Science Subject Studies

1. Science Subject Studies Wednesday 29th June 2011 9.00 – 12.30

2. Objectives • Getting to know you • To get to know members of the group • To get to know members of staff who will be involved with the Science course • Introduction to the course • To become familiar with the content of the programme and understand the requirements and tasks within the subject studies programme • Aims of Science and Science Education • To consider the nature and purpose of Science • To consider the aims of Science Education

3. Helen

13. Q

16. Your turn • You have ten minutes to create a poster to describe you and your profile in science. NB. you must be prepared to expand upon your poster!

17. Aims and ethos As a science team we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn science and that it is our responsibility, as teachers, to make science an exciting, relevant and engaging endeavour. Science is fun! Throughout this course we will work with you to critically engage with the issues around science education and support you in developing your own personal philosophy on teaching and learning science. At Nottingham we seek to create a safe and open learning environment. You will be encouraged to work creatively and imaginatively in exploring ways to bring the science curriculum to life in your classrooms.

18. From the outset you will be part of a collaborative community of inquiry; you will be learning with and through others. We will draw on your experiences and the experiences of others as we explore the key aspects of learning and teaching science. We are committed to providing equality in education for all pupils and therefore all our work will be underpinned by the promotion of social justice. The five principles of the Every Child Matters agenda are also fundamental to our course.

19. It’s a mystery You have two minutes to get yourselves into two groups with an even spread of specialisms. In your groups you will need to solve the mystery of the briefcase!

20. How did you do? • What approach did you take? • How did you work? • Did you all take an equal share? • Did anyone dominate? • Did you all get chance to contribute? Thinking at the meta level what can we learn from this activity?

21. The handbook Any questions?

22. Break! Be back in 30 minutes!

23. The Nature of Science

24. Objectives • Getting to know you • To get to know members of the group • To get to know members of staff who will be involved with the Science course • Introduction to the course • To become familiar with the content of the programme and understand the requirements and tasks within the subject studies programme • Aims of Science and Science Education • To consider the nature and purpose of Science • To consider the aims of Science Education

25. Lunch time During lunch please read the SSR article – ‘Do we know how science works?’

26. Science Subject Studies Wednesday 29th June 2011 13.30 – 16.00

27. Objectives • Introduction to the National Curriculum • Consider how we might enhance Subject Knowledge • Introduction to How Science Works (HSW) • An exercise to look at your understanding of HSW and how it is applied to teaching and learning • Introduction to microteaching • “Teach me to dance, ….will you…” from the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek” – you will be given a topic to teach the rest of the group tomorrow

28. Science National Curriculum • How has it changed? • Explore Key Concepts and Key Processes – what does this mean to you? • Consider the Range and Content • Do the Attainment Targets map directly to the Range and Content?

29. Why change?

30. Students’ Views (n=1227) Jenkins, E., & Nelson, N. W. (2005). Important but not for me: Students' attitudes toward secondary school science in England. Research in Science & Technological Education, 23(1), 41-57.

31. What students sayLack of relevance/coherence • A lot of the stuff is irrelevant. You’re just going to go away from school and you’re never going to think about it again. • It doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m never going to use that. It’s never going to come into anything, it’s just boring. • In art and drama you can choose, like whether you’re going to do it this way or that way, and how you’re going to go about it, whereas in science there’s just one way. • It’s all crammed in … You catch bits of it, then it gets confusing, then you put the wrong bits together … [From: Osborne, J. and Collins, S. (2000). Pupils’ and Parents’ Views of the School Science Curriculum. London: King’s College.]

32. What students say.The technology of school science. Andrew: “The blast furnace; so when are you going to use a blast furnace? I mean, why do you need to know about it? You’re not going to come across it ever. I mean look at the technology today, we’ve gone onto cloning, I mean it’s a bit away off from the blast furnace now, so why do you need to know it?” Kings College London

33. What students say.Awe and wonder! We learnt all these amazing things in year 7 that we’d never heard of before, like molecules and atoms and electrons. I don’t know about you guys but I got really excited about it, rushed home and told my mum about it. And then in year 9, we’re doing the same thing, year 10, doing the same thing, year 11, doing the same thing ….it’s so repetitive. Kings College London.

34. Beyond 2000 report • “The science curriculum from 5 to 16 should be seen primarily as a course to enhance general ‘scientific literacy’.”

35. How Science Works (HSW) Thoughts on the lunch time reading?

36. A potted history! • Pre- NC: most syllabi had little explicit reference to NoS. • 1989 NC: 17ATs and it was AT1 and AT17 that embedded NoS.   AT1 was essentially an experimental, empiricist view of science, in profound contrast to AT17, explicitly named ‘The Nature of Science’, which laid stress interpretation and the uncertain nature of scientific knowledge, the tentative nature of theories, as well as the social, moral and cultural contexts of scientific endeavour • Impact of AT1 significant and continues, though in revised forms; Impact of AT17 very limited due to lack of training for teachers, lack of support materials, not embedded in assessment procedures and rapidly dropped in:

37. 1991 revision: 4 ATs (this was initially going to be 5) with AT17 disappearing. However, AT1 strengthened and implicit was a particular view of science as in 1989 version • 1995 revision: slimmed down, a bit more flexibility in Sc1 • 1999 revision reintroduced aspects of At17 through ‘Sc0’, which referenced social and historical contexts to use in covering Sc1-4. However, again there was little guidance on how to incorporate this. In addition, the ideas and evidence emphasis in Sc1 was strengthened. The assessment of this continues to drive a particular approach, characterised as ‘mechanistic and routine delivery’ by many commentators. • 2006: revision at KS4 puts much greater emphasis on NoS and is to be assessed in line with this. • 2011????

38. Ideas about Science • The uncertainty of all data: how to assess it and deal with it • How to evaluate evidence of correlations and causes • The different kinds of knowledge that science produces (ranging from agreed ‘facts’ to more tentative explanations) • How the scientific community works: peer review • How to assess levels of risk, and weigh up risks and benefits • How individuals and society decide about applications of science

39. Introduction to Microteaching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzpHvLWFUM

40. Objectives • Introduction to the National Curriculum • Consider how we might enhance Subject Knowledge • Introduction to How Science Works (HSW) • An exercise to look at your understanding of HSW and how it is applied to teaching and learning • Introduction to microteaching • “Teach me to dance, ….will you…” from the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek” – you will be given a topic to teach the rest of the group tomorrow

41. Science Subject Studies Wednesday 29th June 2011 16.30 – 18.00

42. Objectives • Preparation for microteaching • To plan and prepare for the microteaching session tomorrow • Familiarisation with the Science National Curriculum • Begin to work on subject knowledge • Reflections • Evaluate the changes in the NC since you were at school and the impact this might have for the general public. Record your observations in your journal