preparation time, national examinations, pupils’ experience with ICT and IBSE,
availability of equipment and software) were not excellent but sufficient. Meanwhile, the Slovak school conditions were insufficient, and the Vietnamese conditions
were very poor. Third, the Vietnamese and Slovak participants were experienced
teachers, but their ICT-mastery entrance level was low. The Dutch participants had
more experience with the ICT tools and felt freer to decide their own lesson
objectives and teaching methods. However, they lacked teaching experience, especially classroom management skills. Vietnamese teachers work in an education
system with a strong hierarchical culture and much less autonomy than in the
Dutch system. Lessons are teacher-centred and there is no tradition of open learner
investigations in secondary school and teacher education. All three groups of
participants lacked practical experience with inquiry teaching with or without ICT,
so ICT in IBSE teaching was challenging for them. For all three versions of the
course, diversity of participants and time constraints were challenging contextual
factors.
Across the three case studies, the awareness and motivation objectives of the ICT
in IBSE course were achieved as expected. The participants could enumerate
relevant benefits of the ICT tools. They devised plans and continued studying the
ICT tools and teaching ICT in IBSE lessons after the course. About the ICT-mastery
objective, all three groups of participants were able to operate the Coach tool fluently
after the course. Compared with the Dutch participants, the Vietnamese participants
attained a higher mastery level for the chosen tool, and the Slovak participants
achieved a similar ICT mastery but with all three ICT tools. This shows effectiveness
of the many more contact hours with direct, personalised support scheduled for the
ICT-mastery objective to compensate for the low ICT entrance of the Slovak and
Vietnamese participants.
About the ICT in IBSE objective, all three groups of participants were able to
design and realise acceptable ICT in IBSE lessons considering their teaching
conditions and their inexperience with inquiry teaching with ICT. The Dutch
participants could design and realise better ICT in IBSE lessons than the Slovak
and Vietnamese participants. Many Dutch participants were able to engage pupils in
designing experiments or models and predicting and interpreting results as expected.
Meanwhile, the Slovak and Vietnamese participants focused too much on pupils’
execution of experiments or models (manipulation of equipment and software) and
did not sufficiently involve pupils in moving back and forth between the physical
and theoretical worlds (manipulation of ideas and concepts). Most Slovak and
Vietnamese participants intended to take control over the entire classroom activity
through plenary systematic explanations and/or prescriptive worksheets for the
group work. In contrast, in half of the Dutch ICT in IBSE lesson plans, pupils
were required to take a larger role in conception, planning and interpretation of the
experiment/model in more-open inquiry patterns. This shows a clear difference in
teacher/pupil centeredness and education culture among the three countries.
Although familiar with theory of IBSE, all three groups of participants had
trouble to operationalise real inquiry in lesson plans and even more so in the
classroom. There were many deviations between intended and actual ICT in IBSE
12 Stem, Inquiry Practices and Technology in Physics Education
155
availability of equipment and software) were not excellent but sufficient. Meanwhile, the Slovak school conditions were insufficient, and the Vietnamese conditions
were very poor. Third, the Vietnamese and Slovak participants were experienced
teachers, but their ICT-mastery entrance level was low. The Dutch participants had
more experience with the ICT tools and felt freer to decide their own lesson
objectives and teaching methods. However, they lacked teaching experience, especially classroom management skills. Vietnamese teachers work in an education
system with a strong hierarchical culture and much less autonomy than in the
Dutch system. Lessons are teacher-centred and there is no tradition of open learner
investigations in secondary school and teacher education. All three groups of
participants lacked practical experience with inquiry teaching with or without ICT,
so ICT in IBSE teaching was challenging for them. For all three versions of the
course, diversity of participants and time constraints were challenging contextual
factors.
Across the three case studies, the awareness and motivation objectives of the ICT
in IBSE course were achieved as expected. The participants could enumerate
relevant benefits of the ICT tools. They devised plans and continued studying the
ICT tools and teaching ICT in IBSE lessons after the course. About the ICT-mastery
objective, all three groups of participants were able to operate the Coach tool fluently
after the course. Compared with the Dutch participants, the Vietnamese participants
attained a higher mastery level for the chosen tool, and the Slovak participants
achieved a similar ICT mastery but with all three ICT tools. This shows effectiveness
of the many more contact hours with direct, personalised support scheduled for the
ICT-mastery objective to compensate for the low ICT entrance of the Slovak and
Vietnamese participants.
About the ICT in IBSE objective, all three groups of participants were able to
design and realise acceptable ICT in IBSE lessons considering their teaching
conditions and their inexperience with inquiry teaching with ICT. The Dutch
participants could design and realise better ICT in IBSE lessons than the Slovak
and Vietnamese participants. Many Dutch participants were able to engage pupils in
designing experiments or models and predicting and interpreting results as expected.
Meanwhile, the Slovak and Vietnamese participants focused too much on pupils’
execution of experiments or models (manipulation of equipment and software) and
did not sufficiently involve pupils in moving back and forth between the physical
and theoretical worlds (manipulation of ideas and concepts). Most Slovak and
Vietnamese participants intended to take control over the entire classroom activity
through plenary systematic explanations and/or prescriptive worksheets for the
group work. In contrast, in half of the Dutch ICT in IBSE lesson plans, pupils
were required to take a larger role in conception, planning and interpretation of the
experiment/model in more-open inquiry patterns. This shows a clear difference in
teacher/pupil centeredness and education culture among the three countries.
Although familiar with theory of IBSE, all three groups of participants had
trouble to operationalise real inquiry in lesson plans and even more so in the
classroom. There were many deviations between intended and actual ICT in IBSE
12 Stem, Inquiry Practices and Technology in Physics Education
155