Science Teacher Education in the Twenty-First Century: A Pedagogical Framework for Technology-Integrated Social Constructivism

20th May 2020 : 12:00 - 13:00

Seminar Abstract

 

Changes in our global world have shifted the skill demands from acquisition of structured knowledge to mastery of skills, often referred to as twenty-first century competencies. Given these changes, a sequential explanatory mixed methods study was undertaken to (a) examine predominant instructional methods and technologies used by teacher educators, (b) identify attributes for learning and teaching in the twenty-first century, and (c) develop a pedagogical framework for promoting meaningful usage of advanced technologies. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via an online survey, personal interviews, and written reflections with science teacher educators and student teachers. Findings indicated that teacher educators do not provide sufficient models for the promotion of reform-based practice via web 2.0 environments, such as Wikis, blogs, social networks, or other cloud technologies. Findings also indicated four attributes for teaching and learning in the twenty-first century: (a) adapting to frequent changes and uncertain situations, (b) collaborating and communicating in decentralized environments, (c) generating data and managing information, and (d) releasing control by encouraging exploration. Guided by social constructivist paradigms and twenty-first century teaching attributes, this study suggests a pedagogical framework for fostering meaningful usage of advanced technologies in science teacher education courses.

 

About the Speaker

 

Dr. Miri Barak (Engr.) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology. She is the Head of the Science and Learning Technologies (SLT) Lab, which investigates cognitive and sociocultural aspects of online learning and the promotion of 21st century skills. Her work involves two major research areas: Engineering education, examining unique approaches for innovation cultivation; and Science education, examining knowledge construction and motivation to learn, using location-based applications and gamification. Dr. Barak is a Cum Laude graduate of the Faculty of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, at the Technion, ‎and worked in the past as an R&D Engineer. She received her MSc ‎and PhD degrees at the Technion ‎and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives ‎‎(CECI) at MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. ‎ Currently, she is the Vice Dean for Teaching and the Assistant to the SVPR for the Promotion of Learning and Teaching. She is a PI and co-PI of a number of national and international projects on location-based learning (AugmentedWorld), game-based learning (Games of Food), and massive online open courses (MOOCs). ‎ Her academic work is presented in more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in leading international and national publications https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-6171