The impact of biology/geology school teachers masters courses on the improvement of science education quality in Portugal (original) (raw)
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Enhancing the Popularity and the Relevance of Science Teaching in Portuguese Science Classes
PARSEL Project emerged from the urgent need to overcome the problem of lack of scientific literacy in the population, which should be a priority in a society where science occupies a central place. Indeed, nowadays for any citizen to participate in a responsible and informed way in society he has to be scientifically acknowledgeable. Nevertheless, not only are scientific levels low in the general population, but also there is an increasing number of students who avoid science and technology courses and related professions. Within this context, PARSEL aims at raising science and scientific courses’ popularity and relevancy as well as at enacting teachers’ professional development. In order to achieve these goals, the PARSEL group developed 54 pan-European modules, which were tested and evaluated by several teachers in several European countries and Israel. Teachers maintained a close relationship with the university, were highly encouraged to appropriate the modules and to adapt them to their local conditions and, also to discuss and share their experiences. In Portugal, modules were tested by a group of eight teachers, and their students. This paper presents data concerning teachers’ evaluation. Data was collected by means of interviews, observation and written documents and reveals that teachers positively evaluated PARSEL’s impact on their own professional development. Furthermore, they considered modules as well as the teaching-learning approach essential for making science learning relevant and popular for their students.
Journal of Science Teacher Education, 2016
Between the 1980s and 2007, Portugal used to have one-stage (5-year period) initial teacher education (ITE) programs. In 2007 and consistent with the Bologna process guidelines, Portuguese teacher education moved toward a twostage model, which includes a 3-year undergraduate program of subject matter that leads to a licenciatura (or bachelor) degree and a 3-year professional master in the teaching of a subject. The way that teacher educators perceive the ITE programs effects the education of prospective teachers and consequently the future of science education. This paper aims at analyzing how science teacher educators perceived the changes that took place in this formal way of educating junior school (7th-9th grades) and high school (10th-12th grades) science teachers in Portugal, due to the implementation of the Bologna guidelines. To attain the objectives of the study, 33 science teacher educators including science specialists and science education specialists answered an open-ended online questionnaire, which focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-and post-Bologna ITE programs, the overall quality of teacher education and measures for improving ITE. The results indicate that science teacher educators were quite happy with all of the ITE models, but they expressed the belief that both the science and the teaching practice components should be strengthened in the post-Bologna masters in teaching. Meanwhile, changes were introduced in Portuguese educational laws, and they proved to be consistent with the opinions of the participants. However, the professional development of teacher educators along with evidence-based ITE programs seems to be
Science Education PhD in Nova Lisbon University an overview
2018
Doctoral supervision is quite important, as it involves the training of researchers at an early stage. Aiming at deepening knowledge about the doctoral student supervision experience in Nova Lisbon University, an exploratory study was conducted in the area of Science Education. The time to complete the doctoral degree in Educational Science at Nova Lisbon University (UNL) is not the ideal. This research work intends to bring some light to this issue and produce knowledge about it. The study focus the students‟ point of view regarding the doctoral supervision process. To accomplish the referred goal a survey was applied, to doctoral students that are enrolled in this doctoral program at UNL.
In-service science teacher education in Portugal: an analysis of the short courses available
Journal on Educational Technology, 2016
Although teaching-related relevant competences development starts during pre-service teacher education programmes, teachers' professional knowledge has to be further developed through in-service training. In-service training should lead teachers to develop and update the knowledge base acquired during initial teacher education and to fulfil their professional needs. In Portugal, in-service training courses are organized by diverse institutions, being the most common higher education institutions and school network training centres. This raises questions about the consistency between science teachers' needs and the in-service training courses offered to them, as well as between the in-service courses and the recent science education research agenda. Courses organized by higher education institutions and school networks from the north of Portugal, accredited by the national agency and available from its webpage, were analysed. Results indicate that in-service training courses focus on diverse teacher education components but they tend to concentrate on general issues. However, it may be hard for science teachers to find in-service training in some subjects and/or issues. These results may motivate a follow up investigation on whether or not those in-service courses fit science teachers' educational needs so that teacher educators can find ways to better make their actions fit teachers' own training needs.
Uncovering Portuguese teachers’ difficulties in implementing sciences curriculum
Cogent Education, 2015
Many countries recognize the positive and effective results of improving science education through the introduction of reforms in the sciences curriculum. However, some important issues are generally neglected like, for example, the involvement of the teachers in the reform process. Taking the sciences curriculum reform under analysis and benefitting from 10 years of teachers' experiences in teaching sciences based on this curriculum, 19 semi-structure interviews were applied so as to identify the major difficulties felt by science teachers when implementing the Portuguese sciences curriculum in the third cycle of middle school (pupils' age range of 12-15). Some of the difficulties depicted by the data analysis include: length of the curriculum, lack of time, unsuitable laboratory facilities, insufficient means and materials for experimental work, pupils' indiscipline and little interest in learning sciences. Although less frequently mentioned, the lack of professional development was also referred to as a constraint that seems to play an essential role in this process. Some recommendations for improving the success of sciences curriculum reforms' implementation are given: defining and conceptualizing curricular policies by relating the reality of both the schools and the science classrooms; reorganizing and restructuring pre-service teachers' courses; organizing professional development courses for in-service teachers.
2019
Teaching in Higher Education (ES) is the central theme of the present study, which aims to present a panorama about the conceptions of university teaching as well as to establish a dialogue with the main themes investigated in Brazilian theses and dissertations, circumscribed to the area of Natural Sciences and its Technologies (CNT). For that, qualitative research of the bibliographic type was developed, based on the data search of the Brazilian Institute of Information and Technology (IBICT), highlighting academic works on ES. Recurring conceptions were highlighted as Experience (12:14), Research (5:14) and Naturalized (2:14) and among the most researched topics are Teaching Practice (7:14), Professional Identity (6:14), Processes Formative (2:14), Conceptions of Teaching (2:14) and Teaching Knowledge (1:14). It was also possible to perceive that the themes and conceptions investigated are related in the context of the ES in the attempt to obtain understandings about the process o...
Research of national curricula in Natural Sciences teaching in Portugal, Norway and Slovenia
eBook 1 - ESTEAM Project - English Version, 2017
This E-book will present the findings about learning objectives, current skills and competencies of educational methods in the science teaching, the opinions of pupils on the methods of science teaching and suggestions for improvement. On the basis of the analysis the basing guidelines will be present that will form the foundation for the creation of teaching material and mobile platform (for the ESTEAM project – Enhancement of School TEAching Methods by linking between schools, experts and geoparks in the combination with outdoor activities and ICT Technologies). We tend to help teachers to learn about designing lessons in science based on last innovative practices.
It has been outlined the need of science teachers to print a more modern approach to teaching, based on effective and relevant context. Thus, the European Project PROFILES -Professional Reflection-Oriented Focus on Inquiry Learning through Science and Education -embraced by twenty participating countries, including Portugal, arises from the urgent need to invest in further continuous professional development. The aim of the project is to stimulate the skills in teaching students that may increase, through more motivating methods, their scientific literacy. In this sense, the teacher is oriented in order to experience four stages of development -the teacher as i) learner ii) teacher; iii) reflective practitioner; iv) leader -and is invited to implement with their students, new approaches based on Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE). Inquiry-based learning is a process where students are involved in their learning, formulate questions, investigate widely and then build new understandings, meanings and knowledge. PROFILES, and its guidelines regarding teacher training, shows great complicity with the, already completed, European Project PARSEL -Popularity And Relevance of Science Education for scientific Literacy -in which modules were developed as a set of teaching strategies for a new science approach through the discussion of social and ethical problems. The objective of the PARSEL modules is to increase the relevance and popularity of science teaching in the eyes of students, but at the same time guarantee solid student learning headed for enhancing scientific literacy.
2019
The Brazilian System of Graduate Courses counts with two different modalities of programs: academic and professional. The latter one was authorized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education in 1998, at first only for master's courses. The idea to start this new modality solely on the first level was to allow the academic community to acquire the necessary experience with such courses, since they should focus on bringing scientific methodology to the productive sector, with problem-solving as one of its primary goals. Almost 20 years after they were first authorized, there are already 782 of these programs in Brazil, almost 20% of the total number of master's courses currently active. Considering this development, in 2017 the Ministry of Education authorized the expansion of the new modality for the doctoral level as well, and 90 proposals for such courses have already been sent to CAPES, the agency in charge for the accreditation and evaluation of every graduate course in the c...
Journal of modern education review, 2014
Education in sciences should contribute to everyone’s scientific literacy and encourage their democratic participation in informed decisions making. In a time when we claim the educational relevance of science, promoting its early start among three to six-year-old children is necessary to create appropriate strategies to guide educators towards practices which are consistent with the current national science curriculum guidelines. The objectives of this study are twofold. Firstly it aims to depict the type of training kindergarten teachers of the district of Braganca receive in the field of sciences. Secondly it intends to clarify didactical and pedagogical aspects set out by educators in the context of experimental sciences in their everyday workplace. The data was gathered through questionnaires, in the universe of the kindergarten teachers in this district. It is based on a case study of descriptive and interpretative nature. The overall results show that they are satisfied with ...