I would like to present you to the readers. Could you tell us few words about yourself? What made you come to Poland?
My name is Johanne Patry. I come from the French part of Canada, so my origins are ainly French. Back home I am an expert councilor in science education and education as a hole. I specialize in science: how to learn science. I also specialize in different approaches on ow to learn. I am very oriented towards the life-long learning: both for the pupils from the lementary to the adults. I?ve been a teacher for a long time, this is my 33rd year in ducation. I?ve been a pedagogical councilor in different types of schools: private and public nes. I worked with the government, also, in establishing the new educational reform. I?m in Poland because I was invited to the Science on Stage event in Poznań. I?m chair of Science n Stage in Canada and I?m a part of the International Steering Committee for the Science on Stage Europe.
My first question will be about teaching, especially science teaching. Many eople don?t believe that science, for example physics, can be taught, because t is so hard to be understood. Do you agree?
Definitely not. It depends always on your point of view, on how you perceive. A lot of cience has been identified to a rule of model such as Einstein. People know that Einstein is uper-brain, superintelligent, so they usually put physics equal Einstein, equal they have
to be very intelligent to understand it. Moreover, people don?t see necessarily the physics n their lives. It depends also how they were themselves taught. If they are taught only by itting at their desks and having a teacher fill the blackboard in front of them, of course, hey?re going to find it boring. But if they are taught by encouraging them to learn and with good pedagogical approaches to learn, they can see the link between their everyday life and hysical processes or laws. When you do teach that kind of physics, let?s say every-day hysics, people are more interested. But it depends also on the age. The little ones are ncredibly attracted to exploring the world around them. But once they get to be a teenage person, they still want to continue exploring the world, but they are usually disturbed by riends and social networks? It?s kind of a difficult period in their lives. I have also noticed hat a lot of adults want to learn. Of course they are not going back to school. So what many f them do is that they for instance buy popular science magazines. They won?t necessarily ead Scientific American, but they can buy Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and they an ead that. And they look at scientific shows. I have noticed that if you put together science, ny science: chemistry, physics, and you put today?s living in the technology, we have a how. The one I would like to recommend is called FoodTech. What you can see there? Let?s ay a man goes into a Mexican restaurant and orders a plate of tortillas and tacos. hroughout the whole show you can see how the taco is made. If there are peppers on it, you o at the farm and you see where the peppers are grown. Here you have a kind of mixture of everyday life, food, chemistry, physics and biology at the same time. And I see that eople are very attracted to that. For the future, I think, we have to focus on looking that ay. Because the old way doesn?t work anymore.
You have shown some examples of different approaches to learning but what with the pupils, students at high schools? They need to have specific knowledge for their exams. Is this enough to learn from books and hattend to lectures, or there should be some other activities?
It?s always a question for the teacher and for the students ?Why do you learn??. If you earn for the exam, that?s one way. If it?s a lifelong learning, that?s another way. You can hoose learning for the exam. People will have tendency to memorize everything, so they would prefer of course a theoretical course with. But what happens afterwards? Once they ave passed their exam, they forget everything. So you don?t have the life-long learning hing. It?s always a question of finality. You can have another type of teacher, the one who eaches life-long learners who have fun and don?t care about the exams. That?s another xtreme. You have to find kind of the middle-way. So that you know students have the ecessary information for the exam but still you can make it interesting enough so that it tays in the brain. The exam that you present to the learners should have questions which re not just regurgitating information; students have to start thinking.
Do you think it is possible to include new technologies in normal lessons? How can we make it? Which media can be used?
There are two meanings of technology. You have the technology which is what we call the ICT ? information and communication technology. Audio-visual, computers, powerpoints and all these things, are just tools to represent information better. However, people have
a tendency to go crazy lately about using the ICT. Don?t use so much ICT because you?re going to get people won?t see anymore! I taught with powerpoint and I love it. But once I saw that when I?ve presented the powerpoint, the students were just waiting to see the end of the presentation because they knew they would get the document. I thought it was the time wasted and I had to change my approach to make presentations more available, more dynamic, more interactive. I found ways to do that, so they had to be there or else it didn?t work. That?s my opinion about ICT.
The other technology is completely different. If you want to teach about speed then you are going to take a piece of technology ? a bicycle; if you want to teach about flow of air, you would bring a fan. For everything you want to teach, every principle, every law, you have to find something in everyday life. If you cannot find something in everyday life
it is possible that the concept is too developed for students or they are not yet at that age. I think that you need both kinds of technology.
What about young teachers? After graduation from university, a lot of young people decide to teach at schools. Are they prepared for it?
Never. You can never be prepared. No matter, you can know everything or you think you know everything. You?ve practiced ? it is better than nothing at all. But you are never fully prepared. You have to go into the world and try it. I can tell you how to drive a car, but until you drive your car you will never know how to do it.
Should young teachers attend some kind of courses? Should the university help them and organize more practice or training?
I?ve known many educational systems. The system that I do like is one that we have in my country. It is that while they study to become a teacher, they?re going to schools. It is the four-year course. The first year they go to school for five days and they just observe. The second year it?s three weeks and they teach with a master teacher. The third year
it?s six weeks, but they have the job of the teacher, they have to prepare everything by themselves. Then the forth year it?s two months and they have to do everything. So by the time they get to their forth year they?re better prepared. But they?re never completely prepared. I wouldn?t say that there are artificial conditions. There are real-life conditions when they do work but every school is a culture in itself, it?s a world in itself. I call it a kind of feudal concept ? the school has a headmaster who is the king of the place. Everywhere you go, it?s different. It would be different because of the rules in the school, type of children that you have. You may have a school which is in the neighborhood that is rich or is poor, you may be in a school where there are a lot of students with learning difficulties. This is something you have to deal with. But being able to work through their studies in different types of schools, they have a better understanding. My oldest daughter is a teacher, science teacher. She is now working in a very tough and violent neighborhood, mainly with students with learning difficulties. She loves it. She has worked with gifted students, she has worked with regular students and she prefers the students
with learning, emotional or behavioral difficulties. Whereas my youngest daughter, a French teacher, has had the opportunity to work in my other daughter?s school with students that have difficulties. She?s discovered that it is not the type of students for
her. It?s important that she knows it. I think it?s important that when teachers graduate they know who they are, what they are. I often tell teachers ?Please, get rid of your illusions as fast as possible, but keep always your ideals?.
What are the other activities that may support the action of schools?
It?s always you have to wonder who you want to reach. You have different categories: students, public, teachers ? it depends who you wish to reach. I think that a program they have here (at the University of Silesia in Katowice), Children University, is an excellent program. There are excellent programs here and there all over the planet for the students. For the parents, for adults often you have the science centers who will offer Up-Reach program for them, too. For teachers you have something like Science on Stage which brings them together but also you can have their own Association which holds events. I think that it is rich, wherever the country you go. There are a lot of activities ? the problem is to get the people to the activities. To get the activities known and to get the people there. I must say I?ve noticed someone?s not interested, even teachers. You have to tell yourself: Let?s try to reach as many people as we can. We know that we won?t be able to reach everybody, but if we can create what I call a ripple effect (it?s that they talk to each other), then I think
we will reach our goal.
An interview taken by Katarzyna Krukiewicz
(24th September)
Johanne Patry , Ph.D. is a guest professor at the university of Sherbrooke. Currently, she is also a math, science, and technology advisor at Collége Bourget Rigaud in Quebec, Canada. Back in her full time teaching days, she has participated in five European Science on Stages and won her category of Self-Perception in the Teaching Process at Science on Stage in Berlin, 2007. She has attended the CLS Summer Workshop for Teachers and has brought students to participate in Students on the Beamlines. Science on Stage brings together the best minds in science education to inspire young people to explore science and technology by providing teachers with tools to transform their classrooms into innovative learning environments.
(http://scienceonstage.ca)