Noriko Asaka

There is a need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills in job markets worldwide and therefore a growing emphasis is being placed on these subjects in schools. This requires the right education in terms of lessons for students and also training for teachers. Associate Professor Masatsugu Taneda, Department of Science Education, Osaka Kyoiku University, is interested in how proper training could equip teachers without STEM backgrounds with the skills they need to enhance the education they are providing to students. He is developing quality education materials to assist teachers and inspire students. Drawing on his background in chemistry, Taneda is focusing on chemistry experiments but the project has scope to be rolled out to other STEM subjects. In one study, he developed labware and digital teaching materials for on-demand chemistry experiments that can be carried out at home. This enhances accessibility and flexibility for students while also improving standardisation of education. The digital teaching materials have been tested by student teachers affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University who were given a lab kit containing the materials needed for the experiments. Given that teachers in Japan often don’t have sufficient time to source new teaching materials, this enables teachers to focus on their role as education facilitators, while practical content can be prepared by STEM professionals. Taneda developed the toolkit in collaboration with Kenis Corporation. The kits were evaluated for safety and content and then rolled out to university students not majoring in scientific fields so that they could be evaluated in the context of no scientific background.

type:Article 著者らは,小学校若手教員対象の課題探究型理科研修を毎年実施してきた。2020～21年はコロナ禍によりオンデマンドで実施したが,本稿で論じる2022年の研修では対面形式を再開した。再開した対面研修で,オンデマンドの個人学習用に開発したワークシートを,グループの中での個人の学びの支援のために使用した。同じく個人の振り返り用に開発した探究の流れ図の形式を,グループ活動のまとめポスターに使用した。まとめポスターの評価ルーブリックを開発し,グループ活動を評価した。グループ活動の評価と個人のワークシートの記述から,受講者の学習状況を推測した。併せて,受講者の理科の知識や実験技能の実態について知見を得た。 We have conducted problem-solving and inquiry-based science training for young elementary school teachers every year. In 2020~21, it was conducted on demand due to the corona disaster, but in the 2022 training discussed in this paper, the face-to-face format was resumed. In the resumed face-to-face training, worksheets developed for individual learning in on-demand training were used to support individual learning in groups. The form of the inquiry flow chart,which was also developed for individual reflection, was used as a summary poster for group activities. We developed an evaluation rubric of summary posters and evaluated group activities. From the evaluation of group activities and the description contents of individual worksheets, we estimated learning status of the participants. We also obtained knowledge about the actual state of science knowledge and experimental skills of the participants.

type:Article コロナウイルス感染拡大の状況下,小学校若手教員を対象として,探究型理科研修をオンデマンドで実施した。研修実施のため,実験を動画で視聴しながら科学的問題解決の過程を学習するプログラムをGoogle Classroom上に作成した。受講者の到達度評価のためにルーブリックを作成し,評価を試みた。研修の実施と評価から以下の結果を得た。(1)受講者の9割が,オンデマンドプログラムを完全に終了した。(2)3人の評価者による評価の一致度の分析から,ルーブリックの改善のための知見を得た。(3)ルーブリック評価の結果から,科学的問題解決の過程の学びについての受講者の課題が示唆された。(4)水溶液の性質に関する小学校若手教員の知識の現状が明らかになった。 Due to the spread of coronavirus infection, we conducted on-demand teacher training of scientific inquiry activity for young elementary school teachers. To carry out the training, we developed a program on Google Classroom to learn the process of inquiring scientific problems by watching videos of experiments. We also created a rubric to evaluate the achievement of the learners and tried to evaluate it. The following results were obtained from the implementation and evaluation of the training. (1) 90% of the participants have completed the on-demand program. (2) From the analysis of the degree of agreement of the evaluations by the three evaluators, the knowledge for improving the rubric was obtained. (3) The results of the rubric evaluation suggested the young elementary school teachers' challenges in learning the process of solving scientific problems. (4) The current state of knowledge of young elementary school teachers regarding the properties of aqueous solutions has been clarified.