| ESERA
Travel Award 2008
Clas Olander,
University of Gothenburg
With
the help from the ESERA Travel Award it was possible
for me to visit The Centre for Studies in Science and
Mathematics Education, CSSME, University of Leeds, United
Kingdom. First of all I want to thank Professor John
Leach for all contacts before the visit and arrangements
during my stay. It was a great opportunity to get a
glimpse of working conditions in a new environment and
we had productive talks. Main reason for applying specifically
to Leeds was their long lasting experiences of designing
evidence-informed teaching interventions. When designing
these interventions two planning tools are used: learning
demand and communicative approach. My
curiosity about these notions formed the basis of our
talks.
My
current research interest is to explore the ways in
which biological evolution is understood; especially
the ways the students use when making meaning of the
theory of evolution. This meaning making is articulated
in both a scientific language and a colloquial one,
and often in an interlanguage between the two. More
than ten years ago Johan Leach and Phil Scott introduced
the notion of learning demand which refers to differences
in social language between school science and everyday
accounts of phenomena. The point of learning demand
is to describe what the students’ knowledge must
bridge in their learning. Following our talks my understanding
of the notion of learning demand deepened and ideas
of expanding the notion arise.
It
was interesting to hear how John Leach has continued
to explore the possibilities of learning demand when
working with design-based research. Especially articulating
learning demand in terms of design briefs and worked
examples. These two last tools have real potential of
informing practice and are published in series of booklets
about “interactive teaching”. The design
brief give detailed information of the aims of the teaching.
It is derived from a comparison between curriculum content
and students´ likely starting point with respect
to specific phenomena. Suggestions for pedagogical strategies
in the teaching intervention are also included. Also
with Jenny Lewis the talks concerned teaching-learning
sequences and in particular one about plant nutrition.
Her exploration of the notion of learning demand in
biology context challenges some of the assumptions about
similarities and differences between various science
subjects.
Currently
Phil Scott is Director of CSSME and one of his research
interests is the ways sociocultural theory could be
used in classroom research about learning, teaching
and language use. When discussing one of my manuscripts
Scott’s extensive knowledge of the field made
substantive contributions to my current writing. My
data is generated through peer group discussions during
teaching interventions. Students´ argumentation
deals with conceptual, epistemological and ontological
aspects of biological evolution. Partly as a result
of the visit the analysis of students´ talk now
points at a more dynamic approach to the notion of learning
demand. Analysis of students´ reasoning and exchange
of ideas in authentic practice has the possibility of
serving as a research methodology. It may also inform
pedagogical practice, for example enhancing the performance
of assessment for learning.
Contact
details:
Clas Olander
Department of Education, University of Gothenburg,
Box 300, 405 30, Göteborg, Sweden
Tel: +46317862063
Email: clas.olander@gu.se
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