Conference Agenda

Evidence from an earlier five-year study (see Author 2020; Authors, 2019; 2021; Authors 2022) of a project was judged by teachers to have had a significant impact on pupils’ learning in Science and Design Technology. The project, however, depended on the skills of artists and engineers and was expensive unless funded by external grants. Teachers wanted to see how a similar approach could be embedded in mainstream schools. This paper explores the development of the T*** approach based on the experience of the teachers involved and the previous research project.

Teacher interviews identified a lack of experience in curriculum design, a lack of confidence in design technology and using art-making practices to develop learning. Teachers revealed a desire to give children freedom to express themselves, take some responsibility for and enjoy their learning, but that this was in tension with concerns to cover a packed curriculum, so was often not realised.

This project was a process of responding to teachers’ questions and discussing their successful use of the elements of the T*** model, which was developed in response to their practice. We sought to ensure the approach was faithful to the insights from the professional work of the art-makers, responsive to the needs of the mainstream classroom, and attuned to the theoretical insights gleaned from previous research. The process was iterative and messy with the model emerging from the ongoing discussions. Through trialling different pedagogies, adopting practice from the previous project and becoming familiar with ‘community of practising art-makers’ (CoP) (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and ‘commission’, teachers planning changed, and they developed an understanding of and confidence in the approach. In addition to the foundational CoP and commission, the model embeds a range of characteristics identified from the professional culture and practices of the art-makers (Ingold, 20130; 2017) summarised in, what teachers saw as, a helpful visualisation.

Teachers designed their schemes of work over 18 months (albeit with interruptions due to the pandemic), trialling elements in their settings, with regular discussion and feedback from educationalists and artists. Their developing understanding of the model, its educational implications and how it could inform their classroom practice was not an easy process. In the end of project interviews, one teacher talked about coming to a session with what they thought was a really good idea only to for it to be ‘picked apart by you [the educationalists]’. Whilst initially, such moments were disheartening, they were later acknowledged as vital to teacher understanding of the model and having the confidence use it.

As an example, in one school, by inducting children into a community of environmental activists, children were required to engage with issues related to the physical world and how humans engage with it, requiring multiple subject knowledges, but also to think and behave like a member of this community of environmental activists. The commission, situated in the real-world, generated a series of real-world tasks that the community needs to address and through which the majority of the learning occurs; learning-by-doing and/or educative conversations whilst being supervised to address the task; or at moments by direct teaching. In this example, the community’s commission was to improve the ecology of their school grounds by designing and making homes for wildlife. It required not just the development of scientific, design, geographical and communicative knowledge and understanding but the ability to empathise, listen, think critically, imagine, negotiate ideas, be responsible for particular tasks, practice particular skills, persist with ideas – in short to see themselves as a necessary and valued member of this community by practising and behaving like environmental activists.

A severe shortage of teachers in physics has been reported across Europe. In Ireland the STEM Education Policy consultation report (2017) stated that this shortage has resulted in school students not having access to specialist physics teachers and high-quality learning experiences. This shortfall of highly-trained teachers of physics is argued to be directly contributing to the deficit of skilled STEM workers required by industry.

Given the recognised shortage of qualified physics teachers, many teaching roles are filled by out-of-field teacher from other science or maths backgrounds. Highlighting this practice, studies have found that 20-30% of physics teachers had not studied physics at university (Price et al., 2019; Cadis, 2017; Banilower, Trygstad, Smith, et al.. 2015). With under-qualifed teachers filling these roles, aspects of specialised knowledge needed to teacher student in effective ways have been shown to be underdeveloped. (Hobbs, Torner et al., 2019; Riordain, Paolucci and Lyons et al., 2019; Carpendale and Hume, 2019)

Given the highlighted shortfalls in physics education, exploring ways to support the professional development needs of physics teachers, including those out of field teachers, is worthwhile. On way to address this issue according to Ogodo (2017) is to provide targeted in-service professional development to help out-of-field physics teachers to improve their content knowledge and pedagogical skills.

To address the issues outlined in physics education, the Frontiers Erasmus+ project aimed to demonstrate how teachers can be supported in bringing Nobel Prize winning science into the classroom. Following the development of series of educational resources, the project partners ran three international online professional development events. The purpose of these professional development events was to enhance the pedagogical content knowledge of physics teachers, adopting a collaborative community of practice with the support of expert physicists from large-scale research infrastructures.

This study focuses on the participant experience of the Winter e-School event that took place over 6 days between the 29th of January and the 7th of February 2021. To facilitate teachers attending during the normal academic year and to avoid further class disruption, the Winter School took place over 2 weekends with meetings scheduled between both weekends. In total there were 203 participants in flexible attendance, with 30 teachers chosen to participate in workshops groups to develop teaching resources.

This study investigates the effectiveness of the Winter e-School in developing the pedagogical content knowledge and self-efficacy of physics teachers. Hosted through Zoom, these synchronous online training events targeted science teachers who were motivated to introduce Nobel prize winning physics in their classroom. The events sought to develop the pedagogical content knowledge of physics teachers through the exploration of specially developed inquiry-based learning resources and by supporting teachers to collaboratively development their own resources. Further collaborative teacher workshops were also facilitated with additional support of asynchronous engagement through Google Slides.

Focusing on the effectiveness of the collaborative online platforms and applications used to deliver the professional development events, this study captures the participant perspective of the event through focus group data.

This paper discusses the impact that social media had on a series of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) workshops designed for the enhancement of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education between two Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) namely, the School of Education (SoE), University of Glasgow (UoG), Scotland and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, both involved in Teacher Education.

Internationalisation of Higher Education has exacerbated the demand for educationalists who can function in cross-cultural settings over the last two decades (Esche, 2018). Increasingly, HEIs are looking to recruit teachers/academics that are interculturally competent and capable of working successfully in a cross-cultural context.

While experiential learning and study abroad programmes (requiring students’ mobility) are effective approaches to acquiring these intercultural competencies (De Castro, 2019), they are often limited by the significant resources required (Purvis, Rodger & Beckingham, 2020).

Consequently, cost-effective approaches such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) are increasingly being utilised. With the use of technology, COIL serves as a pedagogical approach for fostering the development of intercultural competencies in students across classrooms located in various parts of the world (Appiah-Kubi & Annan, 2020) including open-mindedness, international-mindedness, thinking flexibility, second language competence, tolerance and respect for other people and their cultures (Chan & Dimmock, 2008). This implies that for a classroom to benefit fully from COIL, virtual learning spaces must involve students in geographically distinct regions with differences in language and cultural backgrounds but with a common experiential learning tool or technology. While COIL is typically designed to run for a short span it offers a unique opportunity for programme developers (usually faculty members) to co-create a shared syllabus or course material and mentor students on how to collaborate (Appiah-Kubi & Annan 2020). Broadly aimed at getting students to become global thinkers, it enables them to develop the ability to work on projects collaboratively with students from different cultural backgrounds.

Although the COIL experience is widely believed to be highly beneficial to the development of students’ intercultural competencies (De Castro et al., 2019; Appiah-Kubi & Annan, 2020), the success or failure of the pedagogical process, to a large extent, is determined by the adopted experiential learning tool (Purvis, Rodger & Beckingham, 2020), which is social media in this case. While a growing body of research is investigating the use of social media in collaborative learning and analysing students’ interaction and its impact on the learning process, especially in the wake of pandemics (Chan et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2021), there is no known study, to our knowledge, that specifically examines how social media could impact COIL experiences and what pedagogical approaches might facilitate this process.

This study aims to explore the impact of social media on a COIL experience for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) and In-Service teachers from India and Scotland who worked together through a series of international workshops on a STEM challenge based on participatory pedagogy. Specifically, we are seeking to address the question of: How does social media impact the learning experience of NQTs and in-service teachers participating in a series of COIL-based STEM workshops through the lens of participatory pedagogy?

To answer this question, we analysed the wider context and the definition of the term internationalisation of Higher Education (HE) and the process of COIL. We reflected on our previous experience and research on the elements required to enhance the experience of Internationalisation at Home and at a Distance, adding emphasising on the importance of participatory pedagogy in this process. Finally, we collected data by looking at tutors’ and participants’ experiences through tutors’ reflective journals, participants’ feedback and focus groups.

Introduction

This study sought to understand if Early Childhood teacher education programs in universities have the power to transform the practice of mentor teachers.

Aims/ Outcomes

Often professors in the area of early childhood are on the cutting edge of the field due to their research agendas and continual examination of the body of research. Since not all mentors can go back to university, this study investigated the possibility that knowledge gained by university students can be passed on to mentors.

This presentation will share how pre-service teachers used technology effectively and appropriately with Pre-K and Kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds) Dual Language Learners (children learning english as a second language) students to develop oral language and critical thinking skills. The interns were placed in Professional Development Schools that had been in partnership with the university over several years. A strong partnership of respect and trust between the university and school administrators and teachers was developed over those years. Most of the mentor teachers were excellent teachers and models for their pre-service teachers. In recent years one school in particular had sudden grow in their Dual Language Learner (DLL) population.

1. A understanding of early childhood teacher preparation programs

2. A conceptual understanding of how STEM standards of practice can be made to be developmentally appropriate for young children and be optimal tool for developing emergent literacy skills for native speakers of English as well a those learning English as a second language.

3. Specific examples of how pre-service teachers used STEM integrated literacy lessons with all students in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms (4-6 year olds) and how they assisted Mentor teachers to replicate replicated these concepts.

This transfer of knowledge was made possible by the trusting partnership was developed over time.

In this case, pre-service teachers showed mentor teachers how to plan STEM lessons which developed early literacy skills for all young children: native speakers of English as well as those learning to speak English as a second language.

The mentors they were placed with were selected by the principal to be mentors because they were successful teachers. However, the mentors had limited experience with and/or course work related to DLLs. As a result there were times when instruction was not as appropriate as it could have been for DLLs. Through regular course assignments pre-service teachers planned and delivered whole class lessons on STEM topics including technology which also included differentiation for DLL students.