The shifting educational landscape: science teachers’ practice during the COVID-19 pandemic through an activity theory lens
Tóm tắt
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed all educational institutions. Teachers were called upon to respond quickly to the needs of K-12 students. They had to learn how to navigate online learning systems while simultaneously delivering engaging inquiry-based activities in high-stakes school science courses. To understand how teachers navigated these dual tensions, we have drawn on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to describe how teachers learned and mediated their professional practices to meet the educational needs of their students. We examine the rapidly changing school activity system and how these changes impacted teachers’ epistemological beliefs about student engagement and evaluation. We report that teachers developed new styles and attitudes about teaching that reflected the new educational landscape imposed by the pandemic. We explore the pedagogical shifts that characterize this specific time and how the newly acquired pedagogies could find permanence in teachers’ activities post-pandemic. This study reports on the experiences of ten teachers from two high schools as they adapt to change during the global pandemic. We followed the teachers’ professional journey as they worked in a professional learning community to develop online practices. Professional learning meetings, semi-structured interviews, and participant journals captured teachers’ successes and failures as they struggled to adapt inquiry-based science lessons to meet the challenges of teaching online. Their practices shifted as they engaged students in synchronous collaborative projects and laboratory activities, and they developed alternative formative and summative assessment practices. This study contributes to a growing body of research of teacher practice through a CHAT theoretical framework to understand teachers’ professional learning during a time of change and upheaval.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Barma, S. (2011). A sociocultural reading of reform in science teaching in a secondary biology class. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6(3), 635–661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-011-9315-9.
Borko, H., Jacobs, J., Eiteljorg, E., & Pittman, M. E. (2008). Video as a tool for fostering productive discussions in mathematics professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(2), 417–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.11.012.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice (R. Nice, trans.). Cambridge University Press.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. SAGE.
Dolighan, T., & Owen, M. (2021). Teacher efficacy for online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brock Education Journal, 30(1), 95–95.
Ellis, V., Edwards, A., & Smagorinsky, P. (2010). Cultural-historical perspectives on teacher education and development. Routledge.
Engelbrecht, J., Borba, M. C., Llinares, S., & Kaiser, G. (2020). Will 2020 be remembered as the year in which education was changed? Zum: Mathematics Education, 52(5), 821–824. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-020-01185-3.
Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080020028747.
Engeström, Y. (2016). Studies in expansive learning: Learning what is not yet there. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316225363.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations, findings and future challenges. Educational Research Review, 5(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2009.12.002.
Goodnough, K. (2018). Addressing contradictions in teachers’ practice through professional learning: An activity theory perspective. International Journal of Science Education, 40(17), 2181–2204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2018.1525507.
Horn, I. S., & Little, J. W. (2010). Attending to problems of practice: Routines and resources for professional learning in teachers’ workplace interactions. American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 181–217. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831209345158.
Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. SAGE.
McPherson, H., Frank, G., Pearce, R., & Hoffman, E. (2021). Virtual field trips: Pivoting cross-curricular experiential learning to an online platform. The Science Teacher, 88(6), 45–51.
Ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supÉrieur. (2019). Report on the state and needs of education 2016–2018. https://www.cse.gouv.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/50-0508-SU-evaluer-compte-vraiment-REBE-16-18-1.pdf
Roman, T. A., Brantley-Dias, L., Dias, M., & Edwards, B. (2021). Addressing student engagement during covid-19: Secondary STEM teachers attend to the affective dimension of learner needs. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1920519.
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lahikainen, J. (2016). The dialectics of authoring expansive learning: Tracing the long tail of a change laboratory. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(4), 245–262. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-01-2016-0003.
Sedaghatjou, M., Hughes, J., Liu, M., Ferrara, F., Howard, J., & Mammana, M. F. (2021). Teaching STEM online at the tertiary level during the covid-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2021.1954251.
Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. Teachers College Press.
Stacki, S. L., Bay, Z., FlynnDavis, A., & Hermann, J. (2021). Twenty-first-century middle schooling in New York: Teachers share experiences and perspectives on remote teaching and learning early in the global pandemic. Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning, 13(2), 143–159.
Thanawala, A., Murphy, C., & Hakim, T. (2021). Sustaining STEM student learning support and engagement during covid-19. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2021.1973612.
van Es, E. A., Tunney, J., Goldsmith, L. T., & Seago, N. (2014). A framework for the facilitation of teachers’ analysis of video. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4), 340–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114534266.
Windschitl, M., Thompson, J., Braaten, M., & Stroupe, D. (2012). Proposing a core set of instructional practices and tools for teachers of science. Science Education, 96(5), 878–903. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21027.
Zeichner, K., Payne, K. A., & Brayko, K. (2015). Democratizing teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(2), 122–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487114560908.