Features and trends of teaching strategies for scientific practices from a review of 2008-2017 articles

• Published in: International journal of science education Vol. 42; no. 7; pp. 1183 - 1206
• Main Authors: Halawa, Suarman, Hsu, Ying-Shao, Zhang, Wen-Xin, Kuo, Yen-Ruey, Wu, Jen-Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 02.05.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Affective Behavior; Coding; Cognitive aspects; Educational Objectives; Educational Strategies; Educational Trends; Elementary School Science; English (Second Language); English as a second language; English as a second language instruction; Epistemology; Faculty Development; Inquiry; Objectives; Periodicals; Professional development; Science Education; Science Instruction; scientific inquiry; Scientific practices; Scientific Research; Second languages; Sociocultural factors; Sociocultural Patterns; Special Needs Students; Student Centered Curriculum; Student Centered Learning; Teachers; teaching goals; Teaching Methods; teaching strategies; Trend Analysis; Trends
• ISSN: 0950-0693; 1464-5289
• DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2020.1752415

This study analyzed 2008-2017 articles in primary science education journals to explore the features and trends of teaching strategies for scientific practices. Five criteria were used to select the articles: (1) emphasizing inquiry teaching in either the theoretical framework or the findings section, (2) incorporating teaching strategies into inquiry teaching or professional development, (3) selecting science as subject matter, (4) being empirical research, and (5) not including special needs or ESL (English as Second Language) students as participants. Based on the above criteria, 310 articles were selected for further coding in the dimensions of teaching strategies and teaching goals. The teaching goals for the usage of the teaching strategies for scientific practices include affective, epistemic and sociocultural goals. Two categories of teaching strategies were coded for scientific practices including student-centered and teacher-centered strategies. The results showed that student-centered teaching strategies were adopted more than teacher-centered strategies; and experimenting, discussing, and a combination of experimenting and discussing were the most used teaching strategies, which were mostly used to achieve the cognitive and affective teaching goals. This was an increasing trend over the past 10 years. Moreover, teaching strategies for scientific practice have large, positive effects on the cognitive aspect.