science instructions in the primary years without having received a proper basic education in the sciences themselves during their pre-service teacher training. This paper presents the results of the evaluation of a four-year school development project in Germany for science education in the elementary school. In this project the teachers were encouraged and supported to acquire the foundations of co-constructive teaching in learning networks organised by themselves.
Theoretical framework
As research shows, lack of content knowledge and content specific self-efficacy often provokes misunderstandings on the side of the teachers concerning the needs and the effects of “hands-on“ activities in the classroom (Ramseger 2010). One of the basic misunderstandings of many preschool and elementary teachers is the assumption that children should be confronted with as many experiments as possible in the early years and that hands-on activities provoke scientific literacy almost automatically. By contrast to this position Möller et al. (2006), Simon/Erduran/Osborne (2006), and many others have shown that only a well-balanced mixture of “inquiry learning“ and “sustained shared thinking“ in a co-constructive dialogue that evokes the children’s questions about nature can lead to proper “scientific reasoning“. This paper refers to the theoretical foundations of scientific reasoning developed by Tytler/Peterson (2004), Beinbrech (2007) and Furtak et al. (2009).
Methods
The evaluation design is based on the concept of impact-oriented project monitoring by Paul Engel (1997).
Data sources
The processes of development of 35 participating schools with more than 1000 teachers were reconstructed using a multi-methods design. Standardized questionnaires (n = 1146), 62 classroom observations, 57 interviews both with individuals and small groups and a newly developed instrument for self-evaluation have been applied. Patterns of the teachers’ actions and attitudes have been worked out using grounded theory methodology (Glaser/Strauss 1967).
Results
The evaluation of this project shows the difficulties for teachers to find a fruitful balance between instruction and construction in the classroom. To detect manageable ways of co-constructive teaching and learning in this project it has been proven of value to involve the teachers themselves in processes that provoke scientific reasoning. While mutually observing each other working in the classroom and reflecting on their science lessons in work-shops they experienced themselves as agents of their professional development in a learning situation where they define for themselves the range, the level and the speed of their in-service teacher training. This led to significant motivation for change.
Scientific or scholarly significance
The evaluation has worked out clear conditions of success and major obstacles for this kind of self-organised learning network. Pre- and post-intervention investigations show a significant change in the teachers‘ attitudes towards science teaching and learning and their content specific self-efficacy.

Author

• Joerg Ramseger, Freie Universitaet Berlin