Presentation from Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education  Helsinki June 2014

1. Science Plaza
Professional development in an online habitat
Svava Pétursdóttir Ed.D
Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education
Helsinki June 2014

2. Perceived needs
• I am the only science teacher in this
school and have nobody to talk to
• I learn most from talking to other teachers
• It is ridiculous that we are each working in
our own corner
• This subject is difficult to teach, my
knowledge is not strong enough

3. What is a plaza?

4. A plaza …
• A project with diverse connections to
stakeholders, in which the aim is to
strengthen a specific curricular area with
the help of digital tools.
• A community of practice

6. Teacher community
Pedagogical
knowledge
Technical
knowledge
Content
knowledge
Government
Tech steward
Educational
community
Education
Plaza

7. Aims of the Plaza – to strengthen
science education
• To increase cooperation between science
teachers.
• To establish a collection of teaching resources.
• To facilitate increased professional development
opportunities.
• To support the use of ICT in science education.

8. Research questions- Evaluation
• What features of the project meet the set
goals?
• To what extent is the project meeting its
goals?
• What lessons can be learned about the
role of the tech steward?

9. Online
community
Facebook
11
Website
Events f2f

10. Venue to :
• Ask questions
• Give and receive
advice
• Share resources
• Discuss teaching
practices e.g.
practical work
Online community:
Purpose:
• Community building
• Facilitate sharing of
knowledge and
experience
between peers

11. • Project start spring 2011
• Spring 2012 108 members
• Spring 2013 180 members
• Spring 2014 312 members
•From all educational levels
• Experienced
• Newly qualified
• Textbook writers

12. What demonstrations do you
use when teaching chemical
reactions and where do you get
the materials?
Many ideas and discussions
about pupil reactions
13 comments, 15 ,,likes”

13. The word density has
always disturbed me.....
Discussion about the use
and meaning of scientific
concepts
+ guidance in using
Facebook;)

14. Just saw a fun experiment on
youtube, here is a link to
instuctions to a lot of experiments ,
a handy website.
Cool, to put a stopwatch
on the projector if you are
measuring heartrates with
pupils

15. Menntakvika 2011
Any ideas for teaching nuclear
energy to year 10?
13 replies.
Material for a whole teaching
sequence.

16. Nature of activity in the group
2012-2013 2011-2012
Total posts 388 226
Posts receiving comments 70% 56%
Posts receiving comments
and/or likes
89% 73%

17. 1% 2% 1%2% 3%
49%
42%
Individual posts 12-13 from 54 participants
yfir 100 innlegg
81-100
61-80
41-60
21-40
1-20
0
Over 100 posts

18. Comments from user
survey about the
Facebook group
All good
discussions,
I follow them
though I have
not been very
active. I though
have contacted
teachers
directly to get
good advice.
Good ideas
that people
post that
make you
think about
what you
can change
and
improve :-)
Do keep up
this group and
get more
people
involved in
bringing in
ideas and
something
interesting
and educative
for science
education.

19. F2f activities
• Meetings, Edu-Camps and workshops
• Peer learning
• Give access to expertise
• Support community building

20. • Narrow themes/topics
• Different target groups by school level
• Participants contribute
• Ideas and advice flow freely during events
• Events held in schools = no cost
• Contributions recorded and presented on the
SciencePlaza
Educamps

21. Impact from Edu-Camps
• Courage and knowledge to
do practical work.
• Opportunities for peer
learning and professional
development.
EduCamps have been great in all regards. It was good to meet other
teachers and get good ideas. My participation has had a positive
influence on me as a teacher, better teacher, better teaching. I have
used these ideas with good results.

22. The webpage
http://natturutorg
• A necessary front
• Growing content
• User created
“I have visited the webpage
and used materials from
it.”

23. Good to be able to go
to the resource bank,
that you do not have
to look everywhere
for resources and
ideas and try to
remember where this
and that webpage is
and so on….
I think it should be
linked to all the ideas
from the edu-camps
and where teacher
could share more
ideas and pupil
tasks. A resource
bank with teaching
ideas, worksheets
and such

24. Results – Future – Next steps
• The project is meeting its aims to a degree
– Wider catchment area (urban areas)
• There is a need for leadership and
organisation
• Activities complements each other
• Resource banks
• Smaller communities
• Formal CPD

25. No longer paddling alone!
Still lone
canoers out
there, active
community
too small
Collaboration,
cooperation,
community of
practice

26. Takk!
Kiitos!
Tack!
Takk!
Tak!
Thanks!
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