Designing Science Education Modules

• In Event: 45.019 - Designing Science Engagement: An International Perspective

Abstract

Objective
Due to the low level of engagement of Finnish students (OECD, 2016), a professional development project (PDP), to support teachers to create more engaging science learning environments for students was designed and implemented in 2015 and 2016. Researchers and secondary school science teachers worked together to design teaching modules following Project-based Learning (PBL) principles and emphasising engagement in scientific practices. The study reports the PDP outcomes, analysing how the teaching modules supported student engagement. The data in this paper is only from Finland although the PDP and data collection was made in collaboration with the U.S researchers.

Perspective
In the design of teaching modules we followed PBL principles, emphasised by Krajcik and Shin (2015): starting with a driving question, i.e. a problem to be solved and focuses on the learning goals of the curriculum that students are required to master; and exploring the driving question by participating collaboratively in scientific practices that are central to expert performance in the discipline.

We followed previous literature on PDPs while planning the two-year PDP, which emphasised goal-oriented collaboration and reflection (Avalos, 2011; van den Bergh, Ros, & Beijaard, 2015) and, moreover, active and contextual learning. Furthermore, we emphasised the role of research in improving educational practice, as Coburn and Penuel (2016) suggested. The main aim of our PDP was to help teachers design teaching modules with other teachers and researchers and share their understanding of the meaning of PBL and the role of scientific practices in PBL. Our second aim was to support teachers in discussing and reflecting on their experiences.

We approach situational engagement in the context of flow theory through the following three pre-conditions: interest, skill, and challenge. To be engaged, a student should experience elevated levels of challenge in a task but should also feel equipped with the requisite skills to undertake the task. Skill is defined as a mastery of a set of specific tasks, while challenge is defined as a desire to persist in a science learning situation.

Method and Data Sources
PDP outcomes were determined by analysing how teaching modules supported student engagement as revealed through semi-structured interviews of five Finnish teachers. The experience sampling method (ESM) was used to measure levels of student engagement in science learning situations using a smartphone application during both module implementation cycles. The measurements were done in each teacher case in a similar class (grade, performance).

Results
The data showed that the level of scientific practices related engagement increased between the first (2015) and second (2016) cycles. According to the collected engagement data, the situations where students employed scientific practices or collaboration were more engaging than other situations. Engagement increased between the first and second cycles of the project. Therefore, the designed PBL situations promoted student engagement in science learning.

Signficance
Our research shows that teachers can design engaging teaching modules and guide their students in engaging scientific practices, if they are supported by a well-planned PDP. Teachers can design engaging teaching modules and guide students in engaging scientific practices.

Author

• Jari Lavonen, University of Helsinki