Marie-Christine Knippels - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marie-Christine Knippels

Contributions from Biology Education Research, Dec 31, 2021

The School science review, 2018

We present a sequence of professional development sessions to support science teachers in designi... more We present a sequence of professional development sessions to support science teachers in designing socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL) lessons to foster democratic citizenship. We focus on seven stages for enacting SSIBL: (1) introducing a dilemma; (2) initial opinion-forming; (3) creating a ‘need to know’; (4) inquiry; (5) dialogue; (6) decision-making; and (7) reflection. These stages were practised by pre-service science teachers (n=79) in designing SSIBL lessons (n=30). Activities trialled in the sessions as well as the challenges and opportunities identified by the preservice teachers will be discussed.

iREEC 2022, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Supplementary Materials: Interview and coding scheme belonging to research article.

Sustainability, 2021

Environmental Citizenship (EC) is a promising aim for science education. EC enables people not on... more Environmental Citizenship (EC) is a promising aim for science education. EC enables people not only to responsibly make decisions on sustainability issues—such as use of renewable energy sources—but also to take action individually and collectively. However, studies show that education for EC is challenging. Because our understanding of EC practice remains limited, an in-depth, qualitative view would help us better understand how to support science teachers during EC education. This study aims to describe current EC education practices. What do secondary science teachers think sustainability and citizenship entail? What are their experiences (both positive and negative) with education for EC? A total of 41 Dutch science teachers were interviewed in an individual, face-to-face setting. Analysis of the coded transcripts shows that most teachers see the added value of EC but struggle to fully implement it in their teaching. They think the curriculum is unsuitable to reach EC, and they ...

Environmental Discourses in Science Education, 2020

Van Dam, and Slaven Gasparovic 13.1 Curriculum Principles and Environmental Citizenship Teachers ... more Van Dam, and Slaven Gasparovic 13.1 Curriculum Principles and Environmental Citizenship Teachers in formal secondary schools always teach based on the curricula of a school subject. In some countries they teach only one subject, in other countries perhaps two, three or even four. For instance, English science teachers are required to be able to teach biology, chemistry and physics to students aged 11-16. Overall, secondary schoolteachers are considered to be subject specialists, and their teaching is steered by what the formal curricula prescribes. The curricula of secondary school often consist of a general section that all teachers are obliged to follow and the

International Journal of Science Education, 2016

ABSTRACT In many science education practices, students are expected to develop an understanding o... more ABSTRACT In many science education practices, students are expected to develop an understanding of scientific knowledge without being allowed a view of the practices and cultures that have developed and use this knowledge. Therefore, students should be allowed to develop scientific concepts in relation to the contexts in which those concepts are used. Since many concepts are used in a variety of contexts, students need to be able to recontextualise and transfer their understanding of a concept from one context to another. This study aims to develop a learning and teaching strategy for recontextualising cellular respiration. This article focuses on students’ ability to recontextualise cellular respiration. The strategy allowed students to develop their understanding of cellular respiration by exploring its use and meaning in different contexts. A pre- and post-test design was used to test students’ understanding of cellular respiration. The results indicate that while students did develop an acceptable understanding of cellular respiration, they still had difficulty with recontextualising the concept to other contexts. Possible explanations for this ack of understanding are students’ familiarity with the biological object of focus in a context, the manner in which this object is used in a context and students’ understanding of specific elements of cellular respiration during the lessons. Although students did develop an adequate understanding of the concept, they do need more opportunities to practice recontextualising the concept in different contexts. Further research should focus on improving the strategy presented here and developing strategies for other core concepts in science.

Journal of Biological Education, 2012

Impact, 2017

Impact Objectives • Combine inquiry-based learning and citizenship education with socio-scientifi... more Impact Objectives • Combine inquiry-based learning and citizenship education with socio-scientific issues in order to achieve responsible research and innovation (RRI) in science education • Build on and refine the novel Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning (SSIBL) approach based on partners' teacher professional development (TPD) programmes in practice • Document and share existing good educational practices across Europe and develop learning tools, materials and pre-and in-service training courses for science teachers

Frontiers in Education, 2018

International Journal for Lesson & Learning Studies, 2021

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the merits of lesson study (LS) as a research appr... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the merits of lesson study (LS) as a research approach for research in (science) education. A lesson was developed to introduce students to model-based reasoning: a higher order thinking skill that is seen as one of the major reasoning strategies in science.Design/methodology/approachParticipants of the LS team were three secondary school teachers and two educational researchers. Additionally, one participant fulfilled both roles. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used to investigate the effect of the developed lesson on students and to formulate focal points for using the LS as a research approach.FindingsThe developed lesson successfully familiarized students with model-based reasoning. Three main focal points were formulated for using LS as a research approach: (1) make sure that the teachers support the research question that the researchers bring into the LS cycle, (2) take into account that the lesson is supposed to answ...

Sustainability

This paper draws on the meta-theory of Critical Realism providing a theoretical basis for the ped... more This paper draws on the meta-theory of Critical Realism providing a theoretical basis for the pedagogical approach of Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning (SSIBL) in supporting Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC). We argue that while there are different configurations of EEC, inducting citizens in decision-making needs satisfies the following criteria: (a) relevant transdisciplinary knowledge, (b) a values orientation toward both the complexity of, and the necessity for, a sustainable world and (c) a confidence for, and commitment to, socio-political action at individual and collective levels. In order to provide a rich perspective about how SSIBL has been operationalized in various national contexts through specific teacher professional development, we present four cases purposefully selected as exemplars from different European countries (the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and Cyprus). The four cases provide powerful scenarios to discuss different ways in which the SSIBL ...

Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education, 2020

and Frans Van Dam 14.1 Characteristics of Non-formal Education Promoting the Attributes of an Env... more and Frans Van Dam 14.1 Characteristics of Non-formal Education Promoting the Attributes of an Environmental Citizen For the purpose of this chapter, it is valuable to briefly distinguish between nonformal and informal education-terms that are often used interchangeably. Nonformal and informal learning takes place in out-of-school environments and settings (e.g. libraries, exhibits, museums, science centres, zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens and wildlife-based environments, community centres and organisations, etc.).

Environmental Discourses in Science Education

Science Teacher Education for Responsible Citizenship

Biologie. Chemie. Zeměpis

International Journal of Science Education

Systems thinking is the ability to reason about biological systems in terms of their characterist... more Systems thinking is the ability to reason about biological systems in terms of their characteristics and can assist students in developing a coherent understanding of biology. Literature reports about several recommendations regarding teaching systems thinking, while it seems that systems thinking has not reached classroom practice. The main aim of this study was to identify design guidelines to implement systems thinking in upper-secondary biologyeducation. Based on the recommendations of literature and experience a teacher team developed, tested and evaluated two lessons in two upper-secondary biology classes (15-16 years old students, n = 26, n = 19) using Lesson Study. Lesson one focused on the application of seven system characteristics: boundary, components, interactions, input & output, feedback, dynamics, and hierarchy. Lesson two focused on the improvement of students' understanding of the characteristics feedback and dynamics by using a qualitative modelling approach. Based on classroom observations, student products and interviews, the results suggest that a first step is made: most students are able to name and apply the seven characteristics. It seems important to pay attention to the: (1) introduction of the seven characteristics; (2) application of the characteristics in a wide variety of contexts; (3) individual characteristics; (4) explicit use of system language.

British Journal of Educational Technology

The global increase of recreational escape rooms has inspired teachers around the world to implem... more The global increase of recreational escape rooms has inspired teachers around the world to implement escape rooms in educational settings. As escape rooms are increasingly popular in education, there is a need to evaluate their use, and a need for guidelines in order to develop and implement escape rooms in the classroom. This systematic review synthesizes current practices and experiences, focussing on important educational and game design aspects. Subsequently, relations between the game design aspects and the educational aspects are studied. Finally, student outcomes are related to the intended goals. In different disciplines, educators appear to have different motives to use aspects such as time constraints or teamwork. These educators make different choices for related game aspects such as the structuring of the puzzles. Other educators base their choices on common practices in recreational escape rooms. However, in educational escape rooms players need to reach the game goal b...

Education Sciences

Heredity is a biological phenomenon that manifests itself on different levels of biological organ... more Heredity is a biological phenomenon that manifests itself on different levels of biological organization. The yo-yo learning and teaching strategy, which draws on the hierarchy of life, has been developed to tackle the macro-micro problem and to foster coherent understanding of genetic phenomena. Its wider applicability was suggested and since then yo-yo learning seems to be noticed in the biology education research community. The aim of this paper is to reappraise yo-yo thinking in biology education research based on its uptake and any well-considered adaptations by other researchers in the past fifteen years. Based on a literature search we identified research that explicitly and substantially build on the characteristics of yo-yo thinking. Seven questions guided the analysis of chosen cases focussing on how key concepts are matched to levels of biological organization, interrelated, and embedded in a pattern of explanatory reasoning. The analysis revealed that yo-yo thinking as a...