Science and Technology and the NSW primary school curriculum

1. Science and Technology and the NSW primary school curriculum ACE North Harbour Region Primary Forum 2 July, 2009 Anne Forbes Australian Catholic University anne.forbes@acu.edu.au

2. Contents of this presentation • Global and national research findings and their implications • Pre-service teacher education courses • PD offerings in NSW • School communities – Principals, teachers, parents…

3. Global research findings • Perth Declaration (2007) • 1 000 science and technology educators from 50 nations • Concern at the ‘widespread lack of student interest in current school science and technology education and of its relevance to them’ and ‘the shortage in many countries of specialist teachers of science and technology’.

4. National research findings • DEST 2006 • ‘the adequacy of SET skill supply is an ongoing concern for Australian industry, governments, and the scientific research community’ • ‘this concern is shared by many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, which are experiencing declines in the SET share of higher education enrolments in their countries, coupled with a seeming decline in youth interest in SET study and careers’

5. National research findings • Tytler (2007) • Call for ‘re-imagining’ science education • Focus on engaging young people with science not on developing future scientists • Build a culture of interest in science • Students as ‘consumers not producers of science’ • Scientific literacy • Match science in the ‘real world’ with ‘school science’ • Communities working collaboratively

6. National research findings • Lyons (2006) • Secondary issues • predominantly transmissive pedagogies used by secondary science teachers • failure to engage student interest due to decontextualised content and the unnecessary difficulty of school science • Goodrum, Hackling and Rennie (2001) • Primary • lack of a presence of science and low levels of teacher content knowledge and science teaching efficacy

7. More from Goodrumet. al (2001) • National survey results • The training and expertise of primary teachers is necessarily generalist and often those teachers lack the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively teach in the specialised area of science. • Little or no science is taught in many primary classrooms. • Where science is taught, the teachers often lack confidence and have little understanding of science education. • Science has a low priority in many primary schools where the emphasis is on the teaching of literacy and numeracy

8. Pre-service primary teacher education • NSWIT Professional Teaching Standards • Mandated inclusion of a minimum of 2 units (courses) of Science and Technology • Different institutions do different ‘things’… • Australian Catholic University • 2 units in the disciplines of science and technology • 1 unit in K-6 science and technology pedagogy • New Graduates • Able to structure/sequence individual lessons • More problematic to plan/program units of work

9. Graduate teachers are ‘P’ platers • Where will they get ‘serviced’? What if they get lost? Who provides the road map?

10. K-6 S&T Professional Learning opportunities • National • Primary Connections • CSIRO – CREST, Scientists in Schools • State • Sectors – often linked with national initiatives • Recipes/programs egScience-in-a-box, book series • Community program – MyScience • STANSW – Young Scientist awards, K-6 Annual Conference • NSWIT accredited courses

11. National Curriculum, Science • Framing paper focus - contemporaryissues that students find relevant to their everyday lives. • ‘Science-for-life’ approach - deeper understandingof scientific concepts through peer-discussions and hands-on investigations. • Primary school students - focus on developing ideas about how science relates to their lives.

12. Primary science advocacy • How raise awareness of its importance through: • Teachers… • Parents/caregiver… • Local Community… • State… • Federal…

13. Proposed structure for K-6 curriculum • Stage 1(5-8 years) • Curriculum Focus • Awareness of self and the local natural world • Source of interesting questions and the related science understanding • Everyday life experiences involving science at home and in nature • Relevant big ideas of science • Exploration, observing, order, questioning and speculating

14. Stage 1 – Science BIG IDEAS • Exploration • Investigation of objects and things around them, through purposeful play, as a precursor to more directed inquiry in later years. • Observation • Using all five senses, to observe and gather information about the objects in the child’s environment. Looking for what is the same and what is different. • Order • Observing similarities and differences and comparing, sorting and classifying to enable children to create an order that is more meaningful to them (in a world that may well seem complex and complicated). • Questioning & speculating • Questions and ideas about the world become increasingly purposeful. Encouraged to develop explanatory ideas and test them through further exploration.

15. Stage 1 • INQUIRY SKILLS • asking questions and beginning to investigate • exploring, curiosity and wonder • using evidence to support ideas • TOPICS and MAJOR CONCEPTS • block play and structures • using the senses • observingliving things, objects and materials in the natural world • movement • comparing, sorting and classifying • developing and testing ideas

16. Proposed structure for K-6 curriculum • Stage 2 (8-12 years) • Curriculum Focus • Recognising questions that can be investigated scientifically and investigating them • Source of interesting questions and the related science understanding • Wide range of science phenomena that provide questions of interest and public importance to primary school students • Relevant big ideas of science • Change, patterns, systems, cause and effect, evidence and explanations

17. Stage 2 - Science BIG IDEAS • Change • There are many changes that occur in the natural world. Some of these changes are reversible, but many are not. Changes occur in materials, the position of objects, and the growth cycles of plants and animals. These changes vary in their rate and their scale. • Patterns • Through observation one can detect similarities among objects, living things and events. These similarities form patterns that underlie the idea of regular repetition. By identifying these patterns in nature, explanations can be developed about the reasons for the patterns. • Systems • The natural world is complex but can be understood by focusing on its smaller components. Understanding develops by examining these smaller components, or parts, and how they are related. Groups of parts that work together as a whole are commonly described as systems. There are also systems within systems or subsystems. So, an animal can be regarded as a system and within the animal there can be subsystems, such as the nervous system. There are many types of systems — for example, a pond, a telephone network, machines, a school, and the solar system. • Cause and effect • One important aspect of science investigation is the study of relationships between different factors or variables. Cause and effect is an important kind of relationship. Examples of cause and effect questions are: If a plant dies, what are the factors that caused its death? If a person develops a skin rash, what has caused that rash? • Evidence and explanations • Evidence is the driving force of science knowledge. From the data derived from observation, explanations about phenomena can be developed and tested. With new evidence, explanations may be refined, or may change.

18. Stage 2 • INQUIRY SKILLS • identifying questions that can be investigated • planning and conducting simple investigations • using tools to gather data and improve observation and measurement • using data to formulate explanations • analysingdata to explain the relationships between different factors. • communicating investigations and explanations to others

19. Stage 2 • TOPICS and MAJOR CONCEPTS • characteristics of plants • characteristics of animals • pushes and pulls • growth, cycles and change • soil • water • weather • liquids and solids • processed materials • sound • light • the night sky • relationship between the earth, moon and sun • simple electric circuits • living things and the environment.