Abstract

There is a distance between the power that whole class dialogic discussions (WCDD) may offer to the science class and their use in practice. Teachers' attitudes toward WCDD are part of the problem. The aims of this study were twofold: (a) to examine Taiwanese physics teachers' attitudes toward WCDD by considering cultural perspectives and describe how these attitudes changed as a result of a special workshop designed for this purpose, and (b) to report on how these attitudes should be taken into account in designing such workshops in the future. Nine experienced physics teachers participated in the WCDD workshop. The workshop was based on the WCDD model developed by Eshach (2010). Inductive analyses were performed on interviews with the teachers and their students, which were composed of 36 questions and developed specially for the purpose of this study, yielded the following categories: (1) In-school reasons for opposing WCDD--reasons belonging to school ways/tradition of teaching that may cause barriers to WCDD implementation; (2) External Factors--cultural reasons relating to Taiwanese views concerning education in general, which cause barriers to WCDD implementation; and (3) Cognitive aspect--refers to what teachers know about WCDD. The paper concludes with a discussion on what should be done in order to successfully bring WCDD to the Taiwanese physics class.

Citation

Eshach, H., Wu, H.K., Hwang, F.K. & Hsu, Y.S. (2014). Whole Class Dialogic Discussion Meets Taiwan's Physics Teachers: Attitudes and Culture. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 23(1), 183-197. Retrieved November 29, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/168236/.

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Keywords

• barriers
• Conventional Instruction
• Cultural Influences
• Discussion (Teaching Technique)
• faculty development
• Foreign Countries
• Interviews
• Knowledge Base for Teaching
• Large Group Instruction
• physics
• Science Instruction
• science teachers
• student attitudes
• teacher attitudes
• teaching methods
• Workshops