Scientific literacy in second chance schools: Training science teachers to design context-based curricula

Abstract

Second Chance Schools (SCSs) were established in Greece in 1997 in an effort to provide literacy skills to adult school dropouts in order to facilitate their reintegration into society. Science teachers working in SCSs face the challenge of developing scientific literacy-oriented curricula according to the needs of their students. However, empirical data show that most teachers, influenced by their previous classroom experiences in formal education, design theory-laden curricula that aim to introduce SCSs’ students to the content of science. This study presents the methodology and results of a two-day constructivist teacher-training workshop which is aimed at changing seven SCSs’ science teachers’ criteria when selecting and designing topics for their scientific literacy curricula. The analysis and evaluation of the workshop indicated that while science teachers were able to make the critical shift to the selection of topics in line with students’ needs (the new topics focused on real-context science-related situations relevant to their students’ personal, vocational and social experiences), weaknesses were detected in the science teachers’ practices related to the nature of science and the use of scientific knowledge within the context-based issues. The results of this pilot study may be useful to similar teacher training programs that focus on the designing of innovative curricula.