scholarly journals Reflections on a Three-Year-Long Teacher-Centered, Participatory Action Research Experience on Teaching Chemical Bonding in a Swiss Vocational School

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivano Laudonia ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Chemical Bonding ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Vocational School ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Motivation For Learning ◽  
Teacher Centered

Chemistry is considered to be a difficult subject and chemistry education courses are not very popular among many students. Innovations in the curriculum and pedagogy may help to overcome difficulties in learning as well as motivational problems. Participatory action research (PAR) seems to be a suitable approach for developing such an innovation for the chemistry classroom. This paper reflects on the adoption of a PAR model to teacher-centered action research. A project is discussed aiming at iteratively improving lessons on chemical bonding in a Swiss vocational school. The lesson was focusing on self-determined, autonomous learning in small groups in a multimedia-supported learning environment to foster student motivation for learning. The project is based on the cooperation of a chemistry teacher and a PAR expert group of chemistry teachers operating far away from the school. The cooperation was implemented by synchronous and asynchronous digital communication. The lessons have been cyclically developed over three consecutive years of teaching. The findings from the current study indicate that the implemented practice of action research helped to both improve the teacher’s pedagogical repertoire for his chemistry lessons and contributed to the teacher’s continuing professional development in terms of better understanding how student-centered his lessons should be.

Co-creating spaces on an adventure playground: using participatory action research as an approach to continuing professional development

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fitzpatrick ◽  
Bridget Handscomb
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Continuous Professional Development ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Adventure Playground

Using participatory action research as an approach to reflective playwork practice and continuous professional development this research took place on an Adventure Playground in London. Key themes include co-investigation; reflective playwork practice; dialogue; mapping; story-telling; and working with meaning. The adventure playground team brought a critical and reflective lens to the production of the Adventure Playground, its everyday rhythms, routines and habits, and the ways in which adults and children co-create play spaces. It also brought opportunities to experiment with approaches that could deepen understandings of play and playwork practice in a variety of situations from training courses to conference workshops leading to more relevant and reflective approaches to adults working with children’s play.

scholarly journals Participatory Action Research in University Chemistry Teacher Training

2018 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yannik Tolsdorf ◽  
Silvija Markic
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Chemistry Teacher ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
The University ◽  
Advanced Model

The Participatory Action Research (PAR) model developed by Eilks and Ralle is very well known in science education. Over the years, many teaching and learning materials have been developed and implemented in German secondary schools using this method. The success of the model encouraged us to adapt it to the university level in order to develop university chemistry education courses. However, to do this, we encountered and conquered some challenges. The present paper is based on an advanced model of Participatory Action Research for developing university chemistry teacher training. For an advanced model, the focus is strongly on the extended development team, which contains people who were not part of the original team. The role of the students also changes. The ideas we used to further develop the model and implement it in practice will be described and discussed below.

scholarly journals A History and Analysis of the Evolution of Action and Participatory Action Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-52
Author(s):  
Steven Darryl Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Specific Community ◽  
Joint Knowledge Production

Action research is a type of research which is conducted with research participants rather than on participants. This premise democratizes research, resulting in transformative potential, while addressing issues such as power and hierarchy which are present in traditional positivist research approaches, allowing those affected by the research to benefit from a more democratic research experience: According to Habermas, “in a process of enlightenment, there can only be participants”. However, as with social science research, or perhaps any method of research, there are different forms of action research which have evolved over time. This paper describes the worldviews that have informed the evolution of action research and examines three different forms of action research with respect to assumptions value, beliefs, and claims to truth inherent with each form. These three main forms may be thought of as “umbrella” terms for the forms of action research, with various threads of action research originating and continuing to originate from each form. Lastly, this paper explores one thread of action research-participatory action research. The reason for focusing on participatory action research specifically is that this type of action research has grown in popularity recently within social sciences research due to the opportunity for new insight for all research participants. Further, participatory action research allows for joint knowledge-production, may draw attention to previously neglected areas of qualitative research, and is therefore relevant to a specific community. For a researcher considering employing participatory action research, it is helpful to understand the historical and philosophical underpinnings of action research in general in order to better unerstand the specific intricacies and characteristics of participatory action research. 

scholarly journals Using Participatory Action Research to Develop a Course Module on Education for Sustainable Development in Pre-Service Chemistry Teacher Education

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Mareike Burmeister ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Chemistry Teacher ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Participatory Action

This paper describes the development of a course module on sustainability issues and Education for Sustainable Development in German pre-service chemistry teacher education. The module was inspired by empirical research findings about the knowledge base of student teachers. It was created and cyclically refined using Participatory Action Research. Experience gained during its three-year application will be reflected upon here, including feedback collected from student evaluation sheets. In the end, the participants responded extremely positively to the course. The student teachers stated that the module was interesting, relevant and valuable for their later profession as high school chemistry teachers. They also emphasised that they now felt more competent in the area of sustainability and ESD.

Developing a lesson plan on conventional and green pesticides in chemistry education – a project of participatory action research

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Zowada ◽  
Nadja Frerichs ◽  
Vânia Gomes Zuin ◽  
Ingo Eilks
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Sustainable Chemistry ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
School Students ◽  
Chemistry Research

The debate on the use of pesticides is very current in the public media when it comes to topics such as organic farming, bee mortality, and the use of glyphosate. The broad range of pesticide applications and their potential environmental impact makes pesticides an interesting topic for science education in general and for chemistry teaching in particular. This is particularly true when conventional pesticide use is contrasted with current chemistry research efforts to develop alternatives based on the ideas of green chemistry. This paper discusses the potential relevance of pesticides for chemistry education in connection with education for sustainable development. It gives a brief outlook on pesticides in science teaching and connects the topic to socio-scientific issue-based chemistry education. A case study which developed a lesson plan for secondary school students is presented here. It defines pesticides, before focusing on the development of green pesticides as potential alternatives to current products. The lesson is focusing learning about chemistry rather than learning of chemistry in the means that the lesson introduces quite young chemistry learners (age range 15–17) to ideas of green and sustainable chemistry and how green alternatives in chemistry can be assessed and compared to traditional alternatives. Video vignettes of a scientist are used to introduce the topic to students. Finally, both glyphosate as a conventional, industrial pesticide and orange oil as an example of a green pesticide are compared using spider chart diagrams. The lesson plan was cyclically designed by a group of ten chemistry teachers using participatory action research. It was piloted with the help of secondary school chemistry student teachers and then tested in five German secondary school classes (grades 10/11). The use of the spider charts was regarded as especially helpful by the learners, most of whom felt that they had been able to understand the controversy surrounding pesticides.

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