© The Authors, LUMEN Conference Center & LUMEN Proceedings.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
15th Edition of the International Conference on Sciences of Education,
Studies and Current Trends in Science of Education, ICSED 2017,
9-10 June 2017, Suceava (Romania)
Studies and Current Trends in
Science of Education
Responsible Research and Innovation in
Science Teaching - Romanian Teachers’
Reflections Expressed in an On-line Course
Organized on edX Environment
Laura Monica, GORGHIU, Ana-Maria Aurelia, PETRESCU, Crinela,
DUMITRESCU
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.20
How to cite: Gorghiu, L. M., & Petrescu, A.-M., & Dumitrescu, C. (2017). Responsible
Research and Innovation in Science Teaching - Romanian Teachers’ Reflections
Expressed in an On-line Course Organized on edX Environment. Clipa (ed.), Studies and
Current Trends in Science of Education (pp. 187-195). Suceava, Romania: LUMEN
Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.20
https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.icsed2017.20
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
Responsible Research and Innovation in Science
Teaching - Romanian Teachers’ Reflections
Expressed in an On-line Course Organized on
edX Environment
Laura Monica, GORGHIU
1
, Ana-Maria Aurelia, PETRESCU
2
,
Crinela DUMITRESCU
3
Abstract
Even the Responsible Research and Innovation (hereafter RRI) concept is not yet clarified at the
scientific literature level, it is more and more frequency used, being promoted in the European
Union policies (Owen et al, 2012) and programs in Science and beyond (Owen et al, 2013). At
the educational level, RRI refers mainly to the idea that the future EU citizens have to possess the
necessary skills to manage complex issues related to emerging technologies, and more, they are
sufficiently informed about how science works. In the context of achieving of those educational goals,
European Union funded - since 2014 - a big number of European projects, in order to bring closer
research and innovation results to the large public. The FP7 ENGAGE Project (Equipping the
Next Generation for Active Engagement in Science Equipping the Next Generation) is one of
those approved projects that started in January 2014 and lasts till March 2017.This paper
emphasizes our findings concerning the teachers’ reflections about challenges and prospects related to
implementation of RRI specific aspects in Science lessons, collected at the end of the 1
st
edition of
the on-line course entitled "Methods of promoting RRI dimensions in Science Education". This
course was organized in an on-line format, through the edX environment, by Valahia University
of Targoviste, in November-December 2015.
Keywords: interactive-participative teaching strategies, on-line courses,
investigation, dilemma lessons, ENGAGE project.
1
Assoc. Prof. Ph.D., Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Valahia University Targoviste,
Targoviste, ROMANIA, lgorghiu@gmail.com.
2
Lecturer Ph.D., Teacher Training Department, Valahia University Targoviste, Targoviste,
ROMANIA, anapetrescu2007@yahoo.com.
3
Assoc. Prof. Ph.D., Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Valahia University Targoviste,
Targoviste, ROMANIA, dumitrescucrinela@yahoo.com.
Otilia CLIPA (editor)
188
1. Introduction
Starting from the general context of responsible research and
innovation, it can be said that any approach and innovation research should
be done in the context of researcher’s ownership of social and individual
responsibilities. This means that research and innovation have to meet a
series of ethical, moral and social principles, to be beneficial not only for the
society as a whole, but also for each individual, to take always into
consideration the ratio of benefits and risks, to contribute to human
progress and to be subordinated to positive purposes.
At the macro level, RRI consists of designing and implementing
research and innovation policies that lead to: hiring the society in research
and innovation; increasing the access to scientific results; ensuring gender
equality in the research area; providing an ethics of researcher / research,
and in compliance with current laws relating to ethics; promoting science
education at formal and non-formal levels.
According to the Horizon 2020 initiative launched by European
Commission in 2014 (Horizon 2020, 2014), RRI is the core of several
European projects meant to make connection between Science and Society.
It is supposed that Horizon 2020 framework “will promote a transparent
engagement of citizens and civil society in research and innovation matters
by promoting science education, facilitating access to scientific knowledge by
developing research agendas and innovation” (Kulcițki, 2012).
2. Responsible Research and Innovation and ENGAGE Project
However, trying to promote RRI at the educational level, European
Union have financed since 2013 a series of FP7 projects in the Science-in-
Society Programme - topic SiS.2013.2.2.1-1: Raising youth awareness to
Responsible Research and Innovation through Inquiry Based Science Education. One of
those funded projects is the ENGAGE Project (Equipping the Next Generation
for Active Engagement in Science Equipping the Next Generation -
www.engagingscience.eu), a three year project started in January 2014, with
a partnership consisted of 14 institutions from 13 countries (Shelbourne et
al., 2014).
The main goal of the ENGAGE project is focused on the training of
the next generation of students, by changing the way of teaching and
learning Science. The partner institutions came with creative solutions to
make Science lessons more attractive, by promoting different interactive -
teaching strategies, based on investigation of reality, identifying and testing
Studies and current trends in science of education
189
alternative solutions for solving different problems, meant to teach students
to think critically, apply their knowledge and take responsible decisions
based on the acquired information. In order to achieve those goals on
students’ level, the partnership had first to develop continuous development
programmes for teachers, in face-to-face or on-line format. The ENGAGE
materials designed by the partnership have been introduced during those
training programmes and the possibilities of using different interactive -
participatory teaching strategies were discussed with the participants. All the
ENGAGE materials start from identifying a problematic situation (dilemma)
that students may face in their real life and based on the information sources
they need to find rational solutions, by using their scientific and socio-moral
knowledge. Figure 1 shows the way of including RRI dimensions in
ENGAGE training units.
Fig. 1. Inclusion of RRI Aspects in the ENGAGE Units
In order to be very attractive for the students, the ENGAGE units
have been designed starting from news appeared in the media concerning
real scientific controversies. Different other scientific information was added
in order to assure the reliability and validity of evidences. Concerning the
technology needed for up-taking the training units, each of them invite
students to make a probability and risks evaluation or a cost-benefit analysis.
In terms of values, all the ENGAGE materials include aspects related to
ethical perspectives or impact on social and economic environment. By
inviting the students to take decisions for solving the raised problems, the
units designed in the project learn students how to structure their
argumentation and to participate to an effective communication related to
the proposed problem.
RRI in ENGAGE Units
EVIDENCES
Information
Sources (MEDIA)
Reliability and
Validity
TECHNOLOGY
Probability
and Risks
Cost-Benefit
Analysis
VALUES
Ethical
Perspectives
Purpose
Social/Economic
ARGUMENTATION
Effective
communication
Argument
Structure
RRI in ENGAGE Units
EVIDENCES
Information
Sources (MEDIA)
Reliability and
Validity
TECHNOLOGY
Probability
and Risks
Cost-Benefit
Analysis
VALUES
Ethical
Perspectives
Purpose
Social/Economic
ARGUMENTATION
Effective
communication
Argument
Structure
Otilia CLIPA (editor)
190
3. Purpose of the Study
The present study was focused on obtaining the teachers’ feedback
before and after their participation to the 1
st
edition of the course entitled:
“Methods of promoting RRI dimensions in Science Education”. The course was
organized by Valahia University Targoviste in an on-line format, through
edX environment, during November-December 2015. The target group was
formed by 58 in-service and pre-service Science teachers from Romania. To
obtain the teachers’ reflections about challenges and possibilities to
implement the RRI aspects in ordinary Science lessons, the research
methodology was a mixed-type: qualitative and quantitative. The methods
and tools included questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews.
4. Results and discussions
For adapting the content of the course to the participants’
experience in teaching Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Sciences), the
ENGAGE team inserted a question in the survey designed to be fulfilled in
the beginning of the course. The situation concerning this aspect is
illustrated in figure 2 and showed us that the group is split in two main
groups - a beginning one and an experienced one. This cause a problematic
situation for the organizers, who had to think about how to present the
content of the course and adapt to the teaching experience of the
participants. Moreover, since the ENGAGE units have as a core a problem
investigation, another question related to the participants’ experience was
oriented on the using of Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) in their
ordinary lessons. Figure 3 emphasizes that 27% of participants have not
experienced the using of IBSE in Science lessons, since they never or rarely
used this teaching strategy. In addition, a big part of the group (64%) have
not so much experience since they used only sometimes this strategy.
The core of the units designed by the ENGAGE partnership is a
“dilemma” connected with curricula from the Science area. Due to the fact
that about 64% of participants reported - as figure 4 shows - that they did
not used dilemma before (never/rarely) in their classroom, the organizers
decided to introduce in the content of the course a theoretical frame related
to this teaching method and the possibilities to be applied in connection
with different topics present in the regular curricula of Science. Things like
the criteria that must be met to create a good dilemma, with examples
presented in the ENGAGE units help the participants to understand how to
create a dilemma and teach a certain topic from curricula through this
