Science teachers’ interactions with science centres: an exploratory study into professional development benefits and how they occur

This research investigated the benefits that science teachers experienced to their professional development as a result of their interactions with science centres. Such interactions included accompanying field trips and incursions, undertaking formal professional development and field work programs, and self-guided visits. Through narrative, semi-structured interviews with ten participants this study revealed that teachers experienced multiple benefits to aspects of their intellectual, attitudinal, or behavioural professional development. The interpretive analysis highlights the roles that teachers undertook throughout these interactions, enabling an understanding of how these benefits occurred. For example, for teachers accompanying field trips, being able to observe their students being taught by another science professional was important as it enabled teachers to observe and connect with their students in different ways to what they were able to do in the context of their classrooms. In turn, this led to a variety of professional development benefits for teachers. This study also provides evidence that short duration, one-off, informal learning experiences can facilitate lasting professional development benefits for science teachers. Therefore, valuing teachers participating in interactions with science centres should be considered as part of supporting science teachers’ professional development.

本研究探讨了理科教师与科学中心互动后，其专业发展所获得的各项收益。此类互动包括随队校外实地考察、科学中心进校园教学活动、参与正式专业发展与实地工作项目，以及自主参观科学中心。本研究通过对10名受访者开展叙述性半结构化访谈，发现教师在专业发展的认知、态度与行为维度均获得了多重收益。本研究的阐释性分析聚焦教师在各类互动中所承担的角色，以此阐明此类收益的产生路径。例如，对于随队参与实地考察的教师而言，能够观摩其他科学专业人员为学生授课至关重要——这让教师得以采用不同于课堂场景的方式，观察并与学生建立联结，进而为教师带来多维度的专业发展收益。本研究同时证实，短期单次的非正式学习活动，能够为理科教师带来持续性的专业发展收益。因此，应将支持理科教师参与科学中心互动纳入教师专业发展支持体系之中。