Schools are increasingly integrating multidisciplinary education into their programmes. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has introduced a new, integrated science subject in secondary education in the Netherlands, called Nature, Life and Technology (NLT). This research note describes the design of a generic model for a professional development programme to prepare teachers with and assist them during the implementation of a multidisciplinary science module. Three sources were used for this design: subject features including school practices, the curriculum design phases, and professional development characteristics, in combination with three factors influencing the quality of the professional development: context, process and content. These sources and factors have been translated into a generic model. Three experts evaluated this generic model: a teacher trainer who was also involved in the development of NLT modules; a biology and NLT teacher who was also involved in a regional NLT information centre; and a chemistry and NLT teacher. Overall, the experts were positive. They judged 12 out of 13 aspects of the model as sufficient or better. They were, however, critical about the issue of whether the model offers sufficient possibilities for participants to familiarise themselves with new subject content knowledge.

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To improve the writing performance of secondary school students in chemistry assessments, a set of activities was developed. First, through document analysis of written tests, five categories of frequent mistakes in answers were identified: poor punctuation (capital letters, periods), missing key answer components (omitting concepts necessary to answer the question), incomplete reasoning (logical steps are missing), unclear use of antecedents (meanings of pronouns such as “it” are difficult to discern), and poor connectives (words like “because” are lacking or used incorrectly). After this, five strategies were formulated: focus on punctuation, repeat key question components, show complete reasoning, minimize use of references, and check use of connectives. Second, a two-part intervention study was conducted. In Part A, a written prompt (arrow symbol with the word “LANGUAGE”) placed in front of context-based questions was implemented to find out if that could help students avoid making any of those mistakes. Following promising effects on the performance of 99 students, the intervention was extended with a Part B to find out if, in addition to the prompt, bonus points (for each prompt question one bonus point was awarded if the answer was formulated correctly in terms of language use) and language support (prompt card listing the five strategies, and supportive assignments) could be of extra help to students. The findings suggest that the writing performance of students can be improved by increasing students’ awareness through a simple written prompt, providing language support, and awarding bonus points for properly formulated answers to chemistry test questions.

Chemical bonding is an important topic which is difficult to teach well, especially for novices. This study set out to support preservice teacher educators by developing of a framework for...

This study aims to evaluate a professional development programme that prepares and assists teachers with the implementation of a multidisciplinary science module, basing the evaluation on participants' reactions, the first level of Guskey"s five-level model for evaluation (2002). Positive evaluations at the higher levels in Guskey's model are thought to depend upon those at the first level, that is, teachers' positive appreciation for the professional development programme. Different instruments (questionnaires, e-mail correspondence, and interviews) were used at various stages in the four-part professional development programme. The data were categorised by the stage in the programme to which they pertained: individual preparation; preparation seminar; online support; or reflection meeting. The data from all participating teachers were combined in word tables, with some parts paraphrased in a few sentences. In general, the teachers were satisfied with the professional development programme. This paper identifies several elements that ensure teacher satisfaction in the multidisciplinary professional development programme, indicates which are the difficult elements of this programme, and suggests how these difficulties can be handled in such a programme.

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