{"id":2685,"date":"2022-05-10T09:40:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T06:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myscience.fi\/en\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2024-10-23T10:24:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T07:24:33","slug":"integrated-science-education-makes-learning-meaningful-but-teaching-methods-are-considered-challenging-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myscience.fi\/en\/news\/2022\/05\/10\/integrated-science-education-makes-learning-meaningful-but-teaching-methods-are-considered-challenging-in-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrated science education makes learning meaningful, but teaching methods are considered challenging in practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Outi Haatainen, MSc, defended her doctoral thesis on integrated and collaborative science education on 29 April at the University of Helsinki. Through integrative teaching, teachers strive to construct curriculum content into meaningful wholes for learners. In her doctoral thesis, Haatainen has particularly investigated teachers\u2019 perceptions of integrative teaching and their related experiences. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Integrative teaching has become part of the everyday life of all teachers through curricula both in Finland and elsewhere in the world. It has been brought to the fore in particular as a way of increasing the meaningfulness of science education.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the turn of the millennium, several extensive research reports were published, highlighting the fact that pupils are uninterested in the science education taking place in schools and don\u2019t consider it meaningful. At the same time, we need to educate more broad-based experts in the natural sciences. Integrative teaching emerged as one of the ways to make science education more meaningful,\u201d Haatainen says.<\/p>\n

Haatainen has been interested in the topic for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote my master\u2019s thesis on web-based materials for integrated education in 2014. Already then, I came across some\"Project very negative notions about the method. As a result, I became interested in how teachers could be supported in adopting integrative teaching methods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers must rethink their role<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Teaching can be made integrative in many ways. For example, phenomenon-based teaching has long been a topic of discussion in Finland, with project-based learning added to the mix later on. Key to both are meaningful teaching practices and content, their linking with pupils\u2019 everyday life, and the teaching of central concepts and skills associated with the school subject. In fact, a range of terms are used to refer to integrative teaching, which, according to Haatainen, affects teachers\u2019 views.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to assess the success of integrative teaching without a shared understanding of the meaning of the concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Integrative learning methods also require a new kind of attitude and role from teachers: instead of traditional teaching, the teacher\u2019s role is to support pupils in their learning. The current way of teaching provision, particularly in lower secondary school and upper secondary education, does not support integrative teaching or project-based learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn lower secondary and general upper secondary school, the natural sciences are taught as separate subjects or learning modules in different courses. This limits the opportunities to organise integrated education, which includes as an essential element cross-subject entities and collaboration. In many ways, integrated education is indeed easier to implement in primary school where subject boundaries are less strict and the same class teacher is primarily in charge of teaching in different school subjects,\u201d Haatainen notes.<\/p>\n

Support needed for adopting new methods<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Teachers need support and training to be able to carry out integrative teaching successfully. Haatainen points out that support often also has a positive impact on teachers\u2019 views on the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen teachers are supported in adopting new teaching methods, they have the opportunity to avoid the most common challenges associated with integrative teaching. If teachers start to implement integrative teaching without a more precise understanding of the relevant factors, the assigned learning outcomes may not be achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to assuming a new role, teachers need support and training in, among other things, assessing integrative teaching, collaborating and supporting pupils. Besides these pedagogical skills, there is a demand for subject-specific training focused on including knowledge and skills central to specific subjects in integrated education.<\/p>\n

However, in many ways integrated education has consolidated its status in teaching since 2016, when the integrative approach was recorded in the principles of the curricula for basic education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe collected the first dataset at the end of 2015, at which point there was still a lot of uncertainty: teachers were unclear about the meaning of integrated education. Since then, many teachers have formed at least some kind of notion of integrated education after getting the chance to put it into practice in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/h2>\n