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by Eleni A. Kyza, Yiannis Georgiou, Andreas Hadjichambis, Andria Agesilaou

The review of the literature, and our own research-based conclusions from previous professional development projects (PROFILES, CoReflect) all point to the need to engage teachers in extended professional development experiences (Loucks-Horsley, Stiles, Mundry, Love, & Hewson, 2010). Change is slow, especially when dealing with innovative approaches, such as SSIBL, and the desire to bring about reform in actual practice. The PARRISE Cyprus approach sought to not only inform teachers of SSIBL and help them gain a deeper understanding of the SSIBL framework, but wished to go a step further to supporting teachers in designing problem-based SSIBL modules that address all SSIBL pillars, and test them at their schools with their students.

Therefore, we recruited in-service teachers from elementary, lower secondary and upper secondary classrooms, from the disciplines of biology, chemistry and elementary science. Since the TPD took place during the teachers’ own time, and given the multiple demands on teachers’ schedules, we opted for a blended approach to professional development that combined face-to-face (f2f) and online professional development meetings. The approach is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Forty-one teachers participated in the TPD course between October 2015 and June 2016. Teachers formed eight collaborative design (co-design) teams, each led by a teacher educator; in total, there were two biology co-design groups (lower secondary, upper secondary), three chemistry co-design groups (one lower, two upper secondary) and three elementary science co-design groups.

The TPD approach combined experiential learning, occurring during five face-to-face meetings, co-design meetings (most often taking place online during the evenings), and continuous reflection activities. Four main aspects of the TPD served as the main mechanisms for supporting TPD processes: experiential learning, co-design, the opportunity to enact and assess the effectiveness of the SSIBL implementations, and continuous opportunities for reflection. Reflection was a key aspect of the TPD and was fostered through teacher educator scaffolding, peer feedback, feedback between interdisciplinary groups, the co-design process and the opportunity to enact, evaluate and reflect on the SSIBL framework.

The experiential activities were based on a constructivist approach to learning, and engaged teachers in an inductive exploration of the need and meaning of the SSIBL pillars (inquiry-based science education, socio-scientific issues, citizenship education) and how they relate to the grand ideas of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Meeting 1 focused on discussing the nature of science and its role, especially on controversial socio-scientific issues, in addressing societal needs. The teachers were introduced to the idea of Grand Challenges and the need to discuss the role that science education can play. In the main experiential activity, the teachers assumed the role of students and engaged with a problem-solving online learning environment on the use of antibiotics in livestock. Through this situation, teachers were implicitly exposed to issues of socio-scientific controversy and the notion of responsible research, innovation and active citizenship.

The next meeting, which was again a face-to-face meeting, introduced teachers to the SSIBL framework explicitly, but without defining the pillars of IBSE, socio-scientific controversies, citizenship education and how they all contribute to RRI. Rather, teachers were guided to research online, collaborate, discuss and reflect, to make sense of the terms on their own. In addition, Meeting 2 marked the formation of the disciplinary co-design groups, which were asked to identify curriculum areas which could then be modified or extended to integrate the aspects emphasized by the SSIBL framework. These groups collaborated until the end of the course to create and enact these PARRISE modules.

Co-design is an important tenet of situated learning during in-service teacher professional development (Kyza & Georgiou, 2014; Kyza & Nicolaidou, 2016). The co-design groups met online for 90-120 minutes each time on eight occasions between November 2015 and March 2016. These meetings supported the co-design, which was also strengthened by email communication and the two face-to-face meetings (Meeting 5 and Meeting 8). The classroom enactments (implementations) offered the unparalleled opportunity of testing out and refining SSIBL ideas, as the teachers’ reflection on the enactments indicated. Based again on our prior experience, we believe that enactments offer invaluable opportunities for situated learning (Kyza & Nicolaidou, 2016).

Figure 2 highlights the iterative and cyclical nature of the Cyprus TPD model, while also emphasizing that through these four aspects of the TPD teachers rotated through all four roles of teachers as: learners, designers,innovators, and reflective practitioners.

Figure 2

Each of the teacher teams co-designed a learning environment which was then implemented in different schools across Cyprus by the co-design team members. These eight SSIBL modules were enacted in 25 schools and 28 classrooms; they were taught by 26 teachers and 476 students who participated in these enactments. Preliminary analyses indicate positive results in terms of students’ perceptions of active citizenship and motivation to engage with SSIBL and PARRISE ideas. More analyses are underway and will be shared soon with the PARRISE community.

References

Kyza, E. A. & Georgiou, Y.(2014). Developing in-service science teachers’ ownership of the PROFILES pedagogical framework through a technology-supported participatory design approach to professional development. Science Education International, 25(2), 55-77.
Kyza, E. A., & Nicolaidou, I. (2016). Co-designing reform-based online inquiry learning environments as a situated approach to teachers’ professional development. CoDesign, 1-26. doi:10.1080/15710882.2016.1209528
Loucks-Horsley, S., Stiles, K. E., Mundry, S., Love, N., & Hewson, P. W. (2010). Designing professional development for teachers of science and mathematics (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

by Eleni Kyza, Yiannis Georgiou, Andreas Hadjichambis, & Andria Agesilaou

Our first TPD program began on October 24, 2015 with a group of 48 in-service science teachers (biologists, chemists, primary education science teachers) and will run until May 2016. The TPD adopts a model of teachers as learners, designers and reflective practitioners. Teachers work in eight different design groups, organized according to discipline and level of teaching (primary, lower secondary or upper secondary education). The TPD is composed of five face-to-face meetings, each one lasting six hours, and bi-weekly video-conferences of each design team to coordinate the design of the SSIBL modules.

Figure 1: Screenshot from the “Meat safety” learning environment

The main goal of the face-to-face meetings is to familiarize science teachers with the underlying philosophy and the operationalization of the SSIBL framework. Each f2f meeting consists of several experiential activities. For instance, during the first and second face-to-face meeting, our science teachers took on the role of students and investigated the controversial topic of antibiotics in meat, using an online learning environment designed by the local PARRISE team. The “Meat safety” learning environment (see Figure 1) encompassed all four aspects of the SSIBL framework (scientific inquiry, socio-scientific issues, active citizenship leading to responsible research and innovation). The science teachers, working in groups, were assigned one of the stakeholder roles involved in this controversy (e.g. concerned scientists, farmers, medical industry, government agencies, public interest organizations against antibiotics). They were then asked to develop an argument that would answer the driving question (“Should antibiotics in livestock be banned?”) according to the stakeholder’s role they had adopted. Arguments were captured in google docs, to facilitate group work and sharing. At the end of this activity teachers reconvened as a plenary and each group participated in a public debate around the topic (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Teachers reconvened as a plenary and participated in a public debate about the controversy

Following this activity, in which teachers became the learners, the teachers were asked to work as reflective practitioners, and analyze the learning module and its potential to promote the four dimensions of the SSIBL pedagogy.

The next face-to-face meetings included brief introductions of each of the SSIBL dimension, along with experiential activities to foster a grounded understanding of the SSIBL framework. Each meeting also included time for teachers to work in their design teams. This type of TPD experiences, structured around exemplary SSIBL material, and including a variety of presentations, discussions, experiential activities and design time allows teachers to conceptualize the SSIBL pedagogical framework, while also affording opportunities to elaborate and operationalize its main dimensions. In this context, the face-to-face meetings are purported to function as a mechanism for our web-based meetings during which the PARRISE teachers work collaboratively to design SSIBL-based activities for their science students.

On Thursday, April 10, 2014, the master’s program “New Technologies for Communication education media and Learning” hosted by the Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Technological University of Cyprus, and the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, co-organized the event “Multiple Literacy in the 21st century Society “. During the event that met a great success, three different talks took place.

Dr. Elena A. Kyza, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Technological University of Cyprus and coordinator of the master’s program “New Technologies for Communication and Learning”, focused on the European aspect of Digital Literacy and New Media.

Mrs. Anastasia Economou, Head at the Department of Educational Technology at the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus, presented a variety of actions related to Digital Literacy and New Media in Cyprus and raised questions relating to media literacy in the school curriculum.

Ms. Antigoni Themistokleous, Officer at Cyprus Radio Television Authority focused on the role of the Radio Television Authority and the policies followed, in order to improve media literacy levels in Cyprus as well as to promote critical thinking among the citizens.

This was followed by an open discussion during which the attendees could raise their own questions.