Analysis of science textbook pictures about energy and pupils' readings of them

This article outlines the findings of the part of the "Science Teacher Training in an Information Society" (STTIS) project concerned with describing the possible difficulties the pupils have when "reading" science textbook pictures about "energy". Six documents were selected on the basis that they had some of the textual/graphical features previously identified by the project as potentially presenting difficulties to pupils. The pupils' readings of these were investigated using a questionnaire and a follow-up interview. The analysis of three of the documents and of twelve pupils' readings of them is reported in this paper. The results confirm the hypothesis that the "reading" of science textbook pictures is not at all trivial for pupils and conclude that teachers need to spend time and effort talking through the meaning of the images with them. They also suggest that the list of textual/graphical features used in this research is a good starting point for this kind of critical examination

Science teachers' transformations of the use of computer modeling in the classroom: using research to inform training

This paper, from the UK group in the STTIS (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society) project, describes research into the nature of teachers' transformations of computer modeling, and the development of related teacher training materials. Eight teacher case studies help to identify factors that favor or hinder the take-up of innovative computer tools in science classes, and to show how teachers incorporate these tools in the curriculum. The training materials use the results to provide activities enabling teachers to learn about the tools and about the outcomes of the research into their implementation, and help them to take account of these ideas in their own implementation of the innovations

Fostering Inquiry and Creativity in Early Years STEM Education: Policy Recommendations from the <i>Creative Little Scientists</i> Project

Creative Little Scientists was a 30-month (2011-2014) EU/FP7-funded research project focusing on the synergies between early years science and mathematics education and the development of children’s creativity, in response to increasing interest in these areas in European educational policy. Using a variety of methods, including desk research, a teacher survey and classroom-based fieldwork, the research provided insights into whether and how children’s creativity is fostered and appropriate learning outcomes, including children’s interest, emerge. Based on these and ongoing collaboration and dialogue with participants and other stakeholders the project proposed recommendations for policy and teacher education. This paper presents these recommendations and the research on which they were based. Throughout the study, mixed methods were employed, combining quantitative approaches used in surveys of policy and teachers’ views based on a list of factors, alongside qualitative approaches employed in case studies of classroom practice. A strong conceptual framework developed at the start of the project guided data collection and analysis, as well as the presentation of findings and the development of policy recommendations, thus ensuring the latter’s strong and consistent relationship with the relevant theoretical knowledge, the comparative research, analysis of classroom practices and the production of guidelines for teacher education

Go-Lab Deliverable D6.6 Go-Lab user communities support framework and guidelines

This document (Deliverable D6.6) aims to be the teacher help guide which will accompany and a classroom scenario handbook (Deliverable D1.5) on how to incorporate Go-Lab into the classroom, as is foreseen in the Go-Lab’s Description of Work.It is the outcome of Task 6.5. ‘Go-Lab Users Guidelines (Guidelines and Supporting Materials for Teachers)’ and accordingly aims to:• provide easy step-by-step guides for the use of the Go-Lab Portal and its main components; • present the philosophy of the search mechanism and the main characteristics of the Go-Lab inventory of online labs; • provide an easy step-by-step guide of how teachers can build their own Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs) to use in the science classroom; • provide an a step-by-step guide for how teachers can access online support by expert and peer communitiesThe document will be available in conventional and electronic format (through the project’s web site). It will be translated in 12 languages (English, French, German, Greek, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Estonian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Italian, and Polish)