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Jellema, Elysia

University of British Columbia

In British Columbia, Canada, there is a redesigned provincial curriculum where secondary science teachers are expected to focus on 21st century competency-based skills which may be achieved though the teaching of socioscientific issues (SSI). SSI are issues pertaining to science and society that are complex and multifaceted with no clear solution. Despite implementation of the curriculum redesign years ago, many teachers are having difficulties realizing the mandate. This warrants an exploration of professional development (PD) approaches to help support teacher’s uptake and implementation of the redesigned curriculum. In response, a 10-week Learning Study, a PD approach, was designed and implemented to study and support three experienced secondary school teachers. In Learning Study, teachers collaborate to iteratively plan, teach, and reflect on a lesson or series of lessons using a pedagogical theory to guide the process. In this Learning Study, SSI was employed as a pedagogical perspective and the teachers focused on a competency-framed object of learning. Primary data sources were semi-structured Pre- and Post-Study Interviews and secondary sources included Learning Study meeting audio recordings, researcher field notes, and teacher artifacts. Drawing on thematic analysis methods, three themes were constructed: (1) Teachers’ understandings of SSI were value driven; (2) Teacher integration of SSI into practice were value driven; and (3) Teachers expressed tensions between SSI, student-centered pedagogy, and traditional education practices. Implications of this research yield insights on how to support teachers’ realization of redesigned/reformed curricula through a Learning Study that employs socioscientific issues in PD.

Text

2024-12-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89975

Science Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/