New Perspectives in Science Education

The Center for Science Education and Training – CSET (http://education.inflpr.ro/) at the National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics in Bucharest is member of the European Comenius network INSTEM (http://instem.tibs.at/) formed by 14 institutions aiming to promote inquiry based teaching, to gather innovative teaching methods and to raise students' interest in science as well as offering them careers information in STEM subjects, in order to respond to global challenges in teaching and gender imbalances in STEM education.

The present paper presents the results of a case study prepared by the CSET team in the frame of the INSTEM project. The focus of this case study is an analysis on the way the European funded project Fibonacci, targeting the wide dissemination of inquiry-based methods in teaching science and mathematics (IBSME), influenced the science education in Romania after our successful participation to this project.

In the introduction, the analysis refers to the national context of science education in which the Romanian participation to the Fibonacci project took place and emphasises the major innovative aspects of this European project. The case study underlines the impact of the Fibonacci project on: CSET project management approaches; the new tools used in teachers training; the Fibonacci resources accessed by teacher’s trainers; the organization of CPD sessions; the development of the national science teachers network and the means they use to collaborate. The final part of the paper highlights the limitations we faced in implementing and adapting Fibonacci principles and procedures to the Romanian educational landscape.

To conclude, we can say that the participation to the “Fibonacci” project: enlarged our horizon on IBSME; diversified our access to resources; provided new opportunities to improve our courses for teachers; assisted us implementing a national community of practice on IBSE; provided a better visibility for our efforts and results at national level; brought some innovative methods of science teaching in Romania; offered to us a high status at national level in the field of science education at pre-university level; multiplied our external contacts and partners; assisted us in rising the interest of science teachers community on our work.

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme, grant 2012-4827/001-001.