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Science (Loxely (2018) Teaching Primary Science (Constructivism (pg. 13-15…

- - - - Raising their own questions increases children’s engagement and stimulates curiosity. Children may not be able to discover the answers to every question from first-hand experience, but because the questions ‘belong’ to them, they are likely to be keen to search for answers using enquiry and information sources.
      - Raising their own questions increases children’s engagement and stimulates curiosity. Children may not be able to discover the answers to every question from first-hand experience, but because the questions ‘belong’ to them, they are likely to be keen to search for answers using enquiry and information sources.
      - Children need opportunities to use spoken language to make ideas explicit and to appreciate their value. If we describe scientific ideas using everyday language, we can help children re-describe and re-think their experiences of the natural world from a scientific point of view.
      - Listening to children’s ideas and responding to their questions provides insights into their learning needs , which can be addressed by looking at the puzzle from a scientific point of view in the re-describing stage.
      - Physical models Physical models can be useful because they enable children to visualise a concept and to talk about how it works. Models provide children with something concrete to talk about. For example, in teaching about how we digest our food, it is not possible to have a real digestive system to explore. Physical models encourage children to hypothesise about what each part does. This is a form of scientific enquiry. The same applies to the use of models to make sense of more abstract concepts. For example, the motion of the balls inside a Lottery machine help children imagine the particle nature of a gas. The Lottery machine is both a three-dimensional model and an analogy
  - - - Children enjoy practical science; it is interesting to have a puzzle to solve, to set up your own investigation and find out something new.
      - Science is not just about exploration but also about sharing the knowledge and understanding that people have accumulated over time. For children, the problem with science is having to ‘learn facts’. There is a lot to learn and it is easy to get things wrong. This includes new words or new uses of words because science, like many other activities, has its own technical vocabulary.
      - Excitingly, science happens outdoors or offers a chance to measure or observe things around the school. Such practical activity is motivating and engaging, especially if there is a strong collaborative element. Working with a classmate ensures that there is someone to share ideas, and means that disheartening personal failure is less likely.
      - In summary, children may see conceptual learning as hard work, dull and unoriginal. Although they like ‘doing experiments’, the children in Murphy and Beggs’ (2003) study reported disliking writing, learning facts and technical vocabulary. Learning facts for examinations can have a negative effect on attitudes; children tend to enjoy and value science more when they have opportunities to discuss and debate ideas and issues. Research has shown that there is the need to teach concepts in ways which relate to everyday life and appeal to children’s interests (Osborne et al., 2003; Simon, 2000; Cerini et al., 2003).
  - - - Teachers may slip into asking questions to which children have to guess the right answer, that is, find out what the teacher wants them to say.
        For example: T:OK, who can tell me what magnets do? Katy?
        K: Stick to the fridge
        T:Um, yes, fridge magnets – but if you have two magnets, what happens?
        . And so on for many more turns until the class have come up with the required phrases, ‘Like poles repel; unlike poles attract’. Teachers’ questions require a lot of hand-waving on the part of the children and the teacher may have to manage some off-task behaviour created by boredom. This sort of interaction is the source of such phrases as: ‘Listening ears on, everyone!’, ‘Let me see, who is sitting beautifully?’, ‘I can’t ask you because you haven’t got your hand up’ or ‘Can you repeat that, Josh? I couldn’t hear because some people are just not listening’ and so on.
      - Teachers’ questions : Teachers ask questions to stimulate discussion and help children to articulate their current ideas. Teachers’ questions are meant to engage children by appealing to their personal memories and their willingness to contribute. They are used to ensure that all children are attending and to generate common knowledge. But some questions are more useful than others.
      - Episodes of interminable questions leave the class and the teacher quite baffled by one another and do not help children to understand anything. Less experienced teachers may copy this style from those who have had years of practice at handling children this way. Children, having little choice, rapidly learn the rules and then spend much of their time finding ways to subvert them.
- - - - ^Active learning • either through hands-on use of materials or discussion-means that for some of the time at least the child will be in groups.
      - This involves making decisions about how best to organise the lesson; whether and when children will work in groups or as a whole class; whether other adults need to be involved if, for instance, the work involves taking children out of the classroom
      - Feasey (2011- 48) recommends four as the optimum working group, since 'with larger groups the teacher runs the risk of having children who are off task'. She also suggests that for discussion, 'as with practical work, four is the optimum size where children can discuss in pairs and then share ideas within the foursome
      - On the question of group composition, the work by Howe and colleagues the early 1990s, comparing mixed-ability groups with groups selected basis of ability, is still relevant. Howe (1990) and Howe et al. (1992) undertook study of group composition that convincingly demonstrated that compared with groups where children had similar initial ideas, those where the ideas were more varied made most progress. Crucially the progress made by these mixed groups was more apparent six weeks after the group work than it was immediately after the lessons. Although other explanations for these differences were sought none In a later
      - In a later study, Howe and colleagues (2007) identified some key principles of group organisation in primary science. Their study was designed to draw together all the features that various research projects have identified as important in successful group work to explore their effects on attainment. Their findings revealed that classes where teachers supported group work effectively made greater progress than others. This was equally so in classes of mixed-age pupils. Their evidence showed the conditions in which pupils engaged in productive dialogue, including the sharing of ideas discussing disagreements, sharing and explaining ideas. These behaviours were more likely to occur where teachers monitored groups briefing children on the task in hand, ensuring good management, encouraged the development of good group skills and modelled good interaction skills
    - - In addition they need to learn how to work in groups and to plan together as a team.
      - Naylor et al. (2007) confirm a point made by Barnes (1976) and noted 7 that argument and discussion are richest when the teacher is not present, Group work provides this opportunity since the teacher cannot be present in than one group at a time.
      - Almost invariably practical work needs to be undertaken in small groups. It is necessary for the efficient use of resources but most importantly for the opportunity it affords children to share ideas, to challenge each other's ideas and to reflect on their learning.
  - - - Setting up activities in a way that requires genuine collaboration in pairs or small groups so that the effort of all those involved matters and all obliged to pull their weight.
      - Labelling children either as groups or individuals. This can happen consciously, as when children are streamed or grouped by ability and are referred to by a label, or unconsciously. It is difficult to imagine that being labelled 'the B class' reinforced by the uniformly low level of work expected, does not transfer to the children's self-image.
      - Children are acutely sensitive to being treated in different ways from others and are not deceived by bein| described as the 'green' group when this means that they are the 'slow' ones.
      - Children are acutely sensitive to being treated in different ways from others and are not deceived by being described as the 'green' group when this means that they are the 'slow' ones.
      - Involving children in identifying some reasonable objectives for the activity and some ways of achieving these objectives.
    - - Ideas that can be achieved in a lesson will be 'small' ones (Chapter 2)
      - As children's experiences are extended over a series of lessons, it becomes possible for them to link events which are explained in different ways to form 'bigger' ideas which have wider applications.
      - Teachers need to have the big ideas in view even though the goals communicated directly and indirectly to the children will be the small ones specific to the lesson.
    - - In a later study, Howe and colleagues (2007) identified some key principles of group organisation in primary science. Their study was designed to draw together all the features that various research projects have identified as important in successful group work to explore their effects on attainment. Their findings revealed that classes where teachers supported group work effectively mad* greater progress than others. This was equally so in classes of mixed-age pupils. Their evidence showed the conditions in which pupils engaged in productive dialogue, including the sharing of ideas, discussing disagreements, sharing and explaining ideas. These behaviours were more likely to occur where teachers monitored groups briefing children on the task in hand, ensuring good time management, encouraged the development of good group skills and modelled good interaction skills