Science 7-11

Developing Primary Teaching Skills

Clive Carre, Carrie Ovens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781134846894
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

As one of the core areas of the curriculum, science provides particular challenges, especially to teachers working at the top end of the elementary school range. Science 7-11 invites science teachers working with preteens to examine their practice in the light of current research findings. Clive Carre and Carrie Ovens, both experienced primary teachers themselves, ask what teachers really need to know both about their subject and about their students in order to teach

Unit 1
A science knowledge base for
teaching

What does it mean to be a competent primary science teacher? The question is not easy to answer, since we know very little about the differences between effective beginning teachers and effective experienced teachers. In attempting an answer we can look at the current debate on the professional development of teachers, which places a considerable emphasis on a teacher's knowledge. An assumption exists that there is a connection between what teachers know and how well they perform in class. If that knowledge could be defined, then the processes of training student-teachers and providing in-service experience would be easier and more effective. What is this 'knowledge base' that teachers are supposed to have to teach effectively?

In proposing a knowledge base for teaching all subjects, Shulman (1986), and others, mainly from the USA, have claimed the central importance of:

1. Content knowledge, (of facts and concepts), and methods of enquiry.
2. Making content knowledge comprehensible to learners; knowing about pupils' understandings and misconceptions; knowing about curricular materials.

The most important finding from research developed from Shulman's ideas, in all subjects, is that a teacher's role emerges from an understanding of both subject knowledge and the ways children learn. However, teaching science is different from teaching other subjects; for example, science lessons have a less flexible set of instructional pathways than other disciplines, which means that the sequence of events is more predictable. Further, one major research finding (Stodolski, 1988), shows beyond a doubt that individual teachers do not have one instructional approach all day long; the nature of the subject shapes the way a teacher teaches. What does the 'nature of the subject' mean in science? The kinds of knowledge which are likely to shape the way we teach will include, knowledge about science facts and concepts, about enquiry, and about the nature of science. (Refer to Unit 6 for discussion of the latter.)

Science Content Knowledge

Besides the nature of the subject, the National Curriculum (DES, 1989 and 1991) has also helped to shape the way science is taught; by clearly defining the first part of the knowledge base for teachers. What it doesn't offer is guidance on the second part: the ways for teachers to help children come to grips with ideas, extend their thinking, weigh evidence, solve problems that matter to them, and so on. It appears that only the integrity of science is acknowledged and not the integrity of the children as scientific thinkers. How do teachers manage the central task of making this vital connection between the various strands of science knowledge and their assortment of learners? By way of example, this is how one young teacher taught a lesson on time and night and day.

After viewing a video film, he discussed ways of telling the time. The children talked about the pendulum, atomic clocks, sand, candle and water clocks and sundials which they had seen on the film. He listened carefully to what the children had to say, and then helped them to make sense of their intuitive ideas, as this extract shows:

T. So how does the sundial actually work using the Sun? Mark?

Mark. When the Sun moves, it's moving the shadow that's on the sundial, down to the triangle.

T. It's the shadow of the triangle that moves around the clock. Now Mark said that the shadow moves because the Sun moves. Is that right? Does the Sun actually move across the sky?

Chris. Yes. No. Yes. Yes it does.

T. You think the Sun moves around the earth do you?

Chris. Yes. Yes.

T. I don't think so. If you imagine that Vicky's pencil case is the Sun and this is the Earth. Where's Britain? There we are. Now if the Sun was up here, what happens to the Earth during the day? Vicky?

Vicky. The Earth moves round.

T. That's right.

The teacher's demonstration, together with his questioning technique, helped to dispel a common misconception. (Many adults think that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, rather than appreciating that this is an apparent movement. See Glossary under 'alternative frameworks'.)

A little later the teacher placed imaginary children on a globe, and asked questions about when they would see dawn, and so on. Some were confused, so he used an analogy to explain the rotation of the Earth and its effect on night and day:

T. Has anyone ever been on a merry-go-round at the fair? ... If you have a friend standing watching you, you can imagine your friend's the Sun, because he stays still. And this merry-go-round you can imagine is the earth spinning around and around. When you can't see your friend on the ground, then you can imagine that that is night time. When you're sitting on this thing that goes round and round, to you the whole fairground seems to be moving, doesn't it? But it isn't really. It's still, because you're the one that's moving. And all of us on this earth are moving around as if we are on a big wheel at the fair, and the Sun is standing still in the sky.

He was sufficiently competent in his content knowledge to ask appropriate questions and provide spontaneous, simple representations to explain a difficult idea. Activity 1.1 enquires into a small part of your science content understanding.

Activity 1.1 Understanding Basic Astronomy

Analysis of transcripts

Look carefully at the two lesson segments. In what ways do you think the teacher's subject knowledge helped his pupils' understanding?

Which part of his explanation may have caused confusion?

Test yourself

Which of the following statements are true? (Answers at end of this unit.)

1. The Earth orbits the sun every 24 hours.
2. The Moon is one of the nine planets.
3. The Moon is held in its orbit round the Earth by the gravitational pull of the Earth.
4. Our Sun is a star.
5. Planets move but stars are stationary.
6. The daily rotation of the Earth causes night and day
7. The Moon produces its own light, but less than the Sun.

Testing your understanding in the very first activity is to stress a very important point. We are all 'mixed ability' and our opportunities to learn science have been varied. That places the recent research on teachers' lack of understanding in perspective. Recent research, for example, (Mant and Summers, 1993) shows that primary teachers have unscientific ideas about astronomy. In other areas too researchers have shown primary teachers to have similar misconceptions to their pupils.

The level at which primary teachers need to understand science in order to teach it is a contentious issue. There is no clear answer to what would count as an 'adequate understanding of science', but there is a basic assumption that it should be adequate to teach children competently to appropriate levels in the National Curriculum. Regardless of one's lack of background in science, there is pressure to come to grips with content knowledge. For example, a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI) in 1989 on primary science indicated that, 'in taking steps to ensure that practical work is given sufficient attention, many tend to emphasise the acquisition of skills at the expense of scientific knowledge and understanding. This imbalance needs to be corrected'. Why is knowledge of science facts and concepts so important?

The findings from the Leverhulme Primary Project, (Bennett and Carré 1993) based on student-teachers' understanding of science, showed that those with higher levels of content knowledge and knowledge of process skills in science showed particular patterns of effective science teaching:

• They planned in detail organisational matters and provided appropriate activities for children to make sense of science.
• Their presentation at the beginning of the lesson explained its purpose and offered a clear link with the practical work which followed.
• Their teaching approaches were flexible, and included both knowledge-telling and knowledge-transforming methods.
• They were able to generate and use instructional representations.
• They were good listeners, respected children's prior knowledge, and indicated if their responses were correct or inappropriate. They were able to challenge children's ideas and beliefs.

It is the last criterion, about challenging children's statements in science lessons, that frequently causes anxiety, more so than in other areas of the curriculum. Symington and Osborne (1985) pointed out that experienced teachers, confident in handling other activities, behave as inexperienced teachers when teaching science. The concern is to ensure that a teacher will have sufficient knowledge to see when a pupil's response is in conflict with adult scientific views, and do something about it. Activity 1.2 will give you an idea of the way you might challenge children's ideas, and then help them further their understanding.

Activity 1.2 Conflicting Ideas?

Imagine you were the teacher of the children in the following case studies. How would you have responded to them?

Case 1: A group of 7 year olds are observing ice-cubes melting in water.

T. What a mystery! It's gone. Where do you think its gone?

Sean. Its gone up into the sky and into the clouds.

T. Really? There's no clouds in here.

Nathan. Because the water's cold and it melted.

Case 2: A group of 9 to 10 year olds are being introduced to the concept of density. The teacher poured equal quantities of oil and water into a jar, shook it and left the contents to settle.

T. Listen, the oil goes above the water, even though we put the oil in before the water. Now, why do you think that is? Why do you think the oil goes above the water?

Jane. Because the water's heavier than the oil?

Case 3: A teacher has been talking to a class of 10 year olds about the classification of rocks. After watching a TV programme about volcanoes, the children were engaged in discussion about the origin of types of rocks.

T. Sedimentary rocks are usually, but not always, found in layers, where sediments like sand and mud have been laid on top of each other and then become compacted and changed into rock over a very long time.

Joshua. A volcano is sedimentary because it has layers of lava around the outside.

Symington and Osborne suggest that the main problem with teachers feeling 'inexperienced' in science was one of over concern about 'correctness', and too little concern with children's existing understandings. What does this mean in everyday teaching?

One student-teacher started her lesson by asking a class of 11 year olds, 'Now can anybody tell me what a force is?' Her intention at the beginning of the lesson was to find out what was in their heads. Their answers included, 'Force of when you kick something, you use power' a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 A science knowledge base for teaching
• 2 Communicating subject knowledge in the classroom
• 3 Restructuring children's understanding
• 4 Teachers' planning and learners' progression
• 5 Assessing processes and content
• 6 Attitudes towards science teaching and towards science
• Appendix I It's not fair!
• Appendix II A personal 'journey' in understanding electricity
• Appendix III 'Productive' and 'unproductive' questions
• Appendix IV Questions for science activity
• Appendix V What's worth writing about in science?
• Appendix VI Story for Activity 5.3
• Appendix VII Understanding fair-testing
• Glossary
• References
• Index