From recipe to enquiry – a curriculum tool for science teachers to align policy with practice in practical lessons

ABSTRACT

Internationally, second level curriculum policy for STEM education is concentrating its efforts on promoting curriculum-making pedagogies, with enquiry-based teaching and learning at the forefront of this change. Policy aspirations have not translated well into practice, evidenced by science practical lessons consistently being delivered as recipes to be followed. In recognition of this, national STEM policies are calling for quality pedagogical resources that can support teachers to engage in teaching practical work through scientific enquiry. This article describes how Design Based Research was used as a methodology to create and evaluate a resource, the Structured Enquiry Observation Schedule (SEOS), as a tool to identify student achievement of procedural (enquiry and laboratory) skills in practical biology lessons. Data collected using the SEOS, was triangulated with interview, video and audio data over three iterative research cycles. Findings indicated that the SEOS provides a lens to compare and align policy intentions with classroom enactment of practical work by identifying the basic procedural skills that should underpin any enquiry-based practical lesson, and by highlighting the importance of student attainment of those skills. If used by practising teachers, it has potential to answer calls for quality resources to support the transition to enquiry-based science pedagogy.

Keywords:

• Practical work
• enquiry-based pedagogy
• curriculum making
• STEM artefact

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data sets in each SEOS presented in this paper are derived from the PhD research of the author and can be found at the following link: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/17278/1/NON%20PhD%20Thesis%20Complete.pdf

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Teaching Council of Ireland as part of the John Coolihan Research Funding (grant number: RSF17S108).

Notes on contributors

Natalie O’Neill

Natalie O’Neill is an Assistant Professor in Education at DCU and former science teacher. In 2022 she completed a doctoral study researching, characterising and providing solutions to the epistemic divide between policy and practice in the second level biology curriculum. Her research interests are in science education where she is the ESAI Biology Special Interest Group Lead, working with a group of researchers across Ireland and Northern Ireland to effect changes in policy regarding Biology Education. She is also a member of CASTeL at DCU.