The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools

Wynne Harlen OBE, Wynne Harlen, Anne Qualter

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138225718
• eBook ISBN: 9781315398884
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Now in a fully updated seventh edition, The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools provides essential information for students, trainee, and practising teachers about the why, what and how of teaching primary science. Paying particular attention to inquiry-based teaching and learning, the book recognises the challenges of teaching science, and provides suggestions and examples aimed to increase teachers' confidence and pupils' enjoyment of the subject.

This new edition explores:

• Changes in curriculum and assessment requirements in the UK
• Advances in knowledge of how children learn
• Expansion in the use of ICT by teachers and children

And expands on key aspects of teaching including:

• The compelling reasons for starting science in the primary school
• Strategies for helping children to develop understanding, skills and enjoyment
• Attention to school and teacher self-evaluation as a means of improving provision for children's learning.

Giving the latest information about the rationale for and use of inquiry-based, constructivist methodology, and the use of assessment to help learning, the book combines practice and theory, explaining and advocating for particular classroom interactions and activities. This book is essential reading for all primary school teachers and those engaged in studying primary education.

Part
1
Compelling reasons for teaching science in primary schools

The first of the four chapters in this part reviews the importance of science education and the history of how it has become part of the primary school curriculum. It presents arguments that the goal of scientific literacy for all citizens ‘cannot be achieved unless science begins in the primary school’. The second chapter reviews the increasing divergence in form that science takes in the primary curricula of the four countries of the UK. Chapter 3 comprises case studies of activities in five different classes, between them covering the ages 5–11 years. Each account provides some background information and one or more lessons on a topic. All the examples describe real events in real classes and are not intended as models although they reflect several features of effective practice in science education for young children. Some significant features are discussed in relation to aspects that are picked up in later chapters of the book. Chapter 4 starts this discussion by providing some criteria that can be used in evaluating and in planning and adapting activities to increase the opportunities for developing scientific understanding, skills and attitudes.

Chapter
1
The importance of primary school science

Introduction

If education is a preparation for life, it must prepare pupils for life in a world in which science and its applications in technology have key roles. It follows that children need to develop a range of skills and knowledge that enable them to understand scientific and technological aspects of the natural and made world around them. This should include the capacity to reason from evidence, understanding of the nature of science and of how scientific knowledge is developed, and key ideas that will help them make sensible decisions about how they live their lives and which affect the lives of others. There are several strong reasons why these competencies cannot be adequately achieved through secondary school science alone.

The arguments for including science in the primary school curriculum are part of the larger case for teaching science to all pupils. So, we begin this chapter by reviewing briefly some principles that apply to science education as a whole. We note the problem of the expansion of scientific knowledge and the need to focus on a relatively small number of key – or ‘big’ – ideas to avoid the curriculum being overloaded by too much content to be covered. We then turn to the question of why science should begin in the primary school. Since science has been included at the primary school level only relatively recently in the history of schooling it is relevant to look back at how this change has come about. The reasons have changed, or rather evolved, during the second part of the twentieth century as a result of research into children’s learning and of reviewing the goals of science education as a whole. The importance for all young people, not just for future scientists, of developing understanding of key concepts, inquiry skills and appreciation of the nature of science – encapsulated in the notion of scientific literacy – leads to realisation that this learning cannot be achieved unless it begins in the primary school.

Science education for everyone

Science is a major area of human mental and practical activity and the knowledge that it generates plays a vital part in our lives and in the lives of future generations. It is essential that the education of the whole population, not just of future scientists, provides them with a broad understanding of the status and nature of scientific knowledge, how it is created and how dependable it is. This becomes more and more important as science and technology take an expanding role in our lives. Some things that used to be accessible to anyone who was interested (for instance, what is under the bonnet of a car) are now the province of experts only. There is a general danger of a division between those with technological and scientific ‘know how’ and those without. This will not be avoided by making everyone into a scientist or technologist but by giving everyone an understanding of major ideas and principles of science, how these ideas were reached and how dependable they are. As a leading science communicator puts it: ‘No-one can understand every detail of our complex world, but the basic principles are fantastically valuable tools to take with you on your way’ (Czerski, 2016: 7).

Just as there are overarching powerful ideas in science that enable us to make sense of detailed facts, so in science education there are some general principles which apply to the content of different curricula and to new teaching approaches, expressing the values and standards which should guide decisions. Harlen (2010) provides a set of such principles, as identified by an international group of scientists, engineers and science educators. They include principles relating to:

• ■ nurturing and sustaining curiosity;
• ■ developing scientific ideas (ideas of science) and understanding of science (ideas about science);
• ■ developing skills used in scientific investigation;
• ■ fostering attitudes of and towards science;
• ■ using assessment to help and record progress in learning of all goals.

The importance of science education for all

Science education that follows from these principles is important for all learners for several reasons concerning learners as individuals, as members of society and as citizens of the world.

For learners as individuals:

• ■ Science education helps them to develop the understanding, powers of reasoning and attitudes that enable them to lead physically and emotionally healthy and rewarding lives.
• ■ Understanding aspects of the world around them, both the natural environment and that created through application of science, serves not only to satisfy — and at the same time to stimulate — curiosity but helps individuals in their personal choices affecting their health and enjoyment of the environment as well as for their choice of career.
• ■ Ways of learning science that lead to understanding can also help to develop learning skills that are needed throughout life if we are to operate effectively in a world that is changing rapidly.
• ■ The development of attitudes towards science and towards the use of evidence in making decisions helps learners become informed citizens, to reject quackery and to recognise when evidence is being used selectively to support arguments in favour of certain actions.

For society:

• ■ Science education can help individuals and groups to make more informed choices in relation to avoiding, for instance, waste of energy and other resources, pollution and the consequences of poor diet, lack of exercise and misuse of drugs. As well as impact on their own daily lives, these things have wider implications for their and others' future lives through longer-term impact of human activity on the environment.
• ■ Understanding how science is used in many aspects of life helps appreciation of the importance of science and the care that needs to be given to ensuring that scientific knowledge is used appropriately.
• ■ Responsible decisions about the application of scientific knowledge in technology require understanding of how technology can impact both positively and negatively on society.
• ■ Stimulating interest in learning science through relating it to familiar situations and objects helps to develop realisation of the widespread consequences of its applications, locally and globally. A greater general awareness of the role of science in daily life, and particularly the more informed attitudes that result from early science education, may well lead to more students choosing to specialise in science, but this is a secondary rather than a main aim of'science for all'.

For learners as world citizens:

• ■ Education in general, and science education in particular, is central to progress towards the global development goals expressed in the United Nations report Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see Box 1.1).
• ■ Science education can help policy decision-makers at all levels to recognise the responsibility we all share to use science to achieve the targets associated with each goal.

Box 1.1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2016–2030

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consist of an agreed set of intergovernmental aspirations across the full range of policy areas, such as education, health, economic growth, climate change, biodiversity, gender equality, water and sanitation. The 17 goals are the successor to the 8 Millennium Development Goals first established following a millennium summit in 2000. Whilst education has a key role in progress towards all types of goal, the SDGs most directly related to science education are:

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Targets relating to the first of these goals include:

• ■ By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
• ■ By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations.

The knowledge explosion and 'big' ideas

The daily addition to our knowledge about the living and made world – widely accessible through television programmes and other media reports about newly explored parts of planet Earth and indeed other planets – is one sign of the rapid increase in scientific knowledge. Other signs are in the applications of science in constantly changing technology, particularly in modes of communication and access to information. These events raise important questions that must not be avoided:

• ■ How can science education be expected to keep up with this knowledge explosion?
• ■ Is it inevitable that what is taught in schools will be seen to be out of date and out of touch because events move more quickly than curricula and learning materials can be changed?
• ■ Isn't the attempt to 'cover' too much content bound to lead to short-term memorisation rather than deeper learning?

Although these issues impinge mostly at the secondary school level, if there is to be consistency across the primary–secondary boundary, these questions must be considered at all points.

One way to address the problems that provoke these questions is to change the way we conceive and communicate goals of the curriculum. We are less at the mercy of constantly expanding information if we think of the aims of science education not in terms of a collection of facts and theories, but as a progression towards the development of broad underlying ideas that have wide application. The ideas to focus on should be those that help our understanding of both familiar and new things around and which enable us to take part in decisions as informed citizens of a world where science and technology are of ever-increasing significance.

These ideas are described as ‘big’ or powerful ideas, which help us in explaining new phenomena and in seeking new facts and theories. ‘Big’ ideas can be applied to a wide range of related phenomena and are built from ‘small’ ideas that relate to specific objects or events. For example, the idea that earth worms have features that enable them to survive underground is a small idea. This idea gradually expands as it becomes linked to ideas from study of other organisms and is developed into a generalisation that applies to all organisms – a ‘big’ idea which endures no matter what new species are discovered. Later, in Chapter 8, we look at how this process happens and, in Chapter 11, at how it can be helped.

In the context of the school curriculum it is important for teachers, when helping children to develop the small ideas, to see these as steps towards the ‘bigger’ ones. For instance, planting seeds and stones in soil to see if they grow sets children thinking about differences between living and non-living things, eventually leading them, some years later, to recognise the cellular structure unique to living organisms.

But how can the most important and powerful ideas be identified?

For a start, there is no single ‘right’ list of big ideas to be uncovered. The selection of ideas is bound to depend on human judgement. The people in the best position to make judgements are those with experience and expertise in science and science education. An international group of such experts, meeting in 2009 (and again later in 2014) for the purpose of identifying key ideas, began by establishing criteria that such ideas would have to meet. These were that the ideas

• ■ would have explanatory power in relation to a large number of objects, events and phenomena that are encountered by students in their lives during and after their school years;
• ■ would provide a basis for understanding issues, such as the use of energy, involved in making decisions that affect learners' own and others' health and well-being and the environment;
• ■ would lead to enjoyment and satisfaction in being able to answer or find answers to the kinds of questions that people ask about themselves and the natural world;
• ■ would have cultural significance — for instance in affecting views of the human condition — reflecting achievements in the history of science, inspiration from the study of nature and the impacts of human activity on the environment (Harlen, 2015: 14).

To this we should add that key ideas should be consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Box 1.1.

The outcome of the application of these criteria and the discussions reported in Harlen (2015) was agreement on the list of big ideas in Box 1.2. These were widely cir...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 Compelling reasons for teaching science in primary schools
• Part 2 About children's learning
• Part 3 The teacher's roles
• Part 4 Assessment and learning
• Part 5 Planning environments for learning science
• Part 6 Accountability and evaluation of practice
• Questions for discussion
• References
• Index