Online LS with Biology and Physics Preservice Teachers: First Results and Food for Thought

Abstract

Implementing LS in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is not as common or easy as its use within groups of teachers. The sanitary situation made it more complex. An interdisciplinary LS including preservice high-school Biology and Physics teachers was implemented. Each LS group contained at least one Biologist and one Physicist. They were set to work on a lesson or double lesson that would deal with either energy or evolution, and would look at both sides of the topic, making it teachable both in a Biology and a Physics class. Lockdown happening just after the first meeting prevented the lessons to be taught and observed live. However, as shown by other research (Wang et al., 2021; Goei et al., 2021), rich discussions about the lessons took place when the students presented their work to their colleagues online. The purpose of this presentation is to lay before you the problems and good bits of the experience, and discuss the possible evolutions in the future, because zoom meetings have become part of our lives. Our results show that online LS without the live research lesson doesn’t allow LS to show its full professional development potential. However, apart from the predictable logistical issues, a lot of positive findings were made: the limits to which co-operation was pushed were furthered, practical tools for teaching were developed, links between Biology and Physics, unexpected for the students, were discovered, and a master’s thesis about the work was written.