2009-07-01
S-TEAM (Science-Teacher Education Advanced Methods)
The S-TEAM project aims to address and combine state-of-the-art knowledge about science education with practical experience in teacher education. The problem is framed at a European level to provide an opportunity for national expertise in science education curricula, pedagogy and practice to be shared.
Departmentment of Science Education (DSE) has the leadership of Work Package 8 under the S-TEAM project.
S-TEAM - general pages
- Main homepage: http://www.s-teamproject.eu/
- S-TEAM Wiki: Science Teacher Education Advanced Methods (NTNU)
- S-TEAM Mini Moodles online learning modules
Project organisation from DSE: Jens Dolin (PM), Robert Evans, Carl Winsløw and Bjarke Skipper Pedersen (all from DSE).
Project duration: May 2009 - May 2012
The three main objectives of the S-TEAM Project are:
- To improve motivation, learning and pupil attitudes in European science education, resulting in increased scientific literacy and recruitment to science-based careers;
- Enabling large numbers of teachers to adopt inquiry-based and other proven methods for more effective science teaching;
- Supporting teachers by providing training in, and access to, innovative methods and research-based knowledge.
The project is financed under the EU FP7 (Science in Society), SiS 2008, action 2.2.1.1 Innovative Methods in Science Education and involves 25 institutions in 15 countries and provides the widest possible geographical coverage consistent with the available funding.
Work package 8 which DSE leads has as it's objective:
- To integrate scientific literacy into teacher education in order to provide teachers at primary and secondary level with the specific competencies required to teach it in all its aspects.
Theory and Method:
DSE will incorporate research and practice based methodologies for achieving scientific literacy teaching competencies into a training package for teacher educators. This package will include annotated DVDs of teaching for scientific literacy. It will be designed to be useable in several ways, including workshops, short courses and on-line.
The deliverables from DSE's leadership of Work Package 8 will be:
8.1 Overview report on scientific literacy policy (12)
8.2 Training package on competence development through scientific literacy. (18)
8.3 Training package for new science teachers on maximizing student interest in biology.(18)
8.4 Training package for new science teachers on the use of drama in scientific literacy (18) 8.5 Training package on combining arts and science - the Water project (30)
8.6 Training package for new science teachers on media and the nature of science (24)
8.7 Report on dimensions of scientific literacy (24)
(The months when each of the above deliverables are due, starting from May 1, 2009, are quoted after each deliverable.)
The S-TEAM project will produce four main sets of deliverables:
- Training packages, course units, teacher education modules
- Video-based resources, either in DVD form or as web-based content
- Workshops, seminars and conferences
- Books, articles and reports
All of these have the purpose of helping teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders to use different and more effective methods, based on previous research or other activities carried out by the partners. In some cases the deliverable will function by providing both information and opportunities for increased self-understanding. In all cases the emphasis with training packages will be on achieving the maximum impact by tailoring the package to the needs of teachers.
