Networking school teachers to promote better practice in the teaching of science across Europe

Abstract

Teachers are often confined to their classrooms with limited or no time to share with colleagues the difficulties they face, their concerns, and their successful initiatives. This leads to a situation where they end up teaching in ways and approaches they believe to be best with no chance to know how others may be approaching similar difficulties in different and potentially more effective ways. Teachers do not have the opportunity to share and collaborate on projects with other education professionals, as their daily routine confines them to their school premises. This article discusses how the Comenius 3 project ‘Hands on Science’ has helped to create a network through which regular meetings in the forms of conferences on science for teachers were and are still organised to promote good practice in science teaching. The method used for connecting so many teachers across Europe was through key persons strategically chosen across the different partner countries. The conferences organised by the network differed from academic conferences in that they provided a platform for teachers to share their successes in teaching different aspects of science, particularly through the promotion of the use of experiments and other hands on approaches.