Developing an Engaging Science Classroom

Abstract

Taking into account the strongly decreased interest of young people in science and mathematics, this study aims to propose a new creative pedagogic approach in order for this tendency to be reversed, developed in the framework of EU project CREATIONS. The first implementation activities of this approach, addressing both students and teachers, have been already taken place and the initial results of the implementation leads to quite positive conclusions, concerning the motivation and interest in learning science

Full text

CREATIONS:
Developing an Engaging Science Classroom
Ioannis Alexopoulos1, Sofoklis Sotiriou1, Zacharoula Smyrnaiou2
Menelaos Sotiriou2, Franz Bogner3
1Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece,
2 Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Greece
3 Didactics of Biology/ Centre of Math & Science Education, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Abstract
Taking into account the strongly decreased interest of young people in science and mathematics, this
study aims to propose a new creative pedagogic approach in order for this tendency to be reversed,
developed in the framework of EU project CREATIONS. The first implementation activities of this
approach, addressing both students and teachers, have been already taken place and the initial results
of the implementation leads to quite positive conclusions, concerning the motivation and interest in
learning science
Keywords: Creativity, Inquiry Based Science Education, Art, Large Research Infrastructure
1. Introduction
The publication of the "Science Education Now: A renewed Pedagogy for the Future
of Europe" report (1) brought science and mathematics education to the top of
educational goals of the member states. The authors argue that school science
teaching needs to become more engaging, based on inquiry based and problem
solving methods and designed to meet the interests of young people. According to the
report, the origins of the alarming decline in young people’s interest for key science
studies and mathematics can be found, among other causes, in the old fashioned way
science is taught at schools. The crucial role that positive contacts with science at a
younger age have in the subsequent formation of attitudes toward science has been
emphasized in many studies (2). However, traditional formal science education too
often fails to foster these, affecting thus negatively the development of adolescents’
attitudes towards learning science. Also, as Kinchin has pointed out (3), the tension
created between objectivism (the objective teacher-centered pedagogy) and
constructivism (the constructive and student-centered pedagogy) represents a crucial
classroom issue influencing teaching and learning. The TIMSS (Third International
Mathematics and Science Study) 2003 International Science Report (4) specifically
documented that the three activities accounting for 57 percent of class time were:
teacher lecture (24%), teacher-guided student practice (19%), and students working
on problems on their own (14%) in science classes in the European countries
participating in the study. Furthermore the recent TALIS (Teaching and Learning
International Study) results (5) demonstrate that the current science classroom
learning environment is dominated by traditional pedagogies that are not able to
support the introduction of the scientific methodology. The fact is that there is a major
mismatch between opportunity and action in most education systems today. This
revolves around the meaning of "science education," a term that is often
misappropriated in the current school practice, where rather than learning how to
think scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to
remember facts (6).

This disturbing situation must be corrected if science education is to have any hope of
taking its proper place as an essential part of the education of students everywhere.
However, school practices have not changed in ways that reflect this progress.
Moreover, modern technologies (e.g. use of social networking tools, remote and
virtual labs, advanced visualizations, simulations, virtual worlds and shared
collaborative environments), which go beyond the use of simple applications and the
internet have not been fully integrated/incorporated in the current science learning
environment. According to the recent work performed in the framework of the large
scale initiative PATHWAY (7) the deeper problem in science education is one of
fundamental purpose. Schools, the authors argue, have never provided a satisfactory
education in sciences for the majority. Now the evidence is that it is failing even in its
original purpose, to provide a route into science for future scientists. The challenge
therefore, is to re-imagine science education: to consider how it can be made fit for
the modern world and how it can meet the needs of all students; those who will go on
to work in scientific and technical subjects, and those who will not.
In this framework, CREATIONS (http://creations-project.eu/) as a multinational EU
project is aiming to demonstrate innovative approaches that involve teachers and
students in Scientific Research through creative ways (from STEM to STEAM). By
basing on Arts and focusing on effective links and synergies between schools and
research infrastructures, young people’s interest in science and in following scientific
careers is expected to be affected. The project is addressing the potential impacts of
international research facilities on advancing science education, in using case studies
from one of the largest research infrastructures of the world: the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
1.1 Concept and approach
In our study a creative approach in science education is presented, in order to generate
alternative ideas and strategies within scientific enquiry as an individual or
community. Figure 1 offers an overview on this pedagogic approach. At the core of
the proposed approach are the creative scenarios and school-based activities and the
accompanying pedagogic principles. Creative science education is the main context
within which the project is developed. At the bottom of the graph arts education
philosophy and methods is positioned as a ‘holder’ within which creative science
education is being nurtured, grown or ‘encultured’ via arts practice. As we move in
towards the center of the graph, we can see that one of the main drivers for
CREATIONS creativity is possibility thinking for all involved. This means being able
to ask ‘what if’ and ‘as if’ questions such as:
 What if I/we choose to explore this scientific question rather than that one?
 What if I/we use this arts approach to help me explore my question?
As we move in another layer towards the center of the graph, we can see four key
defining features of engaging science classroom environments. These are the 4Ps of
engagement in creative science education (8):
 pluralities: opportunities for students and teachers to experiment with many
different places, activities, personal identities, and people
 possibilities: opportunities for possibility thinking, transitioning from what is to
what might be, in open possibility spaces
 participation: opportunities for students and teachers to take action, make
themselves visible on their own terms, and act as agents of change

 Playfulness: opportunities for students and teachers to learn, create and self-
create in emotionally rich, learning environments.
Figure 1. CREATIONS Approach: The graph demonstrates how the CREATIONS scenarios
support the development of a research culture in science classrooms.
We then come closer to the heart of the CREATIONS graph and find WHC (wise
humanizing creativity) and LDS (living dialogic space). The WHC that is being
sought in CREATIONS is not only an individual activity, but also happens in
collaboration with fellow learners, teachers and other adult professionals (artists,
researchers). These individual and collaborative creative activities form part of a
wider web of ethically-guided communal interaction geared towards both helping
children and young people become more creative scientists and assisting teachers in
becoming more creative in how they teach science. For this reason WHC is positioned
very close to the heart of the CREATIONS graph as it is one of the core aims of the
CREATIONS pedagogic principles. Alongside and integrated with WHC, is LDS,
always a partner to WHC in terms of conceptualizing ideas and developing practice.
Again LDS is at the heart of the CREATIONS graph because its methods
(participation, emancipation, working bottom up, debate and difference, openness to
action, partiality, and acknowledging embodied and verbal modes of knowing) are
fundamental to allowing WHC to happen. Chappell et al (9), have evidenced the
importance of dialogue at the heart of engaged, creative learning in the arts and it is
this kind of dialogue that has been highlighted and applied within the CREATIONS
approach. Via these processes the aim is to develop creative young scientists and
creative science teaching pedagogies. Embedded within this is the vitally important
notion that students and teachers are creating wisely and humanely, and that cyclical
developments occur between their creativity and their identity. As they generate new

ideas; this in turn generates change in them as ‘makers’; they are also developing or
‘becoming’ themselves. Slowly, small changes accumulate to contribute to ‘journeys
of becoming’ (shown developing across the layers in Figure 1). These individual
journeys accumulate together, embedded within an ethical awareness of the impact of
creative actions on the group. Through this process small-scale creative changes or
‘quiet revolutions’ can take place for the group as a whole (shown as emerging from
the heart of the CREATIONS activity).
1.2 CREATIONS Demonstrators
The implementation of the described pedagogic approach highlights and promotes
best practices in introducing scientific work in science classrooms. The aim was to
offer to the teachers, who will be involved in the project activities, a variety of
resources that is arranged so that it does not impose a fixed curriculum, but instead
supports the development of a model that can be customized to reflect location,
culture and ideology. These initiatives are implemented the last years in CERN, but
also in numerous schools in Europe and they have proven their efficiency as practices
that introduce the scientific methodology in the science classroom.
In the framework of the project we enrich these initiatives with the proposed creative
approach in order to increase the utility of them through coordination, systematic
dissemination and effective teachers’ community building. The CREATIONS
Demonstrators that emerged are treated as case and will be disseminated in different
environments (teachers’ preparation and professional development institutions,
schools, science and research centers) across Europe during the life cycle of the
project, in order for this pedagogic approach to be tested. The process of observing
and reflecting on teachers actions, and on students' learning and thinking, can lead to
changes in the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and ultimately the school everyday
practice. A short description of demonstrators which lying on the core of the
CREATIONS pedagogic approach follows:
Art@CMS is an education and outreach initiative of the CMS experiment at CERN
that seeks to act as an inspiring springboard for engaging the public in general, and
youth in particular, in the excitement of scientific research in High Energy Physics. In
2014 Art@CMS events and workshops have been taken place in 7 countries involving
more than 700 students.
CERN virtual visits. CERN in cooperation with the European initiative Open
Discover Space (portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu) is offering the opportunity to school
students to perform a virtual field trip to CERN experiments. Students virtually
guided through the research infrastructure, communicate with scientists in their
mother language, ask questions, and learn about the research work at CERN. More
than 50 virtual visits were organized in 2014 involving more than 10,000 students
from different European countries.
HYPATIA analysis tool enables high schools students together with their teachers to
study the fundamental particles of matter and their interactions, through examining
the graphic visualization/display of the products of particle collisions at LHC world's
most powerful particle accelerator. These products are "events" detected by the
ATLAS experiment.
Write a Science Opera (WASO) is a creative approach to inquiry-based music and
science education in which students of different ages, supported by teachers, opera

artists and scientists are the creators of an educational performance. The WASO
concept was developed at Stord/Haugesund University College (Norway) as well as
the Royal Opera House (London)’s Education department.
Taking into consideration the described framework in this study we investigate:
Can creative teaching scenarios, such as CREATIONS Demonstrators, improve the
motivation and interest in learning science?
2. Setting of the study
A common framework was created for the design and development of a series of
demonstrators that introduce effectively scientific methodology and culture in science
classrooms. For each one of these demonstrators an on line created in the Open
discovery space platform (http://www.opendiscoveryspace.eu/ ), in order to support
users of the demonstrators. Moreover it is requested for every new demonstrator, an
on line support community to be developed. Such communities act as a context of
cooperation within and between schools, universities, research institutions, artists and
encourage development and evaluation of instruction, exchange of ideas and best
practices, providing at the same time support and stimulation from research.
Figure 2. The map of the support online communities of the initial CREATIONS Demonstrators
The CREATIONS Project includes large-scale pilots of a variety of activities to be
implemented in local, national or international level in numerous countries.
2.1 Implementation activities
The first implementation activities witch based on a set of different CREATIONS
demonstrators are the 6-days teachers international training course held in
Marathonas and the students 5-days national summer school held in Messini Greece,
both during July.
In teachers training Course, 17 teachers took part from from 6 European countries
(Greece, Estonia, Sweden, Croatia, Finland & Switzerland). The course aimed to

present to the teachers innovative approaches and activities that involve students in
Scientific Research through creative ways that are based on Art. The course included
lectures, workshops and activities concerning: The CREATIONS pedagogical
framework, creative approaches to teach and communicate science, the science
concept of neutrino particle detection particles which had to be communicated via the
Science Operatic performance, composition/use of music in a learning activity, how
to write a Science opera, the management of a large scale learning activity involving
art and science, etc.
Concerning the case of students summer school, 50 high school students participated
from all over Greece. Main aim of the summer school was to introduce the students
in complex science topics such as universe evolution, Higgs boson, gravitational
waves, neutrino telescopes and in the same time by using art enhance the creative
thinking of students. To this end the students visited NESTOR institute at Pylos, as
well as make a virtual visit to ATLAS experiment at CERN. Furthermore they
conducted lab exercises which simulated the detection techniques of elementary
particles etc. Participate in science café. Moreover they learn to use creative
approaches in order to communicate science concept All this acquired knowledge
from the activities mentioned above, was used by the students in order to design 5
science stories and perform relevant short plays.
2.2 Data collection and analysis
2.2.1 Teachers training course
A quantitative approach with questionnaires was implemented, as well as qualitative
approach with interviews was realized. Specifically 15 out of 17 teachers completed a
pre-test before participation and a post-test afterwards. The questionnaires included
questions concerning demographical data, participants’ science motivation and
technology interest. More over 14 participants were interviewed about their
expectations of the training course and their personality as a teacher during the course.
2.2.2 Students summer school
The methodology employed to analyze scientific data gathered from the theatrical
performances in the summer programme of Messini, constitutes a merging of
qualitative and quantitative analysis (10). The data were analyzed and classified into
categories. This categorization took into consideration the theoretical framework of
the analysis along the empirical evidence gathered from the theatrical plays performed
by students. Student representation of scientific concept and the production of
scientific meaning was studied using 3 categories.
 Embodied Learning
 Multiple representational systems (verbal, embodied, digital, kinesthetic
representation, elements of Art)
 Analogical Reasoning
Each category is further divided into subcategories/ properties which are connected to
basic features of embodied learning, of multiple systems of symbols, of analogical
reasoning.

3. Initial results and discussion
Preliminary findings based on a data analysis from Creations 6-days teachers training
course show that the creative approach of the course and the new ways of teaching
and learning were inspiring for them and increase their interest in learning science.
Furthermore the participants stated that they want to take part again in training like
this, in order to learn new innovative learning methods and different demonstrators.
Concerning the findings from the students’ 5-days summer school, we can reach the
conclusion that students’ interest and motivation in science was quite increased after
the summer school. Indicatively, one of Student that participated in the course a
student who completed the first year of senior high school stated: “My participation in
the summer school was one of the best experiences in my life!”. Students employed
scientific concepts in all of the plays. As far as the representation of scientific concept
and the creation of meaning are concerned, students seemed understand all sub-
elements and basic characteristics of each concept. They managed to render the
general meaning of the concepts and to explain simple scientific terminology. It is
significant to mention that students were able to use simple language to explain
scientific terminology at the same time they were using this terminology provided
they had understood the scientific concept in question. In most cases, they used
simple everyday objects, which verify that they gained, built and appropriated
knowledge. This means that they managed to successfully connect newly gained
knowledge with everyday life and to use it in an everyday environment
Furthermore both training courses seems to managed to combine teaching about
Science with creativity and Art, offering a new way of approaching these cognitive
areas. Overall the first findings from the existing data and the positive reactions so far
of the students and teachers involved, allow us to estimate that the whole process will
enhance students’ motivation in science and also their creativity. We will be able to
provide more details on this subject mutter during the conference.
4. Acknowledgments
This study has been developed in the framework of the HORIZON 2020 project
CREATIONS (Grant Agreement 665917).
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Accessed on 9/2016