The implementation of applied science and technology in Québec: a descriptive mixed methods study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This mixed methods research study describes the implementation of Applied Science and Technology (AST) - a recently-implemented Secondary 3 and 4 program in Quebec. AST is part of the Math, Science and Technology Domain of the Quebec Education Program (QEP), a comprehensive reform of the K-11 Quebec curriculum. It is very different from the science programs of the past. AST teaches science by emphasizing the applications of science and technology in the real world of the students. The program uses the pedagogy of constructivism and integrates engineering technology into the science content.This study examines the extent to which teachers follow the AST curriculum and use a constructivist/inquiry-based pedagogy. It also described the students' engagement with the program and their motivation and interest in learning science. Quantitative data were collected from online surveys of AST teachers and students as well as school board enrolment figures. Qualitative data came from extensive visits to AST classrooms in action and interviews with teachers, principals and science consultants. The data were triangulated to arrive at a comprehensive description of the implementation of AST. The study examines the teachers' epistemology with relation to the AST curriculum. It found that many teachers, with support from consultants and new science teaching resources, are successfully incorporating applications of science and engineering technology as prescribed by AST. They are using some constructivist pedagogical practices – accessing prior knowledge, providing an active learning environment and contextualizing the content within the students' reality. Some teachers, on the other hand, are finding it quite challenging to fully incorporate the technology aspect of the curriculum and the constructivist nature of the pedagogy. Students show strong motivation to learn science and express satisfaction with their experiences in AST when the AST activities are hands-on, have personal meaning and give them a measure of autonomy and challenge.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.006 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.008 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".