For years, research and policy have been calling for science teaching that motivates student learning through relevant phenomena and problems, provides students with opportunities for meaningful peer collaboration, and focuses on building a need-to-know about a small set of core science ideas during a series of connected learning experiences. We refer to such instruction as “coherent”, and while coherent instruction has long been advocated within science teacher education programs, new teachers struggle to implement pedagogical approaches emphasized within science teacher education programs and abandon those in favor of more traditional methods. In a recent project called PICoSTE, partners collaborated to identify promising practices for helping new science teachers to enact coherent science instruction, and we recognized that while planning and reflection tools have the potential to function as powerful bridging elements between university-based courses and school-based field experiences, a consistent and coherent set of planning and reflection tools for science teacher education in a European context did not exist. The central objective of this project is to design and test a suite of planning and reflection tools as well as associated learning modules for supporting preservice teachers in both better understanding the principles of coherent science instruction and enacting coherent science instruction in schools. Partners in this project include a group of science teacher educators from Germany (Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN), University of Duisburg-Essen), Norway (University of Bergen), Sweden (Halmstad University), Denmark (University of Copenhagen), Finland (University of Helsinki), and Turkey (Usak University). Project leaders at each institution have extensive experience in science teacher education and the design and enactment of coherent science instruction, and project teams include university-based master teachers, school-based mentor teachers, and research specialists responsible for designing and empirically testing tools and modules developed within the project. The planning and reflection tools and science teacher education learning modules are developed and tested using an iterative design-based, outcome-driven process. To begin this process, we clarify outcomes by collaborating on the creation of a core ideas framework for coherent science instruction, which is based on existing research literature and policy documents. This framework guides the identification of observable target performances and the elaboration of benchmarks on the way to meet those target performances. These benchmarks then guide the development process and provide a roadmap for conducting ongoing formative assessment that informs iterations based on evidence and feedback from stakeholders (e.g., preservice science teachers, mentor teachers). This design process results in tools and modules that are consistent and coherent with each other and have been tested and revised through practice. The developed tools and modules will finally be discussed and shared among local, national, and EU stakeholders for science teacher education. The central objective of this project is to provide new science teachers with a coherent set of learning experiences and a consistent set of concrete planning and reflection tools that will help span the current chasm between university-based science teacher education, school science instruction, and ministry goals. Through these efforts, we hope to progress toward the ultimate goal of broadening school students' access to science instruction that is more engaging, more comprehensible, and more meaningful to their lives outside of school.
The primary project objectives were to develop a coherent set of tools and accompanying modules for integration into science teacher education programs. This process began by clearly defining the key instructional characteristics at the core of coherent science teacher education. These identified characteristics were intended to serve as guiding principles for adapting existing tools that support instructional planning and reflection. Through the development of these tools and accompanying modules, the project aimed to facilitate pre-service science teachers' engagement with coherent science instruction. These resources were designed to bridge the gap between university-based teacher education and actual classroom instruction by providing practical instructional ideas. Importantly, the project took an international, collaborative approach, allowing for the development, sharing, and testing of best practices. The ultimate goal was to provide science teacher educators worldwide with adaptable materials that could be tailored to their local contexts and offer pre-service teachers meaningful learning opportunities.
In Europe and across the world, policy makers and educators alike have called for a science instruction that enables students to make sense of relevant phenomena and problems over time through the use of scientific practices such as analyzing data. Through this coherent science instruction, students should develop a deep understanding of a selected set of core disciplinary ideas. However, recent research has pointed out that science instruction still focuses on covering as many science topics as possible in a traditional way, leading to a superficial understanding of science content. To implement coherent science instruction more regularly in classrooms around the globe, a change in university teacher education is needed. However, for pre-service science teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to implement coherent science instruction, their teacher education itself must be coherent. To establish a coherent science teacher education program, learning opportunities should focus on similar instructional ideas (i.e., focus on core disciplinary ideas and phenomena) and also provide pre-service science teachers with a set of tools that make these instructional ideas transferable into the school practice.