Conception

Teacher - Scientist - Partnerships (TSP):
a tool for professional development

A COMENIUS 2.1 Action (Training of School Education Staff)

Presently, traditional science teaching is ineffective to prepare students adequately for life´s complexity in a science and technology based society. Teachers´ professional knowledge and empowering contextual learning environments for students seem to be key factors for improvement.
We propose a systemic approach. We will start by building a partnership between teachers and scientists, and integrating both teachers and students in authentic research environments. For this purpose we have activated a well established network of research institutes all over Europe, working on carbon dioxide and climate change. Institutions of higher education in teacher development and local schools have agreed to establish local projects with research institutes. Target groups are science teachers and their students in secondary schools. Teaching and learning activities are agreed upon in a bottom-up approach, focused on improving teachers´ abilities to use external learning as a tool for development, student learning and scientist abilities to communicate with the public.
Outputs will be modules for in-service and pre-service teacher training that could be integrated into the various national education systems, based on best practice. Work is organised as an iterative ongoing process for 3 years. Learning processes and outcomes are analyzed by qualitative and quantitative means.

Rationale and background
In view of life's complexity in a science and technology-based society, it becomes more and more crucial that students as the future citizens are capable of understanding science, and be able to cope with a fast changing world. Factual knowledge is not sufficient. Understanding science requires complex cognitive abilities of individuals. These are being discussed in science education research as abilities for critical and reflective thinking, focussing on results-oriented, rational and logical thinking, which lead to a personal decision (e.g. Zoller 2000 [1]). International comparative studies like PISA 2002 show, however, that such higher order cognitive competencies of students are average or below average in most European countries.
To prepare school graduates for an active role as responsible citizens, active learning tasks should be offered to students with a wide range of possibilities for decision making, action taking and valuing in true to life situations.
Traditional teacher preparation programs have not been very effective to prepare teaching staff for the corresponding change in teaching methodology. In order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning processes, the proposal is focused on teacher professional development. It aims at changing teaching activities into learning activities of students. It will be organized "on-the-job" in order to make it meaningful to both students and teachers in different European countries. We are going to involve teachers and students in a European network of scientists working on the problem of climate change. They will be involved in authentic learning outside the classroom, in a research environment, and have a chance to develop their understanding of science by getting involved in real research. At the same time, teachers will have to be prepared by supporting in-service courses for a new role-taking as moderators and facilitator of science education, since in the course of the project they will have to organise learning for their students in an external learning environment at a research institution.
The problem of climate change in Europe and worldwide as influenced by emissions of carbon dioxide is chosen as the general topic for all participants. It is well established in most curricula of secondary schools in Europe, and project activities could easily be incorporated or adapted to meet local school conditions.

Overall aim and specific objectives
Overall aim is to identify the needs of science teachers to prepare them for teaching authentic science, according to national and local conditions. Specifically, we devise bottom-up approaches and identify evidence-based best practice for integrating teacher development, student learning and school development into innovative project work with research institutions. Improve student learning by involving them in practical tasks in authentic research environments. Improve teaching methodology of teachers and design innovative learning environments. Integrate external learning into schooling on a regular basis. Development and adaptation of appropriate teaching methodologies as well as teaching materials.

Innovation
The project is an innovative systemic approach to teaching and learning of science and teacher professional development. It is focused on improving teachers´ abilities to use authentic external learning as a tool for development, improving students´ individual learning, and improving scientists´ abilities to communicate with the public. It will be organised as a professional partnership between teacher education, science research and schools, starting bottom-up at teachers´ and students´ needs.
A particularly new and challenging asset of this proposal is the close connection with two large European research projects on climate change, CarboEurope and CarboOcean, in which more than 100 institutes from 17 countries are working together to investigate the carbon cycle on land and ocean respectively.
As part of their contractual obligations in the field of science & society, these two FP6 projects have together launched the "CarboSchools" initiative in 2005 (see www.carboeurope.org, www.carboocean.org, www.carboschools.org). Carboschools promote partnerships between global change scientists, secondary school teachers and their students in order to raise young people's awareness of the local and global consequences of climate change, to encourage them to discover the scientific research and to act locally to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The FP6 budget of CarboSchools, limited to development of educational resources and training of climate change scientists, has no resources for teacher training activities : this Comenius project will provide highly complementary means to respond to the training needs arising on the field when teachers start partnership projects, and to fully exploit the great potential of two major European scientific networks on an issue of high societal and educational relevance, climate change.
By getting involved in a European network of schools and science institutions, teachers and students will be able to recognize the various ways of social perspective taking with respect to scientific research. Teachers and students participate actively with researchers in the process of personal decision making with respect to the question: What are we to do in order to deal with global climate change? Locally and globally? And communicate their results.

Pedagogical and didactical approaches
Teaching and learning will be organised along common guide lines for Lifelong Learning such as (Sterling 2000 [2]),
• Contextual (in touch with the real world, particularly sustainability issues)
• Holistic (relating to the learning needs of whole persons and group)
• Multi- and transdisciplinary (emphasising on new territory between the disciplines)
• Empowering (an engaged and participatory process)
• Innovative (drawing inspiration from new thinking and practice in a variety of fields including the educational field).

Direct involvement in research laboratories will be the foundation of every project and cannot be substituted by just a visit of a researcher coming to school to talk about science.

Target groups and expected impact
Target groups are science teachers (in-service; pre-service), students, and scientists.

The benefits for teachers will be:
• Increase the relevance & quality of science teaching by integrating authentic learning at research institutionsLearn more about research processes and scientific methods, access original research data, update factual knowledge, put more evidence in the links between syllabus & society issues. Gain access to experiments and demonstrations that would not have been possible in the classroom. Bring "fresh air" in the classroom; for the students, scientists have a different status than the usual teacher; Increase the students' motivation in science classes and add life to the dry theory of textbooks.

• Fulfil new curriculum requirements (e.g. transdisciplinarity, project work) and gain experience in interdisciplinary group work with other teachers. Through European cooperation, learn from teachers from other countries and make pupils learn foreign languages in the frame of real communication situations.

Benefits for students will be:
• Discovering and better understanding scientific research, its methods and its results by doing concrete project work devoted to the problem of global climate change. Experience science learning at school meaningful by acting in the society and sharing the results of school project work with a wider public.

Benefits for scientists will be:
• Improve communication skills related to a specific target audience (here young people) with the help of teachers; Learn from the pupils' spontaneity to identify the key questions for normal people. Support a process in which young people will be not only beneficiaries of this exchange, but also intermediaries for a wider public to which they will pass on what they have learnt.

Duration
01.10.2006 - 30.09.2009

Literature
[1] Zoller, U. (2000). HOCS in the STES Context - An Imperative for the Disciplinarity-Transdisciplinarity Paradigm Shift.
In: R.Häberli, R.W.Scholz, A.Bill, & M.Welti (Hrsg.), Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem-Solving among Science, Technology and Society. Work-book II: Mutual Learning Sessions. (S.143-144). Zürich: Haffmans Sachbuch Verlag.

[2] Sterling, S. (2000). Issues within and challenges beyond environmental education. In: European Commission - Directorate-General for Environment (Eds.), Environmental education and training in Europe. Brussels, 3 and 4 May 1999 Conference proceedings. (S.61-69). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

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