The Schools Around the World project: an attempt to enhance the quality of science teaching

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 1, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2000)
CHENG May Hung, May; SO Wing Mui, Winnie; CHEUNG Wing Ming, Francis
The Schools Around the World project: an attempt to enhance the quality of science teaching

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The Schools Around the World Project (SAW)
Schools Around the World: An International Study of Student Academic Work (SAW) is a five-year multi-national project, which is co-ordinated in the United Stated by an education research foundation, the Council of Basic Education (CBE) (http://www.c-b-e.org/). Other than Hong Kong and the United States, there are 7 other countries involving in this project, including Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The SAW model invites teachers across national boundaries to teach one another how to create learning environments and challenging teaching relationships that help students to attain high levels of achievement. (http://www.edc.org/CCT/saw2000/)

Instead of using curricular documents, textbooks or an one-off tests to find out standards of student achievement, SAW defines standard by engaging teachers in professional discussion about the nature of excellence and the methods of teaching. The excellence at issue is excellent students’ work. The SAW project is starting with investigations about science and biology learning, where Mathematics will be taken as the second discipline to be studied. In studying science learning in Hong Kong, the work in science of students aged around 8, 13 and 16 (which means work of some topics in General Studies for P4/P5, Integrated Science for S2 and Biology for S4/S5 students) are to be collected and analysed by teachers. Samples of student work at three different achievement levels: above, at and below standards are to be examined. With the samples of student work, teachers in each country/region discuss among themselves. Some of the selected student works are translated and made available via the SAW web site and the CD-ROMs for all the participating teachers to share, analyze, and evaluate by their international discussions. With the selected samples, teachers from different countries/regions have a solid basis of comparison for better understanding about what can be expected from students and at what levels of achievement they should hold upon their students. It is also envisaged that teachers participating in this project can share their experience in teaching with other teachers in the other parts of the world and achieve professional development.

Through the exchange and discussions, an international professional network of teachers will be built up. Teachers can work together to develop not only the local set of standards but also world-class expectations for students. The teachers' network may also sustain an on-going dialogue about whether the work represents high student achievement and what it takes to support students in pursuit of that achievement.