Effective Science Teaching & Learning
Our Science Leads group have been considering the barriers of effective Science teaching and learning in the ’10 key Issues with Children’s Learning in Primary Science’ document:
It makes very interesting and relevant reading and all colleagues could identify strands that were issues within their schools or hubs. Obviously, barriers are made to be overcome and so we explored how this could be achieved. Below are a couple of issues from the report and our initial thoughts about how to overcome them.
Issue: CHILDREN’S SCIENCE LEARNING IS SUPERFICIAL AND LACKS DEPTH
Children are not developing a deep understanding of the big ideas of science.
Lesson planning lacks sequence: the ‘Why this? Why now?’ isn’t clear.
Teachers and senior leaders align success in science with vocabulary recall, often using age-inappropriate terminology
Overload of inappropriately selected science
This issue was ranked second in the number of times it was observed in the study. However, it was identified as the most important issue to address first. This suggests it is the most crucial aspect of our science planning and teaching!
The implication is that children are not developing a deep understanding of the big ideas in science. This was mainly as a result of lesson planning lacking sequence, aligning success in science solely with vocabulary recall (which is often age-inappropriate) or an overload of inappropriately selected science.
So, how can we avoid falling into the same trap?
First and foremost, we need to ensure we are sticking closely to ASE PLAN. Its knowledge matrices set out a clear sequence of progression for each unit, linking key learning and possible activities to each National Curriculum learning objective. It also gives a list of absolutely child-appropriate vocabulary for each unit and refers to both prior and future learning.
We need to think about building on the children’s knowledge and skills, teaching content which is relevant to their age group and avoiding repeating activities across different age groups, to give our children the best opportunity to learn.
Issue: CHILDREN RARELY SEE THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILIES, COMMUNITY MEMBERS OR THEIR TEACHERS AS SCIENTISTS
Children believe that science is about other people making a difference, not them.
Contexts for science learning are poorly utilised
An example of how this relates to our settings:
In speaking to the children they enjoy science and find it exciting, yet they do not see themselves as scientists. One child in particular stood out, she told me she wants to be a palaeontologist when she grows up. I asked if she thought palaeontologists were scientists and she replied, “No, they dig bones up and stuff” I then asked what do scientists do and she replied “ they investigate and find things out” but she had not made the connection between her dream job and the scientific enquiry behind it. In asking the children whether they knew any scientists, they could all tell me about Einstein and Edison but did not know any in real life, (2 children had initially written “me” but then crossed it out). We discussed their parents’ jobs and discovered hairdressers, builders and cooks- all of whom need to use their scientific knowledge in everyday life.
It's partly about making those explicit links between our everyday lives and jobs and the world of Science.
The document is well worth a full read and is relevant and accessible. It obviously applies to Science but is equally useful read in the context of other curriculum areas, especially STEM.
