It Takes a Village: Including Diversity of Pupils’ Needs in Science Classes

Abstract

Science teaching for promoting inclusion (Step-IN) project is Teacher Development Agency (TDA) funded collaboration between a secondary school and a higher education institute. This project was based on a collaborative research philosophy to promote inclusive science teaching using evidence-based teaching strategies. The purpose of this continued professional development (CPD) project was to create the space for science teachers to identify potential inclusion issues in their classes and to develop strategies to tackle such issues. The CPD model included peer-collaboration and evidence-based reasoning about inclusive science teaching. This CPD experience was perceived to be an unequivocally positive one for the teachers. Inclusion of teacher’s voices, developing their own CPD agenda, was found to be one of the major findings of the project.

Keywords

• Continued professional development
• Science teaching
• Inclusion