Resumen de Working towards evidence-based practice in science teaching and learning
Richard Tynan, Robert Bryn Jones, Andrea Mallaburn, Ken Clays
High-performing international education systems integrate evidence-based practice into their initial teacher education programmes. It is the authors' experience that the usefulness of education research to education practitioners is not always easy to judge and this leads to a justifiably cautious approach to evidence-based practice among trainee science teachers and their mentors in schools. An example of informal practitioner research is described and discussed. This involved using a science in society or socio-scientific approach to deliver a science subject knowledge module to two different cohorts of intending science teachers. The module was taught separately to 22 undergraduate students in their final year of a Primary/Secondary Education Honours degree with Qualified Teacher Status, and to 50 students following Graduate Diploma Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses in chemistry and physics who were preparing to take up places on science Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses. The aim was to demonstrate strategies for facilitating the development of critical thinking and scientific literacy in school science lessons. The use of anonymous voting devices during sessions indicated a polarisation of opinions among participants, rather than a more considered or critical response to the scientific questions. This discussion seeks to illustrate the value and drawbacks of informal practitioner research and how this evidence-based approach might be beneficial to teaching and learning in science.
