Ethnotechnology

"Pilot Study of Science Teachers' Folk Pedagogies and Instructional Design Processes"

The key questions addressed by this research were:

1. What are the "folk pedagogies" (Bruner,1996) of K-12 science teachers-that is, what are their tacit, intuitive beliefs about how people learn and how best to teach them?
2. How do those folk pedagogies inform science teachers' instructional design processes-that is, the methods they use to develop instructional activities or materials?
3. How do these instructional design processes conform to or differ from the formal approach to instructional design and development known as instructional systems design (ISD)?

For this pilot study, we conducted 1- to 1-1/2-hour interviews with six elementary, middle, and high school teachers of science and math. These were open-ended interviews structured around a series of probes.

As we sought, through this research, to conduct an exploratory inquiry into the nature of the relationship between systematic approaches to instructional design and teachers' needs, our most significant and unexpected finding was that, from the teachers' perspective, caring must be a central component of any instructional design activity. Regardless of gender and grades taught, the teachers indicated that they need to be able to make instructional decisions based upon their caring relationships with individual learners, not upon the imperatives of an impersonal, systematic instructional design process.

Article

Rose, E., & Tingley, K. (2008, Winter). Science and math teachers as instructional designers: Linking ID to the ethic of caring. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology 34(1). (Accepted/Forthcoming).

Other projects

Examining and Extending Teachers' Understanding of Science Studies

• Public Understanding of Science
• Outreach to Teachers

Understanding the Impact of Technology and Online Learning Studies

• CASMI
• Ethnotechnology
• LogiAuteur
• OCOWS: Problem-based Learning Software

What Happens When We Extend Learning Beyond the School Curriculum Studies

• Ethnomathematics
• Huntsman Marine Science Centre
• Outreach to Students
• Science East
• Students Solving Environmental Problems
• Science-in-Action Project
• Research Intensive Student Experiences