In-service Biology Teachers Research Articles

Exploring Teachers’ Professional Development Based on Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Case of in-Service Biology Teachers in Tanzania

Exploring Teachers’ Professional Development Based on Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Case of in-Service Biology Teachers in Tanzania

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENTIFIC THINKING

Scientific thinking constitutes a vital component of scientific competencies, crucial for citizens to adapt to the evolving societal landscape. To cultivate students’ scientific thinking, teachers should possess an adequate professional knowledge foundation, which encompasses pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Assessing teachers’ PCK of scientific thinking facilitates the development of effective curricula tailored to their continuous professional development. Despite its significance, empirical studies on biology teachers’ PCK of scientific thinking are notably lacking. Hence, this research aimed to create a reliable and valid tool to evaluate upper-secondary school biology teachers’ PCK of scientific thinking. The results showed that the instrument exhibits high reliability and good validity, affirming its efficiency for investigative purposes. A collective of 292 in-service biology teachers from upper-secondary schools participated in this investigation through the completion of an online survey. The results indicated that, overall, as well as for each component, upper-secondary school biology teachers’ performance on PCK of scientific thinking fell within the lower to middle range. Specifically, the performance levels of four components: knowledge of students (KSU), knowledge of instructional strategies (KIS), knowledge of curriculum (KC), and knowledge of assessment (KA) declined sequentially. Keywords: assessment instrument, pedagogical content knowledge, scientific thinking, upper-secondary school biology teacher

Indonesian Pre-service and In-service Science Teachers’ TPACK Level

This current study aimed to examine the levels of TPACK among pre-service and in-service science teachers, including several influencing factors such as gender, status, and age. Through a study of TPACK dimensions of the 211 pre-service and in-service biology teachers and science teachers were identified. The results depicted that pre-service and in-service science teachers dominate the understanding and application of non-technological dimensions. Otherwise, it was found that technological dimensions needed to be more knowledgeable for pre-service and in-service science teachers. The analysis of the variance test demonstrates significant differences were identified regarding status and age. However, no dimension was found to be significantly different regarding age level. To sum up, pre-service and in-service science teachers have different understandings and applications of ICT integration in science classrooms. Professional teaching can be developed by improving knowledge and skills of technology, pedagogy, content, and their integration.

Digital Education Skills for In-service Biology Teachers of the Secondary-stage Biology Curriculum (An evaluative study)

Digital Education Skills for In-service Biology Teachers of the Secondary-stage Biology Curriculum (An evaluative study)

Addressing student conceptions in evolution classes: professional vision practices of preservice and in-service biology teachers

BackgroundIn evolution education, consensus is widespread that diagnosing and addressing well-known student alternative conceptions is particularly important. As classrooms are complex environments with many activities happening simultaneously, noticing and interpreting situations relevant to student thinking is important for addressing student conceptions. This ability can be conceptualised as professional vision. Science educators must understand teachers’ status quo regarding their professional vision to identify aspects of teacher education and professional development.ResultsThe central concern of this qualitative-reconstructive case study is to describe and better understand how preservice and in-service biology teachers are enacting their professional vision regarding student alternative conceptions and addressing them in evolution class. For data collection, a video clip without any further specific instructions was used as a stimulus for 31 group discussions and 9 individual interviews with 115 preservice and in-service biology teachers. The data were analysed using the documentary method. Of the 40 cases available, 15 were fully interpreted and used for typification. Regarding theoretical saturation, our analyses of the opening passage and other transcript material relevant to the research question for the remaining 25 cases did not lead to any new insights into previously reconstructed orientations or could no longer contribute to the analytical differentiation. The comparative analyses show that in all cases, two key issues could be reconstructed: (1) the relation of teaching and learning scientific norms and (2) the relation of student conceptions and scientific norms. These two issues are consistently processed in an evaluation mode. Across all cases, the participants assess the teacher’s actions and the student learning process. The reconstructed types differ in the importance attributed to student conceptions. Student conceptions are constructed, for instance, as indicators of subject-specific knowledge gaps that need to be filled, as a teaching problem, as something that must be removed or changed, or as coexisting experiential knowledge.ConclusionsWe conclude that the discussion of and reflection upon professional vision practices is an important task for teacher education. The study of cases using lesson videos and a professional development programme called video clubs seems promising because these approaches offer possibilities for addressing many of the teacher education challenges to which our results point.

Exploring Indonesian Biology Teachers’ Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Instruction

Abstract Socio-scientific issues (SSIs)-based instruction is considered a potentially useful pedagogical approach for helping teachers to address the scientific literacy competencies outlined in the national curriculum. However, its effective implementation in the classroom requires teachers to have adequate pedagogical knowledge and skills. In this study, we engaged 45 pre- and in-service biology teachers in an 8-week SSIs teaching-oriented course. The course was designed to provide teachers with theoretical knowledge and practical SSIs teaching experience. Using data collected from the SSIs-based instruction questionnaire, interviews, and course assignments, we explored teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards SSIs-based instruction. The results of quantitative and qualitative analysis indicated that teachers had a high awareness of some core aspects of SSIs-based instruction and perceived themselves as having sufficient knowledge about SSIs pedagogical aspects. Teachers also demonstrated positive attitudes and perceptions about SSIs-based instruction. However, teachers still recognized the challenges of the SSIs teaching implementation for biology teachers in Indonesian school contexts. Teachers considered factors such as curriculum requirements, teachers’ competency, and students’ characteristics as the SSIs teaching challenges. In addition, teachers expressed concerns about their capacity in managing the SSIs discussion activities.

"Vegan Teachers Make Students Feel Really Bad": Is Teaching Sustainable Nutrition Indoctrinating?

The transformation toward more sustainable food choices may be supported by an education for sustainable nutrition. In schools, biology teachers play a key role in educating students as sustainability change makers, as biology lessons provide various opportunities to deal with ESD-topics such as sustainable nutrition. Teachers’ classroom practices may be influenced by their personal choices regarding sustainable nutrition. Additionally, students may see their teachers as role models for sustainable behavior. This presents the risk of students adopting teachers’ beliefs and behaviors without reflection. Teaching sustainable nutrition is therefore in potential conflict with indoctrinating young people toward sustainable diets. To date, no studies have addressed the perceived risk of indoctrination in the context of teaching sustainable nutrition in relation to teachers’ personal beliefs, behaviors, and teaching practices. Therefore, this study explored whether biology teachers themselves perceive a risk of indoctrination when teaching sustainable nutrition, and what methods they use for teaching it in a non-indoctrinating way. For this purpose, we conducted semi-structured interviews with seven in-service biology teachers from high schools in Germany. Data for this explorative qualitative study were collected from July to October 2021 using convenience sampling. These were analyzed by qualitative coding and content analysis. The preliminary results of this study show that participants recognize a high risk of indoctrination when teaching sustainable nutrition, primarily due to their own teaching actions, such as deciding whether to reveal their own dietary choices to students. While some participants believed teachers must be restrained, others thought that open communication about personal choices could benefit student decision-making skills. In terms of avoiding indoctrination when teaching sustainable nutrition, participants advocated for student-centered and multi-perspective teaching approaches. Based on the findings, initial implications for further research and teacher training are discussed.

School Scientific Argumentation Enriched by Digital Technologies: Results With Pre- and in-Service Science Teachers

This article focuses on the integration of argumentation and digital technologies in science teacher education. We present theoretical reflections, results of empirical research, and description of innovative experiences with pre- and in-service biology teachers. Regarding argumentation, we analyse what defending a claim in science entails for teachers, the teaching strategies they (would) use in the classroom in relation to argumentation, the relevance that they attribute to the performance of different tasks for arguing, the subject content where argumentation fits more suitably, and the reasons they would consider in favour of arguing in science classes. For the analysis of educational practices that involve use of technologies, we adopt a perspective that looks at their complexity and recognises teachers as their creative authors. We discuss the way in which teachers (would) use technologies in their practice, their expectations around this, and the foreseen results with students. Finally, we examine three innovative educational experiences already implemented, using argument maps, web-based inquiry, and a digital game. We look into the possibilities that these technological resources offer for teachers to analyse the argumentation levels reached by their students.

Unraveling the holistic nature of ecosystems: biology teachers’ conceptions of methodological choices regarding the study of ecosystems

The present study investigates Greek in-service biology teachers’ conceptions of how ecosystems can be studied as holistic units. Data were collected through both questionnaires and individual interviews. Eighty-seven teachers (59.77% female; 40.23% male) working in urban (56.32%) and rural (43.68%) regions of Greece completed a questionnaire instrument, and nine out of the 87 teachers participated in in-depth interviews. Descriptive statistics and loglinear analysis were applied to the collected questionnaire data. The results showed that the majority of participants ignored functionalist background assumptions that lie behind ecosystem studies (89.65%) and argued that when studying ecosystems, ecologists focus on all kinds of species relations including species interactions with their abiotic environment (81.61%). Thus, Greek biology teachers demonstrated a lack of understanding of both why (eco)system ecologists have decided to study trophic relations instead of other ecosystem relations and what these methodological decisions imply for crucial holistic aspects of the ecosystem. Teachers’ understanding of ecosystem holism was shown to be a difficult task and the teaching of how the ecosystem can be methodologically grasped needs to be enriched by epistemological aspects, such as those related to the notion of functionalism.

Arguments for Construct Validity of the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Interdisciplinary Science Teaching (SElf-ST) Instrument

<p style="text-align:justify">Current research on self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching indicates shortcomings in facing recent teaching challenges in secondary education and corresponding valid instruments. Thus, we designed the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Interdisciplinary Science Teaching (SElf-ST) instrument based on a pedagogical content knowledge model for science teaching. We ensured the factorial validity of ten factors. To bring construct validity down to a round figure, we examined convergent and divergent validity in this paper. For answering the overall research question regarding arguments for the convergent and divergent validity of the interpretation of the SElf-ST instrument’s test values (and related hypotheses), we analyzed data of pre-service, trainee, and in-service biology, chemistry, and physics teachers (<em>n</em> = 590) in a cross-sectional study. While the strong latent correlations of the ten SElf-ST factors with self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in primary education (<em>r</em> = 0.40 – 0.63, <em>p</em> < 0.01) indicate convergent validity, the rather weak correlations with self-efficacy beliefs of general teaching (<em>r</em> = 0.17 – 0.54, <em>p</em> < 0.01), self-rated content knowledge in science (<em>r</em> = 0.13 – 0.40, <em>p</em> < 0.01), and perceived stress (<em>r</em> = -0.13 – -0.19, <em>p</em> < 0.01) support different divergent validity intensities. Thus, assumed relations within the nomological net surrounding the self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching construct were confirmed for secondary education. In sum, we shed light on a rarely explored aspect of construct validity in science education research regarding self-efficacy beliefs. Doing so, we gained strong arguments that the SElf-ST instrument’s test values can serve as indicators of self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in secondary education.</p>

Biology teachers’ views towards using living organisms in biology education

ABSTRACT Using living organisms in biology education is a common practice that provides students with direct contact with living beings in the classroom. Several benefits and barriers of using organisms in classrooms have been proposed in the literature. Hence, biology teachers should carefully consider the pros and cons of using living organisms, and decide whether the use of living organisms for the learning goal at hand is appropriate. This mainly quantitative study focused on biology teachers’ views towards the following questions: (1) to what extent do biology teachers use specific kinds of organisms in their classrooms? (2) to what extent do biology teachers encounter administrative issues, which are potentially complicating the use of living organisms at their schools? (3) to what extent do biology teachers view specific benefits and barriers of using living organisms in their classrooms? A sample of 86 in-service biology teachers answered a questionnaire that was developed specifically for this study. The study provides some relevant findings for biology education. For example, plants seem to be used relatively often in classrooms, the teachers rated the benefits of working with living organisms significantly higher than the barriers, and supportive conditions at schools might enhance the use of organisms in classrooms.

The worldview of pre-service and in-service teachers about health education

Health is coconsidered as goodness; therefore, schools should be places where healthy habits, along with evidence-based medical knowledge and practices, are taught and practised. The key persons in education are teachers, so their opinions and worldviews should not be neglected. The objective of this work was to identify opinions about health education among Slovenian teachers. We investigated the worldviews of and differences between pre-service and in-service Biology teachers about health education. The questionnaires were delivered to 163 Sloveian participants. Most differences in opinion occurred in the nutrition field between younger and older participants. The majority of participants (85%) agree that “Providing knowledge or developing behavior that is respectful of one´s own health” is the main goal of health education.

Toward narrowing the theory\u2013practice gap: characterizing evidence from in-service biology teachers\u2019 questions asked during an academic course

BackgroundThe gap between theory and teachers’ practice is a barrier to education improvement. There is therefore an ongoing need to understand teachers’ thinking and find new ways to meaningfully relate theory and practice in STEM education. The research explores, through teachers-as-learners’ questions, the connections made by experienced high-school biology teachers between theory and practice, their practical concerns, and the contribution of a supportive course pedagogy to these connections. The research included 31 experienced high-school biology teachers that participated in a special graduate program.ResultsApplying a grounded theory approach, the analysis of the teachers’ questions, asked as a part of their course assignments, yielded four categories: theory, practice, practice and theory, practice vs. theory. We found that most of the biology teachers’ questions asked under a supportive pedagogical design, directed at mediating theory and practice, associated practice and theory. The teachers formed two types of connections between practice and theory in their questions. While asking questions associating practice and theory, the teachers mentioned practical aspects of their work. The types of connections between theory and practice are discussed, as well as the relevance to teacher education.ConclusionsThe opportunity to ask questions during assignments that are topic-specific and designed to combine practice and theory enabled teachers to think of both domains and try to better understand their association. The research results indicate that the questions asked by teachers-as-learners can serve a dual purpose: as a way to help teachers direct their thinking to the association between theory and practice, and as a tool to describe and understand teachers’ tacit thinking. This research also emphasizes the importance of supporting STEM teachers by developing courses and professional development programs that explicitly combine educational theory and practice.

Attitudes of Biology Teachers Towards Learner-Generated External Visual Representations

Several studies have shown that learner-generated external visual representations (LGVRs) play a vital role for learning scientific concepts and processes. However, we know little about teachers’ reasoning as to why and how to implement LGVR activities in their teaching. Thus, the purpose of our study is to determine why teachers let their students construct visual representations in biology, what benefits they see in these activities, and how they encounter difficulties that show up while students draw. We adopted the theoretical framework of the theory of planned behavior and the three-component model of attitudes to gain insights into teachers’ reasoning when it comes to LGVR activities. According to this framework, we focused our analysis on five constructs (the attitude towards the behavior with its affective, behavioral, and cognitive component, the perceived behavioral control, and the subjective norm) and conducted interviews with six pre-service teachers and seven in-service biology teachers. We found that the first four constructs of our theoretical framework, but not the subjective norm, have a substantial influence on the teachers’ intention to utilize LGVR activities in class. It became clear that teachers mainly focus on the construction of realistic pictures, whereas learner-generated abstract pictures play a minor role. Besides this, we achieved an informative insight into teachers’ reasoning about the use or non-use of drawings in specific classroom situations (e.g., diagnosis, assessment).

Influence Of Teaching Styles On Students’ Achievement And Interest Among Biology Students In Secondary Schools In Taraba State Nigeria

The study investigated the influence of teaching styles on students’ achievement and interest in Biology in Secondary schools in Taraba state. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The study adopted the survey and quasi experimental designs. A sample of 336 senior secondary two students from ten secondary schools was drawn using stratified sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection were the Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and Biology Interest Inventory developed by the researcher. Biology teachers in the selected schools were observed and their teaching styles were identified either as students centred or teacher centred using teaching style check list. The treatment was carried out in six weeks during which data were also collected at various intervals using the BAT and BII. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviations to answer the two research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the two hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings indicated that there was a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students’ taught Biology using student centred teaching styles and those taught using the teacher centred teaching styles with those taught using student centred teaching styles achieving higher. Also students who were taught Biology using student centred teaching styles had a higher interest rating than those taught using the teacher centred teaching styles. It was recommended that Biology teachers should use student centred teaching styles which provides students the opportunity to take charge of their learning and be actively involve thereby enhancing their achievement and interest and that ministry of Education should organize workshops/seminars to train in-service Biology teachers on how to use student centred teaching styles

Mediating Effect of Understanding of Nature of Science and Acceptance of Evolution in the Relationship between In-service Biology Teachers’ Religiosity and the Attitude toward Teaching Evolution/Creation

Mediating Effect of Understanding of Nature of Science and Acceptance of Evolution in the Relationship between In-service Biology Teachers’ Religiosity and the Attitude toward Teaching Evolution/Creation

The Comparative Analysis of Evolution Conceptions in Pre- and In-Service Biology Teachers

The Comparative Analysis of Evolution Conceptions in Pre- and In-Service Biology Teachers

Investigating Lebanese Grade Seven Biology Teachers Mathematical Knowledge and Skills: A Case Study

This paper investigates Lebanese grade 7 biology teachers’ mathematical knowledge and skills, by exploring how they explain a visual representation in an activity depending on the mathematical concept “Function”. Twenty Lebanese in-service biology teachers participated in the study, and were interviewed about their explanation for the designed activity. The data analysis reveals that teachers refer to different entities as constituting models, and express different way far away from the mathematical concept “Function”. Based on the collected data, the findings could not be generalized to all biology teachers, but it is safe to conclude that it would be enriching for students if biology teachers had a background in mathematics and mathematics education, in order to deal with situations of exploration and analysis of the different constraints that might affect biology activities. In addition, the results highlight the need to review the teachers’ preparation programs in a way that considers integrating mathematics into sciences, as well as a need to introduce a reform to the Lebanese Biology curriculum, in order to explicitly include all the mathematical competencies required to build up scientific knowledge.

교사들의 진화 개념 이해 향상을 위한 논변활동 프로그램 효과 분석

이 연구는 생명과학교사들의 진화개념 향상을 위한 논변활동 프로그램을 개발하고 이를 교사교육에 적용하여 진화개념에 대한 논변활동 특성을 분석함으로써 효과를 알아보고자 하는 것이었다. 이를 위해 먼저 진화를 이해하는데 필요한 주요 개념들을 문헌 조사를 통해 추출하여 '변이', '변이의 유전', '경쟁', '자연선택과 적응', '차등적 생식력', '개체군 내 개체분포의 변화', '대진화'를 주요개념으로 선정하였고, 각각의 개념에 대한 논변활동 질문지를 개발하였다. ADI모형을 변형한 7단계로 이루어진 순환적 논변활동 학습모형도 개발하였다. 총 7회에 대학원 교과교육 수업에 적용하였다. 현직 생명과학교사 4명과 예비 생명과학교사 2명을 대상으로 남, 여 3명씩 두 개의 소집단으로 구성하여 논변활동을 진행하였다. 프로그램이 진행되는 동안 녹음을 통한 담화와 논변글쓰기의 자료를 수집하여 분석하였다. 논변글쓰기는 '설명의 충분성', '설명의 개념적 수준', '증거의 수준', '정당화의 적절성'의 4가지 범주를 기준으로 논변의 질 수준을 분석하여 사전사후에 진화개념의 변화 정도를 확인하였고, 담화분석을 통해 진화주요개념에 대한 논변활동 특성을 분석하였다. 논변글쓰기와 담화를 분석한 결과 개발된 논변활동 모형과 프로그램은 생명과학교사들의 진화개념 이해 향상에 효과적이었다. 이 연구는 논변활동을 통한 교수학습 전략이 생명과학교사교육을 위한 효과적인 진화개념학습 전략이될 수 있음을 보여주었다. This study aims to develop biology teachers' education program based on argumentation activity about core concepts of evolution and to analyze the characteristics of core concepts of evolution learned during the program. The eight core concepts of evolution in this study were variation, heritability of variation, competition, natural selection, adaptation, differential reproductive rate of individuals, changes in genetic pool within a population, and macroevolution. The performances of teachers participating in the program were compared before and after argumentation activities; consisting of seven sessions on the eight core concepts of evolution. The process of the program was specially designed by learning cycle model for teacher education, consisting of seven phases: identification of the task, production of a tentative argument, small group's written argument, share arguments with the other groups, reflective discussion, final written argument, and organization by an instructor. Participants in the study were two pre-service biology teachers and four in-service biology teachers. The results suggest that biology teachers reduced the teleological explanation for biological evolution and improve its adequacy after the intervention. Teachers lacked the opportunity to discuss variation, heritability of variation, competition, and macroevolution because science textbooks lack information on the concepts of biological evolution. The results of this study suggest that because the argumentation program developed for teachers helps to improve understanding the concepts of evolution and to reduce inadequate conceptions in biology, teacher education programs using argumentation activity and eight core concepts of evolution will play a role for efficient evolution education for biology teachers.

Analysis of pre-service and in-service views of evolution of Serbian teachers

We analysed the potential differences between the conceptions of Serbian pre-service and in-service teachers using controlled parameters such as acceptance of the evolution theory. Our sample includes Primary School teachers as well as Secondary School teachers of Biology and of Language. We show that the ideas of pre-service (PreB) and in-service biology teachers (InB) are more evolutionary than those of their colleagues. In contrast, most creationist responses came from the groups of pre-service language (PreL) and pre-service primary teachers (PreP). The agnostic teachers are more evolutionist than other teachers. The more a teacher believes in God and practices religion, the more creationist he or she is, but a great number of teachers who believe in God are evolutionist or simultaneously evolutionist and creationist. There is a positive correlation between evolutionist answers and the attitude that ?Science and religion should be separated?, and ?religion and politics should be separated?.