New Perspectives in Science Education

At the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, as it is the case at many other universities in Germany, measures for professionalization in teacher’s training have been increasingly promoted since 2015 as part of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”. The goal of these measures is to develop a coherent education program for teachers to close the theory-practice gap. Furthermore, collaboration between all players in teacher’s education is intended through both cross-phase and intra-phase cooperation. A closer connection between subject and subject education is particularly important for development of modern science teaching. Within the project Learning-to-Teach Lab: Science (LTL:S), a structure will be established that translates scientific innovations into school reality through educational transfer supported by empirical research [1].
The article will first focus on the underlying structure of cooperation within the LTL:S between subject education experts and scientists including student teachers. Next, the development process of curriculum innovation will be shown by applying it to the topic “self-healing materials” [2]. With the help of experimental implementations school-based approaches are presented.
To investigate the use of such curricular innovations, an empirical research design was developed based on the topic “drugs as a context of chemistry teaching” and put into test in autumn 2020. For this purpose, a standardized observation protocol was designed that documents the way in which students deal with the topic. The article will focus on the development of the research instrument and the different steps of the observer’s training. Moreover, the contents of a pre- and post-questionnaire will be presented, which captures student’s prior knowledge and short-term effects of the intervention study on it [3,4].
Finally, the project’s previous work will be systematized regarding digital learning communities. In the long run, a structure involving not only student teachers is intended to be established through these professional learning communities [5].

References:

1. V. Woest, P. Engelmann, C. Hoffmann, T. Jünger, M. Simon, in: Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Chemie und Physik, Jahrestagung in Wien 2019. S. Habig (Ed.), 2020, Duisburg-Essen, 158-161.
2. D. Döhler, P. Michael, S. Neumann, W. H. Binder, Chem. Unserer Zeit 2016, 2, 90-101.
3. I. Langer, F. Schulz von Thun, Erziehung und Psychologie, Bd. 68, 1974, München.
4. R. Schnell, P. B. Hill, E. Esser, Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung, 2018, Berlin.
5. M. Bonsen, H.-G. Rolff, ZfPäd, 2006, 2, 167-184.