LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• organise collaborative enhancement with people in your region who utilise science or scientific thinking as part of their daily life in order to examine scientific thinking, pedagogy and content questions based around problem solving
• utilise a suite of reflection processes that will develop your science teaching effectiveness using collaborative reflection, including a new and innovative reflection based on how you feel while you are teaching
• recognise that iterations of collaborative enhancement, teaching and reflection are key processes in improving your science teaching
• develop and utilise science teaching skills that can be transferred from one topic and level to another.
Introduction
Collaboration is about people working together on projects. In education, teachers work together in social networks to improve student learning in the classroom; for example, by exchanging teaching ideas. Classrooms are also becoming collaborative spaces where teachers can guide the learning to achieve their teaching and learning goals and those of their students. Students collaborate to deepen their understanding of scientific concepts.
Collaboration is an important part of pre-service teacher education and teacher professional learning in science education domains. Collaboration may take a number of different forms; for example, groups of university researchers working with teachers to develop a teaching resource, a teacher mentoring a pre-service teacher, a university lecturer teaching a pre-service teacher or delivering teacher professional learning to a classroom educator, or simply two teachers or two pre-service teachers working together on a lesson or unit plan or reflecting on the impact of the lesson presented.
This chapter outlines how you as pre-service teachers and classroom teachers can collaborate to enhance your science teaching and to utilise collaborative reflection, the natural partner to collaborative enhancement. The chapter also outlines how repeated cycles, or iterations, rather than single instances of enhancement and reflection can improve teaching. The final section of this chapter speaks to transferable teaching skills that require collaboration for their development and continued effectiveness.
OPENING VIGNETTE
As teachers we want our students to be able to ‘think and act in scientific ways’ (ACARA, 2012). Listening to scientists talk about scientific thinking and problem solving is one way to help us to understand it. Scientific thinking is both similar to and different from everyday thinking and problem solving.
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