Practical Ideas for Teaching Primary Science

Inspiring Learning and Enjoyment

Peter Loxley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138659636
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317215875
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Practical Ideas for Teaching Primary Science is a fun and interactive guide which supports teachers to design and deliver enjoyable science lessons. Peter Loxley explores different scientific topics – from growing plants and nutrition to forces and magnetism – with an emphasis on story-telling and art to help children share their ideas and work collaboratively in the classroom. This practical guide uses a three-stage framework design to encourage and guide sociocultural practice across three levels: KS1 (5–7), lower KS2 (7–9) and upper KS2 (9–11). The ideas for practice are placed in engaging and significant contexts to encourage curiosity and enquiry and, most importantly, promote feelings of pleasure and satisfaction from science learning. Teachers are guided through hands-on puzzles and activities such as role-play and design and technology tasks both inside and outside of the classroom, with health and safety aspects highlighted throughout, to inspire children's interest in how the world works from an early age and provide them with the skills to apply their new-found scientific thinking in other contexts.

Extended subject knowledge to all topics covered in this book can be found in Teaching Primary Science.

A companion website is available for both books. Features include:

• web links to external sites with useful teaching information and resources
• an interactive flashcard glossary to test students' understanding
• Image bank with downloadable pictures for use in the classroom.

Practical Ideas for Teaching Primary Science is an invaluable teaching resource for both trainee and qualified teachers.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Science is about exploring, and the only way to uncover the secrets of the universe is to go and look.

Brian Cox, scientist (b. 1968)

The purpose of this book is to provide practical ideas for teaching science which promote the value of scientific understanding. The book is written as a companion to a core text entitled Teaching Primary Science: Promoting Enjoyment and Developing Understanding, co-authored by Peter Loxley, Lyn Dawes, Linda Nicholls and Babs Dore. The approaches to teaching described in both books are complementary and influenced by sociocultural views on learning, which recognise language as an important tool for shaping understanding (Vygotsky, 1962).

The core book is designed principally as a text for education students learning to teach primary science. It is arranged in two parts. Part 1 explores learning theory, which provides insights into effective teaching practices. Part 2 presents the scientific knowledge students need to teach the subject confidently, and in addition provides ideas for practice based on a three-stage framework for science learning.

This companion book has been written to extend and enrich the range of ideas for practice set out in the core text, and is supported by the same learning theory and subject knowledge. The book can also be used as a standalone teaching resource by both trainee and qualified teachers.

Views on learning

Views on learning which underpin the ideas for practice set out in this book can be described as sociocultural. Put simply, this means children learn best by sharing ideas and working collaboratively towards common goals in contexts which are familiar and meaningful. The role of the teacher is that of an active participant who guides, models and assists the children’s learning. As the expert, the teacher takes a central role by organising learning tasks, modelling and demonstrating good practice and assisting the children to think, talk and act in ways which support effective learning. Detailed accounts of the learning theory on which this book is based can be found in Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the core book, Loxley et al. (2017).

Organising science learning

Ideas for practice set out in this book are structured in the same way as the core book, using a three-stage framework designed to encourage and guide sociocultural practices. The three stages are the exploration stage, the re-describing stage and the application stage.

In the exploration stage the scene is set for science learning when a puzzle sets children off on a trail of enquiry in search of an answer. In this stage learning involves sharing ideas and working scientifically to solve problems.

In the re-describing stage, children are encouraged to re-think their ideas from a scientific point of view. Introducing scientific ideas at this stage provides children with alternative ways of talking and thinking about the things they discussed in the exploratory stage. The term re-describing stage is used to emphasise the role language plays in helping children re-think their ideas when working on their understanding of the scientific point of view. The role of the teacher is to assist children’s learning by helping them talk about and mentally engage with the scientific view (Alexander, 2008). This involves the use of stories, models, analogies, role-play, and image-rich resources such as video clips.

In the application stage children have opportunities to develop their understanding and appreciation of the scientific ideas by re-using them in other contexts. By making use of scientific ideas for specific purposes, children have opportunities to assimilate them into their own way of thinking and hence adopt them as their own. The contexts are diverse, including problem-solving in real-life situations, Design and Technology tasks, historical settings, STEM careers and the arts.

A full description of the three-stage framework and the theory behind it can be found in the core book, Loxley et al. (2017).

Ideas for practice are theme-based

Each chapter provides theme-based ideas for practice at three age-related levels: key stage 1 (5–7 years), lower key stage 2 (7–9 years) and upper key stage 2 (9–11 years). Topics for each age group are consistent with the requirements of the primary school science curricula in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They are also applicable to the curriculum in The Republic of Ireland.

The ideas for practice are not designed as specific teaching programmes or lesson plans to be followed step by step in the classroom. Their purpose is to exemplify how a range of topics can be taught using the three-stage framework. It is envisaged that teachers will adapt and extend the activities to suit their resources, their curriculum and the needs of their children.

Structure of ideas for practice

Introduction: Provides a brief outline of the nature of the intended learning, including activities in the application stage.

Scientific view: Provides a description of the scientific ideas which the children are expected to learn.

Working scientifically: Outlines the enquiry skills children require to find answers to questions.

Health and safety: Highlights some issues related to health and safety and provides guidance about how to keep children safe.

Exploration stage: Presents a range of teaching and learning strategies designed to support collaborative learning and to enable children to voice their ideas.

Re-describing stage: Presents a range of teaching and learning strategies which can be used to help children make sense of the scientific view.

Application stage: Presents opportunities for children to make use of their newly acquired scientific knowledge in different contexts.

STEM education

In schools around the world the term ‘STEM education’ is used as a call to action to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics more relevant to pupils’ lives and open them up as career options. Developing long-lasting positive attitudes to science is a central theme of STEM education and is also the overarching objective for the ideas for practice presented in this book.

The ideas for practice support teaching styles which value collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, curiosity and problem-solving as important elements of science learning. These are skills which are considered necessary for children to participate successfully in our twenty-first century global society. In the future children will be required to continually update their knowledge and skills to keep pace with new technological developments and therefore develop a capacity for life-long learning. Scientific ways of working, using both primary and secondary sources of information, underpin the ideas for practice and set children on the road to developing the active learning skills they need to manage their own learning in the future. Where appropriate, children’s learning involves real-world issues which serve to illustrate the relevance of science, and the value of the ideas they are expected to learn.

Talk for science learning

It is the link between speaking, listening, thinking and learning which makes spoken language so important in the science classroom. We can provide children with fascinating experiences and thoughtful resources. But, unless we provide them with opportunities to discuss what they are doing and talk about scientific ideas in ways that make sense to them, their learning will be diminished and less satisfying.

In addition to working scientifically, the ideas for practice introduce talk-based strategies and resources to guide the way children engage with the scientific ideas. Effective practice includes the teacher and children together exploring and sharing ideas. Progression involves carrying the children’s thinking forward until there is a need for a scientific explanation. Talking about scientific ideas in different ways and in different contexts helps children work on their understanding of them and make sense of the views of nature they represent. Effective talk enables children to share their thinking and to collaborate so that the group does better than each child could have done alone. However, it is the teacher’s job to model and guide the way children interact with each other. Classes benefit from devising a set of rules which help everyone to remember that talk is crucial for learning. Children can be asked what rules they would use to ensure a good discussion and can be helped to formulate their own ground rules.

Some rules which have been shown to promote effective talk

• Listen attentively.
• Include everyone in the discussion.
• Ask questions.
• Share all relevant information openly.
• Challenge one another’s ideas and opinions with respect.
• Ask for and give reasons for ideas.
• Seek to reach a group agreement before proceeding.
• Support one another during subsequent whole-class discussion.

A particular resource which can promote talk is talking points. Talking points are designed to provide starting points for discussion. Children who are familiar with the ground rules for talk can be asked to work with others, to decide if they agree or disagree with the talking points or if they are unsure. Subsequent whole-class discussion orchestrated by the teacher helps everyone to consider a range of points of view, share their thinking, establish areas of uncertainty for further work and generally develop their vocabulary and ideas. Talking points as a strategy to promote effective talk is an idea developed by my colleague Lyn Dawes (2012). More detailed information on talk for learning science can be found in Chapter 5 in the core book, Loxley et al. (2017).

Narrative and story-telling

Each chapter begins with a narrative which includes the voice of the author. Narrative is used in the wider sense of the word, providing a contextualised account of the science from the author’s point of view. Besides describing the science, the narrative serves a number of other purposes:

• It provides a context involving ideas, objects and events which children can progressively engage with at different levels.
• The story-line provides direction and continuity in children’s learning across the age groups.
• It helps teachers of all age groups to visualise the bigger picture and understand where their children’s learning is heading conceptually, and therefore helps them manage progression.
• Puzzling events and problem-solving scenarios can be drawn out of the narrative to arouse children’s curiosity and engage them in a quest for knowledge.
• The narrative also provides a model for the nature of the children’s story-telling which is intrinsic to the approach to science learning fostered by the ideas for practice.

Structured contexts, talk activities, story-telling and scientific ways of working enable children to interact with the scientific ideas and to develop the narrative through their own voices. Children’s story-telling is a key part of learning science because it features the children’s voices as opposed to the authoritative voice of the teacher. It enables children to talk about the science in their own words; hence it can capture the nature of the children’s understanding and reveal its influence on the way they think and feel. Children’s stories can provide valuable formative assessment information which can inform the basis of self and peer assessment and so the children can have a say in what they need to do next.

Children’s learning needs

Essentially, the purpose of formative assessment is to gather information about children’s ideas and to use it to help create new and appropriate learning opportunities. In science classrooms, development is dependent on finding out, and addressing, the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Contents by topic
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Growing plants
• Chapter 3 Flowering plants
• Chapter 4 Woodland habitats
• Chapter 5 Rocks, habitats and fossils
• Chapter 6 Living things
• Chapter 7 Decomposers
• Chapter 8 Nutrition
• Chapter 9 The material world
• Chapter 10 Changing materials
• Chapter 11 Earth and space
• Chapter 12 Electricity
• Chapter 13 Forces and magnetism
• Chapter 14 Light
• Chapter 15 Sound
• Index