DETERMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A DESIGN–BASED, CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS

both projects, teachers are guided towards new approaches to science teaching using a 3-stage implementation model project, teacher self-developed, teaching modules the teaching approach. These were based on a philosophy, identified as ‘Education through Abstract. This research examined the effectiveness of a design-based, continuous professional development (CPD) programme intended to promote teachers’ self-confidence and teaching reflection skills. The CPD was associated with teacher implementation of theoretically devised, motivational, context-based, inquiry teaching modules, based on a justified 3-stage teaching model. The CPD programme was devised from prior identi-fication of teacher needs, using a validated teacher questionnaire (TNQ) covering subject and pedagogical content knowledge, as well as other literature-identified, desirable teaching attributes. The effectiveness of the CPD provision was determined through two approaches - by re-administering the TNQ at the end of the programme and identifying significant self-confidence gains through application of the K-means clustering tech-nique, and was also by the range of teacher reflections in, on and for action, provided by teachers after using modules in their teaching. Each teacher’s reflections were qualitatively grouped, based on comments made during a semi-structured interview about the teaching, opinions on students’ learning and attitudinal outcomes. Findings suggested a strong correlation between teaching confidence gained from the CPD programme and the range of identified types of reflective skills mentioned during the interview, which provided the depth of feedback related to classroom teaching in implementing the modules. This research was carried out to determine the effectiveness of a teacher CPD programme carried out within a European Commission project (PROFILES), based on teacher self-identified needs, to promote competence-based science teaching through the use of a teaching/learning modules, based on the 3-stage model. For this research, 16 teaching modules were utilised, or created, by teachers for use in the CPD programme, which extended over a 1 year period covering 40 contact hours. reflections supported the opinion that the CPD was effective in raising the self-confidence of the participating teachers to motivate students and use student-centred, inquiry-based learning. For the science teachers taking part in this research study, the most difficult stage in the 3-stage model is the last (de-contextualisation), where the aim is developing students’ argumentation skills and decision-making techniques, as components of higher order learning skills associated with the promotion of a competence-based science teaching approach. Findings suggest a strong correlation between the teacher’s self-reported confidence following the CPD and the range of identified types and levels of reflective feedback, based on classroom teaching in implementing the 3-stage teaching/learning modules. The high self-confident teachers are able to give a greater number and a wider range of reflective comments. They exhibit the ability to analyse the situation, summarise the value of their actions and identify and analyse patterns, plus link theory and practice. This contrasted with the lower self-confident teachers who gave less reflective comments especially related to the decision making, 3-stage model and how to deal with perceived future teaching issues. The gains by the top self-confidence cluster group of teachers and the high range of reflective comments made related to prior preparation operation and future changes point to the effectiveness of the CPD.