CONTEXT Effective widespread Science education is a key factor for future competiveness of the European economy and society and as a result basic literacy in STEM is among the benchmarks identified by Europe 2020 and ET 2020 consolidated educational European Union’s strategies. In order to create a sustainable digitalized society national governments are creating strategies where schools play a central role. The schools should be the leader in exploiting the potential of digitization in the best way to achieve high digital skills among students and as a result many countries have recently implemented digital knowledge as an important issue in their school curriculum. OBJECTIVES The project aims to: - Enhance teachers' knowledge to teach students to use digital tools for their own understanding of Science. Students will be producers and informal learning increases in importance. Learning will be independent of time and space and enhance collaborative work, necessary for the future professional need. - Identify weaknesses and strengths in teaching digital tools in schools. The school will have flexible and expandable digital tools that can be used for their further professional development. Observations in the classroom will be done and questionnaires from the teachers will be collected to investigate the efficiency of using digital tools. EXPECTED RESULTS The project plans to achieve the following three main results: 1) Teachers’ professional development providing them with the skills to effectively integrate ICT in their pedagogical strategies. The result will be achieved through the Availability of Intellectual Output 1 - Strategies for training teachers in the use of ICT tools for science at secondary school level providing: - Guidelines for teachers for designing effective ICT based science teaching modules - Guidelines for school directors/policy makers on how to facilitate the effective introduction of ICT based methods in Science teaching 2) Make science teachers able to use more effectively existing ICT based learning objects and develop new learning objects on their own through Intellectual Output 2 – Toolkit for innovative Science teachers providing science teachers with: - Competence assessment tools to identify the gaps of knowledge of science teachers willing to use ICT - Collection of Validated ICT based learning objects for Science Teaching - Collection of new ICT based learning objects for Science Teaching 3) Maximise the uptake of use of ICT in Science teaching through the exchange of information, experiences and achievements among science teachers through the availability of the Intellectual Output 3– Science teachers' community of practice providing teachers with: - everyday experiences, challenges and achievements in using ICT based approaches with the students, and measuring their impact on the learning process of the their pupils - Teaching materials and learning objects area - Communication platform IMPACT The project foresees long term impact on the following two main target groups: 1) Secondary School Science teachers by: - providing them with innovative approaches to teaching and with practical oriented guidance materials to make them able to plan and implement innovative, ICT based and student centred teaching methods and tools for overcoming the persisting under-achievement of students in Sciences - providing them with a set of validated operative didactical tools allowing science teachers to not only use pre-existing learning objects but develop new learning objects on their own, and be able to reflect on new ways of using ICT support and Learning Objects in their teaching practice. - Increasing the motivation of committing themselves to overcome their difficulties in applying ICT based solutions in their teaching methods, through the constant sharing of knowledge, experiences and materials with their colleagues according to a teacher-teacher peer to peer knowledge exchanges. 2) Secondary school students by: - Supporting their pro-active attitude towards their learning process in Science using their means of communication, i.e. ICT and multimedia - Reinforce their problem solving capacities as a strategic approach to learn Science issues - Stimulate their willingness to learn through enquiry based and student centred approaches
CONTEXT Digital tools in teaching have both positive and negative effects on learning. Among the positive effects, the most obvious is students' increased commitment and motivation for their studies that increase learning results. Among the negative effects, the most important are the ones resulting when digital tools are not used by the teacher in the context of a well-reasoned pedagogy. OBJECTIVES The Fiction project has the aim to provide science teachers with the skills to use digital tools and strategies for teaching at the secondary school level. This general aim was achieved by: - Enhancing teachers' knowledge to teach students to use digital tools for their understanding of Science. - Identifying weaknesses and strengths in teaching using digital tools in schools. TARGET GROUPS The main target groups of the project were: - School directors and Policy Makers in the Field of Education: A total number 14 school directors was mainly involved in the testing of the guideline specifically addressed to them - School Teachers: A total number 14 schools and 45 teachers was mainly involved in the testing of the guideline specifically addressed to them, in making use of the competence assessment tool, in using and creating ICT learning objects with their students. 15 schools more were involved as associated partners having the possibility to be informed about the project's activities and access the related results - Students: A total number of 1012 students worked with their teachers benefitting from the use of ICT tools to learn scientific subjects RESULTS To guarantee the long-term impact on the target groups, the Fiction project developed two Intellectual Outputs that students, teachers and end-users can access and use for free from the project portal. The main project deliverables include: - A literature review of methodologies and strategies related to the introduction of ICT support in schools for teaching sciences: https://fiction.pixel-online.org/GL_Literature.php - The guidelines for School teachers aim at providing methodological and operative insights to make them able to effectively design ICT based science teaching learning objects for their lessons:https://fiction.pixel-online.org/GL_Teachers.php - The Guidelines for School Directors and Policymakers have the aim to outline a suggested strategy for the mainstreaming of the implementation of innovative ICT based approaches to teaching Sciences at the Secondary school level:https://fiction.pixel-online.org/GL_Directors.php - A database of reviews of existing competence assessment tools to provide science teachers with tools to identify the gaps of knowledge as far as digital competencies are concerned that prevent them from effectively use ICT based methods and teaching tools with their students:https://fiction.pixel-online.org/TK_CAT.php - 5 specifically created self-assessment tools for teachers to help teachers in testing their knowledge on the 5 Digital Competencies (i.e. Information processing, Communication, Content Creation, Safety, Problem-solving):https://fiction.pixel-online.org/TK_ICTLO.php - A database of reviews of ICT Learning Objects for Science Teaching The result is available at https://fiction.pixel-online.org/TK_DR.php - A database ICT Tools for Science Teaching for which the teachers involved in the project have identified new learning objects:https://fiction.pixel-online.org/TK_ILO.php IMPACT The Fiction project had a direct impact on secondary school Science Teachers who through participation as project full partners of 3 Secondary schools together with 26 schools more, were directly involved in the creation and testing of the intellectual outputs. Moreover The project impacted their needs providing them with: - Innovative approaches to teaching and with practical oriented guidance materials to make them able to plan and implement innovative, ICT based and student-centred teaching methods and tools for overcoming the persisting under-achievement of students in Sciences - A set of validated operative didactical tools allowing science teachers to not only use pre-existing learning objects but identify new learning objects on their own, and be able to reflect on new ways of using ICT support and Learning Objects in their teaching practice. - Tools and suggestions to increase their motivation to overcome their difficulties in applying ICT based solutions in their teaching methods, through the constant sharing of knowledge, experiences and materials with their colleagues according to a teacher-teacher peer to peer knowledge exchanges. The project impacted secondary school students by: - Supporting their pro-active attitude towards their learning process in Science using their means of communication, i.e. ICT and multimedia - Reinforce their problem-solving capacities as a strategic approach to learn Science issues - Stimulate their willingness to learn through enquiry based and student-centred approaches