Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Publication
    Investigating how graphical and textual computer-based programming environments support student inquiry in science during modeling
    (1/12/2011)
    Zacharia, Zacharias C.
    ;
    In this paper we investigate the ways that a graphical and a textual Computer-based Programming Environment (CPE) support student inquiry in science during scientific modeling. We analyzed the conversations of 78 sixth-graders (39 students per CPE group) that took place during the construction of models, as well as, student-constructed models specifically looking for ways that CPEs support student scientific inquiry. Our findings showed that CPEs enable students to develop models of physical phenomena and operationally define physical entities and physical properties, which provides students with a commonly shared language for communicating and understanding each others' ideas in science. We also found that programs in CPEs produce a computer microworld that is a structured environment learners can use to explore and manipulate a rule-generated universe, subject to particular assumptions and constraints that serve as representations of aspects of the natural world. Microworlds can also provide learners with opportunities to manipulate realities in ways that learners cannot do with physical objects. Implications from this study suggest productive features for computer-based tools that can be embedded in web-based learning platforms for supporting students' inquiry and science learning.
  • Publication
    ‘The exchange of ideas was mutual, I have to say’: negotiating researcher and teacher ‘roles’ in an early years educators’ professional development programme on inquiry-based mathematics and science learning
    (2015-03-15) ;
    Philippou, Stavroula
    ;
    Papademetri-Kachrimani, Chrystalla
    ;
    Philippou, Stavroula
    This paper explores the experiences of 14 early years educators who participated in a continuing professional development (CPD) programme coordinated by two of the paper’s authors. The programme was part of a three-year research project, which aimed at introducing early childhood educators to an inquiry-based approach to mathematics and science education and involved participants as teacher-researchers and curriculum-makers in cycles of action research. From this CPD experience, teachers appeared to reconceptualize traditional teacher and researcher ‘roles’ in more fluid and equitable ways, leading us to explore characteristics of the programme conducive to this shift. The main data source comprised teacher interviews, supplemented by video-recordings of group meetings, classroom enactment of activities and the facilitators’ field notes. Findings suggest that the shift was encouraged by the gradual formation of a community of practice; a reconceptualization of the ‘practical’; and the epistemology-oriented approach adopted in mathematics and science education. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for early years educators’ professional development, and the problems of the ‘theory–practice’ divide in such development. Furthermore, the discussion stresses the importance of the socio-cultural context in which such projects take place, particularly as these often draw heavily upon international literature.
  • Publication
    Concluding Remarks: Theoretical Underpinnings in Implementing Inquiry-Based Science Teaching/Learning
    (Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2018) ;
    Thea Skoulia
    ;
    Olia E. Tsivitanidou
    ;
    Costas P. Constantinou
    This book is a compilation of edited chapters from different science education disciplines and contexts, aiming to provide resources for the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching/learning (IBST/L), and to highlight ways in which those approaches could be promoted across various contexts. The chapters in the book presented the efforts of a group of science education researchers and practicing science teachers to put theoretical ideas into practice and to bridge the gaps between broad policy perspectives, specific educational realities of local school traditions, and embedded practices ingrained in national educational cultures. In this concluding chapter, we provide a structured overview of the main theoretical ideas discussed throughout the book, seeking to help the reader situate all these efforts within a coherent theoretical framework of what inquiry-based approaches in science education involve and what they require from teachers in terms of knowledge and abilities. We focus on four main topics that appear across the chapters in the book: (1) application of scientific inquiry in authentic learning environments; (2) descriptions of six main theoretical frameworks underpinning IBST/L throughout the book, (i) theory and research in motivation, (ii) self-efficacy, (iii) scientific literacy, (iv) dialogic teaching, (v) the communicative approach, and (vi) the nature of science; (3) presentation of pedagogical content knowledge as a productive framework that can unite efforts for teachers’ professional development in IBST/L as presented in this book; and (4) description of effective strategies for professional development, specifically for helping teachers implement this approach for teaching science.