Is it possible to reach a sustainable change in Science Teaching at primary schools? A plan for achieving it

Abstract

One of the great challenges of recent decades, which has been the subject of much debate and research, is how to bridge the gap between science education research and school practice. To address this issue, we have reviewed and analysed in depth the characteristics that in-service teacher training programmes should have in order to be effective and of high quality. In this paper, we present a professional development programme to achieve the desired didactic change in science teaching at schools. This programme is organized into phases that can be evaluated by measurable indicators to determine its success or failure. In addition, in order to assess the sustainability of change in a school (or group of teachers), we have incorporated the theory of critical mass in social change, which has received recent empirical support.