CONNECT identified both drivers and barriers for students and teachers in open schooling, with the aim of overcoming these obstacles to enhance science education and make it more inclusive and engaging.
The main drivers and the main barriers which were identified related to students’ views about science education supported by open schooling:
Drivers:
● The number of students with positive science capital increased in three dimensions, primarily related to ‘how they think’, ‘what they know’, and ‘who they know’.
● Compared to baseline findings, there are more students who have positive views of the value of science to their lives and society. 80% think that Science, Technology, and Maths are important for solving world problems.
● Science for the students is related to health, research, discovery, invention, knowledge, intelligence, sustainability, innovation, curiosity, experimentation, evolution, development, technology, earth and the universe.
● They identified various world issues that could be solved through science, such as COVID, other diseases, climate change, carbon emissions, deforestation and biodiversity loss, pollution, poverty, health, food security, and the economy.
Barriers:
● After lockdowns and the return to school, some students (44%) are not as active in science projects outside school (e.g. at home, in the neighbourhood) as before. However, at least 65% feel confident about doing science projects with others and also with their knowledge in science (67%).
● In terms of epistemic beliefs about how they learn, 50% of students agreed with the statement that learning science is about memorising terms and equations, but 37% thought that knowing the correct answer is more important that knowing how they reached it.
● In terms of science identity, the number of students that consider ‘science is for them” increased by 20% compared to phase 1. 63% considered science enjoyable and 62% considered it fun, whilst 39% would like to be seen as an expert in science and 43% would like a job that uses science.
Similarly the main drivers and barriers for teachers were identified.
Key Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Amplify curriculum resources and engagement strategies to promote open schooling adoption. The evidence showed that meaningful curriculum resources and engagement strategies significantly improved students' self-concept and self-efficacy in science, which suggests that expanding these resources could facilitate wider adoption of open schooling practices.
Recommendation 2: Strengthen open schooling partnerships through community and family engagement. The project demonstrated that multilingual platforms and resources that include families lead to more effective learning experiences linked to research and innovation.
Recommendation 3: Enhance inclusivity in science careers. CONNECT aimed to make science careers more inclusive, which is evidenced by the development of the Open Schooling Declaration and the positive experiences provided to disadvantaged students.
Recommendation 4: Support teacher confidence and adaptability under curriculum pressures. The findings revealed that the CARE-KNOW-DO model boosted teachers' confidence, particularly in integrating real-world issues and facilitating discussions.
Recommendation 5: Address the barriers to student engagement in science outside of school. Despite less engagement in science activities outside of school, CONNECT findings indicate that many students remained confident in their scientific knowledge and abilities.
