European-funded project

The aim of the PARRISE project is to collect and share existing best practices across Europe and develop learning tools, materials and in/pre- service training courses for science teachers based on the Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning (SSIBL) approach.

The goal of the project is to empower and facilitate science teachers and teacher educators, by in-service and pre-service professional development courses, based on reshaped best practices available among the partners. These shared selected best practices will be reflected on from a ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ (RRI) perspective and improved by an international ‘community of learners’ who incorporate RRI in their teaching and learning processes.

The PARRISE project has established a multidisciplinary team and facilitates networking activities among teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers of 18 institutions in 11 countries. The project builds on recently developed Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) insights and fosters implementation of IBSE in educational practice.

Find out information about the PARRISE here.

Kyza, E. A., Georgiou, Y., Hadjichambis, A., & Agesilaou, A. (2018). Antibiotics in livestock: Introducing in-service teachers to the nature of contemporary, socio-scientific controversies. School Science Review, 100(371), 53-58.

Hadjichambis, A. C., Georgiou, Y., Paraskeva Hadjichambi, D., Kyza, E. A., Agesilaou, A., & Mappouras, D. (2018). Promoting RRI and active citizenship in an inquiry-based controversial socio-scientific issue: the case of cholesterol regulation with statins. Journal of Biological Education, 1-13.

PROFILES (Title: “Professional Reflection Oriented Focus on Inquiry- based Learning and Education through Science) was a four year (2010 – 2014) research program, funded by the European Commission, under the FP7 Science in Society program. Bringing together 19 university teams from 21 European countries, promoted IBSE through raising the self-efficacy of science teachers to take ownership of more effective ways of teaching students, supported by stakeholders.

The PROFILES innovation lied on working with teacher partnerships to implement existing, exemplary context-led, IBSE focused, science teaching materials enhanced by inspired, teacher relevant, training and intervention programmes. This was undertaken by reflection, interactions and seeking to meaningfully raise teacher skills in developing creative, scientific problem-solving and socio-scientific decision-making abilities in students. The measures of success were through (a) determining the self-efficacy of science teachers in developing self-satisfying science teaching methods and (b) in the attitudes of students toward this more student-involved approach. Dissemination of approaches, reactions, and reflections formed a further key project target, making much use of the internet and other formats useful for sharing science teacher profiles in an interactive forum.

PROFILES involved the development of teachers on four fronts (teacher as learner, teacher as effective teacher, teacher as reflective practitioner, teacher as leader) consolidating their ownership of society-led, IBSE approaches and incorporating use-inspired research, evaluative methods and stakeholder networking. The project disseminated its innovation with trained lead teachers spearheading further teacher development at pre- and in-service levels and initiating a series of workshops for key stakeholders nationwide. The project focused on open inquiry approaches as a major teaching target and paid much attention to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of students in the learning of science. The intended outcome was school science teaching to become more meaningful, related to 21st century science and incorporate interdisciplinary socio-scientific issues and IBSE-related teaching, taking particular note of gender factors.

Find out information about the PROFILES here.

Hadjichambis, A. C., Georgiou, Y., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Kyza, E. A., & Mappouras, D. (2016). Investigating the effectiveness of an inquiry-based intervention on human reproduction in relation to students’ gender, prior knowledge and motivation for learning in biology. Journal of Biological Education, 50(3), 261-274. doi:10.1080/00219266.2015.1067241

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., Georgiou, Y., Hadjichambi, D. & Hadjichambis, A. (2013). Teacher Framing, Classroom Collaboration Scripts, and Help‐Seeking and Help‐Giving Behaviors. In N. Rummel, M. Kapur, M. Nathan, S. Puntambekar (Eds.) To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time and scale. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. Madison, WI: International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), 2013. [Long paper.]

Schulte, T., Georgiou, Y., Kyza, E.A., Bolte, C. (2013). Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of school based scientific literacy priorities and practice: A cross‐cultural comparison between Cyprus and Germany. In: C. P. Constantinou, N. Papadouris & A. Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), “E-Book Proceedings of the ESERA 2013 Conference: Science Education Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning”, Part 8: “Scientific Literacy and Socio-scientific Issues” (co-ed. J. Dillon & A. Redfors), European Science Education Research Association, Nicosia, Cyprus, ISBN: 978-9963-700-77-6, pp. 132-140.

Georgiou, Y., Kyza, E. A., & Ioannou, A. (2012). Creating and sustaining online communities of practice for science teachers’ professional development: Overcoming the barriers. In J. V. Aalst, K. Thompson, M. J. Jacobson & Reimann, P. (Eds.), The future of learning. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 533-534). Sydney, Australia. [Poster.]

CoReflect (Title: Digital support for Inquiry, Collaboration, and Reflection on Socio-Scientific Debates) was a three year (2008 – 2011) research program, funded by the European Commission, under the FP7 Science in Society program. Bringing together eight diverse and multi-disciplinary teams from seven European states, the project members promoted evidence-based practice in science teaching and learning, by collaborating to iteratively design, enact, critique, and validate problem-based innovative inquiry learning environments. These environments, which are being hosted on the STOCHASMOS web-based teaching and learning platform, coupled data-rich scientific rigor with the flexibility and easy modifiability that is needed for widespread adoption and use by teachers.

Find out information about the CoREFLECT here.

Kyza, E. A., Herodotou, C., Nicolaidou, I., Redfors, A., Hansson, L., Schanze, S., Saballus, U., Papadouris, N. & Michael, G. (In Press). Adapting web‐based inquiry learning environments from one country to another: The CoReflect experience. In C. Bruguiere, P. Clement, and A. Tiberghien, 9th ESERA Conference Selected Contributions. Topics and trends in current science education. Springer.

Redfors, A., Hansson, L., Kyza, E. A., Nicolaidou, I., Asher, I., Tabak, I., Papadouris, N. & Avraam, C. (In Press). CoReflect –web‐based inquiry learning environments on socio‐scientific issues. In C. Bruguiere, P. Clement, and A. Tiberghien, 9th ESERA Conference Selected Contributions. Topics and trends in current science education. Springer.

Herodotou, C., Kyza, E. A., Nicolaidou, I., Hadjichambis, A., Kafouris, D., & Terzian, F. (2011). The Development and Validation of the GMOAS, an Instrument Measuring Secondary School Students’ Attitudes Towards Genetically Modified Organisms. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 1 17. 

Nicolaidou, I., Kyza, E. A., Terzian, F., Hadjichambis, A., & Kafouris, D. (2011). A framework for scaffolding students’ assessment of the credibility of evidence. Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching, 48(7), 711‐744. 

Nicolaidou, I., Kyza, E. A., Terzian, F., Hadjichambis, A., & Kafouris, D. (2010). Scaffolding students in evaluating the credibility of evidence using a reflective web‐based inquiry environment on Biotechnology. Proceedings of ICLS2010: Learning in the Disciplines Conference, Chicago, IL, USA, June 29‐July 2, 2010. [Long paper.]