New Perspectives in Science Education

The McKinsey report (2007:15) boldly stated that ‘the main driver of the variation in student learning at school is the quality of teachers.’ Implementing new perspectives on science education in the classroom places a high premium on teacher professional development (TPD). Johns and Sosibo (2019) showed that, in a South African context, teachers often display negative attitudes towards TPD programmes. Many South African teachers are of the opinion that the TPD policy is compliance-driven, and that their professionalism is questioned.

In this paper, the authors argue for TPD programmes that centre-stage self-directed learning, where the programme aims to address teachers’ individual professional learning needs. However, such a bottom-up (rather than a top-down) approach asks for all stakeholders to be involved in TPD. This might arrest the ‘wash-out effect’ (Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1981) which often prevents reformed teaching practices in the post-intervention classroom. Often, reformed teaching practices do not materialize, due to the fact that not all stakeholders were involved in the design of TPD. The authors will show how Change Laboratories, guided by activity theory, could result in expansive learning (Bligh & Flood, 2015), and effective TPD. Such a Change Labaratory would involve the department of education, school governing bodies, school management, teachers, parents, teacher unions, and any other stakeholders deemed necessary. Such Change Laboratories would systematically analyse the problems faced in science education, and how this could be addressed during TPD. One of the gains of such an approach, would be that participants would gain agency (Engeström, 2011). Participants are expected to ‘re-imagine the object of the activity’ (Bligh & Flood, 2015:142), and this could lead to the identification of new models or practices in science education (Engeström & Sannino, 2016). 

Change Laboratories is a nascent research field, and very little such research has been done in a science education context. In this presentation, the authors will share provisional empirical findings on a Change Laboratory for science TPD in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

Keywords: Teacher Professional Development; Reformed science education; Change Laboratories; Self-Directed Learning 

REFERENCES

Bligh, B. & Flood, M., 2015, The Change Laboratory in Higher Education: Research-Intervention using Activity Theory. 10.1108/S2056-375220150000001007.

Engeström, Y., 2011, ‘From design experiments to formative interventions’, Theory & Psychology 21(5), 598–628. DOI: 10.1177/0959354311419252.

Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A., 2016, ‘Expansive learning on the move: Insights from ongoing research’, Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 39(3) 401-435.

Johns, L.A., & Sosibo, Z.C., 2019, ‘Constraints in the implementation of continuing professional teacher development policy in the Western Cape’, South African Journal of Higher Education 33(5), 130-145.

McKinsey & Company, 2007, How can the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top? New York, NY.

Zeichner, K.M., & Tabachnick, B.R., 1981, ‘Are the effects of university teacher education washed out by school experience?’, Journal of Teacher Education, 32(3), 7-11.