Εκπαίδευση εκπαιδευτικών στην εφαρμογή ενοτήτων σύγχρονης επιστημονικής έρευνας με διαστάσεις υπεύθυνης έρευνας και καινοτομίας με την υποστήριξη μεντόρων - εκπαιδευτικών

Abstract

Introduction. Any required change in education ultimately relies on teachers who act not just as “carriers” of the innovation in the classrooms but as active interpreters. Curriculum materials are considered as an important means through which to operationalize and infuse educational innovations and to improve instruction and teaching practices in science classrooms (Rogan, 2007; Forbes & Davis 2010; Davis & Krajcik, 2005). Therefore, the dissemination of innovative TLSs and curriculum materials and the expansion of their impact to larger numbers of teachers in a variety of school contexts consists a major concern of the research community in science education in order to bring about educational change (Pintó, Hernández & Constantinou, 2014; Fishman & Krajcik, 2003). However, during this procedure, very often major aspects of an educational innovation’s design are not being enacted as intended by its developers. Consequently, spreading innovations in a wide range of educational contexts requires an ongoing supportive training procedure that would guide teachers throughout the implementation as well that would ensure a fruitful interaction among researchers/developers and teachers. (Bitan-Friedlander, Dreyfus & Milgrom, 2004). Aim of the study. Acknowledging the aforementioned concern, this study makes use of the establishment of a mentoring relationship as vehicle for in-service science teachers’ support in implementing innovative teaching modules. Furthermore, the study employs the Communities of Learners approach as a context within which the mentoring relationship is placed having as purpose the support of in-service teachers as they collaboratively re-design the given modules under the guidance of mentor teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate the way in-service teachers implement modules on current research topics with socioscientific implications with the guidance of mentor-teachers. The overarching research question in this study is: Which is the contribution of the mentoring process to the implementation of modules on current research topics by in-service teachers? Design. In total 37 in-service teachers participated in the research: 5 mentors (who in a previous phase developed and implemented a module on Nanotechnology and aspects of RRI in collaboration with researchers in the field of science, science education researchers and science communication experts) and 32 trainees from various school types and regions of Greece. In the context of our research, each mentor trained 5-10 teachers, within a CoL, in implementing in their classrooms (i) the aforementioned nanotechnology module, (ii) a module about the effect of microplastic in the oceans and (iii) a module about the carbohydrates of breast milk. The commonality of the three modules, (all developed in the framework of the IRRESISTIBLE project, www.irresistible-project.eu) lied in the negotiation of current research topics through the prism of their socioscientific implications and the high level of interaction they promoted with research centres and science museums. The mentoring process lasted for about 9 months and can be divided in three successive phases, during which meetings of CoLs were taking place. In the first phase the mentee-teachers were orientated towards the scientific content, aspects of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) and the involved RRI dimensions of each module. During the second phase the modules were firstly thoroughly examined and afterwards mentee-teachers with the guidance of their mentors re-designed them in order to implement them in their classrooms, planned their lessons in details and prepared the teaching materials they would use. The third phase concerned the enactment of the modules in real class conditions and the mentee-teachers’ reflection on the mentoring experience. Data sources. The total of the data in this study came from questionnaires, audio-recordings of all the CoL group meetings, mentors’ meetings with the researchers and of the closing plenary meeting and teaching materials developed by the mentee-teachers. Data analysis. Due to the explorative nature of the research, qualitative methods of content analysis were used to provide answers to the sub-questions (Mayring, 2015). As regards the topic of mentoring conversations and in order to define the knowledge bases of teaching that mentors addressed through their mentoring, we used both categories adapted from the relevant literature as well as categories that emerged from the data. Specifically taking into consideration Nilsson & van Driel’s (2010) approach on categorizing mentoring discussions according to knowledge bases of teaching, we further organized the subcategories in 5 categories namely subject-matter knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, instructional knowledge, knowledge of students, curricular knowledge. Issues that were neither science-specific nor pedagogy related but referred to organizational and administrative aspects of the mentoring process formed a sixth category entitled organizational issues. For the characterization of mentors’ roles during their conversations with the mentees we adapted pre-existing categories, based on the axes of the MERID model (Henissen et al., 2008; Crasborn et al., 2011). In that way we constructed two coding keys, one addressing mentors’ degree of directiveness and one addressing their degree of input. For the analysis of the interplay between the mentee-teachers and the modules we based upon Brown and Edelson’s (2003) approach according to which every designed lesson can be considered as a result of an interplay between the teacher’s own personal resources (as knowledge, educational goals and beliefs) and the curricular resources (as subject matter, tasks/activities, physical objects and/or their representations). Therefore our coding key for the characterization of teacher’s resources that were mobilized in order to design their lessons comprised teachers’ Subject matter knowledge, Knowledge of students, Prior experience, Knowledge of the classroom context and Goals and beliefs. Respectively the coding key for the characterization of the modules’ elements that were subjected to adaptation comprised categories for the module’s Content, Activities and Objects. Results. The results of the current research on mentoring conversations show that the dominant topics were related to the negotiation of instructional strategies and teaching design, even though organizational issues also occupied a large part of these discussions. Secondarily issues concerning curricular knowledge (modules’ aims and objectives) also held a significant part of the discussions, whereas issues on knowledge of students’ and the scientific content of the modules were rarely discussed. Regarding the mentoring practices and the roles that mentors undertook during these discussions, the results also show that four out of five mentors tended to adopt directive practices - giving advice and guidance – and to introduce the topics for discussion, characteristics which are mostly consistent with the imperator role. The fifth mentor used to be more responsive to her mentees adopting the advisor role. However, a tendency (i) to adapt the content of the discussions to meet each mentoring phase’s challenges and (ii) to shift their practices and roles towards less directive style during the successive phases of mentoring was noted. Regarding the way the educated teachers interacted with the teaching modules while designing their lessons, we found that mentee-teachers conducted several modifications in order to adapt the modules to their classroom context. These modifications mostly concerned the modules’ activities and while the content of the modules remained almost intact. Throughout this process, in order to make decisions on the conduction of adaptations, they mostly made use of their knowledge on their students’ interests and capabilities and their personal beliefs about teaching. However the mentors held an active role too, influencing the teachers’ decisions with their previous experience from the application of the Nanotechnology module. Finally, the data showed a strong negative correlation between the use of mentoring practices by the mentors and the number of modifications proposed by the mentee-teachers. Conclusions. The approach of analyzing the topics addressed during the mentoring conversations in terms of aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge renders the link between the mentoring process and its possible effects on the development of teachers’ knowledge apparent. In the light of the described results, we can argue that a mentoring process that elaborates so extensively on the aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge which are related to their PCK (knowledge of instructional strategies, knowledge of students’ perceptions, knowledge of the module’s goals) provides all the possibilities for a long-term development of their PCK contributing to their professional development. Moreover, even if the mentors showed a tendency towards adopting the imperator role, they took part in their discussions with the mentee-teachers making use of all four roles, each with a different frequency. The dynamic shift of the roles adopted by the mentors, which were adapted to the evolving needs that arose at each stage, is particularly interesting, taking into account that one of the most important and influential factors determining the success of a mentoring process is the extent to which the mentoring approach is flexibly adaptive to the learning needs of the trainee (Hobson et al., 2009). Thus, the findings on the spontaneous tendency of mentors to adapt both the content of their utterance and the type of their practices are important for the effectiveness of such an effort. In order to design their lessons teachers made use of the teaching modules’ provided resources and of their own and their mentors’ personal resources as well. In this process, the contribution of mentors was important, initially by communicating to the mentee-teachers their previous experience of applying the Nanotechnology module and how to handle different issues. However, the most essential part of their contribution was the detailed explanation of the rationale of the modules and of the innovative elements they incorporated. Their intervention contributed to keeping the adapted units faithful to the sense of the innovative practices that they pursued despite the interventions of the mentee-teachers.

Η παρούσα διατριβή επικεντρώνεται στην εκπαίδευση εν ενεργεία εκπαιδευτικών σχετικά με την διαπραγμάτευση στις τάξεις τους αντικειμένων σύγχρονης επιστημονικής έρευνας με κοινωνικοεπιστημονικές προεκτάσεις μέσω της εφαρμογής ειδικά σχεδιασμένων διδακτικών ενοτήτων πάνω στα θέματα αυτά, υπό την διαρκή καθοδήγηση μεντόρων-εκπαιδευτικών. Συγκεκριμένα διερευνά τη συμβολή της παρεχόμενης από τους μέντορες συμβουλευτικής καθοδήγησης κατά την εφαρμογή διδακτικών ενοτήτων εστιάζοντας: (α) στις αλληλεπιδράσεις των μεντόρων με τους εκπαιδευόμενους εκπαιδευτικούς στη διάρκεια της διαδικασίας συμβουλευτικής καθοδήγησης και (β) στην αλληλεπίδραση των εκπαιδευόμενων εκπαιδευτικών με το διδακτικό υλικό των ενοτήτων που κλήθηκαν να εφαρμόσουν υπό την καθοδήγηση των μεντόρων. Στο πλαίσιο της παρούσας έρευνας, 5 μέντορες-εκπαιδευτικοί – που σε προηγούμενη φάση σε συνεργασία με ερευνητές στο πεδίο της επιστήμης, ερευνητές της διδακτικής των ΦΕ και ειδικούς της επικοινωνίας της επιστήμης είχαν αναπτύξει και εφαρμόσει μια διδακτική ενότητα σχετικά με τη Νανοτεχνολογία – έδρασαν ως πολλαπλασιαστές και υποστήριξαν 32 συνολικά εν ενεργεία εκπαιδευτικούς στα πλαίσια πέντε κοινοτήτων μάθησης, των 5 έως 10 ατόμων έκαστη, στην εφαρμογή τριών διδακτικών ενοτήτων πάνω σε αντικείμενα έρευνας αιχμής: Εφαρμογές της Νανοτεχνολογίας, Μικροπλαστικά στους Ωκεανούς και Μητρικό Γάλα. Η διαδικασία συμβουλευτικής υποστήριξης διήρκεσε εννέα μήνες στη διάρκεια των οποίων συλλέχθηκαν δεδομένα μέσα από τις ηχογραφήσεις των συναντήσεων των κοινοτήτων μάθησης και των δομημένων αναστοχαστικών παρουσιάσεων των εκπαιδευόμενων εκπαιδευτικών, από ερωτηματολόγια και από τα διδακτικά υλικά που παρήγαγαν οι εκπαιδευόμενοι εκπαιδευτικοί. Για την ανάλυση των δεδομένων, αξιοποιήθηκαν ποιοτικές μέθοδοι ανάλυσης περιεχομένου. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας σχετικά με τις συζητήσεις συμβουλευτικής καθοδήγησης δείχνουν ότι τα θέματα που κυριάρχησαν αφορούσαν ζητήματα στρατηγικών διδασκαλίας και διδακτικού σχεδιασμού, αν και τα οργανωτικά ζητήματα κατέλαβαν και αυτά ένα μεγάλο μέρος των συζητήσεων αυτών. Δευτερευόντως συζητήθηκαν θέματα σχετικά με τους σκοπούς και τους στόχους των διδακτικών ενοτήτων, τις αντιλήψεις των μαθητών και το ίδιο το επιστημονικό περιεχόμενο. Από τα αποτελέσματα επίσης απορρέει ότι οι εκπαιδευτικοί υιοθετούσαν κυρίως κατευθυντικές πρακτικές στις συζητήσεις τους – δίνοντας συμβουλές και οδηγίες – που παραπέμπουν σε χαρακτηριστικά ενός αρχηγικού ρόλου καθοδήγησης. Ωστόσο, παράλληλα, φαίνεται μια τάση προσαρμογής τόσο των πρακτικών τους όσο και του ρόλου που υιοθετούν ανάλογα με τις απαιτήσεις κάθε φάσης της διαδικασίας καθοδήγησης. Αναφορικά με τον τρόπο που αλληλεπέδρασαν οι εκπαιδευόμενοι εκπαιδευτικοί με το διδακτικό υλικό προκύπτει ότι κατά τον σχεδιασμό των διδασκαλιών τους τροποποίησαν ορισμένα στοιχεία των διδακτικών ενοτήτων – κυρίως σχετικά με τις προτεινόμενες δραστηριότητες. Στη διαδικασία αυτήν αξιοποίησαν τη γνώση τους σχετικά με τα ενδιαφέροντα και τις ικανότητες των μαθητών τους, τις προσωπικές τους πεποιθήσεις για τη διδασκαλία των Φυσικών Επιστημών και την προηγούμενη εμπειρία των μεντόρων τους από την εφαρμογή της ενότητας της Νανοτεχνολογίας. Τέλος, από τα δεδομένα προέκυψε μια αρνητική συσχέτιση μεταξύ της χρήσης κατευθυντικών πρακτικών από πλευράς των μεντόρων και του αριθμού των τροποποιήσεων τις οποίες πρότειναν οι εκπαιδευόμενοι εκπαιδευτικοί. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι όσο λιγότερο κατευθυντικοί ήταν οι μέντορες τόσο περισσότερες πρωτοβουλίες να εισηγηθούν τροποποιήσεις έλαβαν οι εκπαιδευόμενοι εκπαιδευτικοί σε κάθε κοινότητα μάθησης. Με βάση τα παραπάνω η παρούσα έρευνα συνεισφέρει στην ερευνητική βιβλιογραφία της διδακτικής που αφορά στην διαμόρφωση κατάλληλων περιβαλλόντων για την επαγγελματική ανάπτυξη των εκπαιδευτικών και την κατάλληλη υποστήριξή τους στη διάρκεια εφαρμογής διδακτικών καινοτομιών που σχετίζονται με την ενσωμάτωση αντικειμένων έρευνας αιχμής στα μαθήματα των Φυσικών Επιστημών.