Evidence-based Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of chemistry teachers in an inquiry laboratory

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Evidence-based Continuous Professional
Development (CPD) of chemistry teachers in an
inquiry laboratory
Dorit Taitelbaum
Ph. D. Advisors Prof. Avi Hofstein and Dr.
Rachel Mamlok-Naaman
abcdefgijklABCD Weizmann Institute of Science
Department of Science Teaching
In collaboration with Miriam Carmeli
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The Inquiry Chemistry Laboratory in Israel (ICL)
Uniqueness

• 100 inquiry-type experiments
• Main characteristics Working in small
  groups Phrasing different inquiry
  question Preparing Hot Report Having
  students presentation
• Integral part of students final assessment
  (20)

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Students inquiry skills

• Conducting pre-inquiry experiment
• Making observations
• Raising questions
• Choosing one research question
• Constructing a relevant hypothesis
• Designing an appropriate inquiry experiment
• Making and organizing observations
• Analyzing and summarizing the inquiry
  experiment
• Presenting the results to the whole class
• Raising more advanced questions

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What do we mean by accomplished teaching in the
Inquiry Chemistry Laboratory (ICL)?
Chemistry teachers skills

• Encourage students to share their knowledge
  with peers

• Help students to
• - Solve problems
• - Ask high-level questions - Hypothesize
  regarding certain unsolved
  experimental problems

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A flavor from the inquiry chemistry laboratory
(ICL)
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The evidence-based CPD model for chemistry
teachers
Development of learning materials (teacher's
guide)
Summer induction course
Classroom-laboratory observations
Workshop
Evidence-based portfolio
Forum on the web
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The study
Research questions

1. What kinds of strategies did the teachers use
   while conducting the inquiry-type experiments?

1. How did the teachers cope with collecting
   artifacts, turn them into evidence, and use them
   to construct their portfolios?

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Research population

• 7 high-school chemistry teachers participated
  in the study each year, during 3 years.
  (In the first year, a pilot study was
  conducted)

• Each teacher had a different professional
  background

• All participating teachers were novice to the
  inquiry approach

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Research tools
Several qualitative research tools

• Classroom-laboratory observations
• Three teachers were observed and videotaped
  during 2-3 inquiry-type activities each
  year

• Interviews
• Semi-structured in-depth interviews with
  each teacher immediately
• after each observation

• Teacher portfolio
• Each teacher was asked to build a portfolio
  concerning the whole year

• Documentation of the workshops
• All the workshops meetings were documented
  using
• videotape/audiotape

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Data analysis
A diversity of qualitative research tools
Steps in the process of analysis

• Transcription of the videotapes, interviews,
  workshops meetings
• Definition of categories and criteria
• Interpretation to the data

The multiple sources enable us to validate the
results and make triangulations
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Variables that were assessed
First category Dilemmas concerning group work
The criteria

• Ways of grouping the students
• The same groups or different groups?
  Homogeneous or heterogeneous groups?

• The time that the teacher spent with each
  group and the number of times that the
  teacher approached each group
• Hesitating or approaching?

• Teachers' challenges
• Discussing but not revealing

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Variables that were assessed
What happened during these 5 months of the school
year?
Workshop
The teachers claimed that

• A teacher has to organize and plan the lessons
  well, in order to cope with a lot of
  uncertainty that is rooted in teaching
  using the ICL approach

• Exchanging ideas with peers and the providers,
  getting relevant feedback and support
  were very essential

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Variables that were assessed
What happened during these 5 months of the school
year?
Evidence-based portfolio
The teachers claimed that

• The fact that they were encouraged to document
  their work, together with the process of
  investigating it during the inquiry-type
  experiments, contributed significantly to
  their work.

• They became more reflective, and their anxiety
  concerning the implementation of the
  program decreased.

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Variables that were assessed
Second category Teachers challenges concerning
summary
discussions

• Planning the discussion
• Involving as many students as possible

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In-Depth Interviews
Teacher centered toward Student centered
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In-Depth Interviews
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Summary

• Teachers had to develop two main teaching
  strategies
• that were essential to the inquiry approach
• the management of the group work
• the management of the summary discussion

The most powerful components of the CPD model
were the workshop, the pieces of evidence and
the videotaped observations
Bringing artifacts from the laboratory and
turning them into evidence was not a trivial
task. It was also time consuming
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Hot Report

• Each group prepare one joint Hot report
• The Hot report is handed to the teacher
  immediately after the lesson, to be
  assessed

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Students presentation
Student centered
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Artifact can be
Teachers' documentation concerning small group
work
Students' work transparencies
Students' Hot reports
Questionnaire assessing students' attitudes
Few scenes from the videotapes taken during an
activity
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Development of learning materials (teacher's
guide)
Each inquiry activity in the teachers guide
includes the following

• Aims In teaching chemistry
• In teaching as inquiry
• Requirement of prior knowledge
• Connections to the syllabus
• Place in the teaching sequence
• Time managing
• Instructions to the student for executing the
  experiment
• Specific safety remarks
• Remarks and instructions from teachers'
  experience
• Background and information concerning the
  experiment
• Recommendations in respecting with the variety
  of additional working possibilities

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Summer induction course
The aim was to provide novice teachers with an
initial exposure to basic methods and skills of
using the inquiry approach in the laboratory

• Teachers learned inquiry skills by having
  first-hand experience in all the
  cognitive dimensions and the practical stages

• Five-days long course, eight hours a day

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Classroom-laboratory observations
As a research tool

• The teachers were observed during
• 3 inquiry-type experiments along the year
• Each activity was of 2-3 meetings
• Each meeting was of 2-3 lesson (90-135 minutes)
• A total of about 19 lessons for each teacher
  along the school year

As an artefact

• Few scenes from the videotapes were used by the
  teachers as artifacts ? evidence ?
  presentation ? portfolio

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Workshop
Throughout the school year, seven meetings, once
a month, three hours each
The aim was to assemble a group of novice
teachers who were novice at the inquiry approach
and would share their experience with each other
The teachers

• Brought artifacts from their classes

• Reflected on their teaching

• Recorded, presented and discussed evidence

• Discussed challenges and actual problems

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Evidence-based portfolio
The aim was to enable the teachers to demonstrate
their professional development during the school
year, while reflecting and supporting it with
evidence from their practice

• The portfolio structure
• Introduction
• Professional background
• Evidence from classroom-laboratory activities
• Reflective summary of the CPD

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Forum on the web
The aim was to enable the teachers to continue to
discuss issues that were raised during the
workshop meetings

• Online closed internet forum