The importance of reflection in improving science teaching and learning

Abstract

The purpose of this three-year naturalistic case study was to see whether collaborative reflection could enhance teaching and learning of science by generating desirable cognitive, metacognitive, and affective outcomes. Reflection was both individual and in groups, and involved reflection on practice in the classroom and phenomenological reflection on the nature of science teaching and learning. The study had two components. The preservice component involved 13 student teachers and teacher educators. The in-service component involved 14 novice and experienced science teachers and 350 of their students. The authors worked with both groups to devise ways of changing classroom attitudes and behaviors of teachers and students. The voluminous data collected include records of many interviews, questionnaires, and written evaluations. Findings from the study illuminate aspects of the nature of science teaching and learning, processes by which individuals improve the quality of their practice, and methods for exploring teaching and learning mechanisms and facilitating change. Central to these findings is the importance of each of the two types of reflection for fostering personal and professional development. For both teachers and students, both types of reflection acted to improve their knowledge, awareness, and control of themselves and their classroom practice.

Evolution of the conceptions of a secondary education biology teacher: Longitudinal analysis using cognitive maps

“…Such skills favor awareness of the teacher's own cognitive processes, reflection in and about action, and understanding of the causes of the difficulties in teaching behavior and of the obstacles to educational change. They hence make self-regulation and control of the process of change possible (Baird, Fensham, Gunstone, & White, 1991;Copello & Sanmartí, 2001;Gunstone & Northfield, 1994;Gunstone et al, 1993;Lucio, 2001;Sanmartí & Jorba, 1995). Professional development has to go together with personal and social development (Bell & Gilbert, 1994), taking affective aspects into account, reinforcing the teacher's self-esteem, encouraging constructive collaboration, strengthening the culture of the corresponding school, and building on the good practice that the teachers are already carrying out (Hargreaves, 1996).…”

Contributions from the Philosophy of Science to the Education of Science Teachers

“…The axis of their professional development, however, has to be science education, since the content to be taught conditions both the teacher's role and the teaching strategies (Tobin and McRobbie 1999). Action research in collaboration with other teachers into important situations and problems in science teaching and learning, and which are of interest for their own classes --in particular longitudinal studies of their own case --is an extraordinarily effective strategy for professional development in the medium and long terms (Baird et al 1991;Lyons et al 1997;Roth 1998). These investigations are done 'by' and 'with' teachers, in teams that cross disciplines and levels, where the teachers are not consumers of external knowledge, but co-producers and agents of change in the problems that really concern them in their classes (Gil-Pe´rez et al 1998).…”

“Careful, Now You Are both the Learner and the Teacher!”: Student Teachers’ Evaluation of Inquiry-Based Peer Lecturing as a Tool in Teacher Training

“…Students' formulation of the intrinsic proximity between the teaching and learning processes matches current conceptions about this matter (Baird, Fensham, Gunston, & White, 1991;Vermunt & Verloop, 1999). Indeed, because learning and teaching are based on similar cognitive steps, one of the processes automatically involves the other: deep learning implies knowledge organization and mastery, which is required for teaching, and concurrently, efficient teaching requires deep consciousness of the difficulties involved in learning the topic of the lesson.…”