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TRANSCRIPT
Synthesis of State-of-the-Art, Opportunities for
Collaboration and Integration and Expected Impact
Inspiring Science Education
2
Synthesis of State-of-the-Art, Opportunities for
Collaboration and Integration and Expected Impact
This project has received funding from the European Union’s ICT Policy Support Programme as part of the
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (Grant Agreement no. 325123). This publication reflects
only the editor’s and contributors’ views and the European Union is not liable for any use that might be made of
information contained therein.
Inspiring Science Education
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Inspiring Science Education Consortium
INTRASOFT International Consiglio Nazionale Delle
Ricerche
University of Bayreuth VELTI
Ellinogermaniki Agogi
Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Coventry University’s Serious Games Institute
Institute of Educational Policy, Ministry of Education of Greece
University of Piraeus Research Centre
Bulgaria Research and Education Network
International University of La Rioja
Croatian Academic and Research Network
Nucleo Interactivo De Astronomia
ATiT Dublin City University
University of Helsinki Fraunhofer
Institute for Applied Information Technology
HEUREKA The Finnish Science Centre
The Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications -
IASA
European Physical Society
VERNIER SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY , LLC
Cardiff University SETApps
SIVECO Romania SA University of Utrecht
Open University of the Netherlands
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CONTENTS
1 Executive Summary 5
2 State-of-the-art of technology enhanced science education in schools 6 2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 6 2.2 Current Status of the Use of ICTs in Science Education across Europe ..................................... 9 2.3 Good Practices: Available Tools, Projects and Initiatives ....................................................... 20
3 State-of-the-art of learning innovation in Europe 37 3.1 Innovation in Education and Training: An Overview .............................................................. 37 3.2 Trends in School Education and Teacher Training.................................................................. 40 3.3 The impact of the ICT in Learning Innovation: The European Agenda .................................... 42
4 Barriers and Success factors for the use of ICT in Science education 47 4.1 Potential Benefits of ICT Use in Science Education ................................................................ 53
5 Inspiring Science Education: Aims and expected impact 57
6 How we can make the ISE Vision work 63 6.1 Holistic Approach to Learning Innovation at School Level ..................................................... 64 6.2 An Integrated Approach to Project Management .................................................................. 67
FIGURES Figure 1. Trends, Technologies & Challenges for European Schools (NMC, 2014) 7 Figure 2. Ideas of Science & Ideas about Science (Harlen, 2010) 8 Figure 3. Teachers’ ICT Based Activities at Grade 8 (Survey of Schools, 2013) 13 Figure 4. Frequency of ICT Activities in the Classroom by Grade and by Subject (European Schoolnet, 2013) 15 Figure 5. Teachers’ Confidence in their Operation Skills by Grade and by Subject (European Schoolnet, 2013) 15 Figure 6. Current Teaching Practices in Lower Secondary Education (TALIS, 2013) 17 Figure 7. HELIOS e-Learning Territories (HELIOS, 2007) 43 Figure 8. Benefits of ICT in Science Education (Becta, 2003) 55
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1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Inspiring Science Education (ISE) project has emerged through a rather extensive participation,
of a large number of partners, to the European networking and learning innovation scene, during
the last twenty (20) years, and the ISE partnership includes most of the experienced technology-
enhanced learning and learning innovation European institutions. The ISE Project has built on the
European know-how as it regards (technology-enhanced) learning innovation at school level, and
using all relevant platforms, social media and technologies and valorised state-of-the-art learning
theories, aims at serving borderless innovation, open education paradigm, to provide solid good
practices for a societally relevant, rewarding and growth-supporting learning at school level.
This deliverable corresponds to the general objective of Work Package 2 to guarantee coherence
and integration of all projects components in view of generating the best possible level of synergy
and overall impact through the development of a system view of the project, shared with m ain
stakeholders. It is the stepping stone for the following:
1. To perform a detailed analysis of the state-of-the-art of technology enhanced science
education (SE) in schools, discussing the current status of ICT in SE across Europe, as
presented in recent studies and summarizing the good practices in the field.
2. To explore the status of learning innovation in Europe during the last decade, in order to
provide insights, options and recommendations that can be considered critical and multiply
beneficial for the implementation of a large scale innovation project such as the ’ISE‘ one.
3. The development of an optimization/integration approach in order to guarantee all possible
synergies among WP/ activities of the project and related projects/networks/resources that
might help maximize the project impact.
4. To present the operational design, fine tuning and planning of all project activities with a
special focus on inter-WP coordination.
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2 STATE-OF-THE-ART OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED SCIENCE
EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
The aim of this section is to capture the state-of-the-art of technology enhanced science education
(SE) in schools through the following sub-sections:
Current status of ICT in SE across Europe, as presented in recent studies;
Available Tools, Projects and Initiatives.
2.1 Introduction
After having ensured the inclusion of science across all ch ildren’s education, we now have to
address the challenge of adapting the curriculum to the digital era, whilst enhancing the quality and
reach of Science Education (SE). It is noted that our current mode of teaching is failing to reach
many students who are fluent in technology, but disenchanted with science. Today’s students who
belong to the increasingly tech-savvy Y- and Z- generations need to be addressed by schools and
teachers in a different way in order not to jeopardize meaningful and efficient learning.
The trends, technologies and challenges for European schools over the next five years, can be
summarized through the following Figure1.
1 Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., Kampylis, P., Vuorikari, R., and Punie, Y. (2014). Horizon Report Europe: 2014
Schools Edition. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, & Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. URL:
http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-EU-EN.pdf
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Figure 1. Trends, Technologies & Challenges for European Schools (NMC, 2014)
“The primary goal of science education across the EU should be to educate students both about the
major explanations of the material world that science offers and about the way science works”. 2
In this direction, experts in science education have set out a list of major principles that should
underpin science education throughout all educational levels in order to further develop ‘ Big Ideas’
of science and about science.
2 Osborne J. & Dillon J. (2008). Science Education in Europe: Critical Reflections . A Report to the Nuffield Foundation. London: Nuffield
Foundation. URL: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Sci_Ed_in_Europe_Report_Final.pdf
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These fourteen Big Ideas will enable student to understand scientific aspects of the world they live
in, and therefore help them make informed decisions regarding the applications of science. The Big
Ideas of Science ideas can be summarized as follows3.
Figure 2. Ideas of Science & Ideas about Science (Harlen, 2010)
3 Harlen, W. (Ed.) (2010). Principles and big ideas of science education . Hatfield: Association for Science Education. Hatfield: Association
for Science Education (ASE). URL: http://www.interacademies.net/File.aspx?id=25103
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Figure 2. Ideas of Science & Ideas about Science (Harlen, 2010) (cont.)
Through this lens, science education should focus on offering a deepening learning experience of
Science and not one of an early professional training type, whilst at the same time should take into
account groups with specific characteristics, such as girls, students with low motivation, or at a
younger age4.
The emergence of a driving Scientific Literacy takes stock upon students’ learning about the
processes of theory construction, decision making and communication, and refers to the social
actors that influence the scientists’ work, even when they are simplified.5 In order to reach these
goals, ICT can offer multiple solutions to enhance both the practical and theoretical aspects of
Science cognition and learning, and therefore the valorisation of the Science Literacy as such.
4 Osborne J. & Dillon J. (2008). Science Education in Europe: Critical Reflections . A Report to the Nuffield Foundation. London: Nuffield
Foundation. http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Sci_Ed_in_Europe_Report_Final.pdf
5 Osborne J. & Hennessy S. (2003): Literature Review in Science Education and the Role of ICT: Promise, Problems and Future Directions .
A NESTA Futurelab Research Report - Report 6, 2003. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00190441/document
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The significance of the impact of the digital technologies on learning is also referred to in the
Learnovation Vision Paper 1, entitled ‘Inspiring young people to become lifelong learners in 2025’.
“Being a Lifelong learner becomes a condition of life. Thanks to their massive and natural use in
everyday life, technologies acquire an emancipating power on people opportunity and abili ty to
learn, favouring a spontaneous tendency towards meta-cognition and ownership of their learning
process”.6
2.2 Current Status of the Use of ICTs in Science Education across Europe
The ‘Survey of Schools: ICT in Education - Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in
Europe’s Schools ‘ took place during the school year 2011-12, and analyzed over 190,000 responses
from students, teachers and head teachers in Europe. Its aim was to carry out a benchmarking of
Information and Communication Technologies in school level education across Europe, painting a
picture of educational technology in schools: from infrastructure provision to use, confidence and
attitudes. This section summarizes (by quoting directly) some of the key data captured in the final
report, which was created by European Schoolnet in collaboration with the University of Liege .7
I. Infrastructure at Schools
On average in the EU, there are between three (3) and seven (7) students per computer. In other
words, there are now around twice as many computers per 100 students in secondary schools as
compared with 2006 - but the wide variations between countries persist.
6 Learnovation Vision Paper 1 (2009): Inspiring Young People to Become Lifelong Learners in 2025 .
http://www.menon.org/projects/fostering-learning-innovation-and-ict-use-in-europe
7 European Commission, DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology (2013). Survey of Schools: ICT in Education -
Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in Europe’s Schools. Brussels: European Commission. URL:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/sites/digital-agenda/files/KK-31-13-401-EN-N.pdf
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In some countries we see a shift towards the use of smaller and portable computers, such as
laptops, tablets and netbooks, whereas interactive whiteboards as well as data projectors are
present in schools, at a lower frequency. More than nine out of ten students are in schools with
broadband, at most commonly between 2 and 30mbps on average in the EU. Most schools are
connected at least at basic level (indicated by having, for example, a website, local area network,
virtual learning environment).
The Survey findings estimate that at EU level on average, between 25 and 35% of students at grades
4 and 8, and around 50% of students at grade 11, are in highly equipped schools, i.e. with high
equipment level, fast broadband (10 mbps or more) and high connectedness. The percentages of
such schools differ enormously between countries. Even so, school heads and teachers consider
that insufficient ICT equipment (especially interactive whiteboards and laptops) is the major
obstacle to ICT use.
II. Use of ICT at Schools
At EU level, it is no surprise that longer experience for students with computers is more frequent at
home than at school: around 80% of students at grade 8 and 90% at grade 11 have used computers
at home for more than four years; only around 40% of students at grade 8 have the same length of
experience at school, and around 60% at grade 11.
Around 50% of students at grades 8 and 11 in general education use a desktop or a laptop during
lessons at school at least weekly, but around 20% of the students at the same grades never or
almost never use a computer during lessons.
Around 30% of students at grade 8 and 20% at grade 11 in general education, use an interactive
whiteboard at least weekly. Interestingly, no overall relationship was found between high levels of
infrastructure provision and student and teacher use, confidence and attitudes.
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Digital textbooks are the most frequently used resources at grade 8 more than 30% of students use
them daily or more than once a week. Multimedia tools are used to a similar extent (even slightly
more) at grade 11 in vocational training. Simulations and data-logging tools are very rarely used on
a regular basis (daily or once a week), at all grades. This situation could be the result of a lack of
existing good quality material related to the curriculum, insufficient information provided to
teachers, lack of skills to use and integrate them into teaching, or lack of time to become fully
familiar with them and feel comfortable to use them in the classroom with the students.
Looking at teachers’ ICT based activities, it appears, at EU level, that preparing activities for
teaching (browsing to prepare lessons, preparing tasks for students, preparing presentations,
collecting online resources to be used during lessons) remains the most frequent ICT-based activity
of teachers at all grades. Around 20% of students (and around an additional 25% at least once a
week) are taught by teachers who browse the internet to prepare lessons and prepare tasks for
students every or almost every day. Browsing the internet to collect material to be used by the
students during lessons is a little less frequent (around 15% every day or almost, and around 20%
once a week) as well as preparing presentations (around 10% every day or almost, and around 20%
once a week).
Creating digital resources is the next most frequent activity. Around 15% of students at all grades
are taught by teachers declaring that they create digital resources every or almost every day, and
around an additional 15% at least once a week. This activity can be considered as being part of the
category ‘preparing activities for teaching’ in a broad sense, but is could represent more time and a
longer term investment from teachers. Creating digital resources is clearly a much more frequent
activity compared to evaluating digital resources, which is not only less frequent but also has much
higher percentages of teachers declaring never or almost never doing it.
Using the school website/virtual learning environment comes next. Around 10% of students are
taught by teachers who declare they use the school website/virtual learning environment, every or
almost every day, and a slightly higher percentage at least once a week.
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Conversely, teachers rarely communicate online with parents, post homework for students on the
school website, use ICT to assess students and evaluate digital resources, at all grades: between 60
and 85% of students are taught by teachers declaring they never or almost never participate in such
activities. The first two of these activities suggest that use of ICT in schools does not yet support
better home-school links, either in terms of communication or in terms of division of students’
learning. Using ICT to assess students is slightly more frequent in vocational education.
Figure 3. Teachers’ ICT Based Activities at Grade 8 (Survey of Schools, 2013)
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III. ICT in Science Education
In a Briefing Paper published by the European Schoolnet Observatory8, the results of the ‘Survey of
Schools: ICT in Education’ are analysed in order to find patterns of ICT use in science and
mathematics classrooms, using mother language classes as a basis for comparison.
Results show that students in science classes, both in grade 8 and 11 in general education, are the
most involved in ICT activities, with a score quite close to 2, corresponding to ‘several times a
month’. Students at grade 8 experience a similar level of use of ICT activity in language and
mathematics classes. This is not true for grade 11 in general education; the frequency of use of ICT
activities in mathematics classes is low compared with both science and language classes.
Although the difference in use between mathematics and science classes is not very large, the
results from the Survey offer a preliminary suggestion to be careful when referring to the STEM
area as a unitary block, as mathematics and science teachers and students may have specific
characteristics that need to be addressed independently.
When exploring whether teachers’ confidence levels plays a role in determining the final use of ICT
in the classroom, one sees that Mathematics and Science teachers express quite similar levels of
confidence in their operational skills, and in both cases, such confidence levels are higher than
language teachers’ ones. These findings do not seem to provide an explanation for the patterns
shown in the previous section. It is therefore advisable to look elsewhere to find an explanation for
the different frequencies of ICT use in language, mathematics and science classes.
8 European Schoolnet (2013). ICT in Μathematics and Science Classes: Use and Obstacles. European Schoolnet (EUN) Observatory.
Briefing Paper, Issue No. 5, November 2013. Brussels: European Schoolnet (EUN). URL:
http://www.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=65a1086b-63db-437a-acf6-feb38990ce63&groupId=43887
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Figure 4. Frequency of ICT Activities in the Classroom by Grade and by Subject (European Schoolnet, 2013)
Figure 5. Teachers’ Confidence in their Operation Skills by Grade and by Subject (European Schoolnet, 2013)
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When observing teachers’ opinions regarding the impact of ICT use on student learning, results
from the Survey show no differences between different types of teachers: language, mathematics
and science teachers all agree that ICT use ‘somewhat’ impacts students’ learning, corresponding to
the value of 3 on a scale from 1 (‘not at all’) to 4 (‘a lot’). Likewise, language, science, and
mathematics teachers share similar attitudes towards the use of ICT in schools. They all agree on
the positive impact of ICT on students’ higher-order thinking skills, motivation, achievement, and
competence in transversal skills, and they agree with the statement that ICT should be used for
students to do exercises and practice, retrieve information, and work in a collaborative and
autonomous way.
However, the types and magnitude of obstacles to the use of ICT within the classroom are quite
different for mathematics and science teachers. For example, even if exam pressure stands out at
the single most relevant inhibitor for all subjects and grades, mathematics teachers are the most
highly affected, especially at grade 11 in general education. This could be seen as one of the
justifications for the relatively lower frequency of ICT activities in mathematics classes at grade 8
and, in particular, at grade 11 in General Education.
The presence of ‘exam pressure’ may also mean that teachers do not have the possibility to
experiment with innovative teaching methods in the fear that students could perform badly in
conventional assessment methods. This, combined with lack of technical and pedagogical support,
as well as with the difficulty to integrate ICT into the curriculum, indicates that initiatives clearly
targeting pedagogy need to complement actions related to technical equipment in schools.
Further on, one should not underestimate that the prevailing (mainstream) innovation scenario,
piloted during a significant number of ICT-led learning innovation projects (with EU funding), and
introduced to challenge the existing status of the ICT usage profile, this scenario still looks almost
exclusively directed to serve the dominating teaching-centric (instructional, transmissive)
pedagogical scenario, where the technologies are about to support the evolution of the current
knowledge transmission, instead of a knowledge sharing and creativity learning paradigm, which
seems to be disrupting the formal education systems.
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Figure 6. Current Teaching Practices in Lower Secondary Education (TALIS, 2013)
To this regard the ‘Teaching and Learning International Survey’ (TALIS)9 of OECD provides further
insights. TALIS is the largest international survey on teachers and school leaders, trying to identify
the challenges they face on a changing world affective directly school education and learning.
9 OECD (2013), TALIS 2013 Results. An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development. URL: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/talis-2013-results_9789264196261-en
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The survey calls teachers to report on their initial training and professional development, their
instructional methods and teaching practices, the feedback they get on their teaching, the climate
in their classrooms and schools, their personal satisfaction with their job, and their feelings about
their professional abilities.
The results of the study clearly demonstrate that the current science classroom learning
environment is dominated by traditional pedagogies that are not able to support the introduction of
the scientific methodology.
Although significant investments (both at National and EU level) have been made to support the
introduction of innovative approaches in Science Education (SE) such as Inquiry Based Learning (IB)
the classroom practices remaining the same. The recent TALIS results demonstrate that innovative
approaches based on inquiry and problem solving methods are used only in a small number of
classrooms.
It is nowadays largely agreed that there is a major mismatch between opportunity and action in
most education systems. This also revolves also around the meaning of Science Education (SE),
often misappropriated in the current school practice, where rather than learning how to think
scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts (Alberts,
2009)10.
10 Alberts,B. (2009). Making a Science of Education. In Science, Vol. 323, Issue 5910, pp. 15, 2 January 2009. URL: www.sciencemag.org
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As depicted above prevailing school practices have not or only gradually changed in ways that
would reflect this progress. Moreover modern applications and the Internet have not yet been fully
integrated in current science learning environments. According to work performed in the
framework of the large scale initiative PATHWAY11 the deeper problem in Science Education (SE) is
one of fundamental purpose. The authors argue that schools have not provided a satisfactory
education in science for the majority of their students. Research is furthermore indicating that
educational systems are even failing in providing a route into science for future scientists. The
challenge therefore, is to re-imagine science education: to consider how it can be made fit for the
modern world and how it can meet the needs of all students; those who will go on to work in
scientific and technical subjects, and those who will not.
In the view of many educators as well as scientists the classroom should provide more challenging,
authentic and higher-order learning experiences, more opportunities for students to participate in
scientific practices and tasks, using the discourse of science and working with scientific
representations and tools. It should enrich and transform the students’ concepts and initial ideas,
which could work either as resources or barriers to emerging ideas. The science classroom should
offer opportunities for teaching tailored to the students’ particular needs while it should provide
continuous measures of competence, integral to the learning process that can help teachers work
more effectively with individuals and leave a record of competence that is compelling to students.
11 Sotiriou, S. and Bogner, F. (2011) Inspiring Science Learning: Designing the Science Classroom of the Future, Adv. Sci. Lett. 4, 3304-
3309
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2.3 Good Practices: Available Tools, Projects and Initiatives
Over the past decade there has been a massive increase in the development of educational
software, e-learning tools and digital resources, whilst at the same time hardware costs have fallen,
hardware has become more reliable and the ICT skills of teachers and students have improved.
This section highlights some of the available tools and initiatives related to technology enhanced
science education, and aims at stressing the pluralism of options, rather than presenting an
exhaustive list.
1. Tools and applications
The main applications12 of ICT in science education are for:
providing information;
supporting fieldwork;
assisting observation;
recording and measuring;
sharing data with others;
facilitating interpretation;
simulating experiments;
providing models or demonstrations;
enhancing publishing and presentation.
12 Becta (2009). Primary Science with ICT: Pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary science. Canley: British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency (Becta), in association with the Association for Science Education (ASE). URL:
http://www.ictesolutions.com.au/media/21162/ict-in-science.pdf
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Newer tools drive teacher networking, exchange of materials and ideas, online courses and
educational management. Some of the main tools and applications used in science education are
listed below:
I. Tools to provide science information/perform science investigation/ evaluation
Information Systems (e.g. Internet);
Wikis;
General search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo);
Multimedia software for simulation of processes and carrying out ‘virtual
experiments’;
Mind mapping tools: There is a number of mind mapping programmes
available (e.g. Freemind, smartdraw, etc.), which build a web diagram in
which ideas and information relevant to a particular topic are linked
together. Students can therefore make connections between related ideas
and improve lateral thinking;
Exercise software, online quizzes, etc (e.g. Hot potatoes, testmoz,
gnowledge, quibble, google docs, etc);
Educational Repositories: these ‘storage’ tools (e.g. Open Discovery Space
portal, Scientix, REforschools, NanOpinion) offer a wide range of educational
resources; however it is critical that the teachers have the necessary criteria
in order to make appropriate choices for their lessons;
Serious Games: Serious games are the accepted term for games with an
educational intent and include games, virtual worlds and simulations. They
need to be engaging, although not necessarily fun, while the learning can be
implicit or explicit. There is no uniform pedagogy within serious or
educational games; earlier games tended to be based on a behaviourist
model. Later games try and incorporate experiential, situated and socio-
cultural pedagogical models. The learning outcome is dependent upon an
appropriate pedagogy and the underlying game mechanics and how the
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content is integrated into the game so the learning is intrinsic to play.
Serious games are used widely outside of formal education systems, for
example by the military and within the health and commerce sectors. Yet
their use within schools is less common.13
II. Tools that focus on observations and measuring
Data logging systems;
Data analysis software;
Databases and spreadsheets;
Calculators;
Graphing Tools;
Modelling environments;
Digital recording equipment;
Computer-controlled microscope.
III. Tools for teacher networking and training
Social networking platforms (e.g. Edmodo, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In);
Communities of practice (e.g. Galileo Teachers, COSMOS communities,
DSPACE community, Hands on Universe, eTwinning);
Teacher networking applications (e.g. Schooltube, Teachertube, teacher
online);
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): with a plethora of high quality
MOOCs available in various languages and on many subjects, it is no surprise
that online education is on the rise. Typical examples are Coursera
13 Ulicsak, M. & Wright M. (2010). Games in Education: Serious Games. A Futurelab Literature Review. Bristol: Futurelab. URL:
http://media.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Serious-Games_Review.pdf
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(https://www.coursera.org/), Udacity (https://www.udacity.com/), Khan
Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/) and Edx (https://www.edx.org/).
IV. Tools for publishing and presenting
Presentation tools (e.g. Powerpoint, Prezi, Moviemaker);
Computer projection technology (e.g. interactive whiteboards).
V. Tools for educational management
A rather new and very different use of ICT in teaching is for educational
management. One of the examples highlighted in an OECD report was found at a
school in the UK, which developed a comprehensive school database. The staff was
looking for easy ways to review student performance, and therefore easily identify
under-achievers. With this tool, students were asked to evaluate their performance
against their goals and set up consultation meetings with their teachers14.
In other cases, online tools and applications are used by teacher to manage their
lesson time, keep track of their students’ grades and their lesson progress, etc.
In some cases the electronic teaching resources fill gaps where there are no good
conventional alternatives, whereas in others, they complement existing resources.
In any case, it is important that the use of ICT in the class is linked to ongoing
teaching and learning, rather than being viewed as a replacement to what has been
followed to date.
14 Venezky, R. & Mulkeen A. (2002). ICT in Innovative Schools: Case Studies of Change and Impacts. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), Department for Education, Schooling for Tomorrow. URL:
http://www.oecd.org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/themes/ict/41187025.pdf
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Apart from the above mentioned tools, there is a number of European and global projects that
focus on the use of Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching
(TEL&T) for Science Education (SE) in Primary and Secondary Education. Some of them focus directly
on the use of ICTs by students, whereas others focus more on the professional development of
teachers. Some of the most interesting ones are listed below:
CREATIONS (2015 – 2018)15
CREATIONS stands for Developing an Engaging Science Classroom. The project is aiming to provide
answers to the question how to increase the interest of young people in science. In CREATIONS, a
project funded by the European Union, 16 partners from all around Europe develop creative
approaches based on art for an engaging science classroom. The partners will stage a variety of
events with theatre, photography, exhibitions in which young people can experience an active and
playful role within science and research. CREATIONS will establish a pan-European network of
scientists, teachers, artists and students. The project was launched in October 2015 and runs for
three years. CREATIONS aims to improve the skills of young people in STEM (science, technology,
engineering, mathematics) and to pool talent to scientific careers by:
giving students and teachers opportunities to experiment with many different places,
activities, personal identities, and people;
simulating the work of the scientist and researcher in the classroom;
promoting a better understanding of how science works;
enhancing students’ science related career aspirations;
encouraging and empowering science teachers to affect change;
15 http://creations-project.eu
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implementing and promoting inquiry-based science teaching and learning;
learning and (self)creating in emotionally rich learning environments;
disseminating and exploiting the results.
Space Awareness16 & Space Scoop17 (2015 – 2017)
Space Awareness aims at informing children and young adults about current research and issues
related to space sciences and show them that space science can be fun and inspiring. The project
offers a series of complementary activities and resources to inspire children, primary and secondary
school teachers, teacher trainers, science educators, and families. It is expected that Space
Awareness will reach at least 3,500 teachers and involves 120,000 children and teenagers.
Space Awareness focuses on four categories related to major global issues and current European
space missions. It offers complementary resources, selected according to curricula requirements, to
address each topic with children:
Our wonderful universe: considers the vastness and beauty of the universe. The category
relates to the knowledge and challenges of human space exploration.
Our fragile planet: deals with the major environmental challenges facing the world, the role
that the study of other planets can play in understanding these global issues and the
importance of earth satellites in monitoring climate changes.
16 http://www.space-awareness.org
17 http://www.spacescoop.org
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Navigation through the ages: traces the history of navigation, the fifteenth-century
European explorers and their missions of global discovery, to the importance of Europe’s
Galileo programme for the current needs of citizens.
The journey of the ideas: highlights the important contributions from Islamic scientists
during the Middle Ages to our modern concepts of space and the Universe. It tells the story
of a shared history based on tolerance and respect for other cultures.
Educators can benefit from the project by taking advantage of the large array of free high-quality
resources that are easily adaptable to different disciplines and countries. The resources are created
using inquiry based methods and hands on approaches. The project also offers Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) and face-to-face workshops to train teachers in space science The Space
Awareness activities have been selected following the most popular topics for space in school
curricula. All resources have been reviewed by an educator and a scientist and are tested and
improved by teachers and educators all around Europe and beyond.
Schools Study Earthquakes18 (SSE) (2015 - 2016)
South Eastern Europe and Turkey exhibit the highest seismicity in the Mediterranean Basin and the
North Anatolian Fault System. For this reason the project Schools Study Earthquakes (SSE) funded
by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission focuses on the study of this physical
phenomenon with great societal impact and proposes pedagogical practices based on the method
of Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE). The objective of this combination is on one the hand to
increase children’s and students’ interest in science, on how science is made and how it affects
everyday life, and on the other to stimulate teacher motivation on up-taking innovative teaching
methods, subjects and practices to enrich and renew the science curriculum.
18 http://sse-project.eu/
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One key objective of the project is to provide increased opportunities for cooperation and
collaboration between schools across European countries and encourage relationships between
stakeholders of both formal and informal education by establishing a network of schools that will
study real data, do real analysis of real seismic activity in real time.
The SSE project will enhance secondary science teachers’ capacity to teach science effectively based
on the pedagogical principles of inquiry-based science education while being able to engage
students in employing real-problem solving skills, handling and studying situations, and
participating in meaningful and motivating science inquiry activities. SSE is carried out by a
consortium of educational institutes from five countries across Europe, namely Greece, Italy,
Cyprus, Turkey and Bulgaria, all with significant seismic activity.
Ark of Inquiry19 (2014-2016)
The project Ark of Inquiry: Inquiry Awards for Youth over Europe aims to raise awareness of pupils
to Responsible Research and Innovation (IRR) through by promoting the interest in science through
inquiry-based learning. In this regard, the project aims to create a ‘new science classroom’ where
challenging, authentic and higher-order learning experiences will be provided to pupils so as they
participate to engaging scientific tasks and practices. This activity will be supported by a platform
where carefully selected inquiry-based activities will be available and will bring together learners
and supporters (teachers, university students, researchers, staff of museums and universities).
Additionally, face-to-face training as well as web-based materials will be also provided to teachers.
At least 23,000 pupils, 1,100 teachers, 100 science and teacher education students and 50 staff
members from universities, museums and science centres are expected to participate in the project
launched in March 2014.
19 http://www.arkofinquiry.eu
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CHREACT20 (2013-2016)
‘Chain reaction: a sustainable approach to inquiry based science education ’ was a three-year project
funded by the EU, aiming to develop Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) across twelve countries.
In in this regard, the project provided interactive and engaging IBSE professional development
(teacher education) using already tried and tested IBS resources. Based on that, the teachers
delivered focused lessons to students, and participated to national events so as to engage practicing
scientists (Role Models) that meet with students and provide them rich insights on science.
MASCIL21 (2013-2016)
The mascil project aims to promote a widespread use of inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) in
primary and secondary education schools, as well as to connect mathematics and science education
with the work, so as they become more meaningful for students. In order to achieve that, Mascil
follows a holistic approach including (teacher) professional development courses and development
of materials.
TEMI22 (2013-2016)
TEMI (Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated) is a teacher training project aiming to
introduce inquiry-based learning into science and mathematics classroom using magic tricks, myths
and mysteries. Thus, it works with relevant institutions so as to implement innovative training
programmes, the ‘Inquiry Labs’.
20 http://www.chreact.eu
21 http://www.mascil-project.eu
22 http://www.teachingmysteries.eu
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These are based on core scientific concepts and emotionally engaging activities aiming to solve
mysteries, using scientists and communication professionals (e.g. actors, motivational speakers, etc)
in order to mentor teachers in their endeavour to use inquiry to teach.
The project provides teachers a series of lesson plans, a teaching guidebook to support science
teaching, and other materials. Throughout its duration, it managed to engage near 1000 teachers in
nine countries, with admirable results.
SCIENTIX (2009-2012) and SCIENTIX 2 (2013-2016) 23
The objective of the SCIENTIX portal was to ensure that the knowledge and the results of the
European projects reach a larger audience. In other words, SCIENTIX was created by the European
Schoolnet (EUN) and the EC to facilitate regular dissemination and sharing of the know-how and
best practices in science education across the EU. The portal was collecting and disseminating
teaching materials and research reports from science education projects financed by the European
Union under the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
(Directorate-General for Research and Innovation), the Lifelong Learning Programme (Directorate -
General for Education and Culture) and various national initiatives.
Launched in May 2010, the portal was targeting especially at teachers and schools, but also at other
science educators, curriculum developers, policy-makers, researchers and EU stakeholders. It was –
and is – a free-to-access and free-to-use portal, so that anyone interested in science education in
Europe could join the Scientix community. The philosophy of the portal could be summarized in the
following keywords: search, find, engage. This ‘motto’ emphasized the shift from a central portal
where information is disseminated to end users (who act in this case as passive users) towards a
more dynamic and user-centered platform. SCIENTIX thus should not be seen as a mere information
transmission mechanism, but rather as a knowledge building platform.
23 http://www.scientix.eu
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In its second phase, under the title SCIENTIX 2, the portal aimed to expand to the national level,
exploiting its network of National Contact Points (NCPs). In this regard, it managed to
Grow the SCIENTIX portal in terms of registered users (269%), as well as in all the project
objectives regarding uploaded projects, resources, events, news items.
Continue and expand of the translation service on demand of materials to all European
languages for free.
Disseminate extensively and communicate the project results.
Support the development and assessment of national strategies and initiatives on inquiry-
based and math education, and develop synergies with other European networks and
projects.
Go-Lab Project24 (2012-2016)
The Global Online Science Labs for Inquiry Learning at School opens up online science laboratories/
remote and virtual labs for the large-scale use in education. Its technical framework – the Go-Lab
Portal - offers students the opportunity to perform personalized scientific experiments with online
labs, whereas teachers may enrich their classroom activities with demonstrations and disseminate
best practices in a web-based pedagogic community.
24 http://www.go-lab-project.eu/
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Open Discovery Space25 (ODS) (2012-2015)
ODS is a socially-powered and multilingual open learning infrastructure aiming at boosting boost
the adoption of eLearning resources. ODS addresses various challenges that face the eLearning
environment in the European context. The interface has been designed with students, teachers,
parents and policy makers in mind. ODS will fulfil three principal objectives. Firstly, it will empower
stakeholders through a single, integrated access point for eLearning resources from dispersed
educational repositories. Secondly, it engages stakeholders in the production of meaningful
educational activities by using a social-network style multilingual portal, offering eLearning
resources as well as services for the production of educational activities. Thirdly, it will assess the
impact of the new educational activities, which could serve as a prototype to be adopted by
stakeholders in school education. The Inspiring Science Education project aims to integrate existing
eLearning tools and resources around the Open Discovery Space Portal using its underplaying
infrastructure and the services it exposes.
SAILS26 (2012-2015)
The aim of this project is to support teachers in adopting an inquiry approach in teaching science at
second level (students aged 12-18 years) across Europe. This will be achieved by utilising existing
resources and models for teacher education in IBSE, both pre-service and in-service. In addition to
SAILS partners adopting IBSE curricula and implementing teacher education in their countries, the
SAILS project will develop appropriate strategies and frameworks for the assessment of IBSE skills
and competences and prepare teachers not only to be able to teach through IBSE, but also to be
confident and competent in the assessment of their students‟ learning.
25 http://opendiscoveryspace.eu
26 http://www.sails-project.eu
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Through this unified approach of implementing all the necessary components for transforming
classroom practice, i.e. teacher education, curriculum and assessment around an IBSE pedagogy, a
sustainable model for IBSE will be achieved. SAILS will provide teacher education workshops in IBSE
across the twelve participating countries and promote a self-sustaining model encouraging teachers
to share experiences and practice of inquiry approaches to teaching, learning and assessment by
building a community of practice.
we.learn.it27 (2013-2015)
The initiative we.learn.it supports learning expeditions, i.e. inquiry-based projects, initiated by a
team of Explorers and guided by an Explorer guide. Learning expeditions supported can be any of
the following types or a mixture of them:
a project that young people develop and implement, without or within a framework of a
concept and method developed by teachers or partners;
a concept for a group of such kind of learners projects and their implementation
a project developing the method together for such kind of activities, including at least one implementation.
Creative Little Scientists28 (2011-2014)
The Creative Little Scientists project was set out to shed light on the intersection of science and
mathematics education for young children with creativity, setting an overall aim which is twofold:
To provide Europe with a clear picture of existing and possible practices, as well as their
implications and the related opportunities and challenges, in the intersection of science and
mathematics learning, and creativity in pre-school and the early years of primary education
(up to the pupil age of eight);
27 https://we.learn.it
28 http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu
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To transform the knowledge generated through this into a concrete contribution towards
the training of preschool staff and primary school teachers so that they are empowered to
exploit the potential of creativity-based approaches to early years science and mathematics
learning.
ENGINEER29 (2011-2014)
ENGINEER (brEaking New Ground IN the sciencE Education Realm) aimed to support the adoption in
Europe of innovative methods of science teaching and to provide extensive teacher training on
inquiry-based methods. Is was based on the famous and proven ‘Engineering is Elementary’ (EIE)30
program developed by the Boston’s Museum of Science since 2003-2004 and now widely used in
primary schools in the U.S. The project designed and implemented 10 engineering design challenge
units suited to European environments using the EIE’s Engineering Design Plan model. These are the
following:
Become a designer for mechanical machines
Design your own small vacuum cleaner
Make a soundtrack for a silent movie with your own designed sound box
Design an instrument for measuring the air volume in your lungs
Transport of water
High Flyers – building a model glider
Design your own floating platform
29 http://www.engineer-project.eu
30 http://www.eie.org
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Engineering on insulation – designing insulating shoe soles
Let’s find a house for the frogs. Let’s dig a pond
Forces at work – building a hanging sculpture
In this regard, the project introduced 1000 teachers and 27000 primary school students across
Europe to the problem solving principles of engineering, engaging 26 institutions from 12 countries.
Pathway31 (2011-2013)
The aim of the project which was completed in 2013 was to set the pathway towards a standard-
based approach to teaching science by inquiry, to support the adoption of inquiry teaching by
demonstrating ways to reduce the constraints presented by teachers and school organisation, to
demonstrate and disseminate methods and exemplary cases of both effective introduction of
inquiry to science classrooms and professional development programmes, and finally to deliver a
set of guidelines for the educational community to further explore and exploit the unique benefits
of the proposed approach in science teaching. In this way the project team aimed to facilitate the
development of communities of practitioners of inquiry that would enable teachers to lear n from
each other. The aim of the project was to support the training of 10,000 teachers.
31 http://pathway.ea.gr
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Discover the COSMOS Roadmap32 (2011-2013)
The Discover the COSMOS initiative demonstrates innovative ways to involve teachers and students
in Science through the use of existing e-infrastructures in order to spark young people’s interest in
science and in following scientific careers. It demonstrates effective community building between
researchers, teachers and students and empowers the latter to use, share and exploit the collective
power of unique scientific resources (research facilities, scientific instruments, advanced ICT tools,
simulation and visualisation applications and scientific databases) in meaningful educational
activities, that promote inquiry-based learning and appreciation of how science works, and to
promote effective integration of science education with e-infrastructures through a monitored-for-
impact use of eScience activities, which provides feedback for the take-up of such interventions at
large scale in Europe. The project managed to provide more than 80.000 educational resources and
more than 500 learning activities, reaching thousands of teachers and some hundred thousands of
people in general!
Fibonacci33 (2010-2013)
The Fibonacci project was completed in 2013 and aimed at a large dissemination of inquiry -based
science and mathematics education (IBSME) in Europe, through the tutoring of institutions in
progress (universities, teachers training centres, research institutions, etc.), by institutions with high
recognition in science education. The aim of the project was to support the training of 3,000
teachers and involve in IBSE activities 45,000 students.
32 http://portal.discoverthecosmos.eu
33 http://fibonacci.uni-bayreuth.de
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IMAGINARY34 (2008+)
This initiative – started in 2008, currently funded by the Klaus Tschira Leibniz Association – is a
platform for open and interactive mathematics. Is provides a variety of contents (mainly interactive
programs and pictures) that can be used in schools, at home, in museums, in exhibitions or for
events and media activities. Its key feature of easy integration of new content allows the
community to contribute its own ideas and create exhibitions. Since its invention in 2008, it has
been shown in more than 140 cities around the world, and is currently available also in Spanish.
SINUS Transfer35 (2003-2007)
This project ended in 2007, however can be used in current projects, as it promotes a change in the
pedagogical approach used to teach science, whilst providing opportunities for the establishment of
a European network of science education teachers. SINUS Transfer was the largest school
development project that has ever been carried out in Germany.
European Schoolnet Academy36
The Academy is a platform where one can learn about innovation in the school and classroom
through online professional development courses for teachers in primary and secondary schools.
The courses offered on this platform are free of charge and offer an introduction to key concepts
and ideas that are relevant to developing a teacher’s pract ice. They provide teachers with the
opportunity to discuss their ideas and share their experiences with their peers.
34 https://imaginary.org
35 http://www.sinus-transfer.eu
36 http://www.europeanschoolnetacademy.eu
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3 STATE-OF-THE-ART OF LEARNING INNOVATION IN EUROPE
The aim of this section is to review and summarise the status of learning innovation in Europe
during the last decade, providing insights, beliefs and recommendations that can be considered
critical and multiply beneficial for the implementation of a large scale innovation project in SE
addressing thousands of schools in different countries, as in the case of ISE.
3.1 Innovation in Education and Training: An Overview
In 2009 the first Learnovation Vision Paper entitled ‘Inspiring Young People to Become Lifelong
Learners in 2025’ summarised the developments over time with respect to innovation in education,
training and learning and teaching in general.37
“If one had to provide a visual metaphor about the current status of innovation in formal education,
this could be individuals (or groups of individuals) walking forward while looking back. A strive
towards innovation is the permanent status of education systems since decades, and the
introduction of new technologies for learning has implied an increasingly higher pressure on
education systems to innovate. The implicit and utopian belief that innovation in education could
happen as fast as technological innovation has pervaded our mindsets, but we sti ll have to confront
with scattered innovation in this area.”
And further to that: “The good side of the coin is that innovation is shifting from pilot successful
cases within EU countries to systemic innovation in (some) EU countries, but the phenomenon
cannot cover the European dimension yet.”
37 Learnovation Vision Paper 1 (2009): Inspiring Young People to Become Lifelong Learners in 2025 . Brussels: MENON Network EEIG.
URL: http://www.menon.org/projects/fostering-learning-innovation-and-ict-use-in-europe
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The Vision Paper also highlighted some of the most common (mis-)beliefs and misconceptions with
regard to the i) systematic and sustainable innovation in Education and Training (E&T) systems; ii)
use of technology for learning and teaching as well as iii) overarching programme and policy
interventions. They can be summarised as follows:
Beliefs in a shortcut from consensus to success: At the beginning of the so called e-Learning
action plan there was a strong, implicit belief that synchronising the aims and goals of all
actors would automatically lead to the launch of actions suitable to achieve these goals. This
assumption failed, as it underestimated the amount of rhetoric within these promises as
well as their potential to activate all types of resistances.
Beliefs in indicator-led consensus and policy definition: This is typical for the way the Lisbon
goals were originally defined, with a rather syllogistic model of interdependencies, e.g. if all
citizens engage in lifelong learning, then the Union will become (almost automatically) the
most competitive and most inclusive society worldwide. These approaches, based on a
certain historic amount of shared enthusiasm, turned out to be too simplistic to be
workable, and in particular mixed up possible mainstream solutions with procedures, which
had proven their functioning only on a piloting level.
Beliefs in global benchmarks: The period was characterised by serious attempts to introduce
instruments of benchmarking to the field of educational institutions, These comparative
global benchmarks (such as PISA, for instance) offered a high potential for alerting the
public by triggering intensive discussions on education and its role in society, and on the
national position within the international framework. But in many ways they failed to offer
guidance in a systematic, comparative way and using effective processes, so that innovation
in education could be based on a proper, professionally analytical use of benchmarking
results.
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Beliefs about ‘buyable’ policy aims and policy success: Over the last decade, some strategies
originating from the economic sector have been directly transferred into the educational
field, including the assumptions that money and the allocation of funds are the most
successful and suitable policy tools to achieve goals. This type of process has ended up
limiting success, because it has led to the conclusion that the non-monetary policy measures
necessary or suitable for successful innovation (such as non monetary incentives and
rewards, awareness raising, attitude change within society, different levels and
considerations on life priorities etc.) are no longer necessary for effective educational
policies.
Underestimation of institutional and structural inertia and its self-organisation and
stabilisation potential: Given the prevailing beliefs regarding consensus building, the
contrasting processes of institutional inertia were not fully understood and their impact was
therefore broadly underestimated. Initial methodologically consistent approaches to
address the dynamics of inertia and to manage its change in parallel to the support of
innovation have been appearing in the educational field only in the past few years.
Too short-term expectations for success: Linking the perspective for successful change in
educational policy to the periodicity of elections led policy makers at regional, national and
European level to offer short-term perspectives (over three, four, or five years) for the
achievement of substantial changes in educational institutions. This perspective completely
underestimated the strong interdependencies between education and other subsystems of
society, where a certain rigidity has a stabilising function in the processes of societal
change.
Underestimation of resources necessary for sustainable systemic change in educational
institutions: Almost all resources (not only money but also time, prerequisites in changing
functional processes in education, patience with the slow processes of attitude change,
adjustment, etc.) were underestimated in terms of the amount required to achieve
sustainable change.
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3.2 Trends in School Education and Teacher Training
Looking at the latest developments in terms of innovation in schools and teachers’ training the
European forecast project ‘TEL-Map – Possible Futures for Technology Enhanced Learning. Dynamic
Roadmapping for Uncertain Times’38 cited three major trends identified by the project
‘Learnovation’39,40, which are believed to have an influence on future developments in the area:
From top-down (as a long-standing educational institution/policy tradition) to general,
bottom-up, learner-driven initiatives, the current model of a democracy governed by
competence hierarchies contrasts with the increasing potential of individual decisions and
bottom-up consensus and/or co-acting processes open to all citizens. These processes are
obviously facilitated and boosted by technological innovation (amongst other factors).
Particularly the example and the evidence of user-oriented social software, used within the
framework of what was used to be called ‘Web 2.0’, demonstrated the dynamic that is
unleashed by these processes. If we compare statistical data on indicators for the slow take-
off of technology-triggered innovation in schools and teacher training in the last 10-20 years
with the speed of diffusion of the use of typical Web 2.0 applications like Amazon, eBay,
Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube and many others, we get an impression of the
different potential of the prvailing dynamics. Therefore, this shift from top-down triggered
38 Olivier, B. & Kamtsiou, V. (2012) (Eds.) D3.1 Report on Scenarios for TEL Futures. TEL-Map. Possible Futures for Technology Enhanced
Learning. Dynamic Roadmapping for Uncertain Times. London: Brunel University. URL:
http://www.telmap.org/sites/default/files/D3.1%20-%20TEL-Map%20Report%20on%20scenarios%20for%20TEL%20futures.pdf
39 Learnovation Vision Paper 1 (2009): Inspiring Young People to Become Lifelong Learners in 2025 . Brussels: MENON Network EEIG.
URL: http://www.menon.org/projects/fostering-learning-innovation-and-ict-use-in-europe
40 Dondi, C., Aceto, S. & Proli,D.(2009) Learnovation Foresight Report. Brussels: MENON N etwork EEIG. URL: https://hal.archives-
ouvertes.fr/hal-00592999/document
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innovation to bottom-up supported/demanded/prepared innovation would appear to be
one of the key elements in the transition from the last decade to the current one.
Decreasing intergenerational gap between ‘demand’ and ‘offer’ of formal education – we
are still in an era where the intergenerational gap matters and implies hindrances to
innovation supported by ICT for learning. Policy makers on one side and teachers on the
other side are not digital natives, and this has a major impact on determining the way
policies are documented and developed as well as in the way they are implemented by
teachers and other staff. Nevertheless, it will not take long before digital natives become
policy and decision makers or teachers themselves, and we often seem to forget this.
Increasing role of local stakeholders in determining the success of ICT for learning in
formal education – decentralised educational systems where local stakeholders have a role
in the design and development of actions related to the exploitation of ICT for learning turn
out to be more successful than systems where the organisation of formal education is
almost exclusively centrally controlled. When management is also decentralised (with a high
if not total degree of school autonomy) public private partnerships are increasing.
There are two core tensions emerging from the above listed trends: top-down vs. bottom-up
innovation (including, in a way, intergenerational clashes) and centralised vs. decentralised
management of innovation processes.
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3.3 The impact of the ICT in Learning Innovation: The European Agenda
After some 30 years of increased activity, with joint and innovation-supporting actions at the
European level, working together for the smart and inclusive growth means that the learning
innovation needs to take the ‘driver’s seat’ for the absolutely necessary changes, which will take the
European societies to a performance leap towards increased competitiveness and a sustainable
welfare state.
The European observatory project ‘HELIOS – European e-Learning Observation System: Observing,
Foresighting & Reporting’41 advocated a differentiated view to ICTs in education, training as well as
in learning and teaching by using so-called ‘Learning Territories’ as a structural and methodological
framework. HELIOS notes: “e-Learning territories are the meta-contexts in which different
innovation aims and paradigms are associated to the use of ICT, for learning but –more and more
frequently- not only for learning.” The HELIOS e-Learning Territories are depicted in the Figure
below.
41 Aceto, S., Delrio, C. & Dondi, C. (Eds.) (2007). e-Learning for Innovation. HELIOS Yearly Report 2007 . And: Executive Summary.
Brussels: MENON Network EEIG. URL: http://www.menon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/HELIOS-thematic-report-Access.pdf
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Figure 7. HELIOS e-Learning Territories (HELIOS, 2007)
According to Kastis (2007)42 there has already been a lot of research and analysis effort invested in
the introduction, the use and the potential impact of the Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) on learning, which takes place in schools or is somehow related to schooling, from
the pre-school through the range of K-12 education. During these last 30 years, starting from the
early ‘80s, computers and after that digital networking and communication technologies have
continuously (and in waves) been installed in schools, following their widespread adoption and
penetration in almost all other sectors of professional and everyday life.
42 Kastis, N. (2007). Observing the e-Learning phenomenon: The case of school education. Analysing the transformative innovation of e -
Learning. eLearning Papers, no. 4. ISSN 1887- 1542. Barcelona: P.A.U. Education. URL:
http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/sites/default/files/old/media12729.pdf
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The installed ICT resources are being used by varying degrees of intensity and novelty, and even
more varying degrees of return, in terms of both the quality of the learning processes as well as the
learning outcomes and the education attainment.
In these some 30 years, the school sector has always been the promising area for related public
policies, measures and funding programmes – including Structural Funds - as well as commercial
interests, aiming at increasing the availability and use of ICT in education at large. Moving, from
those early years on, when research questions and models were basically addressing the needs of
piloting and validation of innovations in the micro-setting, the learning process, the international
discourse about the rationale of the introduction and eventually the impact of ICT on school
education, has gradually reached a more mature and purposeful approach. Whereby, the necessary
changes, which characterize the interrelations with the operational aspects and decision-making in
education as well as with the outside-school developments, especially in the content services and
entertainment (the ‘home market’), are being taken into account more systematically. These
interrelations, from the micro-level (the learning process) of the ‘school practice’ to the macro-
level, when referring to policies and action planning for the running of the school system (education
policy making), have greatly been affected by the ICT penetration in the society and economy at
large. Thus, implying a holistic approach to the analysis of the evolutions in learning at school level,
the changes in terms of ‘output’ and their long-term impact on growth and social inclusion (the
values, the new balance between public and private, the social mobility etc.).
The advancements of ICT have always been translated into mainly technical enhancements in ICT-
for-learning (e-learning) in schools, thus constituting the driving concern of waves of public
spending, in order to support widely accepted policies that were to sustain the availability of
computers and, later on, of networking in the European schools and the school classrooms. The so-
called ‘infrastructure availability and access’ has always been a major concern of all governments
and the EU itself. Nevertheless, relevant progress in this area, as measured by the pupils-per-
networked-computer ratio, seems not to be enough, in order to facilitate the foreseen changes in
schools.
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To this under-performance we should also add the still problematic objective of sustaining a
quantity and quality threshold of access to ICT resources, which turns to be a rather expensive
exercise for the public authorities (the maintenance cost as well as the hardware and software
upgrades, especially when run by centralised schemes and via a fragmented, subject -matter
oriented means).
Apart from the main objective of the infrastructure availability - partly defining the accessibility
level (the access to learning resources), most of the ‘self-respected’ education policies in EU
member states, addressing the school sector in the last 25 years, have dealt with the ‘digital
learning content availability’ (‘educational software’). It used to be and still is, at least for some of
the national education authorities, another demanding and controversial area of intervention and
proactive ineffective policy-making. A lot of public spending took the form of either subsidies to
development cost of end-products or of direct funding of innovative pilot products (mainly off -line),
even within the (European) research and development support frameworks, at both the national
and the European level.
The driving objective being always the facilitation of a rich and expanding ‘pool’ of quality digital
learning materials, in order to provide the school communities with, more demanding than ‘drill
and practice’, software with really engaging multimedia learning materials, using cultural and
scientific content of high value from across Europe! Nevertheless, although there are not any well -
documented surveys as of the returns, in terms of quality and effectiveness of learning, it seems
that these targeted content applications have only found a rather marginal use in the school
curricula.
While in the meantime, the changes in the digital content development and publishing (business)
models, brought about by the continuous enhancement of the Internet-based services during the
last 15 years, still revolutionizing the online content services markets, are further undermining the
traditional paradigm of knowledge building in the school, from a straight ‘push’ to a rather ‘pull’
model.
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Meaning that, the whichever availability of hardware (infrastructure) and the (sometimes)
abundance of textbook-like digital content (the fallacy of the ‘new’ text-books in the ‘electronic
era’) do not seem enough to cater for advanced, enriched and innovative learning experiences, thus
marginalizing the returns of the relevant investments. And this is leading us to the most
problematic policy area of the ICT-for-learning in School Education, which is related to the ‘human
factor’, the school-teachers.
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4 BARRIERS AND SUCCESS FACTORS FOR THE USE OF ICT IN
SCIENCE EDUCATION
The simple presence of computers or tablets at schools is not enough for the successful impact of
science learning. On the other hand, technology-rich curricula are not designed to be ‘teacher
proof’, but require a range of technical skills as well as a minimum level of confidence by the
teachers. This section provides an overview of success factors for ICT integration in science
teaching, which at the same time often indicate the key barriers for the successful implementation
of technology enhanced science learning.
There have been numerous studies that have tried to map out the key factors that drive successful
ICT integration in teaching. One of the most recent studies43, has classified these factors into two
categories: at teacher level and at school level, as shown below.
At a teacher level, the main factors that influence teachers’ use of ICT in teaching are the following:
Teachers’ attitudes: Teachers with a more favourable predisposition towards the use of
technology in general and the use of ICT in their teaching, often use e-tools more often and
more successfully.
ICT competence: Research shows that technical competence usually drives the use of ICT in
teaching.
Computer self-efficacy: Confidence in the use of technology also plays a major role of the
adoption of ICT in teaching.
43 Nyambane C. O & Nzuki D. (2014). Factors Influencing ICT Integration in Teaching- A literature Review, International Journal of
Education and Research, 2(3), March 2014.
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Teaching experience: The results of different studies vary on this factor, as some show that
teaching experience doesn’t play a role in use of ICT, whereas others show that ‘fresh’
teachers with less teaching experience tend to use it more.
Teacher workload: Lack of time is one of the key obstacles in using ICT in teaching, both in
the phase of preparing a lesson and in the phase of the actual teaching.
At a school level, the main factors identified in the same report are the following:
Professional development: Training and supporting the teachers on the use of ICT in the
classroom is one of the key factors for its successful integration in teaching, as this can solve
a lot of barriers that may exist, such as lack of confidence or lack of technical knowledge and
skills.
Accessibility: If teachers cannot access ICT tools easily, they will not make use of them. In
addition to this, sometimes the vast range of options and the different interfaces and usage
possibilities, can further hinder the adoption of e-tools by teachers.
Technical support: It is essential that the school offers ongoing technical support, so that
teachers know they will have help in case of problems with hardware or software they use
in their lessons.
Leadership support: The support of school leadership can drive the use of ICT, by setting the
necessary vision and objectives and engaging the teachers as well as the students in new
initiatives and strategies.
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The aforementioned TALIS44 report of OECD further supports the importance of initial Teacher
Training (TT) and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers. When assessing the
significant data on science teaching and learning at school, level, especially when Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) are used to facilitate teachers and to motivate students, TALIS
draws the following conclusions.
Concerning teacher initial training, data indicate that teachers who benefited from formal
education that included content, pedagogy and practical components for the subjects they teach
feel better prepared for their work than their colleagues whose formal education did not contain
these elements. The participation of teachers to formal induction programmes appears to be an
important predictor of teachers’ participation in professional development activities the following
years. In general, higher participation to that type of activities is related with financial support or
activities conducted during working hours. Their professional development needs are focused
mostly in teaching students with special needs, developing ICT skills for teaching and using new
technologies in the workplace.
Concerning teacher practices and the classroom environment, data indicate that teachers that
participate in professional development activities with focus on collaboration (collaborative
research, study visits, networks of teachers) are more prone to encourage learning in small groups,
use ICT and pursue project- and inquiry based learning to their teaching. Collaboration among
teachers also relates with higher levels of self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Last, a positive
classroom environment also correlates positively with the aforementioned teaching practices.
44 OECD (2013), TALIS 2013 Results. An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development. URL: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/talis-2013-results_9789264196261-en
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In addition to the above mentioned influencing factory, Becta45 provides another list of more
specific success factors for the use of ICT in Science Education, from a range of studies and articles,
as follows:
ICT should be used only when appropriate to lesson objectives;
Pupils need autonomy to explore and test their ideas;
Teachers should encourage discussion and interaction between pupils;
Teachers should ensure that pupils have the necessary information, literacy and analytical
skills;
Time saved through ICT needs to be used effectively;
Training should be provided in a range of different ICT applications, with time for teachers
to develop confidence by exploring them independently;
Laboratory design must allow ICT to be integrated safely and easily into practical work;
Reliability and the provision of technical support are crucial.
Other typical barriers are linked to technical issues with the tool itself, such as expired plug-ins,
school firewalls that inhibit the use of specific software, different language to the one the teacher
and the students use, etc. Another common problem recorded is that the resources are often used
with the wrong age group.
45 Becta ICT Research, Report: What the research says about using ICT in Science , 2003. Canley: British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency (Becta). URL:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/15015MI
G2801.pdf
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The recently published report of SCIENTIX and European Schoolnet (EUN)46 on efforts of European
member states and beyond to increase the interest of students in STEM is pointing in the same
direction.
The report sets out with the observation that the underachievement of 15-year old students in
Mathematics and Science still is above the Education & Training 2020 benchmark of 15%.
Furthermore most countries in Europe are still facing a low number of students ‘interested in
studying or pursuing a career in STEM”.
Thus 40% of countries see the need to recruit more STEM teachers in the future and already
investing in or are on the way to set up related initiatives addressing the shortage of STEM and
STEM teachers in schools, particularly at secondary level. Furthermore the majority of countries
report that STEM education is a priority for them and that they have or are currently developing
strategies to improve teaching and learning and to foster the uptake of studies and careers in STEM.
In more detail the report states that:
80% of the 30 countries surveyed describe STEM education as currently a priority area at
national level (at least to some degree);
70% of countries are prioritising initiatives relating to the integration of the effective use of
ICT in STEM education;
46 Kearney, C. (2016). Efforts to Increase Students’ Interest in Pursuing Mathematics, Science and Technology Studies and Careers. National
Measures taken by 30 Countries – 2015 Report. Brussels European Schoolnet EUN), Brussels . URL: http://files.eun.org/scientix/Observatory/ComparativeAnalysis2015/Kearney-2016 NationalMeasures-30-countries-2015-Report.pdf
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60% are focusing on the development of new or revised STEM teaching and/or learning
resources, often to accompany a new curriculum;
50% of countries are placing particular emphasis on improving initial STEM teacher training
and/or in-service STEM professional development.
Especially the competence and proficiency of teachers in Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and
Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TEL&T) in Science Education (SE) are regarded to be
crucial for the deployment, uptake and advancement of STEM and STEAM education in Europe.
However 15 out of 16 knowledge and competence areas for STEM teachers are not adequately
covered at national level, neither by initial teacher raining (70% of countries) nor by professional
development (55% of countries). The only exception concerns the provision of professional content
and subject matter knowledge. The missing knowledge and competence areas include, amongst
others:
Inquiry/problem-based teaching and learning methods;
Identify, locate, adapt and develop relevant and motivating STEM related learning
resources;
Teach argumentation skills e.g. through facilitating small group discussions;
Participate in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) processes i.e. bringing the societal
aspects of STEM to the forefront;
Analyse students’ beliefs and attitudes towards STEM;
Teach STEM taking into account the different interests of boys and girls;
Teach scientific modelling skills;
Teach the ‘Nature of Science’.
To conclude, all these success factors should be strongly supported by a national and European
policy, which, instead of trying to build a coherent and realistic strategy for the use and integration
of ICTs in Science Education (SE), and other parts of the syllabus, the policies should aim at
increasing the capacity of the schools to retain effectively the relevance of their offer, i.e. ensuring
equal opportunities of learning to everybody, overcoming any gaps in terms of socioeconomic and
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education background, against a fast changing and complicated social context. This “mission” could
be achieved by addressing the “horizontal issues” that schools, teachers and students come across
on a daily basis. On the other hand, a strong policy should bridge the various STEM subjects, age
groups, educational needs, in order to offer the optimal solution for each case.
4.1 Potential Benefits of ICT Use in Science Education
In the real world, the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the way scientists and engineers work:
the way they network, find information, measure, analyse and interpret data, design, plan or
evaluate. This switch in the way of working can also be extended to the classroom in order to
provide a comprehensive and insightful teaching experience that is difficult to ach ieve in other
ways, especially in the field of science education.
The benefits from the use of ICT in SE range from higher science achievement to the development
of critical skills such as higher order thinking, motivation towards lifelong science learning , better
collaboration, reflective and independent learning, making connections between studies and the
wider world and other higher order skills.
On the basis of Becta’s analysis47, ICT can have positive effects on the teaching and learning of
science for both teachers and pupils in the areas as outline elsewhere.
47 Becta ICT Research, Report: What the research says about using ICT in Science , 2003. Canley: British Educational Communications and
Technology Agency (Becta). URL:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/15015MI
G2801.pdf
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There is also considerable research evidence that learners are more highly motivated when their
learning is supported by ICT, as well as more engaged in activities. Furthermore, they show
increased interest and demonstrate a longer attention span.48
Another interesting point is that “many ICT tasks do not require the use of a specific classroom or
laboratory. They can, therefore, extend learning beyond the teaching space and class contact time,
and place the use of ICT at the heart of the learning process rather than as an additional peripheral
experience. An activity, started in one classroom, can be continued in a differe nt room later in the
day or at home in the evening”.49
48 The University of York Science Education Group, ICT in support of science education, A Practical User’s Guide, 2002. Layerthorpe:
University of York. URL: http://www.york.ac.uk/org/seg/about_us/about_us_images/ICTinSupport.pdf
49 The University of York Science Education Group (idem).
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Figure 8. Benefits of ICT in Science Education (Becta, 2003)
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In addition to these above benefits, Open Educational Resources (OERs) alleviate the digital divide
between less privileged countries and more privileged ones, whilst making a contribution to the
development of less advanced economies.50
The above list of benefits is in no case exhaustive, however one can already understand the
potential role of ICT in transforming SE and acting as a catalyst for driving science literacy as
planned to be addressed by the ISE project.
50 Tasiopoulou E., Gras A., Dziabenko O. & Luz M., Gomez G. GO-LAB Discussion Paper n. 6: Effectiveness of the Use of Educational
Resources, undated. Twente: University of Twente. URL: http://www.go-lab-
project.eu/sites/default/files/files/deliverable/file/Appendix%206%20-
%20Effectiveness%20of%20the%20use%20of%20educational%20resources.pdf
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5 INSPIRING SCIENCE EDUCATION: AIMS AND EXPECTED IMPACT
The ISE aims can be summarised as follows:
To expand the resources and support the adoption of eLearning tools for teaching science
in schools and provide more challenging, authentic and higher-order learning experiences
for students. The sustainability of the project’s approach will be reached through the
opportunity, offered to the larger science education community, to add new eLearning
tools.
To promote a solid pedagogical framework for inquiry-based learning providing students
with the opportunity to access and use remotely robotic telescopes in real time, perform
observations, analyse data and results from CERN detectors, use advanced technological
applications in schools or in museums, perform virtual experimentations and finally develop
and suggest solutions and provide answers to selected problems. Furthermore, the
implementation of the ISE pedagogical material, in the means of an interactive cook -book,
will highlight and promote the best practices of innovative teachers in the participating
schools by building on the best of current practice.
To improve integration of both eLearning tools and pedagogical resources in the national
curricula and also introduce the scientific methodology in the school classroom: The direct
interaction with science or the doing of science reflects a fundamental pedagogy of the ISE
project to provide students with personal and direct experiences they can build upon in
their own ways. To this end, the Inspiring Science Education environment will offer
innovative, interactive, collaborative and context-aware tools and functionalities, which
offer student-centred, focusing on contextualized and adaptable learning experiences. In
addition, students will have the opportunity through the Inspiring Science Education
environment and the proposed online tools to interact with researchers in live internet
chats and in podcasts and webcasts, asking questions and hearing them describe their work
(and their lives).
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To support with technological and methodological means the creation and the
empowerment of an open web-based community, a social network of learning
communities which they will capitalize on the ‘collective intelligence’ of students, teachers,
scientists and commercial content providers, in order to expand the learning environment
beyond the school walls and, further, expand the opportunities for teachers’ professional
development.
To stimulate the demand for e-Learning resources by users: In an era of increased public
accountability, the use of existing research infrastructures by a broader set of actors,
expands their benefits to the wider public, including policy makers, and thus optimizes their
use and justifies the public nature of their investment. Moreover, when governments
around the world are forced to cut their education budgets, the visionary policy goals of the
‘virtual classroom’ of tomorrow that supports innovative ways of learning for all students
can only be attained through the spread of use of existing infrastructures and laboratories.
To benchmark the use of e-Learning and assess the impact of the intervention: The
evaluation approach will be based first on the PISA Framework developed for the
assessment of problem solving competence that will offer the reference for validating the
introduction of innovation in schools so that piloting and field testing results can be collated
and analyzed systematically and then disseminated widely, thus ensuring rapid impact and
widespread uptake. The key areas of interest of the proposed evaluation and validation
methodology will be student knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes, science
pedagogy, organisational issues (e.g., impact on the curriculum), technology (tools, services
and infrastructure), economic (value for money), added value, as well as cultural and
linguistic issues. Methods used will range from qualitative and quantitative experimental
studies to large-scale questionnaire-based research. To address one of the main barriers for
innovation in science learning and provide with the sustainability of the enhanced hereby
introduced (INSPIRING) learning processes, the work on the impact assessment will also
build and validate corresponding quality benchmarking frameworks for (a) teacher
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competence (professional) development, related to (b) school development and evaluation,
as well.
The expected impact to follow the fulfilment of the above mentioned aims can be illustrated as
follows.
The project’s approach will advance a reversal of school science teaching pedagogy from mainly
deductive to inquiry-based methods, which is more likely to increase students’ interest and
attainment in science.
The proposed pedagogical framework will allow teachers to follow the process of their students
during the activity and exploit the possibility to assess their abilities in the problem solving process.
The aim to advance students’ understanding of ‘how science works’, by effectively assimilating the
dynamic character of scientific thought, has also been addressed thus stimulating and encouraging
the creative mind-set of the participating students. By becoming engaged in scientific activities,
students are also getting familiar with the scientific terminology and methodology - i.e. terms like
hypothesis, experiment, and control begin to appear naturally in their discussion of what they are
learning. The project has thus been contributing to the preparation of 21st century students to
develop their competencies for the original thinking and creative work that are required by a
knowledge-based economy. Understanding ‘how science works’, becoming ‘… an element which
should be an essential component of any school science curriculum ’ is a pre-requisite for the
encouragement of critical and creative ways of thinking and for the enhancement of young people’s
critical attitudes to science and its experiments.
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The Educational Scenarios inducing interactive career counselling approaches in order to increase
awareness of the value of studying Science among students by offering potential career
opportunities. More precisely, the project is offering young students opportunities for extended
investigative work and ‘hands-on’ experimentation through outreach activities such as the remote
control of a robotic telescope that is located to the other side of the planet, by simplifying the
context of use for already existing online labs and by creating new experiments and educational
activities explicitly linked to the school science curriculum. The proposed pedagogical model is
explicitly developing science related occupational aspirations, by demystifying the work of the
researcher, making it familiar and tangible for younger students, who are getting a first-hand
experience both of what skills are needed in the job and of how it feels l ike ‘doing the job’. On the
other hand, the use of eLearning tools in school will also help to authenticate curriculum work, as
students can see first-hand the relevance and application of the science learnt in the classroom, in
the real world. This is important and breaks the mould of current school curriculum practice, in
which school science is often presented as a set of stepping-stones across the scientific landscape
and lacks sufficient exemplars that illustrate the application of science to the contemporary
The project aims at having an impact on stimulating the demand for innovative eLearning resources
and their sustainable integration into teaching practice, demonstrating that the effective use of
resources for the teachers need to scale up to full classrooms for creating science sessions which
incorporate access to research infrastructures, scientist collaborations and ICT support
infrastructures and also the benefits from learning through the use of remote and virtual labs,
interactive applications and virtual experiments.
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The project has also been expanding opportunities for teachers’ professional development,
including occasions to interact with museum educators and scientists. A series of events like master
classes, ‘inspiring’ days in science centres and museums, science contests, workshops and training
seminars are being organised to help teachers to introduce the use of online tools and applications
in their science, mathematics and technology classroom, and more generally th ink differently about
their students’ learning of and about science and technology. The ISE project is also offering
guidelines and tools for the effective organisation of resources and the delivery of integrated
inquiry scenarios. By offering teachers a large repository of tools and applications, along with a
detailed school-based framework for their effective introduction in the school practice, the
proposed Policy Support Action will empower teachers not only to change their teaching practice
and introduce contemporary scientific issues in their lessons, but also to propose and initiate the
necessary changes in their schools, to allow for a more seamless introduction of ICT innovations.
Moreover, the teachers who will participate in the project will become curriculum developers
themselves, validating thus the proposed approach and methods.
The ISE Project will build on the European know-how as it regards (technology-enhanced) learning
innovation, at school level, and using all relevant platforms, social media and technologies and
valorised state-of-the-art learning theories, aims at serving the ‘borderless innovation, ‘open
education’ paradigm, to provide solid ‘good practice’ for a societally relevant, rewarding and
growth-supporting learning at school level starting with the fields of Science Education (SE) E
learning.
In order for teachers to fully realize the potential of resource based learning, the project has been
addressing all potential fears and negative preconceptions related to the proposed approach
adequately and assist them in every step of the process. Additionally, interventions have been
implemented that are effective in achieving this – coaching classroom practice, designing effective
professional development programmes, developing stronger teacher leaders, and enabling teachers
to learn from each other.
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Therefore, the ISE project is focusing on two critical aspects: a) the effective training on resource
based methods: Albeit very effective, resource-based methods in education constitute a major
paradigm shift for teachers: they need to acquire new skills, abandon long standing practices and
move away from their professional ‘comfort zone b) reinforcing their mind-set change: Apart from
their training, in order for teachers to introduce resource based methods and activities into their
everyday routine, they will have to perform a change in mind-set and to adapt a new culture and
philosophy.
Finally, the project will have an impact on the consolidation of good practice in the field, by: a)
Bringing into the classroom a unique collection of digital resources and tools that are based on real
world problems, b) Giving students and teachers more opportunities to evaluate the quality of their
own thinking and products for feedback, reflection, and revision. c) Giving students and teachers the
opportunity to interact with working scientists, receive feedback from multiple sources . d) Building
local and global communities where teachers, teacher trainers, education policy makers, parents,
students, practicing scientists and other interested members of society are included in order to
expand the learning environment beyond the school walls and expand opportunities for teachers’
professional development.
This will include helping teachers to think differently about students and learning, reduce barriers
between students and teachers as learners and promote new partnerships among teachers,
students and parents.
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6 HOW WE CAN MAKE THE ISE VISION WORK
Based on the above-mentioned perspectives and fostered priorities, as the latter have been also
identified in the latest version (2015) of the joint of EUN and SCIENTIX on ‘Efforts to increase
Students’ interests in pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Studies and
Careers’, the ISE Project came at the right moment to build on corresponding developments and
learning innovation, brought about in school education and lifelong learning, in order to provide a
large scale validation opportunity as it regards the ‘innovation management’ approach, based on
the state-of-the-art learning theories, and particularly in Science Education (SE), by deploying new
social and communication behaviour and practice.
This project is further being implemented and run according to the following principles and
recommendations, governing the update of project objectives, the progress indicators, the partners’
joint activities and the potential results and their further exploitation:
Adopting a ‘prototype building’ perspective in our work, keeping in mind that migration of
the anticipated results to other contexts has been a major concern of the partnership.
The learning paradigm we are facilitating corresponds and embeds those aspects in part 3
and those aims set-out in section 5.
ICT tools and community portal solutions developed in order to facilitate school
communities’ work and networking, in regional, national, European level and across theme
lines and community initiatives, ensure interoperability and a federated expansion cycle.
National, regional and other theme-based pilots, with school communities, certainly relate
to the notions of teacher professional and school development and be strongly linked to any
sort of teacher training and school innovation planning and impact assessment.
Project work has been organised through an inter-disciplinary, intra-WP and results oriented
and evaluated process.
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And finally impact assessment should be addressing all aspects of innovation, to be
introduced, at the project, the solutions and networking and at the learning process level
(quality of process & ‘learning achievements’), through participatory evaluation procedures.
6.1 Holistic Approach to Learning Innovation at School Level
Learning innovation should drive the necessary upheaval in the school education systems,
considered to be lifelong, inter-disciplinary, trans-generational, multicultural, thus running through
- or over - any sort of ‘borders’.
The ‘Open Education’ paradigm comprises all aspects of the learning ecosystem, the pedagogical,
the organizational and the technological. Any innovation agenda cannot address anything but all the
three aspects and it cannot be sustainable when only justified by a top-down, and often
‘technology-push’, policy making practice. As it has been explained earlier, a holistic approach to
learning innovation which can deliver results in terms of making school education more relevant
and upgrade its quality, needs to provide for a well elaborated agenda of technological, pedagogical
and organisational change, together with a balanced blend of both grass-roots, contextually
relevant activities and Management by Objectives (MBO) driven programmes or policies, as defined
by regional, federal, national or even European policies.
Learning innovation, as any form of change with potential value, needs to be contextualised,
produced through an individual’s or a community’s problem solving exercise and learning, it needs
to be transparent and be nurtured and, potentially, can be migrated or even mainstreamed, when
prevailing conditions allow, in other words when policy making and implementation provide for the
right leverage. And evidently, learning innovation, as the promising ‘tool’ for sustainable, quality
advancing education systems, is much facilitated by increased networking potential and community
building, as both of these elements are taking a tremendous affording power with the widespread
use of the ICT.
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A holistic approach to learning at school ages needs to encompass:
The adoption of elaborated schemes which will facilitate an effective technological as well
as pedagogical and organizational change in school education on a medium- to long-term
basis;
At the same time nurturing balanced grass-roots (‘bottom-up’) driven initiatives (relevant
and contextualised), coupled with the necessary education policy context (the ‘top-down’
aspect) and large scale programme implementation;
These contextualised grass-root innovation projects, initiated and driven by school
communities, should strive toadopt an inquiry- and problem-based, collaborative learning
pedagogical paradigm, while at the same time facilitating the achievement of competence-
based learning outcomes.
And last but not least, the holistic approach to learning innovation in school education should
convincingly address both the increasing demand for learning at these ages and the social mobility
mandate (as the evolution of the ‘Comprehensive Education for all’ mantra of the 20th century).
And eventually, we should keep in mind that while the ICTs have a major impact on the sometimes
radical changes taking place across the societies with long term effect on the prevailing economic
paradigm, something often happening against all odds especially with the ways that people
communicate and learn, thus becoming employable and active citizens, at the same time the ICTs
may prove to have a serious impact on how and to which extent our formal education systems,
especially the school education systems can retain their capacity and their role effectively ensuring
and offering education opportunities to everyone.
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This is where the role of the ICTs gets its significance, and both policy makers as well as education
experts and practitioners should work through innovation driven policies and learning practice to
provide for the challenges of the societies in the 21st century.
According to the Learnovation Vision Papers ‘Inspiring young people to become lifelong learners in
2025’ (No1)51 and ‘Learning individuals and learning communities: informal learning in 2025’ (N o4)52
the imperatives of change or in other words the main actions to support the realisation of such a
holistic vision can be described as follows:
Devolve responsibility and governance to community and stakeholders and share a common
vision of learning: Local stakeholders should increasingly be involved and committed in the
governance of education, in a perspective of decentralisation and autonomy aimed at making the
education system more and more relevant to local needs.
Increase focus on learning processes and attitudes: Disciplinary contents are important, but more
focus should be put on explaining and demonstrating processes such as problem solving, self
assessment, information search and filtering, team work, evaluation, critical thinking, networking:
to develop higher level competences and to root learning in a context and add meaning. ICT may
help to make each of these processes more effective and efficient. Cooperation between content
experts and process experts is key.
51 Kugemann, W., Aceto, S., Dondi, C. & Kastis, N. (2009). Inspiring Young People to Become Lifelong Learners in 2025 . Learnovation
Vision Papers. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00593007/document
52 Riu, T., Nascimbeni, F. & Aceto, S. (2009). Learning Individuals and Learning Communities: Informal Learning in 2025 . Learnovation
Vision Papers. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00593006/document
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Enhance the innovation capacity of teacher training systems: Teacher training should include
creative and innovative approaches to teaching/learning to be able to develop the motivation to
learn and the joy of learning in future lifelong learners. Creative people should be stimulate to
become teachers. Teachers should be educated to develop for themselves and for learner creativity,
innovation and self-management.
Help teachers and trainers to recognise and respect the value of informal learning : Teachers and
trainers should be supported in using the potential of informal learning to complement and enrich
the ‘institutional’ teaching and learning process and in recommending learners ways to do so
autonomously, with a specific attention to multilingual and multicultural approach. Incentives and
rewards to ensure educators will undertake further development for informal learning could help.
6.2 An Integrated Approach to Project Management
By identifying a set of ‘good practice’ building lines of collaboration, across WPs and deliverables,
the ISE project partnership will ensure (a) making best use of European and national learning
innovation legacy in the field, and (b) maximising the valorisation capacity of the project pilots and
the project impact at large.
Synergies need to be addressed along the following ‘good practice’ lines regarding:
The introduction and refining of longitudinal themes, which will enhance collaboration in
the project partnership as well as with other European and national projects pursuing
learning innovation in school education and lifelong learning;
The building of school communities’ generated learning innovation ‘support package’;
The development of an enhanced communication strategy, in order that (a) the ISE project
coordinates effort with other European projects, and (b) ISE project maximises the potential
of its outcomes (and impact);
The identification of a set of ISE project integration;
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Fuller exploitation of the partnership: There are several problems that are, by their nature,
common to different WPs and need to be faced by using all the experience available in the
partnership, e.g. ‘How to engage schools’ or ‘How to attract policy support’. These could be
addressed by temporary Task Forces to be established across WPs and working mostly on
line after a first kick-off session to be associated to the next Partners Meeting. indicators, to
monitor progress in the afore-mentioned lines (of developing ‘good practice’).
Defining the success criteria more holistically in order to broaden the scope of the
evaluation to one that enables a much broader participation in defining the success of the
project and in drawing out meaningful lessons in relation to its future sustainability. This
means a more inclusive evaluation working with all stakeholders from the project partners
themselves through the schools to policy makers.
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Synthesis of State-of-the-Art, Opportunities for
Collaboration and Integration and Expected Impact
Editors:
Thomas Fischer, Nikitas Kastis, Pandora Sifnioti, Spiros Borotis, Claudio Dondi, Nikos Zygouritsas
Contributors:
Constantin Brosda, Sally Reynolds, Lamprini Kolovou, Sofoklis Sotiriou
This project has received funding from the European Union’s ICT Policy Support Programme as part of the
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (Grant Agreement no. 325123). This publication
reflects only the editor’s and contributors’ views and the European Union is no t liable for any use that might
be made of information contained therein.