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Although research findings have emphasized the importance of students being engaged in dialogue and co-construction of science knowledge, implementing the teaching required to promote such engagement is challenging for teachers. Co-construction is crucial not only for students' understanding of science content but also for their familiarity with some of the attributes associated with the nature of science (NOS). Inquiry-based science classroom discourses could facilitate NOS familiarization processes by promoting creativity and collaboration in upper primary school. This article presents findings from a case study of how one teacher created and navigated opportunities for students’ co-construction of science stories in a grade 6 class (age 12) working on the topic “Substances around us”. To examine the classroom dialogue and the teacher’s enablement of students’ co-construction in class, observation data were gathered over seven weeks and analysed using principles indicative of classroom dialogue. Findings show that while opportunities for co-construction were created in science class through for example open-ended questions, the teacher’s use of IRE, complemented with boosted communication for evaluation of student answers, often hampered dialogue and co-construction of novel science stories regardless of how the teaching was organized.

This thesis is about the pedagogical considerations and decisions that upper primary school teachers (students age 10-12) engage with as they plan and conduct teaching in science class. It is also about the factors that have an impact on these considerations and decisions. Science education in upper primary school has been neglected in Sweden and internationally, in both research and development efforts. These years are important because children of upper primary school age are often interested in science, yet they are challenged by for example the presence of more abstract concepts in grade 4 which might negatively affect their science interest. Sociocultural perspectives, curriculum theory, and science didactics are the theoretical points of departure and have guided the planning and implementation of my research as well as the analytical process. By conducting three qualitative studies, consisting of interviews, classroom observations, document reviews, and a practice-based research and development project, I gathered useful and diverse empirical data to enable exploration of current upper primary school science education. 14 teachers were interviewed, an intrinsic case study of one grade six science class’ work on a whole topic (seven weeks) was conducted, and curriculum and planning documents from one teacher were gathered. In addition four science teachers from different grade levels (4-6 and 7-9) were invited and participated in pedagogical discussions to contribute knowledge about teachers’ collaboration on didactical questions related to continuity in science education. I used qualitative thematic and content analysis to analyze the empirical material from the three studies. The results show that upper primary school teachers place a lot of effort and time into planning and conducting a varied science instruction. They also express and show a great deal of care for and encouragement of their students in science class. In terms of factors that have an impact on the pedagogical considerations and decisions of teachers in upper primary school science, all three studies shared the main results. The following aspects were prominent in terms of the teachers’ views and actions: the view of science as a set of static and irrefutable facts, a high regard for the factual content of science curriculum, and varied views of the purpose of practical work in science education. In comparison with previous research, the findings presented in this thesis suggest that teaching practices in upper primary school are often in line with an academic tradition and a view of science as authoritative. Further, the finding that many of the participating teachers often refer to the extensive core content found in science curriculum and emphasize the pressure that this places on them, implies that the purpose of qualification is predominant in their view of the purpose of science education.

This white book presents the final recommendations and guidelines from the MULTIPLIERS project, directed at practitioners and policymakers. Its main objective is to support the successful integration of open-schooling practices across diverse geographical, cultural, and economic contexts to ensure accessible, high-quality science education for all. Through this white book, readers will find examples of complex socio-scientific issues tackled in the MULTIPLIERS project, providing valuable insights for anyone interested in initiating similar open-schooling projects. The project advances an operational definition of Open Schooling, aligning with three core objectives: community impact, pedagogical impact, and scientific impact, with a strong emphasis on foundational values.

The primary goal of the project is to expand science learning opportunities by promoting cooperative partnerships and establishing Open Science Communities (OSCs). Specifically, it aims to (1) enhance students’ interest in science, boost self-efficacy in science learning, and raise awareness of science careers by embedding real-life, open-school science learning projects in collaboration with science professionals and media experts into education; and (2) develop analytical and critical thinking skills in students, families, and the broader community to empower problemsolving and innovation.

This white book presents the final recommendations and guidelines from theMULTIPLIERS project, directed at practitionersand policymakers. Its main objective isto support the successful integration of open-schooling practices across diverse geographical, cultural, and economic contextsto ensure accessible, high-quality science education for all.

Through this white book, readers will find examples of complex socio-scientific issue stackled in the MULTIPLIERS project, providingvaluable insights for anyone interested ininitiating similar open-schooling projects.

The project advances an operational definition of Open Schooling, aligning with three core objectives: community impact, pedagogical impact, and scientific impact, with a strong emphasis on foundational values.

The primary goal of the project is to expand science learning opportunities by promoting cooperative partnerships and establishing Open Science Communities (OSCs). Specifically, it aims to (1) enhance students’interest in science, boost self-efficacy in science learning, and raise awareness of science careers by embedding real-life, open-school science learning projects in collaboration with science professionals and media experts intoeducation; and (2) develop analytical andcritical thinking skills in students, families, and the broader community to empower problem-solving and innovation.

Drawing on best practices in Open Schooling and the needs identified in partner countries, the MULTIPLIERS consortium has created a practical framework for implementing project activities through a structured teaching and learning sequence (TLS) comprising three phases:

Phase 1: Identifying and exploring socio-scientific issues(SSIs) relevant to the local community.

Phase 2: Engaging in an Open-School Science learningproject (OSS).

Phase 3: Students acting as multipliers.

For each phase of the TLS, this white book outlines specific recommendations and guidelines.

In addition, the MULTIPLIERS project has developed a sustainability model designed to promote long-term collaboration between schools and external partner organizations. This model supports the ongoing integrationof authentic science education into schools by establishing networks that connect formal education with real-world scientific expertise. The sustainability model rests on five key pillars: Communication, Coordination, Collaboration, Costs, and the Collection of Materials.

Primary school science teachers provide vague descriptions of students’ engagement in classroom communication. Furthermore, there may be a discrepancy between what science teachers consider important to teach and what is actually taught. The transformation of intentions into teaching often involves lesson plans which require considerable time and effort to construct. Interestingly, expert teachers tend to rely on, for example, teaching strategies, rather than elaborate plans to realize intentions. This case study contributes knowledge about the congruence between intentions, plans and teaching. A grade 6 teacher was followed during her transformation of the science syllabus into teaching, and data were gathered from interviews, documents, and observations. Content analysis and inductive thematic analysis enabled a comparison between intentions and teaching. Results suggest that the comprehensive lesson plan constituted an obstacle, rather than a tool for realizing the main intention of students practicing reasoning in science classes. The discrepancy did not stem from the teacher’s rejection of the curriculum, but rather from a lack of appropriate teaching strategies to allow for greater flexibility as she struggled to cover the curricular content. The results have the potential to be useful for engaging pre-service and in-service teachers in developing flexible teaching strategies and time efficient planning approaches in upper primary science.

Student interest and learning in science has been suggested to decrease after students move to secondary school (Anderhag, 2016; Braund, 2016). One possible reason is content repetition stemming from a lack of recognition of students' previous experiences and knowledge in science (Braund, 2016). To enable discussions between teachers, we developed a professional development program in collaboration with a group of science teachers from primary (two) and secondary school (two). An educator from a local science center also participated in the project to broaden the perspective. The study was designed as a formative intervention, promoting expansive learning and transformative agency among participants (Sannino et al., 2016). We organized five events which included collaborative planning by using a tool (CoRe) to articulate the subject content to be taught (Loughran et al., 2004). Two of these events were open for other teachers to participate in. Research data was gathered through audio recordings of meeting discussions, group interviews and individual interviews with the teachers and science center representative.

The present study explored the opportunities and obstacles to continuity in science education that surfaced during a collaboration between teachers from different grade levels. Results indicate that teachers found CoRe useful for them, since it strengthened their agency and reflexivity which was considered useful during content discussions. Further, the tool induced reasoning around the term "progression", for example whether the move from writing the photosynthesis reaction using words, to using chemical symbols represented a progression. If so, what kind of development in student understanding did this progression facilitate? The findings suggest that the meaning of progression in relation to continuity in science education needs further investigation, for example during continued collaboration in formative interventions.

Keywords: Transitions, Science education, Content representation

References 

Anderhag, P., Wickman, P.-O., Bergqvist, K., Jakobson, B., Hamza, K.M., & Säljö, R. (2016). Why Do Secondary School Students Lose Their Interest in Science? Or Does it Never Emerge? A Possible and Overlooked Explanation. Science education, 100(5), 791–813.

Braund, M. (2016). Oh no, not this again! Improving continuity and progression from primary to secondary science. The School Science Review, 362, 19–26.

Loughran, J., Mulhall, P., & Berry, A. (2004). In search of pedagogical content knowledge for science: Developing ways of articulating and documenting professional practice. Journal 

of Research in Science Teaching, 41, 370–391.

Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. 2016. Formative Interventions for Expansive Learning and Transformative Agency. The Journal of the learning sciences, 25(4), 599–633.

MULTIPLIERS är ett EU-projekt där elever i sex olika länder arbetar med naturvetenskapliga samhällsfrågor i kombination med Open Schooling; att skolan öppnar upp mot samhället för dubbelriktad samverkan med olika samarbetspartners. I Umeå arbetar vi med temat Skogsanvändning och skogsbevarande, ett tema där gymnasieelever fått diskutera olika ekonomiska, ekologiska, kulturella och sociala perspektiv på skog. Genom tre konkreta aktiviteter: en intervju med tre generationer, en skogsdebatt, samt ett möte med en journalist har eleverna reflekterat över och argumenterat för olika åsikter i skogsfrågan. Presentationen utgår ifrån två frågeställningar: Vad tyckte eleverna om temat Skogsanvändning och skogsbevarande och Hur kan Open Schooling bidra till undervisning. Resultaten indikerar att de tre aktiviteterna gav ett långsiktigt och tankeväckande lärande. Alla tre aktiviteterna använder relativt enkla interaktioner mellan elever och samhälle. Genom temats koppling till elevernas vardag är det lämpligt för att främja intresse för naturvetenskap såväl som bidra till att utveckla elevers förmåga att granska information, undersöka, kommunicera och ta ställning i olika frågor. Elevernas utvärderingar och engagemang, lärarens och experternas synpunkter och våra egna erfarenheter tyder alla på att det finns goda skäl att arbeta vidare med kombinationen av autentiska frågor och Open Schooling. Presentationen kommer att kort belysa undervisningsaktiviteterna, presentera resultat och fortsatt arbete samt öppna för diskussion om svårigheter och möjligheter för lärare och elever att samarbeta med omgivande samhälle i relevanta och aktuella men komplexa naturvetenskapliga frågor. 

While lesson plans may be of importance for student learning they take considerable time and effort for teachers to construct. Therefore, it is interesting that expert teachers have been found to spend less time on constructing elaborate plans and instead tend to rely on a set of teaching strategies to aid them in realizing their intentions in class. The present case study was conducted to contribute to research on the congruence between teachers’ intentions, lesson plans and classroom teaching practices. Focus of the study was a grade 6 teacher who via constructed planning documents attempted to transform syllabus into enacted teaching. Data gathered from teacher interviews, curriculum, planning documents, and lesson observations enabled an analysis of the transformation process. Analysis of the data was done through inductive thematic analysis and the use of performance type categories to enable comparison between curriculum, planning documents, and teaching practices. Results show that the participating teacher constructed a comprehensive plan for the subject area, and closely tied it to syllabus text emphasizing the performance types ‘Reasoning’ and ‘Communicating’ skills. Further, it was found that the enacted teaching was inefficient in transferring the teacher’s intentions for students to practice communication and reasoning into the classroom. The discrepancy is not believed to stem from the teacher’s rejection of syllabus intentions, but rather a lack of suitable teaching strategies to allow for a more flexible teaching. An implication of the study is a highlighted need to offer in-service teachers professional development to strengthen teaching of communication skills. 

Teachers’ own voices have been partially missing in science education research on upper primary school (age 10-12). In order to examine views and experiences of teaching science, we interviewed 14 upper primary teachers. They described science teaching as fun, mainly due to the inherent practical work. The same practical work was also identified by the teachers as the main cause of stress and was therefore conducted less frequently than desired. The data enabled construction of seven teacher roles, closely connected to both their described teaching practices and views on science education. Teachers’ accounts of their science teaching speak of a varied practice with emphasis on practical work and facts, and less articulated descriptions of work to develop students’ abilities to examine and communicate science. The results provide insights into the interactions between teacher views and teaching practices which could prove valuable for improving upper primary science education.

Science in upper primary school has not been highly prioritized in research or professional development. Even though students of ages 10-12 years are curious about science, there are indications that upper primary school science teaching might not offer opportunity for a real interest in science to form. In order to examine characteristics of the teaching practices, chemistry teaching was observed in a grade 6 class during their work on the subject area “Substances around us”. The observations were conducted for seven weeks and included seven lessons in total. Results show that lesson time was spent primarily on science instruction and mostly in the practice of whole class seatwork. This was mainly characterized by expository teaching coupled with interactive-authoritative communication. Whole class practical work, to some extent, consisted of inquiry although more commonly functioned as a method to illustrate scientific phenomena or offer an extraordinary experience. Individual work on assignments consisting of questions with known answers made up the majority of independent seat work, whereas independent practical work showed varying characteristics containing some inquiry-based work, but mostly rather arranged task setups. Results make visible teaching practices in which the scientific story is presented to students in full, rather than co-constructed through reflective discourse. This suggests the possibility that upper primary school students are not offered opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of science and scientific work and this might have a negative effect on their interest in the subject.