SCIENCE TEACHERS’ INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL LEARNING RELATED TO IBSE IN A LARGE-SCALE, LONG- TERM, COLLABORATIVE TPD PROJECT

It is acknowledged internationally that teachers’ Professional Development (TPD) is crucial for reforming science teaching. The Danish QUEST project is designed using widely agreed criteria for effective TPD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, collaborative activities and collective participation, and is organised on principles of situated learning in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). QUEST-activities follow a rhythm of full day seminars followed by a period of collaborative inquiries locally. A major theme in the first year has been Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE).
The research presented focuses on the participating teachers’ intertwined levels of individual and social learning. Data from repeated surveys and case studies reveal a positive attitude towards trying out IBSE locally, however with the main part of the reflections focused on students’ hands-on experiences and fewer including students’ minds-on. Teachers’ reflections indicate that many are positive towards QUEST seminars based on trying out activities directly applicable in the classroom. Case studies indicate a potentially more sustainable development, where the teachers collaboratively re-design existing teaching activities using the IBSE principles. By doing so they appear to gain experiences to support local design of inquiry based learning experiences for students also in new content areas.