Biology Teachers Designing Context-Based Lessons for Their Classroom Practice-The importance of rules-of-thumb

Abstract

In science education in the Netherlands new, context-based, curricula are being developed. As in any innovation, the outcome will largely depend on the teachers who design and implement lessons. Central to the study presented here is the idea that teachers, when designing lessons, use rules-of-thumb: notions of what a lesson should look like if certain classroom outcomes are to be reached. Our study aimed at (1) identifying the rules-of-thumb biology teachers use when designing context-based lessons for their own classroom practice, and (2) assessing how these personal rules-of-thumb relate to formal innovative goals and lesson characteristics. Six biology teachers with varying backgrounds d..