This project aims to facilitate the teaching and learning of Irish lower second-level
curricular objectives on Nature of Science, through engaging teachers, students and
guardians in school debate events on socio-scientific issues. The project is funded by
Science Foundation Ireland, and is led by EPI-STEM, The National Centre for STEM
Education at University of Limerick with the partnership of the JCT. The Junior Cycle
science curriculum promotes skills such as communication and argumentation required
for engaging in debates. Yet the kinds of pedagogical strategies demanded by debates are
not typically part of teaching practice (Osborne et al. 2004). The first stage of this project
therefore is CPD supporting science teachers to implement argumentation into their
teaching of science in order to provide students with a foundation for the kinds of skills
they need to draw on when debating scientific issues. Argumentation has been a
significant area of research in recent years (Erduran, Ozdem & Park, 2015) and has been
advocated in science teacher education (Erduran, 2006). The CPD workshops were
developed in partnership with the JCT and implemented by them in May 2016. The
teachers involved will subsequently implement argumentation activities into their
teaching and coordinate a debate event in Autumn 2016. Involving the community in
school science is a critical element of this project. Hence students will prepare for their
debate event with the support and involvement of a family member in targeted
homework activities, provided to teachers during the CPD workshop.
This research takes a case study approach, collecting data from multiple participants to
explore the impact of the programme (Leedy and Ormrod 2001). Evaluation instruments
will be used to assess (i) teachers’ perspectives on the CPD and (ii) teachers’, students’
and guardians’ perspectives on participation in debates. This paper will outline the
overall design of the project, along with the detail of the design of the teacher CPD
workshop. It will also report on initial findings from the teacher participants’ postworkshop
evaluation of the CPD element of the programme.