Interviewee: Eun-Ji Amy Kim, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE), McGill University
Date: May 17th, 2016

Q: COULD YOU EXPLAIN TO ME BRIEFLY YOUR ROLE IN THE CHANTIER SEVEN PROJECT?

A: Okay, so first year I was the project coordinator. My role was planning the pre-meetings for the PD workshop for teachers, dealing with all the admin stuff. From the second year on, I was working as a research assistant. So, I was mainly was involved in working with in-service teachers: developing the workshop and facilitating workshop discussions with teachers. Yeah. Also, during the first year I was also involved in the development the assessment tools, for example conducing a literature review- reviews on other similar assessment tools.

Q: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT?

A: Since the beginning. The project started about three years ago I think. So three years.

Q: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM BEING INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT?

A: First and foremost, collaborating with in-service teachers was a great learning opportunity. It was great to learn from in-service teachers and get connected with science consultants in different school boards so I actually get to hear the issues and the concerns, and ideas directly from the science consultants and the in-service teachers. Second is that, through the conversation happened across the faculty members, I have learned a lot.  Because out team have different faculty members involved in different projects coming from different diverse backgrounds. It was great to listen and discuss diverse ideas on the conceptual changes. But in the end, we actually get to try the assessment tool with the students, and  hearing from the teachers what actually happened in the classroom, what they learned and what tools they further developed was a great learning moment for me. I learned from teachers and students from the field a lot.

Q: ALRIGHT. YOU SAID THAT YOU LEARNED FROM IN-SERVICE TEACHERS AND FROM CONSULTANTS. COULD YOU GIVE ME A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE OF SOMETHING THAT YOU LEARNED FROM THEM?

A: So during the workshop,  the team already had some sort of pre-existing assessment items. We thought that the reading level was okay, we thought it was good, but when we actually brought the items to the teachers during the workshop discussion, teachers actually said,  "in my experience this won't work." "oh, I know from my experience the words need to be cut down," or, "we need more visuals" for items. The teachers actually brought the specific strategies that were required to meet students' needs.

Q: SO IF I CAN EXTRACT THAT A BIT MORE, INITIALLY YOUR ASSESSMENT TOOLS WERE AT A HIGHER READING LEVEL, AND THE IN-SERVICE TEACHERS ADVISED THAT YOU BRING IT TO A LOWER READING LEVEL?

A: That too. Not only the reading level, but also how the teachers could use the assessment tool better in their classroom. So the research team initially thought of  paper/pencil  or developing some sort of online platform for the delivery of the assessment tools.  but the teachers mentioned, "actually we could do it an easy way. We could actually tell the question in the class, and  students could show their hands." A really easy and simple way. Sometimes researchers tend to think in really complicated ways I guess. And it's always very back-and-forth, back-and-forth process between the team and the teachers. So we try this, and the teachers try, and they give us feedback, and we develop more stuff, right? So it's actually these ongoing conversations, ongoing trials that I actually get to learn from teachers.

Q: IN YOUR VIEW, WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP FOR UNIVERSITY PARTNERS TO SUPPORT TEACHERS IN THEIR PRACTICE?

A: University members. I think the next step is actually helping teachers use tools more. So the university partners could develop more lesson plans that actually involves with the assessment items, so it's easily accessible and less work for teachers. Teachers could use it in their daily teaching. That would be my suggestion.

Q: YOU SAID HELPING TEACHERS TO USE TOOLS MORE. WHICH TOOLS ARE YOU REFERRING TO SPECIFICALLY?

A: The assessment items, or intervention strategies.

Q: THE ONES SPECIFICALLY COMING FROM THE PROJECT?

A: Yeah, specifically coming from the project. I think the assessment tool that  came out of the project is targeted and geared for Quebec teachers and students particularly, and I think that's one of the greatest contributions that research team has made. Similar types of the assessment items are readily available in other contexts too, but for example, to customize to the Quebec's context, so we provide the items in French. The technological world, we don't actually see any other technological world assessment items elsewhere. I think that's one of the contributions, but teachers actually don't know how to use the assessment tool, and how and what to do stuff after, once they've used the assessment item. So developing more coherent lesson plans that  actually involve with the assessment tool, how to use assessments, and then how to integrate them in their lessons, such coherent lesson plans make the usage of the assessment tool easier and accessible for teachers. Whether it be an online platform, or in print form, books provided by the school board, we need to provide a coherent and easy ways for teachers to include the assessment tools in their daily teaching.  That's again with the partnership of the school board consultants I guess.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ISSUES TEACHERS FACE WHILE TEACHING SCIENCE?

A: Oh. In general?  

Q: DRAWING ON YOUR EXPERIENCE FROM THE PROJECT.

A: First, they don't have time. They want to do this stuff, and they are always willing to try new strategies. The teachers that we had in the team are great teachers who are really motivated to do so, but not all teachers are like that, because there's always time constraint. So that's number one, time. And then second is that... What was the question again?

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ISSUES THAT TEACHERS FACE WHILE TEACHING SCIENCE?

A: So time constraint is number one, and second is - and maybe I'm generalizing it - but from my experience, diverse abilities exist in one classroom. So you actually have really high achieving students, but at the same time you have students with a lower level of understanding or reading level whatsoever. It's so diverse, but there's so little time. So maybe in terms of assessment tools, maybe the assessment item is good, but we also need to think about how teachers can actually use assessment items for a diverse student population in their classrooms.

Q: NOW HAVING THOUGHT ABOUT THINGS A BIT MORE, ANSWERING ALL OF THE QUESTIONS, IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU FEEL WAS LEFT OUT, THAT YOU WANT TO ADD?

A: I feel like the project, our initial plan was that we're going to review the assessment items more, and we were going to develop more intervention strategies, a resource that teachers could use. I think that's sort of left out, by internal or external forces I guess. I think that part, developing resources for teachers could have been further developed. But I think we were in the development stage.

Q: SO INTERVENTION STRATEGIES?

A: Yeah. Building intervention strategies, as a teacher resource.