Science
-
Make science relevant to the lives of your children
- Teach it with passion
- Inspire the children to love the world and use the
skills of science to love it even more
- Don’t always teach what you plan. Leave time to be
like ‘scardy squirrel’ (a great book by the
way) and jump into the unknown.
- Don’t aspire to be ordinary or normal, let your self be extraordinary
- Remember, it’s the way we make people feel that
traps a memory; plan to make your children feel success, challenge,
uncertain, joy. Help your children understand that if they are getting
it wrong now and again they must be playing the right game. If they
are getting it right most of the time they are playing a game that is
too easy. It is our job to provide the ‘right’ sort of game for the
children. That is our challenge!
I have summarised the
findings from Ofsted about science that have been
released recently:
Over the last year the inspection data show that
achievement in science was good or better in nearly three quarters of
primary schools and outstanding in just under one
in ten.
Teaching and learning; these were the characteristics
of the good/outstanding lessons
- learning
progressed in small sequenced steps
- opportunities
for pupils to discuss scientific ideas
- lively
exposition
- good
variety within lesson
- activities
well matched to learning objectives and latter shared with students
- teachers
who are reflective practitioners keen to improve their own work
- activities
matched to pupils everyday life
- active
pupil involvement not passive (thinking, talking, doing)
- no
off task activity
- enjoyment
- pace
and challenge
- individual
needs addressed
- effective
teacher response to questions/misconceptions
Tom’s advice:
· Make sure you teach the science skills
· Teach the pupils how to share ideas and
collaborate in small groups
· Do weird stuff sometimes…..be out of
the ordinary
· Challenge the pupils; if they are
getting it right all the time your planning is not good enough! Its too easy.
· Give time for the pupils to learn and
enjoy their science
· Make the learning relevant to the lives
of the pupils or fun or on your really whizzy
days, both
Assessment
- effective
use pupils self assessment sheets
- use
of milestones and level ladders (skills)
- self
assessment against given criteria
- targeted
interventions following assessments
- pupils
know targets and how to improve
- pupils
motivated by involvement in assessment
- short
terms targets for improvement
- assessment is
rigorous, consistently and systematically carried out with good
formative written comments seen in books.
Tom’s advice
· Know what you want the pupils to learn
· Why you want the pupils to learn it!
Discuss with the pupls their ideas as to why they
think they need to learn ……..You’ll get some interesting thought back
· How the pupils are going to learn it.
Again, discuss with the pupils how they think they could learn ….
· Share all of these with the pupils
The curriculum
- Since
the National Curriculum Science Order first came into being,
- weaker schools have concentrated
on the knowledge content of the Order.
- They
have not fully considered the other information described concerning
the nature and processes of science,
§
and they have not taken on sufficiently the
challenge of developing the learners’ understanding and skills of science
§
planning the curriculum for the development of
science skills in relevant contexts has had a low priority
§
‘what’ of teaching has dominated, leaving
the ‘how’ as a lesser consideration.
Tom’s
advice
· Don’t use QCA…..it is too knowledge
based, it does not make the science relevant to the lives of the pupils and
is boring
· Make use of any resource that enhance
the pupils skills in science and their love of finding things out
Testing
- The
lack of requirement for statutory tests at the end of Key Stage 2 has
had a positive impact on the curriculum design and planning of science
in primary schools.
- This
freedom to plan is accompanied by the continued need for schools in
different phases to collaborate effectively to ensure a smooth
transition between primary and secondary schools, building on pupils’
prior learning and avoiding unproductive repetition.
Tom’s advice
· Focus on the development of some core
skill over a period of two terms and then you have the chance to track
progress of the pupils in you class
· Do less, not more. Observe the pupils
rather than teaching them all the time. You can then make judgments about
what skills they have acquired and what you need to do to bridge the gap