NISMED staff receives International Publication Award

Ms. Sally B. Gutierez, a member of the Elementary School Science Group received an International Publication Award (IPA) from the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs for two of her papers published in Scopus-indexed international journals. This award is given to all faculty members and REPS of UP who are authors of an international peer-reviewed (Thomson Reuters-listed [formerly ISI] or SCOPUS-listed) publications. Project researchers and thesis students who work on UP projects and indicate UP as their affiliation in their publications are also eligible for the IPA.

Ms. Sally B. Gutierez poses with the journal copy where her article was published

The first paper titled “Integrating Socio-Scientific Issues to Enhance the Bioethical Decision-Making Skills of High School Students,” was published in the journal International Education Studies of the Canadian Center of Science and Education in January 2015. The paper explored the focal points and the teaching models of the ethical dimensions of socio-scientific issues and how these may be integrated in science lessons to enhance the critical thinking and decision-making processes of students. It was stressed in the paper that the exposure of students to a constructive argumentation on socio-scientific issues provided opportunities for the students to actively evaluate both the advantages and disadvantages of science in their lives.

In May, the second paper titled “Collaborative Professional Learning through Lesson Study: Identifying the Challenges of Inquiry-based Teaching” was published in the journal Issues in Educational Research of the Australia's Institutes for Educational Research in New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia, and Western Australia. The paper showed how lesson study was able to identify the current challenges of inquiry-based teaching and that through the collaborative processes of planning, implementation, observation, post-reflection and discussions (PRDs), these challenges may be gradually minimized, thereby, developing the necessary components of an effective inquiry-based lesson. Data for this paper were obtained from the on-going Collaborative Research Lesson and Development (CLRD) Project of NISMED—a professional development project which aims to strengthen the instructional capacities of science and mathematics teachers through lesson study and promote teaching science through inquiry and teaching mathematics through problem solving.

The complete citations of these papers are as follows:

Gutierez, S.B. (2015). Collaborative professional learning through lesson study: Identifying the challenges of inquiry-based teaching. Issues in Educational Research, 25 (2), 118-134. http://www.iier.org.au/iier25/gutierez.pdf

Gutierez, S.B. (2015). Integrating socio-scientific issues to enhance the bioethical decision-making of high school students. International Education Studies, 8(1), 142-151. http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/view/43883/23929