RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY TEACHING
• The current focus on inquiry-based instruction requires schools and their
governing bodies to allocate greater resources to science instruction.
• Time, space, and materials are critical components of an effective
science learning environment that promotes sustained inquiry and
understanding.

• In many instances, the schools with the fewest resources have the
students with the greatest needs e.g. those in rural areas.

• Equitable access to resources for science teaching and learning is

therefore important.
Resources required for science and
technology teaching
• The literature identifies three categories of resources: material, human,
and social

• Material resources include

• Time (time available for teaching, for professional development, for
collaboration among teachers, for field activities etc.

• Money (expenditures for school personnel and other purposes related to

teaching and learning),

• Materials (curriculum, equipment, supplies).

Materials
• A critical component of IBI is the active engagement of students with the
physical environment.

• This requires a variety of materials and other resources which

researchers have found could actually impede IBI due to factors related
to the cost and availability of these materials (e.g. Anderson, 2002;
Bybee, Powell and Trowbridge, 2008; Chiappetta and Koballa, 2006;
Levitt, 2001; Plourde,2002).

• Plourde (2002) highlighted the cost of the required materials, indicating

that teachers very often have to use their own finances to pay for them.
• Material resources in a school are considered in terms of both availability
and adequacy.

• Students and teachers often face challenges, including a generalized lack

of material resources and funding as well as insufficient equipment and
supplies to teach science

• Yet, hands-on, inquiry-based science is particularly effective with

students with limited formal science experience
Discussion Question

• Do secondary schools in Barbados experience any issues with

availability and adequacy of resources to teach science? If so why?
Time

• School resources are related to school characteristics, including science

instructional time
• There are questions as to whether the total time available for school science
instruction is adequate given the requirement for IBI.

• Chiappetta and Koballa (2006) have suggested that IBI requires more time to
plan and far more time to conduct than traditional instruction.

• They also expressed the concern that it is disadvantageous to use IBI based on
the extensive content to be covered by elementary and secondary school
science curricula.
• Science often receives less instructional time than language arts and
mathematics.

• In low performing schools, science instructional time is often limited and

tightly regulated due to the urgency of developing basic literacy and
numeracy

• Teachers at these schools often face added challenges, as sanctions

against poor academic performance are disproportionately leveled
against them, their students, and their schools according to
accountability policies.
• Plourde (2002) described survey data in 2000 funded by the
National Science Foundation (NSF) which showed that an average
of only ½ hour per day was spent in science instruction compared
to an hour per day in mathematics instruction and 105 minutes per
day in language arts instruction.

• Abd-el-Khalick et al (2004) also expressed the view that

instructional time is an impediment to IBI. However, they linked
this to teachers’ belief that it is their duty to cover all the science
content outlined in curriculum documents.
Discussion Questions

• Do you think you have adequate time to teach science in your

school?
• If not, why do you think this is the case?
• Do other subject areas have more time than science allocated to
them on the time table?
• If so, why is this the case?
Human Resources

• Human resources or capital include

• Individual knowledge, skills, and expertise that might become a

part of the stock of resources available in an organization.

• In schools, human resources include teachers’ content knowledge

and practices and administrators’ leadership.
• Many researchers have showed positive correlations between the level of
teachers’ qualifications and science teaching effectiveness (e.g. Abd-el-
Khalick, 2004; Jones and Carter, 2007; Marshall et al, 2009; Plourde,
2002; Smith et al, 2007).

• Plourde (2002) cited the research of Weiss (1997) who found that less
than 1/3 of elementary teachers feel well qualified to teach science.

• Elementary teachers’ lack of confidence in teaching science has also

been found by a number of other researchers (e.g. Abd-el-Khalick et al,
2004; Jones and Carter, 2007).
• Jones and Carter (2007) cited research evidence that showed that
teachers who lack confidence about teaching a subject give it
minimal emphasis within a curriculum.

• They indicated that this pattern is very evident in science

instruction.
• Confidence is also linked to self efficacy.

• Marshall et al (2009) cited research describing teachers who are more

efficacious as those who are more likely to try new strategies, adjust
current strategies, and are more resistant when confronted with
classroom challenges.

• It was also found that self efficacy for inquiry teaching related
significantly to the percentage of time devoted to IBI during a typical
lesson.
Discussion Questions

• Are there any areas in the provision of human resources for

science and technology education in Barbados that you consider to
be an issue affecting the quality of instruction?

• If so why do you consider them to be such?

Social Capital

• Social resources or capital, as laid out in Coleman’s (1988) landmark

study of the foundations of social theory, is concerned with the relations
among individuals in a group or organization, Includes
• trust and collaboration

• common values,

• shared responsibility,

• a sense of obligation,

• and collective decision-making.

• Penuel et al. (2009) illustrated the application of social capital
theory

• highlighted the expertise and resources exchanged among teachers

through interactions that take place in meetings, staff rooms,
hallways, and classrooms.

• In a case study of two California schools, the results indicated that

the school with more interactions between expert and novice
teachers achieved greater fluidity of idea exchange.
Discussion Questions

• Do you consider social capital an issue affecting science and

technology education in your school?

• Why or why not?

• Is it an issue in schools in Barbados generally?

Community resources

• The classroom is a limited environment.

• The school science program must extend beyond the walls of the
school to the resources of the community.

• There are many organizations, including those in transportation,

health-care delivery, communications, computer technologies,
environment, mechanics, and many other fields that have
scientific aspects.
• Specialists often are available as resources for classes and for
individual students.

• Many communities have access to science centers and museums,

as well as to the science communities in higher education,
national laboratories, and industry.

• These can contribute greatly to the understanding of science and

encourage students to further their interests outside of school.
• The physical environment in and around the school can be used as a
living laboratory for the study of natural phenomena.

• Whether the school is located in a densely populated urban area, a

sprawling suburb, a small town, or a rural area, the environment can and
should be used as a resource for science study

• Students who develop skills working in groups, forming questions,

collecting data, and observing their school yard laboratory will find that
these experiences enhance their visits to other places as opportunities
arise.
Discussion Questions

• Are community resources effectively used for science education in

your school?

• Why or why not?

• Are there community resources available that have not yet been
effectively used?
Effect of organizational resources on
economically disadvantaged students

• Organizational resources are likely to have a greater impact on

the learning opportunities of economically disadvantaged students
compared to others.

• This is because the economically advantaged ones are more likely

to have the benefits of other supports for their learning, such as
better equipped schools, more material resources at home, and
highly educated parents.
• In contrast, the academic success of economically disadvantaged
students and other non-dominant students (i.e., students from low-
income families, and students learning English as an additional language)
depends more heavily on the quality of their school environment

• Yet, they are less likely to have access to a high quality school
environment.

• Thus, inequitable resources for non-dominant students are a central

concern.
Discussion Questions

• Are there a significant number of economically disadvantaged

students in your school?

• With regards to resources, are any special arrangements made for

these students?
Interventions to access resources

• Rivera Maulucci (2010) studied how middle school science teachers activated
resources for science teaching in a high-poverty, low-performing urban school.

• The results suggested that science education was marginalized by school-level

constraints in the form of lacking material, cultural, social, and symbolic
resources

• Cultural resources included teachers’ knowledge, skills, education, and

contextual experience.

• A symbolic resource arose when a cultural value was ascribed to teaching

efforts, such as when science education was prioritized in a school curriculum.
• Constraints of these school level resources paved the way for
privileging literacy and mathematics over science education.

• To resist marginalization, teachers activated resources by

collaborating with each other to gain a support network, and

• making time for science despite administrative pressure to spend

instruction time on literacy and mathematics.
• Spillane et al. (2001) examined how the school administration at
one urban elementary school successfully brought together
resources to enhance science instruction in a context in which core
subjects of language arts and mathematics commanded the bulk of
the resources by virtue of tradition and accountability policy.

• The results indicated that promoting change in science instruction

involved the identification and activation of resources both inside
the school through distributed leadership and outside the school
through networks with external organizations.
• Coleman (1988) and Spillane et al. (2001) claim that professional
development opportunities could be generated through external relations
• e.g. with experts from local universities serving as sources of
knowledge; external institutions and organizations providing financial
resources)

• These can play an important role by providing time for professional

development or access to money, supplies, or equipment
• i.e., material resources that promote change in teaching practices and
student learning.
• These relations also develop teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions as well
as school administrators’ leadership (i.e., human capital).

• In addition, external relations build shared understandings and collaboration to

achieve a common, school-wide goal (i.e., social capital).

• Altogether, external resources and expertise can be an important source of

stimulation.

• However, the more important point is that through the process, schools “grow”
their own internal resources as teachers increase their knowledge and build trust
and collaboration as a group.
• Gamoran et al. (2003) raised two important caveats.
• First, high levels of human and social resources can be decimated through
administrative changes and teacher turnover in a school or school district.

• Second, even when a professional development intervention succeeds in creating new

resources, this may not be enough to change classrooms directly.

• This is because teaching for understanding may require new kinds of materials, new
types of teacher knowledge and skills, and new relationships among teachers or with
administrators.

• The impact of professional development on teaching for understanding depends in

part on the availability of these resources for implementation.
Role of principal

• Principal support is an important source of school resources.

• It is critical in promoting teachers’ knowledge and skills (human

capital) and to build shared goals, collaboration, and trust among
teachers in a school

• Principal support for professional development is critical for

whole-school initiatives (Johnson, 2006, 2007).
 Relationships between school resources and teacher professional
background.

• Most beginning elementary teachers are unprepared to teach

science effectively in terms of content knowledge and teaching
practices

• Furthermore, the neediest students in urban or low performing

schools often have the least prepared teachers who are frequently
teaching out of their subject areas or without teacher certification
(Tuerk, 2005).
Conclusion

• Creating an adequate environment for science teaching is a shared

responsibility.

• Teachers lead the way in the design and use of resources

• But school administrators, students, parents, and community

members must meet their responsibility to ensure that the
resources are available to be used.
• Developing a schedule that allows time for science investigations needs
the cooperation of all in the school.

• Acquiring materials requires the appropriation of funds;

• Maintaining scientific equipment is the shared responsibility of students

and adults alike

• Designing appropriate use of the scientific institutions and resources in

the local community requires the participation of the school and those
institutions and individuals.