The teacher development programme

A teacher development programme introduced and prepared Lynda for ethics in science teaching. Although at first daunted by it (because it was new to her), Lynda appreciated the necessity for the intervention programme. She based her planning on the classroom ethics-in-science planner that was introduced and explored over two teacher development sessions. The next two sections explore, consecutively, Lynda’s perceptions of the teacher development followed by how Lynda used the planner.

5.2.5.1 Teacher development

Lynda reported that when “I first heard about ethics in science I had no idea what it was about, but I was keen to learn. The first teacher development meeting we had on ethics was mindboggling – a lot to take in. It felt foreign.” Although it was a “huge amount to take in” Lynda felt that the two teacher development sessions were very necessary. She said she “couldn’t have picked it up any other way”. Lynda was also pleased that there had been time (seven weeks) between the teacher development sessions. She appreciated the thinking time that this allowed, and felt it “was good to come back to, to go over it again and help consolidate the learning”.

Lynda reported that one of the most important aspects was exploring what ethics in science actually was. She said she “looked back at the notes a lot” later when planning and teaching. Lynda also appreciated the example of the ethics-in-science planner: ‘Should money and effort be spent

much of the second workshop. She used this unit as an example to plan her own.

5.2.5.2 Use of the classroom ethics-in-science planner

One of the key aspects of the professional development sessions was the introduction of the ethics-in-science planner. Lynda reported that using the planner helped her understand what she was going to teach – “especially with such a new topic”. She liked the way the planner stepped her through her lesson sequence. She said it had a “nice, logical flow to it”. She particularly found the activity suggestions very helpful. Lynda said she appreciated the layout, saying “it was visual”. She liked the boxes and the use of hyperlinks leading to examples of questions and activities. She summarised: “The planner was great.” Details of her planning (presented in Appendix 23) are as follows.

Science context

Lynda recorded ‘fire retardants’ as the context. Since this was part of the fire unit, the greater context of exploring fire retardants was ‘Fire’.

Science curriculum links

Lynda said that initially she was unsure how to use the planner and found the example planner ‘Should money and effeort be spent understanding and saving the takahe’ (Appendix 15) useful to see what was meant by the terms in the boxes, particularly ‘Science curriculum links’. She collaborated with Amy (over the telephone) to help clarify requirements. Once Lynda could see what was being referred to she said it was straightforward. Lynda was able to include the ‘nature of science’ emphasis (in the 2007 curriculum) that underpins the teaching of ethics in science.

Ethics question

Lynda’s ethics question was ‘Should fire retardants be used in furniture?’ She later modified this, clarifying the synthetic nature of the fire retardants: ‘Should chemical fire retardants be used in furniture?’.

Relevant science knowledge

Lynda’s understanding of relevant science knowledge needed by the students was based on concepts from the fire unit, as well as additional knowledge relating to the ethics question such as ‘how scientists can slow down burning’. Lynda realised that this would need to be researched and taught first before the discussion could take place.

Ethical approaches and questions

Lynda said that having specific places to articulate the ethical approaches and some questions was very helpful. Lynda had not heard of ethical approaches before doing this unit and appreciated them being kept “up front” on the planner so that they could be used.

Ethics focus questions

In the ‘Ethics focus questions’ box Lynda wrote some questions that were not directly related to a particular ethical approach, but that helped to set the scene for the science learning needed for the ethics discussion, for example, ‘What in our classroom would fuel fire?’. Lynda used these questions to create a sequence that would lead from one activity to the next. Lynda then used the ethics questions focusing on the actual issue, for example, ‘Should (chemical) fire retardants be used in the seating at the movie theatre?’ Although it had been intended that these boxes contain ‘ethics focus questions’, Lynda felt they should be understood more broadly as ‘focus questions’ in order to create a more coherent flow through the activities. She suggested a change on the planner from ethics focus questions to focus questions.

Activities and strategies for intended learning

The columns (and rows) in this section were designed to work together in a connected fashion. Each column would support another. Lynda’s activities, planned interactions, resources and learning intentions were linked so that the ideas, tasks and learning intentions had a main focus and they all supported each other, and the ethics focus question. For example,

affected by chemical fire retardants she planned to use a PMI activity to generate ideas. This was suppported through the use of PMI sheets (a key resource) and further supported by the learning intentions which were for students to “consider the harms and benefits [to people] of [chemical] fire retardants in furniture” (which related back to the ethics focus question). Lynda used eight of the suggested activities (incorporated in the original planning documents) in her lessons.

5.2.6 Summary

Findings from the data collected from Lynda’s room demonstrate that the 9 and 10 year old students in her classroom were able to engage in ethical exploration and decision-making. The learning was evidenced through transactional writing, observed and recorded student engagement in ethical discussion and student reporting.

The learning was achieved through a classroom programme devised by Lynda as a result of the teacher development programme, including the use of the ethics-in-science planner. Her programme included activities that helped to explore the science involved (research activities, brainstorms, continua) and activities to explore consequentialism as an ethical approach (space-jump, think-pair-share, round robin and PMI worksheets). Students were able to formulate an argument, justify their views and make ethical decisions through the mantle of the expert (debate) and in writing.

Lynda reported needing the support of the teacher development to help her understand ethics, ethical approaches and teaching ethics in science. The classroom ethics-in-science planner guided Lynda to structure her programme in a way that scaffolded the necessary learning for ethical decision-making. It linked the ethics to the curriculum (particularly to the nature of science strand) and helped Lynda to determine the relevant science knowledge that the students would need and to choose ethics questions that would guide student thinking as they discussed the issue. Lynda appreciated the design of the planner, which enabled her to plan interactions and link

them with activities and strategies for intended learning. She reported that she had “learned along with the students”.

Lynda also appreciated how the ethics teaching fitted so well into the science context and found it added a richness to the science learning – particulary when taught at the end of the unit: “I love it. It’s so much richer having come at the end of the science unit. We already had a passion going, so it added depth.”

Lynda said she would teach ethics in science again and could see an understanding of ethics as being useful in other areas of the curriculum (particularly social studies and English) as well. She was pleased she now understands something about the ethics approaches and intends to use this knowledge in future teaching. Lynda felt “this unit worked particularly well in terms of developing critical thinking. I don’t know how you could get a richer discussion”.