Improving Secondary Science Teaching

John Parkinson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134532452
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Improving Secondary Science Teaching has been written to help teachers both new and experienced reflect on their current practice and consider how to improve the effectiveness of their teaching. The book examines each of the common teaching methods used in science in relation to pupils' learning and provides guidance on management issues and procedures.
With underlying themes such as pupils' interest in science and their motivation to learn; how pupils learn science; the type of science currently being taught in school; and the value of educational research; the book includes chapters on:

• the improvement process
• planning for progression and continuity
• promoting pupils' learning
• dealing with differences
• making use of information from assessment
• learning about the nature of science

This timely book will be of interest to practising science teachers, particularly those who are working to improve the management of science departments or their own teaching practice. It will also be a valuable resource for science education researchers and students on higher degree courses in science education.

CHAPTER 1

The improvement process

Teaching is not to be regarded as a static accomplishment like riding a bicycle or keeping a ledger: it is, like all arts of high ambition, a strategy in the face of an impossible task.

Lawrence Stenhouse (DfEE, 1999: 95)

From time to time we all take stock of where we are and what we are doing and make decisions about the future. This is usually an ad hoc process, with the decisions being made on gut feelings rather than any clearly defined strategy. The purpose of this chapter is to examine some of the key tools and processes that will help science teachers evaluate their current practice and plan for improvement. The chapter draws heavily on the school effectiveness and school improvement paradigms, and examines how these impact on the work of the department and the individual teacher.

School effectiveness

The whole notion of school effectiveness is fraught with difficulty. How does one determine what is, and what is not, effective? Is something that is deemed to be effective in one situation going to be equally effective in another situation? A working definition of school effectiveness is:

The extent to which any (educational) organisation as a social system, given certain resources and means, fulfils its objectives without incapacitating its means and resources and without placing undue strain on its members.

(Reynolds et al., 1996: 2)

The research into school effectiveness is very well established, and uses sophisticated data analysis to investigate situations and draw conclusions. For example, judgements can be made on the contribution made by the school to pupils’ learning by examining attainment in year 7 (Y7) and comparing it with attainment in Y11. Factors such as gender, parental socio-economic status, parental education and parental ethnicity or racial background can be taken into account. In addition to academic outcomes, effectiveness research can provide useful information on factors such as attendance, behaviour, attitudes and the level of self-esteem. As a result of this research we have lists of factors associated with effective schools and, while there is a considerable amount of commonality between these lists, some contain additional items. The established key factors for effective schooling, as summarised by Reynolds et al. (1997: 128) and Stoll and Mortimore (1997: 18) are:

1 Professional leadership. The headteacher plays an important role in having an overview of all aspects of school life and provides the drive to shape the school into an effective learning environment. In an effective school, the headteacher works well with the senior management team, consults widely on key decisions, and promotes good feelings and collegiality between the teachers and non-teaching staff. Teamwork and collaboration between colleagues are seen as very important issues.

2 Shared vision and goals. In an effective school, staff work together towards the common goals. There is a sense of purpose, collegiality and ownership, leading to good co-operation and team work.

3 An orderly environment and school coherence. An orderly environment appears to affect achievement in a variety of ways:

• it provides a disciplinary climate within which students’ and teachers’ opportunities to conduct task-related work are maximised

• an orderly and purposeful atmosphere promotes a sense of efficacy among teachers and pupils, which in turn enhances teaching and learning performances

• the consistency and stability associated with an orderly environment appears to promote higher achievement (Stockard and Mayberry, 1992). An environment that is attractive and comfortable also has benefits for pupils’ learning.

4 High-quality teaching and learning. In an effective school the maximum amount of time in lessons is spent on teaching and learning. This requires reducing the time spent on administration, and organising transitions from one activity to another smoothly. The teaching has clarity of purpose, with both teacher and pupils knowing what is to be achieved. Learning is valued, and there is an expectation that academic progress will be made. In general, the literature suggests that the quality and pacing of instruction, the way in which teachers give information, the way in which teachers question pupils and wait for responses, and the way in which they handle class work and homework all influence pupil achievement. The findings regarding the quality of pacing of instruction have been most consistently replicated. As would be intuitively expected, pupils have higher achievement when more of the curriculum is covered and when more time is spent actively engaged in learning that is appropriate to their level.

5 High expectations. In an effective school, the teachers have high expectations of the pupils and these are clearly communicated to the pupils. Pupils are provided with work that will challenge them intellectually rather than letting them get into a routine of completing low-level tasks.

6 Positive reinforcement. This involves teachers identifying with what pupils do well and giving appropriate praise for their work or actions rather than adopting a negative approach where teachers only comment on poor behaviour and lack of good work. Discipline, when it is needed, should be clear and fair.

7 Monitoring and enquiry. Individual teachers keep good records of pupils’ achievements and use these to identify problems in pupils’ learning. On a whole school basis, assessment data from a variety of sources are used to evaluate the performance of the school.

8 Pupils’ rights and responsibilities. This is concerned with developing the right sort of atmosphere in a school, where pupils can develop their sense of self-esteem and understand their rights and responsibilities in society.

9 Learning for all. Staff development is matched to the needs of the individual and the needs of the school.

10 Partnerships and support. Working with parents and the local community can help to extend and widen the learning experiences of the pupils, and raise awareness of individual needs and the level of support mechanisms available.

A list of key points such as this is of interest but of limited value when it comes to thinking about how to improve. A school may not be as effective as it should for a variety of reasons, some of which may relate to the above while others may not (MacBeath and Mortimore, 2001). The research so far only gives us an indication of what factors give rise to an effective school; it gives no indication as to the strength of each factor and, more importantly, no guidance on how to change an ineffective school into an effective one (Coe and Fitz-Gibbon, 1998).

School improvement

School improvement can be defined as:

A systematic, sustained effort aimed at change in learning conditions in a school with the ultimate aim of achieving educational goals more effectively.

(Reynolds et al., 1996: 3)

Like school effectiveness research, school improvement research has a long and distinguished history. Its origins lie in the school development projects of the 1960s, when curriculum packages were prepared mainly by people not involved in school teaching. They failed to have an impact largely due to teachers’ lack of understanding of what the projects were trying to do. In many respects they felt alien to the teachers’ pedagogic knowledge, and the in-service training provided was unsuccessful in creating a sense of ownership between the teachers and the courses. The direction of school improvement has changed in many ways since then, moving from a top-down approach to one involving all members of staff in a school from the outset. The emphasis now tends to be on managing the process of change over a period of time, keeping things on track and monitoring progress towards the targets. This approach has been brought about by a joining of forces between the school improvement researchers, who mainly worked on a qualitative basis, and the school effectiveness researchers, whose work had a quantitative focus. The new era of improving school effectiveness is now with us, combining the use of data with plans for improvement.

In most schools, improvements are happening all the time. Teachers learn from one another, they pick up ideas from articles or courses that they have attended and they learn from their ongoing experiences in the classroom. But how do we increase the number of opportunities to improve, and how do we ensure that good practice is maintained? There are a number of relatively simple actions that can be taken to initiate improvement, such as:

1 Attending courses. Many teachers obtain all their new ideas about teaching through award bearing and non-award bearing courses. While some of these courses are very useful there are others that fail to meet teachers’ direct needs and, as a result, the planned change or improvement is not implemented. School-based INSET is frequently used to ensure that a course is targeted to needs with the clear advantage that it can be based around authentic situations. However, if these types of courses are restricted to discussion between staff in the school, there is a danger that the level of improvement may be limited owing to the lack of innovative ideas from outsiders.

2 Reflecting on what happens in the classroom. Personal reflection on classroom events can play a significant part in helping individual teachers to improve their practice (see page 37).

3 Sharing ideas with colleagues. At departmental meetings, time is put aside to discuss pedagogy – what works and why it works, and what doesn’t work. Key issues need to be discussed, such as: do pupils like the science they are being taught? Are both boys and girls achieving to their full potential? What is the uptake of science subjects post-16? In addition, colleagues need to share experiences and learn from teachers of other disciplines.

4 Evaluating data, identifying weaknesses and taking action. Schools generally maintain a plethora of data on each pupil, and sophisticated computer programs enable teachers to track an individual’s progress. The computer can also be used to track teachers’ performance, noting those who consistently get good results with their classes and those who don’t.

5 Research. In most professions, practitioners tend to keep up to date with developments in their field. However, for a number of reasons this is not generally true of teaching, even though significant advances are being made every year in the fie...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• 1 The improvement process
• 2 Leading and managing the science department
• 3 Self-improvement
• 4 Planning for continuity and progression
• 5 Promoting pupils’ learning
• 6 Dealing with differences
• 7 Making use of information from assessment
• 8 Learning about the Nature of Science
• 9 Learning through practical work
• 10 Learning through ICT
• 11 Learning through written and oral work
• 12 Where do we go from here?
• Notes
• Index