214 This study offered insights into the usability of these design principles on the one hand and, on the other, provided insights into the benefits and barriers that teachers experience in participating in a design-based research project working on an integrated science and literacy approach. The design process yielded a set of materials that were viable in classroom practice. Overall, the design principles could be implemented well, although not completely successful for all four design principles. In relation to DP1 and DP2, we found that many concepts in the framework for science education provided opportunities for hands-on activities and also allowed for working with crosscutting concepts (denkwijzen) such as causal relationships or classification. With regard to teaching knowledge about text structure (DP3), we discovered that this was quite new to the teachers, which is why they had little knowledge about it. This made it difficult for them to design lessons with a focus on text structure instruction. This problem was resolved by providing additional support from the researchers, for example by providing sample texts and scripts for modeling. The integrated approach of the lessons helped to turn the reading and writing activities into meaningful, functional language tasks (DP3), although again some support from the researchers was needed. Teachers reported that this functional approach led to high student engagement. Teachers were also enthusiastic about the use of graphic organizers. They noted that working with these diagrams forced their students to read texts carefully and process these deeply. However, they also noted that students still needed a lot of instruction and support in this area. In the original design of the teaching materials it proved difficult for the teachers to apply the distinction between declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge about text structure (DP4), which was completely new to the teachers. Since working with text structures was new to the students as well, irrespective of the type of knowledge, the initial focus was on declarative and procedural knowledge about text structure. However, in follow-up research conditional knowledge should receive more attention. We further concluded that design-based research certainly offers opportunities to connect scientific insights and educational practice. Teachers showed a high degree of involvement and ownership. They also indicated that developing teaching materials themselves caused them to examine their own teaching with the newly obtained insights in mind. However, there were also bottlenecks. The design task proved complex and took teachers (too) much time. This was partly due to newness of some central concepts in the design principles, which made it difficult to immediately develop lessons on the basis of these principles. Thus, to successfully set up design-based research, it is important to provide adequate training or support. The division of labor between teachers and researchers should be carefully considered, so that the time investment of time is better balanced with the returns. Design-based research also has added value for researchers, since the teaching materials are directly tested in practice and teachers can provide useful feedback. This argues for more long-term and sustainable collaboration between teachers and researchers. A 215
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