Strengthening teaching and learning in science through...

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Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies Science subject leaders’ guide

Guidance

Curriculum andStandards

Science subjectleaders, KS3 sciencecoordinators andscience teachersStatus: Recommended

Date of issue: 11-2004

Ref: DfES 0702-2004 G

Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesScience subject leaders’ guide

Disclaimer

The Department for Education and SkilIs wishes to makeclear that the Department and its agents accept noresponsibility for the actual content of any materialssuggested as information sources in this document,whether these are in the form of printed publications oron a website.

In these materials icons, logos, software products andwebsites are used for contextual and practical reasons.Their use should not be interpreted as an endorsementof particular companies or their products.

The websites referred to in these materials existed at thetime of going to print. Tutors should check all websitereferences carefully to see if they have changed andsubstitute other references where appropriate.

Strengthening teaching and learningin science through using differentpedagogies

Science subject leaders’ guide

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Science subject leaders’ guide DfES 0702-2004 G

About this guide

This guidance is designed for science subject leaders and senior leadership teams.It provides guidance on the use of the five science self-study units.

Strengthening teaching and learning in science by:

• using group talk and argument;

• using active questioning;

• improving the learning climate;

• using models and modelling techniques;

• teaching the science of contemporary issues.

This booklet is divided into four sections. The first briefly outlines the importance ofCPD for science teachers. The second provides an overview of what each studyunit contains. The third section explores how the units can be used flexibly, utilisinga number of models of support. Lastly, there is information about where you can gofor extra support in the management of these units in your department.

You may be aware of the Teaching and learning in secondary schools series ofmaterials that have been produced by the Key Stage 3 Strategy. These science-specific units do not repeat the contents of the teaching and learning materials –rather they complement the messages contained in them and make science-specific suggestions for their implementation.


Science subject leaders’ guide

Contents1 The continuing professional development of science teachers 3

2 What is in the units? 3

3 Using the units 5

4 Further support 9

1 The continuing professional development of science teachers

The Key Stage 3 National Strategy has provided intensive training for scienceteachers through core and additional CPD. This training has been targeted at allscience teachers and has included management and science-specific themes. Thishas not only taken place through bringing teachers to central training but has beensupplemented by consultants who coach and demonstrate aspects in school.

The model of staff development which is described in recent work by DavidHopkins, particularly in the Improving the quality of education for all (IQEA) project,has been found to be effective in staff development.

Other research in the past two decades, particularly that of Joyce and Showers, onthe effectiveness of staff development, has shown that peer coaching in theclassroom has the biggest impact on sustaining permanent change.

The science teaching and learning self-study units have been written with peercoaching in mind.

2 What is in the unitsUnit 1: Using group talk and argument. This unit explores why using group talkand setting up conditions for healthy argument is important to stimulate pupilsunderstanding of science. It provides guidance on how various groupings can beused in the laboratory and gives advice choosing a stimulus for group talk.

Unit 2: Active questioning. Frequently Key Stage 3 Strategy training materialshave referred to questioning as a vital tool for moving pupils’ learning on. This unitbrings together the advice given so far and helps teachers to plan for questioningto stimulate higher-order thinking in their pupils. It gives practical advice on tips andtechniques that can be used straight away.


Unit 3: Improving the learning climate. Many teachers recognise that thephysical environment in the laboratory can play a key role in pupils’ learning. Thisunit starts from the physical climate and then explores how this can be built oncreating a climate of success for all pupils. This unit also explores how theexpectation and motivation of pupils can be improved through the use ofappropriate classroom language.

Unit 4: Using models and modelling techniques. This unit explores howscience teachers can use models effectively. It looks at both teaching and scientificmodels and how these enhance pupils’ understanding of complex scientific ideas.The quality of pupils’ written work in science has been criticised by HMI in recentreports. The final part of this unit demonstrates how teachers can enhance writtenwork by modelling literacy techniques in science.

Unit 5: Teaching the science of contemporary science. This unit is slightlydifferent from the others because it is not covering ground that training materialshave looked at previously. It establishes what is meant by contemporary scienceand gives clear advice on how to incorporate relevant contemporary issues intoeveryday science teaching.

Principles underpinning the units

An effective teacher has a wide repertoire of teaching and learning strategies andtechniques. The choice of which to use is determined by the pedagogic approach.The Key Stage 3 Strategy Key messages: Pedagogy and practice leaflet providesguidance on the relationship between pedagogic approaches and teaching andlearning strategies to inform and enrich lesson design. Effective teaching andlearning is vital for:

• presenting key concepts and ideas;

• demonstrating skills and processes;

• engaging and supporting pupils in active learning and higher-order thinking;

• establishing an interactive, well-paced dialogue with the class in which bothteacher and pupils articulate ideas, express opinions and build on each other’sideas to develop knowledge and understanding;

• creating the right level of challenge and moving learning forward so that pupilscan make good progress and reach high standards.

The study units are intended to provide not only the means by which scienceteachers can develop their skills, but also a common language in which to discussteaching and learning. Effective teachers employ a range of pedagogic approaches,such as direct, inductive or exploratory, when designing lessons. Within thesecontexts they select the most appropriate strategy or technique to meet theirobjectives. Knowing how and when to employ strategies such as modelling,questioning, explaining or group talk leads to improved learning. Paying attention tothe climate for learning and classroom organisation can create improved conditionsfor learning. The study units do not require teachers to attend any external course,although they do complement the Key Stage 3 National Strategy’s training.


Structure of the units

A unit requires about two hours of study and five hours of work in the classroom.Each contains:

• a clear introduction outlining the main ideas;

• case studies;

• tasks and classroom assignments;

• practical tips;

• a summary of the related research;

• suggestions for further professional development and guidance on settingprofessional targets.

Three of the units have an accompanying DVD.

Teachers may select units according to what they require for their professionaldevelopment. The units do not have to be tackled in order and in some cases teachersmay complete only part of a unit. Units are structured so that easily implemented ideasare generally at the beginning and more demanding ideas towards the end.

3 Using the unitsThese units are not intended to replace the teaching and learning priorities in yourdepartment. They will provide extra support for your existing priorities. You maywish to audit the training requirements for the members of your department beforedeciding which unit(s) might be given priority. This audit of need may have alreadybeen undertaken through professional review procedures or through previouslesson observations.

As you plan for the use of the units you should take into account the models ofprofessional development given in the next section. In particular, you shouldconsider the use of peer coaching as this is a powerful tool particularly when thewhole department is involved.

The involvement of advanced skills teachers (ASTs), leading teachers (LTs) and ofcourse your science consultant should also be considered. ASTs have considerabledemands on their time, so be sure to liaise with the AST coordinator beforeinvolving them. At the end of each unit teachers are asked to consider some next-step targets for their professional development. There is considerable scope forusing these as part of the school’s performance management programme. As thescience subject leader you have a crucial role to play in the use of the materials.However, you are not alone! Use your consultant or subject leader from aneighbouring school to help you plan and organise the department to work throughthe unit(s) effectively and evaluate them when they have been completed.

Hopkins and Harris advocate the use of school improvement groups, consisting offour to six members, and representing a range of attitudes and experience. Theyalso promote the use of peer coaching (see strategy training modules on coachinglocated in the Sustaining improvement file DfES 0565-2003 for more details). Theirresearch has shown that teachers who have been coached develop greater skill,have a clearer understanding of the purpose of the new strategies and are muchmore likely than ‘uncoached’ teachers to develop new models in teaching their


Task 1

pupils. They also assert that peer-coached teams of two or three are best; thatthese groups are more effective when the entire department is engaged in schoolimprovement; and that peer coaching works best where the senior leadership teamparticipate in training and practice.

Reflecting on the needs of the department 20 minutes

Think about the science strand training that you and your department haveundertaken so far and what impact it has had on teachers’ practice in theclassroom.

Think about how you could manage the members of your department to workthrough one of the study units.

Is the whole department going to work on one unit?

Are two teachers going to work together on one unit?

Where does the unit fit into the department action plan?

Has the departmental audit highlighted one of the areas covered by a study unit?

What resource implications does this have, for example, supply cover?

Models of support

The five study units are flexible and can be used in a variety of ways within schools.The starting point is to decide which aspects would support a department’s ownplans for improvement. It may be that a department chooses several units spreadacross more than one group of teachers or perhaps just one.

Below are three possible models for using the units:

Model 1 Science team approach

Week One: The science subject leader and the SLT member responsible for the line management of the department brief the department. Colleagues are asked toidentify which unit or units best match their own plans for improvement and tofamiliarise themselves with the material in the identified unit that has been chosen(possibly allocate time during a subject meeting for the whole team to view the DVD extracts where appropriate).

Week Two: Each teacher is asked to identify one class to work with and is pairedup with another teacher who will act as a peer coach. Colleagues start talkingthrough how they intend to act on the suggestions given in the unit in relation to the existing scheme of work for the chosen class.

Weeks Three and Four: Teachers actively engage in the suggested strategiesoutlined in the unit. They are asked to keep a record of what goes well and whyand to compare notes with other colleagues in the team.


➝

Weeks Five and Six: If possible, teachers can be videoed in action and paired upwith another teacher to design tasks and team teach.

Week Seven: The whole team meet to review progress and to compare notes onwhat worked effectively and what didn’t.

Some points for senior managers and subject leaders to reflect on:

• Can time from existing calendar meetings be given over to provide planningtime for trying out the units?

• What role might the Key Stage 3 science consultant play?

• How much autonomy should teachers be given in choosing the class to be used?

• How will time be created to enable teachers to engage in peer observation?

Model 2: Teachers from different schools within a collaborative group or federation

Week One: Colleagues are briefed by the designated science subject leader and(or) the SMT members responsible for the collaboration in each school. Colleaguesconsider the units against their own action plans and identify which units wouldsupport their own plans for improvement. Colleagues are then asked to familiarisethemselves with the material in the identified unit that the schools have chosen(possibly allocate time during the meeting for the whole team of teachers to viewthe DVD extracts where appropriate).

Week Two: Each teacher is asked to identify one class to work with and is pairedup with another teacher (either from the same school or the partner school) who will act as an informal mentor. Colleagues start talking through how they intend toact on the suggestions given in the unit in relation to the existing scheme of workfor the chosen class.

Weeks Three and Four: Teachers actively engage in the suggested strategiesoutlined in the unit. They are asked to keep a record of what goes well and whyand compare notes with other colleagues in the team.

Weeks Five and Six: If possible, teachers can be videoed in action and paired upwith another teacher to design tasks and team teach.

Week Seven: The teachers meet (chaired by the designated subject leader or oneof the SLT members responsible) to review progress and to compare notes on what worked effectively and what did not.

Some points for the SLTs and the subject leaders responsible to reflect on:

• What criterion will be used to identify the teachers involved? How big shouldthe group be?

• What are the potential logistical problems in running a unit in two differentschools and how can they be overcome?

• What role might the Key Stage 3 science consultant play?


• Can time from existing calendar meetings be given over to provide collaborativeplanning time?

• How much autonomy should teachers be given in choosing the class to beused?


Model 3: ASTs and LTs supporting teachers in planning lessons (in the same science department)

Week One: Colleagues are briefed by the science subject leader and (or) SLT members responsible for the department. Colleagues are asked to familiarisethemselves with the material in the identified unit that the department has chosen (possibly allocate time during the meeting for the whole team of teachers to view the DVD extracts if appropriate).

Week Two: Each teacher is asked to identify one class to work with and is pairedup with an AST or LT who will act as an informal mentor. Colleagues start talkingthrough how they intend to act on the suggestions given in the unit in relation to the existing scheme of work for the chosen class.

Weeks Three and Four: AST or LT plans a lesson with the teacher based on thematerial and then models the lesson for the teacher. The teacher then activelyengages in the suggested strategies outlined in the unit with the support andencouragement of the mentor. The teacher and AST/LT keep a record of what goes well and why and compare notes.

Weeks Five and Six: If possible teachers can be videoed in action and team teachwith the mentor where possible.

Week Seven: The team of teachers, ASTs and LTs meet (chaired by the sciencesubject leader/SLT member responsible) to review progress and to compare noteson what worked effectively and what didn’t.

Some points for science subject leaders responsible to reflect on:

• What criterion will be used to identify the teachers involved? How big shouldthe group be?

• How best might the ASTs and LTs support the teachers? Bear in mind thedemands for AST time and check with the AST coordinator before involving the AST.

• Can time from existing calendar meetings be given over to provide planningtime?

• How much autonomy should teachers be given in choosing the class to beused?


A fourth model where an individual teacher takes a unit and then works through itwith a chosen class is also possible. However, the likely sustained impact of loneworking is small. Working in pairs or small groups is much more effective.


4 Further supportPersonnel

The LEA school improvement adviser (SIA) or science adviser can provide adviceand support on:

• how to make best use of the study units;

• how to develop partnerships between departments;

• where to seek LEA or other external support;

• managing CPD within a department, including advice on timetabling;

• potential sources of accreditation for teachers.

The LEA Key Stage 3 Strategy manager can provide advice about:

• how the Key Stage 3 consultant can support initiatives;

• whom to contact to provide training on coaching.

The Strategy consultants can provide:

• training for coaching (for ASTs and LTs);

• coaching for classroom teachers;

• mediation of the CPD units, working directly with groups of teachers.

References

Creating the conditions for teaching and learning, D. Hopkins and A. Harris (David Fulton 2000)

Improving the quality of education for all, D. Hopkins (David Fulton 2002)

Other useful publications

Making the difference: successful leadership in challenging circumstances (NationalCollege for School Leadership 2002). This NCSL publication sets out eightstrategies for improvement, breaking them down into shorter-term and longer-termactions.

Narrowing the achievement gap (DfES). This publication with accompanying CDsshows how five schools attempted school improvement through staff development.


Copies of this document may be available from:

DfES Publications Tel: 0845 60 222 60Fax: 0845 60 333 60Textphone: 0845 60 555 60e-mail: [email protected]

Ref: DfES 0702-2004 G

© Crown copyright 2004

Produced by the Department for Education and Skills

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If this is not available in hard copy it can be downloaded from:

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Guidance




Ref: DfES 0697-2004 G

Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesUnit 1: Using group talk and argument

Disclaimer




Acknowledgements

Page 7 – Table adapted from Starting an argument inscience lessons, written by D. Shakespeare.Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, theAssociation for Science Education – www.ase.org.uk

Page 25 – Quote from Group Seating in PrimarySchools: an indefensible strategy, written by N. Hastingsand K. Chantrey-Wood. Reproduced by permission ofthe authors.


Unit 1 Using group talk and argument

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Unit 1: Using group talk and argument DfES 0697-2004 G

How to use this study unitThis study unit offers practical suggestions for you to use in the classroom whenconsidering using group talk and argument to stimulate discussion. All thestrategies suggested have been tried and tested by teachers in their classrooms.They draw upon both academic research and the experience of practising teachers.You may have looked at Teaching and learning in secondary school materials (DfES0423-2004). While there are similarities with these materials, you will find that thisunit gives science specific advice that will be immediately relevant for use in yourlaboratory.

Your science consultant can help you work through this unit but it would be betterto pair with a colleague who also wishes to enhance the quality of pupils’discussion. The unit is structured so that the tasks listed towards the beginning aresimple and quick to implement. More challenging activities come towards the end.The unit contains case studies and tasks for you to undertake. It also contains‘reflections’ which will help you revisit an idea or change your own practice. Itincludes practical tips and tasks which will help you consider the advice or try outnew techniques in the classroom. The summary of research is contained on pages23, 24 and 25 and a list for further reading is located towards the back of the unit.The final page invites you to reflect on the experience of having tried out newmaterials and set some personal targets for the future. You can work through thematerials in a number of ways:

• Start small; choose one class to work with. Ask another teacher or your subjectleader to help by providing a sounding board for your ideas.

• Work with your science consultant on developing and planning your approachto group talk with one class. After three weeks meet together to review how itis going. Discuss which strategies have been the most effective with one classand plan to use these with other classes.

• Find another science teacher to pair with and team teach. Design the activitiestogether and divide the teacher’s role between you.

• Work with a group of teachers in the department. Use the unit as a focus forjoint working, meet regularly to share ideas and then review progress after afew weeks.

• Identify the sections of the unit that are the most appropriate for you and focuson those.

There is space provided in the unit for you to write notes and make commentsabout the activities. You may find it helpful to keep a journal of events. For sometasks you may want to make a video recording of yourself in action so you canmake a realistic appraisal of your performance. You could add this, along with anyother notes and planning that you do as you work your way through the unit, toyour CPD portfolio.

You will need access to video sequences 1 to 6 in the group talk section of theDVD, when working through this unit.


Using group talk and argument

ContentsIntroduction 3

1 Organising group talk 6

2 Starting an argument – choosing the stimulus for group talk 14

3 The climate and environment for group talk 17

4 Consider the research 23

Next steps 25

Setting professional targets 26

References 27

IntroductionWhat is meant by ‘group talk’ and ‘argument’ in science lessons?

Group talk includes any activity where pupils’ ideas are explored verbally betweenpupils, even if the final product is written or practical. It includes verbal argument (inthis context the word argument is used to describe discussion between pupils whohold differing views) as much as more formal debates (about contentious topicssuch as genetic engineering). Group talk can be both collaborative and competitive.

Stop and think

Before reading ahead, jot down your first thoughts to complete the followingstatements:

1 An activity a science teacher might carry out that could be called a ‘group talk’activity is …

2 If the activity was successful, what I would expect to see the pupils doing is … and what I would expect to hear in their conversations is … and what I would expect to see the teacher doing is …

3 The benefits to the learner of science would be …

4 A teacher might not use group talk activities, giving reasons, such as …

What does successful group talk and argument look like?

When you take part in productive talk as an adult scientist, you make suggestionsand support, modify or clarify others’ views. You challenge ideas, ask questions toseek clarification, summarise and evaluate the pros and cons. You care about yourown opinions, but allow others to shape and counter them.


In science lessons where productive group talk is taking place you will see pupilsdiscussing scientific ideas with each other independently of, but guided by, theteacher. Pupils will often be turning to face each other, making and maintaining eyecontact with others and using animated expressions with their eyes, face andthrough gesture. They will want to convince others, but will be looking foropportunities to consider others’ views. Words and phrases related to reasoning(such as because, why?, what if ...?) will be used. At times, pupils will be thinkingand saying little as they listen to others. The teacher will be aware of the progressof the conversations and intervening without interrupting the flow of the talk. Thepupils will be in control of the time taken on a discussion and will be clear on whatthey are expected to produce as a result of the activity.

When the group talk is over, pupils may have changed their minds at least once.They will be able to explain their current viewpoint and any previous opinions theyheld, as well as some of the views held by others.

Why do it? What are the benefits to the learner?

• Higher-level thinking Pupils are challenged to defend, review and modify theirideas with their peers. It encourages reflection and metacognition (thinkingabout one’s own thinking). Pupils often communicate ideas better with otherpupils than with teachers.

• Assessment for learning Effectively reveals the progress of the pupil to theteacher, encouraging the pupil to self- and peer-assess while allowing theteacher to plan more effectively. As such, group talk complements methodsembraced as Assessment for learning.

• Illustrating science in action Working scientists use group talk – in class itmodels how they work, supporting the teaching of the ‘ideas and evidence’aspects of scientific enquiry.

• Developing the whole child The ability to resolve disagreements is a life-skill.Pupils become more reflective as they try to arrive at a consensus byexpressing different points of view; or work collaboratively to explore ideas, planand make decisions. Further, it supports the development of literacy.

• Pupil motivation and emotional involvement When argument is takingplace, and pupils are actively prompted and provoked to defend a point of view– by the teacher and by others – it raises the emotional involvement in a topic,so that pupils are more engaged. In essence, they are being encouraged to‘care’ about the science viewpoint they have, and to take a stand for or againstit, even if they concede to others along the way. These features are morecommon in good English, RE and humanities lessons.

• Variety and learning styles Can be used as an alternative to written orpractical work (for example, experiments), or just listening as the teacherexplains and demonstrates. Group talk encourages the use of different learningstyles and thus can be inclusive to pupils excluded from more traditional (andoften written) activities.


Why is group talk relatively uncommon in science lessons? What are the issues expressed by teachers?

• External factors Many teachers may feel a pressure to ‘deliver the curriculum’.There is no time in the lesson to do more than impart information. Also, theteacher may be concerned about having evidence of work having taken place(for example, usually something written down in books) – for others in theschool, for parents or for Ofsted.

• Internal factors The teacher may be reluctant to take a risk with group talkbecause they are afraid that discipline will be a problem. They do not feelcomfortable with the apparent loss of control and, as their pupils are not usedto being given this level of freedom to express their ideas, they may be reluctantor misbehave. If group talk has been tried in the past it may have beenunsuccessful because of a lack of consideration of factors such as classroomlayout and teacher behaviour.

When are pupils more likely to engage in group talk andargument?

• when seating arrangements and environment are planned in order to facilitatediscussion;

• when the teacher’s language and non-verbal communication are planned inadvance in order to promote pupil confidence in the stimulus material for grouptalk;

• when the teacher withholds their opinion, or the answers for longer than usual;

• when groupings are chosen by the teacher, and are regularly changed;

• when timings are specifically used and usually kept short;

• when group talk is used regularly and becomes part of everyday sciencelessons.

It is the teacher skills of running group talk that require the most effort to developand are the focus of this unit. Once developed, they can then be used with littlepreparation on the part of the teacher, allowing them to be a regular feature oflessons.

The ideas presented in this unit complement those in the unit on Strengtheningteaching and learning using questioning in science.

Why use group talk: a teacher’s perspective 15 minutes

Watch the video sequence 1. This shows a science teacher giving her reasons for using group talk and argument.

Now, revisit the STOP THINK questions you answered earlier.

Has your thinking changed? If so, in what way? If not, which ideas have beenreinforced?


Task 1

Task 4

Task 2

Task 3

Try an activity 15 minutes

Now you have observed a teacher talking about why she uses group talk in lessons it would be a good idea for you to try setting up an activity for yourself.

Think of a class you are going to teach next week that might be amenable to this way of working.

Warn them that you are going to try something different with them next lesson.

Plan for a plenary activity which will encourage group talk. For example, pose aquestion such as ‘How does the density of the particles in water change as icemelts?’ Give the pupils two minutes think time, then ask them to pair up and comeup with a consensus model to explain what they think is happening. The pairsshould then be instructed to convince another pair that they have the best model.Some of the models are then shared with the rest of the class.

Or this might be by setting them a contentious question that they have to answerby the end of the lesson.

Make sure that you leave sufficient time to do the activity justice.

Evaluate how successful the activity was. If you feel that you could have organisedthe plenary differently, then make a note of this for next time.

Pupils engaged in group talk 20 minutes

Watch the video sequence 2 where pupils are engaged in productive group talkwithout the need for teacher intervention.

Make a list of the pupil behaviours that can be seen which promote group talk, forexample, the way the pupils face each other and the way they question each other.

Read the research summary given in the back of this unit. Use a highlighter penand mark those reasons for the promotion of effective group talk which are themost important for you in your lessons.

Organising group talk

Choosing a class to work with 15 minutes

Think of a class you teach that you think would respond well to group talk activities, this will be your case study class.

Note down:

Case study class 1

Year: Class: Timetabled day(s)/lesson(s): Reason chosen:


Task 5

Class:

strongly disagree agree strongly not disagree agree sure

� ☺1 Science is a subject full of things to discuss. 4 3 2 1 ?

2 The teacher often asks us questions about science in class. 4 3 2 1 ?

3 I often ask the teacher questions about science. 4 3 2 1 ?

4 I often ask others in my class questions about science. 4 3 2 1 ?

5 We are often given the chance to discuss things in science. 4 3 2 1 ?

6 I often challenge other pupils when I think they have said something about science that may be wrong. 4 3 2 1 ?

7 When talking in a group, I am listened to by others. 4 3 2 1 ?

8 When talking in a group, I always listen to the others. 4 3 2 1 ?

9 I always work with the same group of pupils in lessons. 4 3 2 1 ?

10 I like working in groups to discuss things. 4 3 2 1 ?

Adapted from Shakespeare, Naylor and Keogh, 2004

Before you continue, make some copies of the questionnaire given below. Fill in thequestionnaire yourself for the class by answering as if you are a representative pupil.Add extra lines so that you can add questions of your own.

Now ask some pupils from your chosen class to each complete the questionnaire toget a feel for their opinions. There is also space to add extra questions if you wish.

The outcome of the questionnaire may influence your decision about why you chosethis class.

Keep spare copies of the blank form and the outcomes of the questionnaires for later.


Case study

A pupil’s view 30 minutes

Watch the video sequence 3 which shows pupils, whose teacher uses group talkand argument in science, talking about their experiences:

• How do they feel about the activities?

• How has their opinion of using group talk changed since they started to do it?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working as far as theyare concerned?

•

Task 6


Trying an activity 60 minutes

Tell your case study class that you have looked at their responses to thequestionnaire and are going to try a group talk-type activity with them as a result.

Have the pupils work in groups of four.

They should nominate a spokesperson for their group and also nominate a scribe.

Pose them a question to think about. This should be pertinent to the topic you areteaching but some examples are given below.

Tell the pupils that they should face each other and the scribe will jot down all thepupils’ responses to the questions posed. All resonses should be recorded even ifthey appear to be wacky.

Give a definite time for the discussions and then tell the class that you are going togive them 5 minutes to summarise all the ideas and take feedback from thespokesperson.

Evaluate how effective you felt this simple group-talk activity was and how you willchange your organisation as a result of this reflection.

Ideas of questions to pose:

• Look at these cell models. Discuss the similarities and differences betweenthem. What features of the cell could not be adequately represented by themodels?

• Why does more copper sulphate dissolve in the same amount of liquid whenthe temperature is increased? Use the word ‘particles’ in the explanation.

Choosing, grouping and moving pupils for group talk activities

Everyone is affected by their peer group, and pupils in particular rapidly adopt andchange roles in different situations. The choice of the group in which they areexpected to work has a huge bearing on their willingness to speak openly andexpress ideas.

A teacher may say ‘I’d like you to do that in groups …’ with little guidance on thecomposition or size, where pupils should work, how long they have, and what isexpected of them. A very common grouping for practical work, group talk or projectwork is friendship grouping, often in groups of three or four, or without specifyingthe size of group.

Stop and think

Before reading ahead, jot down as many reasons as you can for each of thefollowing:

• why science teachers often allow pupils to work in friendship groupings;

• why pupils choose friendship groupings when given the choice;

• why science teachers may choose groupings of threes and fours;

• why not specifying a group size may be a problem for the teacher and forindividual pupils.

Task 7


You may have had thoughts such as:

• for the teacher, little or no forward planning is required to arrange friendshipgroupings. The likelihood of confrontation is reduced and if pupils are alreadysitting with friends they do not need to move far;

• given the choice, pupils (quite understandably) choose the lowest risk option –invariably with the same pupils they always sit with, who are probably sittingclose to them already;

• many science classroom tables and lab desks lend themselves to being used ingroups of three or four. Also, there may be inadequate resources or equipmentfor smaller groups;

• pupils can choose to sit with big groups and therefore have less to do andmake it more difficult for the teacher to keep them on task. Less-popular pupilsmay be excluded from some or all groups.

Thinking ahead and preparing the ground

Start by thinking in terms of flexible ‘grouping plans’ which can change accordingto the activity, rather than fixed ‘seating plans’ which usually do not. Many scienceteachers adopt seating plans in September and do not alter them all year exceptfor handling unwanted behaviour. Introduce new ways of working at a time whenthe pupils are most receptive, such as a morning lesson, after a holiday break, oron starting a new unit of work, but do not put it off until September! Make it clearhow long you expect pupils to work in these groups and that they will be changedagain shortly. Get into the habit of changing groups regularly, anything from onceper week to changing mid-lesson.

Whatever you are doing in class, always express grouping and seating plans in termsof learning, rather than behaviour, management. Changing groups will be moredifficult if pupils regard it as a punishment for poor behaviour or low productivity ratherthan an important aspect of learning. In all lessons you should be the one to decideon seating to make it easier when you want to move pupils. Even if you allow them tochoose from time to time, make it explicit that the choice is yours and do not backdown if pupils complain. If your school has a policy of alphabetical or boy/girl seating,they can return to this for ‘whole-class’ teaching as needed.

Review

Grouping plans not seating plans.

The choice of seating and grouping is yours.

Express grouping and seating in terms of learning not behaviour.

Change groups regularly.

Group size 30 minutes

Look at the table on the next page and think about your case study class.Photocopy the table and then consider how this grouping would work andcomplete the last column for yourself.

Task 8

Grouping Benefits Limitations Benefits and limitations for case study class

Individual Has to think for self Isolated within own experience

Pair Obliged to talk Prone to quick consensusSecure Little challenge from different Unthreatening viewpointsNo need to move Allocation of loners can befurniture difficultQuick

Small group Diversity of opinion Social pressures begin to (three or four) without the size set in: ‘We always work

of group being too together; ‘Do we have to threatening have girls in this group’; Turning a pair round ‘I have no-one to work with’.can create a table Possible for individuals to of four without stay quiet once there are moving benches more than two

Large group Diversity of ideas, Have to move furniture(five to seven) experience, ideas, Requires chairing and social

opinion skillsCan easily be dominated. More pupils remain silent

Whole class Everyone gets the Several pupils remain silentsame experience More difficult to contribute Teacher can monitor and there can be frustration and support in having to wait, discussion the talk moving on, etc.

Risk of domination by the bright, confident and talkativeRisk of the teacher doing most of the talking


It may be useful to think in terms of ‘team work’ as opposed to ‘group work’ whensetting up group talk. For team work, think ‘competition’ – where the idea is to endup with something, which is the first/best/biggest/most, etc. when compared withother groups. For group work, think ‘collaboration’ – cooperating towards acommon goal irrespective of the actions of other groups. Stereotypically, it is oftenheld that boys have a preference for team work and girls for group work. However,pupils often respond unexpectedly, and every pupil should be asked to work in newways at times.

Group composition 30 minutes

Look at the table below and think about your case study class. Consider how thisgrouping would work and complete the last column for yourself.


Grouping General benefits General limitations Benefits and limitations for case study class

Friendship Secure and Prone to consensusunthreatening

Ability Work can more Visible in-class settingeasily be pitched at the optimum level of challengePupils challenged by others near to their ability (in their ‘zone of proximal development’)

Similar Can treat all in group Differences visible – leading personalities in same way to pupil labelling of groups together (e.g. the keen group, the

mischievous group)Some groups may demand more attention than others

Different Unmotivated pupils Motivated pupils may be personalities may be pulled up pulled down by less together by more motivated motivated

Single sex Socially more Increases the gender dividecomfortable for some

Equal numbers May promote gender May be unequal numbers of of boy/girl tolerance and boys/girls in classper group equal opportunities Some pupils feel strongly

Positive influence of about the negative influence one gender on of the other genderanother

Random Builds up pupils’ Can get awkward mixes and selection experiences of ‘bad’ group chemistry

different partners and viewsAccepted by pupils as democratic

Pupils with Conversation flows May limit opportunities to same first freely share ideas with otherslanguage May appear to segregate

different pupils

There are many ways to spread ideas from a small group to the wider class. Referto the table below, noting how there is hierarchy from the most straightforwardmethod to more elaborate.


Task 9

Method Description Benefits and limitations for case study class

Pair talk Following the stimulus for the discussion, pupils are asked to think before speaking to anyone, then turn the person next to them to share their answer.

Pairs to fours As above, but then each pair shares ideas with another pair.

Snowball As above, but each time the group grows they are asked to come up with another argument/point/idea/fact/etc.

Spokesperson One person is nominated from a group to summarise their argument. The teacher should decide on the spokesperson and only let it be known just before they are asked to speak. Stress that the spokesperson can use others’ ideas and does not have to think on the spot when reporting back.

Envoys As ‘spokesperson’ (above), but the person feeds back to only one other group. They also listen to this group’s ideas before bringing back ideas to their own group again.

Rainbow After a discussion, pupils are given a number or colour. groups Pupils with the same number or colour then join up to

form new groups with representatives from the previous groups. (See notes below for ideas on how to carry this out.)

Random Pupils are randomly jumbled to rearrange them (using (and apparently methods such as those outlined below).random) regrouping

Grouping and regrouping quickly

Keeping with the same groupings lesson after lesson can become counter-productive. Discussing ideas with different people is important to good science anda life skill in itself. When asked to work in different groups there may well bepersonality clashes, confusion over who sits where, and unexpected unequalnumbers due to absence, so it is important to have methods that limit thesedifficulties.

Sharing ideas between groups 30 minutes

Look at the table below and think about your case study class. Consider how thismethod would work and complete the last column for yourself.


Ideas to make grouping and regrouping happen easily

Method Notes

Number/letter/ 1 Make sturdy signs for tables with three different grouping methods (e.g. colour numbers/letters/colours) so that different tables are marked up as 1/A/Red;

2/B/Green; 3/C/Blue, etc. Leave the markers on desks all the time so that pupils expect them to be used.

2 Allocate each pupil a number, letter and colour. You may have decided that when in their colours the pupils are grouped by ability; numbers by learning style; and letters give an even boy/girl split; or any other way you wish to group them. Do not share with the class your reason for grouping that way.

3 Pupils remember/note down their own number, letter and colour which may also be recorded in their diaries or similar, displayed on the noticeboard or projected on a whiteboard.

4 On arrival at the lesson (or any time you want to change grouping) you tell pupils to get into their relevant group. Pupils move to the correct marker and sit down with a new group.

Random 1 Pupils put their hands up. Point to each pupil and give them a number – as numbering they hear it they put their hands down – up to the number of groups required.

2 Before they move, ask the number 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. to put their hands up in turn so you can see the groups you have made and they are less likely to change group as they move to their places in the class. Having planned it in advance, direct each group towards a desk, using signs as needed.

3 Pupils can see that you are not allocating specific pupils into groups as it appears ‘random’. It can, however, be easily arranged so that the first pupils you number are all separated into different groups – but if done quickly it still looks random.

Random 1 Ask all pupils to line up alphabetically by surname, by first names, by month of continuum birthday (January to December); house number (low to high); first letter of the

last TV programme watched; numbers of brothers and sisters (from zero up) – anything that allows you to randomly line them up in different ways. Avoid personal qualities such as height, or test results, etc.

2 Divide the class into equal-sized groups. Having planned it in advance, direct each group towards a desk, using signs as needed.

3 Pupils can see that you are not allocating specific pupils into groups as it appears ‘random’.

Task 10 Running the activity

Watch the video sequence 4 where a science teacher talks about running group-talk activities and explains her rationale for carrying it out that way.

Which ideas have you read about feature in her lesson?


Starting an argument – choosing the stimulusfor group talkThe use of group talk should not be limited to debating controversial topics informal discussion, important though that is. The focus here will be on activities youmay already carry out that can be turned into group talk opportunities with little orno extra preparation.

When carrying them out, the ideas from ‘Choosing, grouping and moving pupils forgroup talk activities’ should be used.

Science Common format Some suggestions to change to group talk teaching and argument formatmethod

Explanation

Demonstration

Question and answer

Teacher explains the ideasand science to the class –expecting pupils to listen andreflect as she speaks.Occasionally asks questionsto individuals to see if theyare listening.

Teacher sets up and usesequipment to demonstrate anidea from the front of theclass, expecting pupils tolisten and reflect as shespeaks. Occasionally theteacher asks questions in thestyle outlined below.

Teacher provides just enough information for pupils towork out what the main points are, then asks them toagree the three most important points, and be able toexplain why.

Teacher tells them there will be a deliberate mistake inwhat will be said. Finally, groups must agree what themistake is, and why.

Teacher asks questions fromthe front of the class whichmay be closed/simple recallquestions. She asks for‘hands-up’ volunteers toprovide required answers, ornames individuals(sometimes just to check ifthey are paying attention).

The teacher considers carefully the question beingasked. (Please also refer to guide on ‘Strengtheningteaching and learning using questioning in science’.)

Teacher asks a question but asks every group toagree an answer. She does not take answers fromthose with hands up but expects all to be able to saysomething by allowing a pupil to use another’ssuggestion from the group.

When answer provided, she asks other groups toagree a set of pros and cons of the answer provided.

Teacher lays out all the equipment and materials onthe front desk and explains what they are. In groups,pupils are asked to agree:• how they think the demonstration will be set up;• what it will show and why;• how it ties in with the learning objective of the

lesson.

Teacher then sets it up in the agreed way or asks agroup to do so and run the demonstration.Periodically the ‘action’ is stopped and groups areasked to agree what the next step would be and why.


Taking ‘notes’

Comprehension worksheets (information plus questions) and answering questions from books

Practical work

After explanation,demonstration or similar,teacher writes notes onboard, dictates, or asksnotes to be copied frombook or worksheet. Pupilsindividually copy into theirbooks.

Book/worksheet is provided,one each if possible. Pupilsindividually read and answerquestions in their exercisebooks.

Teacher explains ordemonstrates procedure. In groups pupils collectequipment and runpractical, recordingoutcomes individually inbooks. Maybe followed byindividual write-up of work.

After explanation, demonstration or similar, groups areasked to agree the wording of the sentence thatsummarises a different aspect of the science. Oncethese sentences are agreed, the class compile aparagraph that summarises the salient points. Pupilsrecord this in their books.

Teacher reads out some notes. Groups are thenasked to reproduce the wording as closely aspossible – recorded on scrap paper and then refined.Pupils record this in their books.

Teacher refers pupils to a book or worksheet. Groupsare then asked to identify key words which can beused to reproduce the wording as closely as possible.The book/worksheet is turned over and on scrappaper the sentences are refined. Pupils record this intheir books.

Worksheets are provided – one per group, possiblyon A3 paper. Groups are then asked to agreeanswers verbally. The list of answers is then turnedinto a paragraph to be recorded in books.

Books or worksheets are provided one per group.Groups collectively asked to read questions andgenerate similar style questions with answers that canbe worked out from the text. These are written onpaper and passed to another group to complete as agroup or individually in their books.

Teacher explains or demonstrates procedure usingsimilar ideas to those above. In groups, pupils collectequipment and run the practical, recording one set ofresults per group (perhaps on sugar or scrap paper).For the write-up, groups are asked to agree a step-by-step guide to carrying it out, or a sketched postershowing results and conclusions. Each group is thenallowed to ‘mark’ other groups’ work and agreesuggestions for how it may be improved, with reasonswhy. Individually, they write up the practical if this isstill required.


Other ideas

Use of misconceptions or false statements such as ‘There is no gravity on themoon’ to provoke discussion (please refer to Key Stage 3 Strategy‘Misconceptions’ materials). Groups have to come to a consensus about whetherthey agree or disagree and why.

Artefacts or interesting objects such as toys, living things, lab equipment andso on.

Interesting photographs can be found using an Internet search engine thatallows you to search for images. Groups are asked to generate their own questionsand agree the best, given question stems such as: ‘How does …?’, ‘What wouldhappen if …?’, ‘Do you think …?’, etc. These questions are then addressed toother groups.

‘Open ended’ questions (in the style of New Scientist ‘Last Word’ section) such as‘Why are atom bomb clouds the shape they are?’ (to discuss convection) or ‘Whycan birds safely land on high voltage wires?’ (to discuss earthing, voltage, current). Go to www.newscientist.co.uk/lastword and www.newscientist.co.uk/lastword.uk

Concept maps, mind maps, etc. Completed in groups and assessed by othergroups.

Concept cartoons where misconceptions are personalised by cartoon charactersto help pupils take sides and form opinions (www.conceptcartoons.com). Groupsare asked to agree on which character is closest to the truth, and why.

Card sorts and continuums. Groups are asked to collectively classify statements(into, say, true/false, agree/disagree, etc.), diagrams, names, etc. which arepresented on cards, or place them along a line of a continuum.

Other group talk stimuli are many of the activities written to be starters andplenaries; Key Stage 3 Intervention materials; from books such as Wellington, J. and Osborne, J. (2001) Language and literacy in science education,Buckingham: Open University Press; or the IDEAS project materials, Osborne, J.,Erduran, S. and Simon, S. (2004) Ideas, evidence and argument in science (IDEAS)project, Kings College, London).

Reflection

Think about the ideas contained so far in this unit.

Which of them can be incorporated into your teaching this week?

Which will require more planning time?


The climate and environment for group talkEstablish expectations

Establish or remind pupils about your expectations for talk before they begin. For instance you could consider ‘ground rules’ for talk such as:

• assertions and opinions should be backed up by reasons;

• alternative options are considered before any decision is made. Each person inturn should be invited to speak;

• everyone in the group should be encouraged to speak by the other members;

• the group should try to reach agreement.

However, when scientists talk through something they often interrupt or play ‘devil’sadvocate’ and do not obey such ground rules, so that ideas are ‘sparked off’ eachother spontaneously. It may help to ask yourself ‘What is the minimum in terms ofbehaviour I would expect from a group of pupils while arguing their point? Is thereanything over and above what I expect from them at other times?’ It may comedown to simply reminding them of the need to be considerate to the views ofothers.

Gather pupils close together and face them towards each other

People have more difficulty communicating with each other over distances ofapproximately 3.5 metres, but can communicate effectively over approximately 0.5to 3.5 metres. The emotions can be engaged and involvement is greater whenpeople face each other, while they are as physically close together as is reasonable.Ask pupils to pull chairs into close circles, either with or without desks, and not inrows. This is more important if your classroom has long fixed benching.

Stress the importance of eye contact

Politely remind pupils to look at each other when speaking and listening. (Note thatin some cultures, and for some pupils with disabilities, expectations for eye contactmay differ, which needs treating sensitively.)

Clear the desks

Many things can distract pupils, and personal items and books take up space andact as barrier to involvement. Eye contact between pupils will be reduced. Clear thedesks of everything except that which is needed for the activity – including pupils’pencil cases, pens, pencils and exercise books.

Convey intended outcomes to group talk

Saying ‘I would like you to sort out whether you agree or disagree with that in thenext four minutes, when your group will be able to tell other groups the part youdisagreed over the most’ is better than ‘Have a quick chat with someone aboutthat’ which specifies neither the purpose (the reason to do it) nor the product (oroutcome) of the task.

Task 11

Use short, specific time targets

Specific times that appear to be carefully chosen can help ensure the activitydoesn’t drag out (‘You have 25 seconds to come up with a better argument thantheirs!’; ‘In the first minute I want to hear a sentences using every keyword fromeach pair, then, as a foursome. I am looking for three sentences together thatexplain how ionic bonds formed – which will take four minutes’). It helps to countdown to that time limit (‘You have just two minutes to go now …’). Tell them howlittle time they have and always try to stick to time targets – to the second!

Review

Ensure pupils know what the purpose and the product of the discussion will be.

Make explicit the reason why they should:

• be considerate to the views of others;

• face each other, and sit as close together as possible;

• use eye contact;

• clear the desks before they talk as a group work within the time targets set.

Preparation of the laboratory 20 minutes

Watch the video sequence 5 which illustrates part of a lesson demonstrating theteacher’s expectations of pupils, the way she has prepared the classroom and thestimulus she uses to get pupils to talk and argue.

What ideas have you read about feature in her approach?

Intervention in group talk: teacher behaviour and verbal prompts

Proximity If you stand close to a group who are talking it often stifles discussion,and they are more likely to defer to you when they get stuck. Even worse, loomingover a pupil or simply leaning on the desk can also stop a conversation. Becauseyou need to know what’s being said, practise standing a metre or two away, lookelsewhere and pretend to be listening to someone across the room. If you finallyneed to intervene, loom nearer or lean on the desk instead of using words.

Relative height If you need to join a small group for even a short time, get to theirlevel or lower by sitting, kneeling or squatting. This allows you to make eye contact,lower your voice and not appear dominant. To keep an eye on the rest of the class,face inwards in the room with as few pupils behind you as possible.

Non-verbal encouragement To encourage a pupil to speak, smile or increase eyecontact, nod your head and use slightly more exaggerated facial and vocalexpressions. Invite opinion by keeping your palms more upwards in hand gestures.As this may feel unnatural, try it in a mirror and you will find you can increaseexpression significantly before it starts to look odd.



Verbal prompt Do I use Could I use Adaptations that suit mesomething or adapt? similar already? (yes/no)(yes/no)

Saying nothing for no yes Make sure that I count to three slowly longer than pupils before giving an extra promptexpect you to.

‘Is that right? What makes you so sure?’

‘What other information would help you sort out this problem?’

‘If you were allowed to guess anything, what would you say?’

‘What’s the strength/weakness in your point?’

‘What do you think the main argument from others will be about that view?’

Task 12

Review

Don’t loom or lean.

Speak to pupils at their level or lower.

Encourage non-verbally – eyes, face and gesture.

It is also important that you withhold your opinion, and any ‘correct’ scientificviewpoint, in order to sustain an argument, but it is difficult to think on the spot howto do this.

Verbal prompts and provocation 30 minutes

You will need to find out which phrases you use most in class. Ask a colleague(why not use a teaching assistant?), or pupils. Then copy and complete the tablegiven below. Adapt the prompts to suit you.


‘What would it mean to you if I say I disagree?’ … and ‘What would it mean to you if I say I agree?’

Using other pupils

‘What do you think?’

‘What’s the matter with that idea?’

‘What’s the strength/weakness in his or her point?’

‘What do you think of his or her point?’

‘What convinces you that they are right or wrong?’

‘Which do you think best explains it – his or her answer?’

‘Can anyone suggest how you could check that out?’

‘Is she or he right or wrong? Why?’

‘I don’t know – I thought I understood this but now you’re trying to tell me …’

Being non-commital

‘That’s a good argument/way of putting it.’

‘I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew!’

‘That sounds possible to me – but I’m still not completely convinced.’

‘Remember there could be many ways to answer this.’


Task 13

Review

Withhold your opinion or the ‘correct’ answer for as long as possible.

Ask questions rather than provide answers.

Use others answers as prompts for argument.

Teacher intervention 20 minutes

Watch video sequence 6 which shows the science teacher intervening in a group talk activity.

Discuss with your partner teacher what the teacher on the video does to encourage the pupils to take part in the lesson.

‘I think I’m changing my mind here … run that past me again.’

‘Are you all happy with that answer?’

‘Remember there could be many ways to answer this.’

‘Are you all happy with that answer?’

Adapted from Shakespeare 2003


Grouping – size and Managing groups Stimulus for group talkcomposition I could use … I could use … I could use …

pairs pair talk explanation for group talk

small group (three or four) pairs to fours demonstration for group talk

large group (five to seven) snowball question and answer for group talk

friendship grouping spokesperson taking notes using group talk

ability grouping envoys worksheets and book exercises using group talk

groups with similar personalities rainbow groups practical work using group talktogether

groups with different number/letter/colour misconceptions or falsestatements personalities together

single-sex groups random numbering artefacts, photographs, etc.

groups with equal numbers of random continuum open ended questionsboys/girls per group

random selection for grouping other ideas group concept or mind maps

groups with pupils with same other ideas concept cartoonsfirst language card sorts or continuum

other ideas

Task 14 Putting it into practice 30 minutes

Review all the ideas you have studied in this unit which are summarised in the tablebelow. Circle in colour any ideas you have never used or considered.

In another colour highlight the ideas you intend to try with your case study class.

Of these, prioritise with numbers the idea you think will have most impact in yourlessons.

Reflect on your practice after each lesson. When you have successes or difficultieswith the case study class, share them with other teachers who may have ideas tohelp you.

After at least four weeks of putting these ideas into practice, carry out the originalquestionnaire again – both your own views on pupils’ likely perceptions, plus thepupils’ views themselves.


Summary

Whatever you choose to do, remember:

grouping plans rather than seating plans;

the choice of seating and grouping is yours;

express grouping and seating in terms of learning not behaviour;

change groups regularly;

ensure pupils know what the purpose and the product of the discussion will be;

make explicit the reason why they should;

be considerate to the views of others;

face each other, and sit as close together as possible;

use eye contact;

clear the desks before they talk as a group;

work within the time targets set;

don’t loom or lean;

speak to them at their level or lower;

encourage non-verbally: eyes, face and gesture;

withhold your opinion or the ‘correct’ answer for as long as possible;

ask questions rather than provide answers;

use others’ answers as prompts for argument.

Consider the researchCognitive and emotional development

Lev Vigotsky (1973) believed that it was children’s interaction with others throughlanguage that most strongly influenced the level of conceptual understanding theycould reach. He believed that we can learn from others, both of the same age andof a higher age and development level. One of the main ways this operates isthrough scaffolding in the zone of proximal development. This concept refers to thegap between what a person is able to do alone and what she or he can do with thehelp of someone more knowledgeable or skilled than him or herself. It is here thatthe role of teachers, adults and peers comes to the fore in children’s learning. Theycan help bring the child’s knowledge to a higher level by intervening in the zone ofproximal development by providing children’s thoughts with so-called scaffolds(small planned steps of support), which once the learning process is complete areno longer needed by the child.

His work has gone on to influence the thinking behind the CASE (CognitiveAcceleration though Science Education) and CLIS (Children’s Learning in Science).Materials written to support CASE Adey et al (1989) which promote the ideas of


social construction (where learning takes place between members of a group) andmetacognition (thinking about one’s own thinking). The success of CASE methodsin getting pupils to work in groups and resolve conflict is well established and theseideas can and have been successfully adapted for use at Key Stage 4 or post-16,for example, Moran and Vaughan (2000), and into the primary curriculum.

The influential writings of Daniel Goleman (1996) also highlight the importance ofworking in groups as a life skill, and one which is dependent on the emotionalintelligence of the group members. He argues that schools have a key role to playin this aspect of the development of the whole person.

Pupil attitudes to group talk and argument

• Pupils moving from primary to secondary classrooms are quoted in a recentstudy by the DfES (Curriculum continuity, 2004): ‘You were expected to work asa group’ (primary); ‘There is less group work; teachers often expect you to workindividually’ (secondary); ‘There were group work rules such as taking turns,having a chair, a scribe and a timekeeper’ (primary); ‘We only have group workrules in English’ (secondary).

• In their study of pupils’ attitudes to their science education, Osborne andCollins (2000) reported how pupils they interviewed ‘appreciated teachers whowere willing to engage in ‘discussions’’ and who allowed pupils to contribute.Some pupils equate ‘writing’ in science with ‘work’, with practical or discussionwork seen as more engaging and providing welcome variety.

• Matthews’ (2001) project involved pupils working in small groups of varyinggender mix where they are asked to reflect on their own and others involvementin group talk. He concluded that, when combined with feedback discussions,collaborative learning in the pupils studied can lead to pupils getting on betterand helping each other with their learning, and that this leads to pupils likingscience more and being more likely to continue with it in the future.

The emphasis in Shakespeare (2003) is to provide stimulus for argument and thenprovocation to continue to defend or alter one’s views in such a way that there is anemotional involvement in the science and thus greater motivation to resolve thedispute. This was supplemented by examples of phrases seen to work well inclass that sustain and enhance the responses provided by pupils. In a later project,funded by Wellcome Trust and DfES entitled Running arguments? – teacher skillsfor creative science classrooms, D. Shakespeare, S. Naylor and B. Keogh workedwith Bedfordshire teachers from Key Stage 2 to post-16 on the skills needed to runarguments in lessons. Pupils’ opinions were sought as teachers changed theirpractice and behaviour in class and included reference to the positive attitudespupils developed towards regular changing of groups and the chance to work withothers, including the making of new friendships. Only a small minority reported adislike for group discussion.

Managing group talk and the effect of teacher behaviour

Through extensive studies of teacher and student behaviour in lessons, Kress et al(2001) illustrate the importance of teacher action in the class that helps pupils makesense of the science. Further, writers such as Robertson, and Neill and Caswell,have studied the importance of teacher behaviour and non-verbal communicationand the influence on pupils’ involvement in lessons. The need to express emotionsand enthusiasm is critical to communicate the subject ideas in a lesson and non-

verbal aspects are critical. As part of identifying role behaviour in pupils in science,they also identified how pupils in practical work adopt roles such as the collector(gets the equipment), connector (puts it together and dominates proceedings) andobserver (mostly passive), where the distance to the centre of action was importantin determining the role adopted. These ideas can be applied to group talk, makingthe seating and orientation of pupils very important. Although based on a study ofgroup seating in primary schools, Hastings and Chantrey Wood (2002) conclude that‘there is a strong pedagogical, empirical and essentially intuitive case for arrangingthe physical environment to support the attention and activities that a task requires…’ and suggest that ‘… involving children in changing from one to another is aviable modus operandi’. A similar case can be made for secondary age pupils.

The use of ground rules has been explored by an Open University team led byProfessor Neil Mercer since the late 1980s, studying talk in lessons. Where pupilsare engaged in productive talk in lessons, teachers agreed a set of ground rules fortalk, making the purpose and value of talk in lessons explicit to pupils and how andwhy to engage one another in lessons.

Development of scientific argument

Osborne ran the IDEAS project which culminated in 2004 in materials and ideasproduced specifically for the development of scientific argument in lessons, basedon teachers’ and pupils’ experiences and development in class. As well as being asource for ideas for stimuli for argument, it also promotes the explicit developmentof terminology with pupils: evidence, reasons, facts, persuasive language, etc.

Group talk and assessment for learning

The Assessment for learning Black Box project, as summarised in Black et al (2003)highlights the importance of the importance of questioning, feedback and self- andpeer-assessment in developing deeper understanding and ultimately raisingachievement in class. The research project, involving teachers changing practiceand monitoring the outcomes, involved techniques where small groups were usefulif not essential.

Next stepsIn this unit there have been a number of suggestions for you to pair with anotherteacher or your science consultant as a means of support while you develop yourconfidence in developing group talk activities. Here are some ideas to consider inorder to take this work forward:

• Start small: choose one class to work with. Year 7 would be a good choicebecause these pupils still have vivid memories of their primary school wherethey were used to their teachers changing their groups frequently. However, ifyou have another class you feel would respond well to this, then use them.

• Ask another teacher or your science consultant to help you. You may have anAST in school who is not a member of the science department but who is wellversed in group talk techniques. They would be a good source of help.

• Ask for some protected time before the lesson so that you can check theresources and practise your script.


• Make sure your line manager or head of department or subject leader knowswhat you are doing. This will enable dissemination to happen much more easily.

• Share the class with another teacher and ensure you take responsibility for thegroup talk part of the lesson.

• Ask your science consultant to team teach the lesson with you. You shouldeach take responsibility for parts of the lesson.

• Read some research about group talk from the range of references provided.

• Talk to your pupils about how this technique helps them to learn.

Setting professional targetsReflect on the experiences you have had while undertaking this unit and setyourself two targets to develop over the next year. Below are just a few suggestionsof the kind of things you might want to undertake

Observe an AST or leading teacher in science who will be able to demonstrate theuse of effective group talk and argument.

Work with your science consultant and plan to team teach a module using thetechniques that you have learned during this unit.

Plan a series of lessons for next term using these techniques and invite a colleagueto observe you teaching.

Setting targets

Bearing in mind the guidance given above, reflect on the further steps you aregoing to take, perhaps by discussing the possibilities with a colleague or your linemanager. Set yourself two targets to work towards over the coming year.

Specify:

• the outcomes you will seek in terms of developing effective teaching strategiesto improve your expertise in the use of group talk;

• the strategies you will employ to achieve these outcomes.


ReferencesThinking Science. The curriculum materials of the CASE project, P. Adey, M. Shayer,and C. Yates (Andover, Hants: Nelson 1989)

Assessment for Learning: Putting it into Practice, P. Black, C. Harrison, C. Lee, B. Marshall and D. Wiliam (Maidenhead: Open University Press 2003)

Emotional Intelligence, D. Goleman (London: Bloomsbury 1996)

Group seating in Primary schools: an indefensible strategy? Paper to BERA AnnualConference, N. Hastings and K. Chantrey Wood (2002)

Multimodal teaching and learning, G. Kress, C. Jewitt, J. Ogborn and C. Tsatsarelis(London: Continuum 2001)

Improving Science and Emotional Development (the ISED project): concerningcitizenship, emotional literacy, science and equity, B. Matthews (London:Goldsmiths College 2001)

Words and Minds: How we use language to think together, N. Mercer (London:Routledge 2000)

Introducing CASE methodology at Key Stage 4: an example of bridging, SchoolScience Review, 82 (299), 47–55, J. Moran and S. Vaughan (2000)

Body language for competent teachers, S. Neill and C. Caswell (London: Routledge1993)

Ideas, evidence and argument in science (IDEAS) project, J. Osborne, S. Erduranand S. Simon (Kings College, London 2004)

Pupils views of the school science curriculum, J. Osborne and S. Collins (KingsCollege, London 2000)

Effective classroom control, J.Robertson (London: Hodder and Stoughton 1996)

Starting an argument in science lessons, School Science Review, 85 (311),103–108, D. Shakespeare (2003)

Running Arguments? – teacher skills for creative science classrooms (coursematerials and final report for the Wellcome Trust and DfES), D. Shakespeare, S. Naylor and B. Keogh (Unpublished)

Thought and Language, L. Vigotsky (Cambridge: MA: MIT Press, 1973)




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Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesUnit 2: Active questioning

Disclaimer




Acknowledgements

Page 7 – Extract from Feedback in questioning andmarking: the science teacher’s role in formativeassessment, written by P. Black and C. Harrison.Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, theAssociation for Science Education – www.ase.org.uk

Page 9 – Table adapted from Teachers Questions –types and significance in science education.Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, theAssociation for Science Education – www.ase.org.uk

Page 16 – Table adapted from Taxonomy of EducationalObjectives by Benjamin S. Bloom et Al. Published byAllyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. ©1984 PearsonEducation. Adapted by permission of the publisher.


Unit 2 Active questioning

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Unit 2: Active questioning DfES 0698-2004 G

How to use this study unitThis study unit offers practical suggestions for you to use in the classroom whenconsidering using active questioning techniques. All the strategies suggested havebeen tried and tested by teachers in their classrooms. They draw upon bothacademic research and the experience of practising teachers. You may have lookedat Teaching and learning in secondary school materials (DfES 0423-2004). Whilethere are similarities with these materials, you will find that this unit gives sciencespecific advice that will be immediately relevant for use in your laboratory.

Your science consultant can help you work through this unit but it would be betterto twin up with a colleague who also wishes to enhance the quality of theirquestioning. The unit is structured so that the tasks listed towards the beginningare simple and quick to implement. More challenging activities come towards theend. The unit contains case studies and tasks for you to undertake. It also contains‘reflections’ which will help you revisit an idea or your own practice. It includespractical tips and tasks which will help you consider the advice or try out newtechniques in the classroom. The summary of research is contained towards theback of the unit and will offer some suggestions for further reading. The final pageinvites you to reflect on the experience of having tried out new materials and setsome personal targets for the future. You can work through the materials in anumber of ways:


• Work with your science consultant on developing and planning your approachto questioning with one class. After three weeks meet together to review how itis going. Discuss which strategies have been the most effective with one classand plan to use these with other classes.






Task 1

Active questioning


1 The purposes of questioning 4

2 Planning effective questioning 6

3 Using questions to promote higher-order thinking 8

4 Classroom tactics for effective questioning 11

Summary of research 14

Next steps 17


References 18

Appendix: interpreting Bloom’s taxonomy in the context of science teaching 19

IntroductionQuestioning is a subject that has been tackled in a number of Key Stage 3 Strategyscience training materials. This unit aims to bring together the research,methodology, tips and tactics that have been previously looked at into onedocument for you to work through.

Asking questions is a part of science teaching which is often ‘instinctive’. Scienceteachers rarely have an opportunity to observe each other asking questions or toreflect on their own practice. This unit provides a good opportunity to work withanother teacher or your Key Stage 3 science consultant. The unit is designed tosupport readers to reflect on and analyse their questions and develop techniquesthat will:

• challenge pupils’ thinking;

• enhance pupils’ learning;

• assess their understanding.

Why is questioning important in science? 15 minutes

Collect ideas with your teacher partner as to why questioning is so important toscience teaching.

Record your ideas on a flipchart and then summarise the outcomes.

You may have come up with some of the following points:

• questioning is an immediate way for teachers to assess pupils’ level ofunderstanding;

• questioning can challenge pupils’ scientific ideas and identify theirmisconceptions;


• questioning can be used to facilitate the learning of pupils in a variety ofsituations. For example:– engage the pupils with the content of the lesson;– whole-class starters and plenaries;– interaction with groups;– discussions with individuals about their work.

This unit will extend your repertoire of questioning techniques to enable you to be amuch more focused question asker.

The purposes of questioningScience teachers ask questions for many different purposes. Perhaps the mostcommon reason is to interest the pupils and challenge them to think carefully aboutwhat they are learning. Often questioning is used to check pupils’ understanding ofa concept or procedure. This is especially true at the beginning of a new unit ofwork where pupils’ prior understanding is an important building block for how theunit will be taught. When questioning is used effectively it will stimulate recall andmobilise existing understanding in order to make new understanding and meaning.It helps pupils to extend their thinking from concrete and factual to being moreanalytical and evaluative. Certain questions will promote reasoning, problem solving,evaluation and the formulation of hypotheses.

The kind of question asked will depend on the reason for asking it. Questions areoften referred to as ‘open’ or ‘closed’.

Closed questions, which have one clear answer, are useful when a quick check ofknowledge is required, for example, ‘What unit do we use to measure force?’

If you want pupils to develop higher-order thinking skills then more open-endedquestions are needed. This will allow pupils to give a variety of acceptable answers.During class discussions and debriefings, it is useful to ask open questions such as‘What do you think might affect the size of the current in this circuit?’.

Questioning is sometimes used as a mechanism for bringing the pupils’ attentionback on task, for example, ‘What do you think about what Kevin said Jane?’ or ‘Do you agree with that Phil?’

The list given in the review box is not exhaustive but will help you to categorise thepurposes for asking your own questions.


Task 2

Review

Why ask questions?

• To extend pupils’ thinking from the concrete to the more abstract.

• To check prior knowledge and understanding of key ideas.

• To clarify misconceptions.

• To challenge pupils to apply the key ideas to a range of observations andfindings.

• To lead pupils through a sequence which establishes their understanding ofcertain enquiries.

• To promote the use of thinking skills, for example, reasoning, evaluation.

• To develop a systematic approach to scientific enquiry and problem solving.

• To promote pupils’ thinking about what they have learned and how they have learned.

Self-review 60 minutes

Read the research summary which is located on pages 14 to 16 at the end of thisunit. If you can locate a copy of Inside the Black Box Black, P. and William, D.(1998), Kings College London (this was given out during the Science training unitAssessment in Science 2002), read this too.

Think about the lessons that you have taught recently. How does your questioningcompare with the research findings? Look at the section headed ‘What is effectivequestioning’. Highlight those strategies that you currently employ regularly in onecolour and those that you use occasionally in another.

Make a note of those areas you wish to improve.

Now plan a lesson for the next week. Make a note in your lesson plan of thequestions that you will ask.

Now try and analyse the questions in the following way, using a grid as suggestedbelow – an example has been given for you.

Teach the lesson (it would be really helpful if your teacher partner could observe the lesson and make notes for you, or you could make an audiotape of yourself,and then allow some time to evaluate it with your partner) even if they were not able to observe you.


Question asked Open Purpose Evaluation of pupils’ responsesor closed? (impact on their learning)

What do we call the Closed To test recall Helped the pupils to remember the process that a green word photosynthesisplant uses to make food?

Planning effective questioning The sort of questioning used in many classrooms is often instinctive. This can leadto some questions that are not well judged or productive for learning. The trick toeffective questioning is to plan for it beforehand. There are some common pitfallsassociated with asking questions that need to be avoided. The following checklistalso provides some solutions.


Issue Solution

Not being clear about Reflect on the type of lesson you are planning. Is it one where the pupils will why you are asking need to recall lots of facts and assimilate specific information like formula? If the question. this is the case then you will plan to use more closed questions which relate

to knowledge. If it is a lesson where you will require the pupils to think abouta new concept or interrogate data, then you will need to plan for openquestions which will lead to synthesis and analysis.

Asking too many It will help to plan open questions in advance (more of this in task 3). Another closed questions strategy is to ask the pupils to respond with an answer of a given length to that only require a encourage deeper thought, e.g. ‘I will not accept an answer less than ten short answer. words’.

Asking too many Asking questions on a complex issue such as global warming can lead to questions in a short complex questions. As these questions are often oral it is difficult for pupils to period of time. hold all the information in their minds at once and they need the issue

‘chunked’ to aid understanding. Work out the issues for yourself first andfocus each question on one issue only at any one time. It will also help to useconcrete language and as few words as possible.

Asking difficult The sequence of questions needs to be planned in advance building-in questions with no increasing difficulty. Sequencing the questions allows pupils to move to higher build up. levels of thinking.

Asking superficial It is possible to ask lots of questions which do not get to the heart of the questions. issue being discussed. Pupils may be very good at naming woodland species

but this will not help them to produce a pyramid of biomass.

Asking a question and We have all done this! Usually the cause is not giving pupils sufficient wait then answering this time (a case study on this follows later). Tell the pupils that you will give them yourself. X amount of time to think about an answer before you will expect one. Be

very strict with yourself and count to at least three slowly before taking ananswer.

Asking ‘guess what This is when you ask an open question, but have a very definite response in I have got in my head’ your head. If you ask an open question, the pupils will give you many different type questions. responses and become frustrated when their answer is not the one you are

looking for. This would be planned for more effectively by asking a direct‘closed’ type question.

Not involving the Usually this occurs when you are in a hurry to obtain a response and whole class. therefore only ask the pupils who you know will give you the response that

you are after. One way to avoid this is to use whiteboards where all pupilswrite their answer to a closed question and then on the command ‘show me’they all hold them up so that you can see their responses. Another tactic is toadopt a ‘no-hands-up’ policy where you pick the pupils who you wish to

➝

Case study

In the article Feedback in questioning and marking: the science teacher’s role informative assessment by Paul Black and Christine Harrison appearing in SchoolScience Review, June 2001, 82 (301) they outline how development work informative practice in school classrooms was undertaken by researchers and twelve science and twelve mathematics teachers was undertaken in two LEAs(Medway and Oxfordshire). Part of this research was into increasing the wait time of teachers when they asked questions of their pupils. The following are someextracts of what the teachers said:

Teacher 1

Increasing wait time after asking questions proved difficult to start with – due to my habitual desire to ‘add’ something almost immediately after asking the originalquestion. The pause after asking the question was sometimes painful. It feltunnatural to have such a seemingly ‘dead’ period but I persevered. Given morethinking time the students seemed to realise that a more thoughtful answer wasrequired. Now after many months of changing my style of questioning, I havenoticed that most students will give an answer and an explanation (wherenecessary) without additional prompting … a pause is an effective way of indicating that more information is required. Occasionally, I find myself making themost ridiculous facial gestures to indicate that I want more information. The student looks for my response, none arrives and the realisation hits them. Additional thinking occurs, followed by an explanation.

Teacher 2

I knew I had to find a way of increasing the time and decided the best way ofleaving space was to ask them to discuss in pairs, then write down their thoughtsin the back of their books. I needed to stop interfering so I sat at the front …Collecting responses at first was better than I expected. More students volunteeredanswers and the answers were deeper. My follow-up questions were planned andmuch more open (often more comparative and reflective) and exciting discussionsstarted. Wrong answers slowly stopped being a problem as students got used tothe idea that I was very unlikely to express an opinion during these sessions.


respond rather than the brave few who put up their hands. One of theadvantages is that you can differentiate the questions appropriately so as toaid inclusion.

Dealing ineffectively There is always the worry that you will ruin a pupils self-esteem by correcting with wrong answers them or telling them that they are wrong. If responses are handled sensitively and misconceptions. this will not happen. Preface your response with phrases such as ‘that was a

good attempt Jack, you have got the first bit spot on’ or ‘Joli made a goodattempt at that answer. Molly can you help her out with the middle bit.’ Anymisconceptions that pupils hold must be dealt with at the time, otherwisethey will become very difficult to alter later.

Not treating pupil’s It is tempting to dismiss answers that are a bit off the wall. These are often answers seriously. associated with a misconception that needs challenging. It is important not to

cut pupils off and move on too quickly if they give a peculiar answer.

Task 3

Using questions to promote higher-orderthinkingAll teachers use questions in the hope that they will promote pupils’ thinking. Weformulate questions of different kinds and often in a lesson will ask questions ofdifferent degrees of difficulty. In addition, we need to ask questions of differingdegrees of cognitive complexity in order to challenge pupils to develop theirthinking. Questions should be linked to the lesson objectives to ensure that thequestions planned are closely linked to pupil outcomes.

In many Strategy training materials reference has been made to Bloom’s taxonomy(see summary research). It is a useful tool to use in both planning lesson objectivesand in planning questions of increasing challenge. The taxonomy classifieseducational objectives into groups according to the level of cognitive complexityand the kind of thinking that is required to meet the objectives.

Bloom made the assumption that the objectives could be placed hierarchically, fromknowledge (least complex) to evaluation (the most complex) – the one that requireshigher-order thinking. Those of you who are familiar with the CASE project will alsobe familiar with this idea and the work of Piaget.

Both ideas assume that in order to gain higher-order thinking skills lower stepsmust be completed. For example, pupils need to acquire knowledge before theycan understand it or apply it to a new situation.

Look at the Appendix on pages 19 and 20 which interprets the taxonomy in ascience context. Analysis of questions asked by teachers indicates that very oftenthey only ask questions that come into the first two categories (knowledge andcomprehension). You can see that this would limit pupils’ ability to attain higher-order thinking as the questions do not challenge them to use the higher-order skillsof application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

It is helpful to develop a bank of department questions to focus on the moreadvanced categories of thinking.

Developing higher-order questions 30 minutes

The list given below represents some closed questions that are often used byteachers.

Working with your teacher partner, look at the questions and the stems andexamples given in the Appendix and brainstorm some higher-order questions thatwill challenge pupils in these contexts. Display your list in the department base orprep. room and ask other colleagues to add to the list.

It is a good idea at each department meeting to spend 5 minutes looking at onescience context and brainstorm lots of questions. This very quickly leads to adepartment bank to draw on if you are stuck for inspiration.


Closed lower category Open/higher category

Where in the digestive How is the duodenem structured to help it work effectively?system is the duodenum?

How many micro-organisms can you name that cause disease?

Name three types of rock.

What do we mean by renewable energy?

Which does sound travel best through? Solid, liquid or gas.

What is air pollution?

Questioning in scientific enquiry

Asking questions at various levels of demand and framing the lesson objectives canequally well be made progressive in the context of scientific enquiry. We may saythings like ‘I don’t know what to do with 8J. They do the experiment but they can’tanalyse results or evaluate at all’. This could be because the way we frame thequestions does not allow the pupils to show what they can do. Some researchreported in Secondary Science Review March 2000, 81 (296) Teachers’ questions –types and significance in science education, looked at the identification andclassification of types of questions used in science lessons. It also looked at howquestion types related to a particular teaching approach.

The table on the following page is adapted and reproduced from this report.



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Classification of question types and corresponding mental operations

No. Description of questions Type of mental Example of questionsoperations

1 Recalling facts, events or remembering Recalling episodes Do you remember the and repeating definitions from previous middle bit of the last lessons. Included are questions that lesson?begin with what, when, where

2 Describing the elements of an Judging How do these bulbs vary?experimental situation, identifying Which bulb is the variables and providing simple brightest?relationships

3 Questions that basically begin with how. Justifying judgements How did you test whetherDescription of the procedure and the (justification of the length of a tube affectsestablishment of fair testing through a procedures) the pitch of the controlledexperiment. note?

How did you establish a relationship between …?

4 Questions seeking proof/evidence Justifying judgements Does this prove that width(justification of makes a difference?judgements) What evidence have you

got for that?

Can you see a pattern in growth over time?

5 Recognising the pattern in a data set Judging Can you see a pattern in or describing the trend of a graph. this probability table?(This category refers only to visual representations of data.)

6 Questions beginning with why, seeking Justifying judgements Why is this a wise for a reason behind the procedure (justification of decision?followed arguments or Why is that fair?

explanations)

7 What if questions Hypothesising What would be the problem if …?

If I already have two headsin a throw, what wouldbe the chance of anotherhead in the next throw?

8 Giving predictions Hypothesising Having in mind the previous result, could you tell me how far the next roller ball will go?

9 Reaching conclusions Reframing What is the whole point of sampling?

Task 4

You can see that this hierarchy largely reflects the one outlined by Bloom. Thefundamental part of planning enquiry work is that some of the questions you usemust be of a higher order. Otherwise pupils will stay in lower-order thinking modeand not be challenged to aim for or demonstrate higher-order thinking skills.

Planning an enquiry 60 minutes

Working with your teacher partner, look at your current scheme of work and pickout an enquiry that you are going to teach soon. This need not be a wholeinvestigation – it could be some skills development or research work in the context of Science 2, 3 or 4.

Think about how you are going to set up the enquiry and plan some higher-orderquestioning.

Think about when you are going to ask these questions.

• Will you ask a ‘big’ question to set up the enquiry?

• Will you focus primarily on questions that will stimulate the pupils to enhance,for example, their evaluative skills?

Teach the lesson and evaluate how successful your new questioning technique was in the motivation and learning of the pupils.

This is another occasion when it would be good for you to be observed teachingthe lesson and jointly reflecting on it.

Classroom tactics for effective questioning Creating a climate where pupils feel safe to make mistakes This is veryimportant if pupils are going to build the confidence to speculate and take risks. Itis important that pupils’ contributions are listened to and taken seriously by boththe teacher and the class. You should model this by ensuring that you makeappropriate responses to contributions and are not critical. It is also important thatyou do not allow the class to ridicule wrong answers. Boys in particular do not liketo be shown to be wrong. You could also model making mistakes yourself to showthat it’s acceptable to be wrong.

Using a ‘no-hands’ rule This tactic can contribute to creating a supportiveclassroom climate. It ensures that all pupils are likely to be asked for a responseand makes the questioning process more inclusive. If you only ever ask people withtheir hands up, it limits who is included and can leave some pupils disengaged fromthe process. The ‘no-hands-up’ tactic also lets you direct and distribute questionswhere you want and to pitch a question at the appropriate level to extend the pupilyou are asking. If you are asking conscripts rather than volunteers, you need tohave a range of back-up strategies in case the pupil is unable to answer. Suchstrategies could include allowing them to say ‘pass’ or to seek help from a friend ortell them you will return with the same question in a few minutes so they have somemore time to think about it.


Probing When pupils respond to a question, probes are useful follow-ups and canbe used to seek more information, to clarify responses or to get pupils to extendtheir answers. Questions such as ‘Can you tell me more about that?’ or ‘What doyou think the next step would be?’ are useful probes that extend pupils’ thinking.

Telling pupils the big question in advance This helps to reinforce the main ideasand concepts and gives pupils time to prepare for the question as they workthrough the lesson. You could also provide signals to help pupils recognise therange of possible responses to the question being asked and to help them to selectthe most appropriate one.

Building in wait time Research suggests that if the teacher waits about threeseconds, both before a pupil answers a question and also before speaking after thepupil has answered, there are substantial benefits in the classroom. It is likely to:

• encourage longer answers;

• encourage a greater number and variety of responses;

• encourage more confidence and ‘risk taking’;

• encourage pupils to ask questions in return.

Allowing time for collaboration before answering Asking pairs of pupils toconsider the question for a set period of time before seeking answers leads tomore thoughtful and considered answers. It can also promote engagement bygiving pupils a very immediate context for their work.

Placing a minimum requirement on the answer Saying something like ‘You arenot allowed to answer this in less than fifteen words’ will begin to produce longerresponses.

Dealing with answers

Dealing well with pupils’ answers is a very important aspect of effective questioning.The over-use or inappropriate use of praise should be avoided and pupils should bemade aware if their answer is not correct. This is particularly true if the answerreveals misconceptions.

If the answer is correct you must acknowledge this but you should avoid effusivepraise. If the answer is a particularly good one, you might indicate why it is so goodor ask other pupils what they think. If the pupil is hesitant, they will need a greaterdegree of affirmation than someone who is confident in the answer.

If the answer is incorrect because of a lack of knowledge or understanding, youcould simplify the question or provide a series of prompts to encourage the pupil totry a better answer. If this doesn’t work, then you could try to clarify theunderpinning knowledge or provide a partly correct answer for them to trycompleting. This can help to clarify misconceptions and can also involve otherpupils in the discussion.

If the answer is partly correct you should acknowledge the parts which are correctand then use prompts to deal with the incorrect parts.

If an answer is a result of speculation you should accept all answers as being ofequal worth, then collaborate on finding which are more likely to be correct. Theway you ask the question in the first place should indicate that all answers areacceptable at this stage. Asking, at the start of an investigation, ‘What factorsmight affect the rate of photosynthesis?’ is much better than ‘What factors affectthe rate of photosynthesis?’


Tactic Pupils’ responses:

first try second try third try fourth try fifth try

Using no hands

Increasing wait time

Giving the big question in advance

Allowing pupils time to collaborate

Placing a minimum requirement on the length of an answer

Task 5

Reflection

Which of these tactics could help you improve own practice?

Classroom assignment: putting it into practice 30 minutes

Choose two or three tactics from the above list. Try them out in a lesson andassess how successful they were. To begin with you may feel self-conscious aboutdoing these new things, but in time with perseverance they will begin to comenaturally. The pupils may also find the approaches unusual or novel so you will need to reassure them that this is helping their learning.

As you try out a new tactic, keep a lesson log of strengths and weaknesses of each one. What works well quickly with some classes may need longer to embedwith others.

This example can be adapted to meet your individual needs.


Alternatives to direct questions Sometimes teachers use questioning when other teaching strategies, such asexplanation, would be more appropriate. Below are some alternatives toquestioning which could be used as additional tools to develop pupils’ learning.

Explore a statement Rather than asking pupils a direct question, give them astatement and invite them to discuss, perhaps first in pairs and then in fours, whatit means. The statement could be correct, false or ambiguous, for example, ‘Thereis no gravity in space’, ‘Erosion is a process that is happening all the time.’

Task 6

Paint the picture This is particularly useful for exploring abstract ideas. Ask pupilsto draw how they picture an idea they have in their minds. You might say, forexample, ‘So the energy in the battery is transferred around the circuit to the bulband then to the air by light and heating. What is in your head? What mental modeldo you have for this? Draw it.’

Invite pupils to elaborate Phrases such as ‘Would you say a little more aboutthat?’ or ‘I’m not sure what you mean’ are useful in getting pupils to expand anddevelop a comment.

Speculate about the subject under discussion Saying things like ‘I wonderwhat would happen if …’ can help pupils to think around an issue in a different way.

Make a suggestion You could offer alternative ways of carrying out a task. Thismay be more practical during small-group work than with a whole class.

Offer extra information Providing extra information during a problem-solvingactivity can be useful in stimulating pupils’ thinking.

Reinforce suggestions from pupils Try developing a comment made by a pupilby saying something like ‘That was really good because …’

Clarify ideas Saying something like ‘We can tell that this is the case because …’helps to reinforce learning by focusing sharply on the main issues underconsideration.

Repeat comments and summarise When you want to reinforce important pointsthat have been made, it helps to restate or summarise them in a slightly differentform.

Alternatives 30 minutes

Plan some alternatives to using direct questions.

Pick a group of pupils to work with and try them out. Evaluate how effective thesewere in terms of pupils’ understanding and engagement.

Summary of research Effective questioning

Research evidence suggests that effective teachers use a greater number of openquestions than less-effective teachers. The mix of open and closed questions will,of course, depend on what is being taught and the objectives of the lesson.However, teachers who ask no open questions in a lesson may be providinginsufficient cognitive challenges for pupils.

Questioning is one of the most extensively researched areas of teaching andlearning. This is because of its central importance in the teaching and learningprocess. The research falls into three broad categories:

• What is effective questioning?

• How do questions engage pupils and promote responses?

• How do questions develop pupils’ cognitive abilities?


What is effective questioning?

Questioning is effective when it allows pupils to engage with the learning processby actively composing responses. Research (Boric 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001;Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wag and Brown 2001) suggests that lessons wherequestioning is effective are likely to have the following characteristics:

• Questions are planned and closely linked to the objectives of the lesson.

• The learning of basic skills is enhanced by frequent questions following theexposition of new content that has been broken down into small steps. Eachstep should be followed by guided practice that provides opportunities forpupils to consolidate what they have learned and that allows teachers to checktheir understanding.

• Closed questions are used to check factual understanding and recall.

• Open questions predominate.

• Sequences of questions are planned so that the cognitive level increases as thequestions go on. This ensures that pupils are led to answer questions whichdemand increasingly higher-order thinking skills but are supported on the wayby questions which require less-sophisticated thinking skills.

Pupils have opportunities to ask their own questions and seek their own answers.They are encouraged to provide feedback to each other.

The classroom climate is one where pupils feel secure enough to take risks, betentative and make mistakes.

The research emphasises the importance of using open, higher-level questions todevelop pupils’ higher-order thinking skills. Clearly, there needs to be a balancebetween open and closed questions, depending on the topic and objectives for thelesson. A closed question such as ‘What is the next number in the sequence?’ canbe extended by a follow-up question such as ‘How did you work that out?’

Overall, the research shows that effective teachers use a greater number of higher-order questions and open questions than less effective teachers. However, theresearch also demonstrates that most of the questions asked by both effective andless effective teachers are lower order and closed. It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of all learning-focused questions require a simple factual response, whereasonly 20 to 30 per cent lead pupils to explain, clarify, expand, generalise or infer. Inother words, only a minority of questions demand that pupils use higher orderthinking skills.

How do questions engage pupils and promote responses?

It doesn’t matter how good and well structured your questions are if your pupils donot respond. This can be a problem with shy pupils or older pupils who are notused to highly interactive teaching. It can also be a problem with pupils who are notvery interested in school or engaged with learning. The research identifies a numberof strategies which are helpful in encouraging pupil response. (See Borich 1996;Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wragg and Brown 2001;Rowe 1986; Black and Harrison 2001; Black et al. 2002.)

Pupil response is enhanced where:

• there is a classroom climate in which pupils feel safe and know they will not becriticised or ridiculed if they give a wrong answer;


• prompts are provided to give pupils confidence to try an answer;

• there is a ‘no-hands-up’ approach to answering, where you choose therespondent rather than have them volunteer;

• ‘wait time’ is provided before an answer is required. The research suggests thatthree seconds is about right for most questions, with the proviso that morecomplex questions may need a longer wait time. Research shows that theaverage wait time in classrooms is about one second (Rowe 1986; Borich1996).

How do questions develop pupils’ cognitive abilities?

Lower-level questions usually demand factual, descriptive answers that are relativelyeasy to give. Higher-level questions require more sophisticated thinking from pupils;they are more complex and more difficult to answer. Higher-level questions arecentral to pupils’ cognitive development, and research evidence suggests thatpupils’ levels of achievement can be increased by regular access to higher-orderthinking. (See Borich 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994;Wragg and Brown 2001; Black and Harrison 2001.)

When you are planning higher-level questions, you will find it useful to use Bloom’staxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom and Krathwohl 1956) to help structurequestions which will require higher-level thinking. Bloom’s taxonomy is aclassification of levels of intellectual behaviour important in learning. The taxonomyclassifies cognitive learning into six levels of complexity and abstraction:

1 Knowledge – pupils should: describe; identify; recall.

2 Comprehension – pupils should: translate; review; report; restate.

3 Application – pupils should: interpret; predict; show how; solve; try in a newcontext.

4 Analysis – pupils should: explain; infer; analyse; question; test; criticise.

5 Synthesis – pupils should: design; create; arrange; organise; construct.

6 Evaluation – pupils should: assess; compare and contrast; appraise; argue;select.

From Benjamin S. Bloom Et AL, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Published byAllyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright ©1984, Pearson Education. Adapted bypermission for the publisher.

On this scale, knowledge is the lowest-order thinking skill and evaluation is thehighest. It is worth pointing out that, in most cases, pupils will need to be able toanalyse, synthesise and evaluate if they are to attain level 5 and above in theNational Curriculum and Grade C and above at GCSE.

Bloom researched thousands of questions routinely asked by teachers andcategorised them. His research, and that of others, suggests that most learning-focused questions asked in classrooms fall into the first two categories, with fewquestions falling into the other categories which relate to higher-order thinking skills.


Summary

If questioning is effective, then pupils should be able to recall ideas, link ideastogether and explain their understanding orally. Pupils will also engage with theteacher because they feel comfortable; they are aware of the purpose of thequestioning and do not feel threatened by it. As time goes on they become moreaware of how they are learning because the questioning not only probes theirthinking, but helps them reflect on their own thinking and learning processes.

Next stepsIn this unit there have been a number of suggestions for you to pair with anotherteacher or your science consultant as a means of support while you develop yourconfidence in developing group talk activities. Here are some ideas to consider inorder to take this work forward:

• Start small: choose one class to work with. Year 7 would be a good choicebecause these pupils still have vivid memories of their primary school wherethey were used to their teachers questioning technique. However, if you haveanother class you feel would respond well to this, then use them.

• Ask another teacher or your science consultant to help you. You may have anAST in school who is not a member of the science department but who is wellversed in questioning. They would be a good source of help.


• Make sure your line manager or head of department/subject leader knows whatyou are doing. This will enable dissemination to happen much more easily.

• Read some research about questioning from the range of references provided.


• Share the class with another teacher and you take responsibility for thequestioning part of the lesson.

• Ask your science consultant to team teach the lesson with you. You shouldeach take responsibility for trying different questioning techniques.

Setting professional targetsReflect on the experiences you have had while undertaking this unit and setyourself two targets to develop over the next year. Below are just a few suggestionsof the kind of things you might want to undertake.

Observe an AST and/or leading teacher in science who will be able to demonstratethe use of effective questioning.

Work with your science consultant and plan to team-teach a module using thetechniques that you have learned during this unit.



Setting targets

Bearing in mind the guidance given above, reflect on the further steps you are going to take, perhaps by discussing the possibilities with a colleague or your linemanager. Set yourself two targets to work towards over the coming year.

Specify:

• the outcomes you will seek in terms of developing effective questioningtechniques in your classroom;

• the strategies you will employ to disseminate your good practice to the rest ofthe department.

References ‘Feedback in questioning and marking: the science teacher’s role in formativeassessment’, School Science Review 82 (June) 43–49, P. Black and C.Harrison(2001)

Working inside the Black Box: assessment for learning in the classroom, P. Black, et al (King’s College, London 2002)

Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals.Handbook 1: Cognitive domain, B. S. Bloom and D. Krathwohl (Addison Wesley1956)

Effective teaching methods (esp. ch. 8, Questioning strategies), G. D. Borich(Prentice Hall 1996)

Asking better questions: models, techniques and classroom activities for engagingstudents in learning, N. Morgan and J. Saxton (Pembroke 1994)

Effective teaching: evidence and practice (esp. ch. 2, Interactive teaching),D.Muijs and D.Reynolds (Paul Chapman 2001)

‘Wait time: slowing down may be a way of speeding up!’ Journal of TeacherEducation 37 (January–February) 43–50 (M. B. Rowe 1986)

Questioning in the secondary school, E. C. Wragg and G. Brown, (Routledge 2001)



Appendix: Interpreting Bloom’s taxonomy inthe context of science teaching

Too few questions come from the categories, which relate to higher-order thinkingskills and are broadly comparable to the science level descriptions.

Reproduced from Planning and Implementing Progression in the Classroom CPD unit.

Category Useful stems to consider Some examples used in sciencewhen asking questions

Knowledge Name Name the parts of the body.

Identify Identify the main parts of the circuit.

Recall What happens when you add an acid to a metal?

State Give me the equation for photosynthesis.

Comprehension Describe Tell me what you observed when you added hydrochloric acid to copper carbonate.

Compare (events and What is the difference between metals and non-objects) metals? What can you tell me reacts the same as ... ?

How is the graph of temperature against time different for insulated and non-insulated containers?

Classify How can you classify these plants?

Explain How can you use the idea of forces to explain why a boat floats in water?

Application Interpret What does the graph of velocity against time tell you about the acceleration and direction of the car?

Relating What happens when you connect more bulbs in series?

How does the energy in the cells transfer to the bulbs?

Solve problems How are you going to find out how the change in the wavelength of light changes the rate of photosynthesis?

How are you going to find out about the impact of the greenhouse effect?

How are you going to find out how and why the length of the shadow varies during the day?

Applying ideas How might your knowledge of plants make sure that each runner bean that is planted will grow really well?

➝


Category Useful stems to consider Some examples used in sciencewhen asking questions

From what you know about the work of Newton, how can you explain the difference between the force of gravity on the Earth and the Moon?

Using your ideas about particles, explain why some smells reach you before others.

Analysis Prioritising Can you put these statements in the correct order? Which do you think has the greatest impact on staying healthy?

Inferring What do your results tell you? From what you know about particles, explain the shape of the graph.

Logical reasoning From what you know about how light travels, can you explain how we can see objects that are not sources of light?

Critical reasoning From what you know about the work of Jenner, can you prepare to make a presentation either for or against his methods of trialling the vaccine for smallpox?

Drawing conclusions Explain, using your knowledge of energy transfer and different materials, what happens when you increase the number of layers of insulation on a hot water tank?

Do you think the outside temperature makes a difference?

Synthesis Reflecting Donna says that as the temperature increases the particles get bigger. Do you agree? Give your reasons.

Designing How could we use our work on electricity to design a lighting circuit for a doll’s house?

Predicting How are you going to design an investigation to find out the impact of fertilisers on plant growth?

Speculating Using what you know about food chains, explain what happens in Antarctica. Where would you find the information to support your prediction?

Do you think the shadows on Mars will change in the same way as those on Earth?

Evaluation Summarising What reasons can you give for the success of your experiment on ...?

Judging Which ideas that you considered gave the most information?

Evaluating How good were your results? How well did they support your conclusions? If you repeated the investigation, what would you improve on?



Ref: DfES 0698-2004 G



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Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesUnit 3: Improving the learning climate

Disclaimer




Acknowledgements

Page 11, 12 – Extracts taken from Strategies for closingthe learning gap, written by M. Hughes with A. Vass. © Mike Hughes 2001. Reproduced by permission of thepublishers, Network Educational Press, PO Box 635,Stafford, ST16 1BF; fax: 01785 228566.

Page 14–16 – Extracts and adapted table taken fromClosing the learning gap, written by M. Hughes. © Mike Hughes 1999. Reproduced by permission of thepublishers, Network Educational Press, PO Box 635,Stafford, ST16 1BF; fax: 01785 228566.

Page 20 – Extract from Effective Teaching: evidence andpractice, written by Professor David Reynolds andProfessor Daniel Muijs. © Professor David Reynolds andProfessor Daniel Muijs. Reproduced by permission of theauthors.

Page 22 – Extract from School Improvement: what canpupils tell us? written by J. Ruddick, R. Chaplain and G. Wallace. Reproduced by permission of David FultonPublishers.


Unit 3 Improving the learning climate

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Unit 3: Improving the learning climate DfES 0699-2004 G

How to use this study unitThis study unit offers practical suggestions for you to use in the classroom whenconsidering the climate for learning in your laboratory. All the strategies suggestedhave been tried and tested by teachers in their classrooms. They draw upon bothacademic research and the experience of practising teachers. You may have lookedat Teaching and learning in secondary school materials (DfES 0423-2004). Whilethere are similarities with these materials you will find that this unit gives sciencespecific advice that will be immediately relevant for use in your laboratory.

Your science consultant can help you work through this unit but it would be betterto twin up with a colleague who also wishes to enhance the quality of theclassroom climate for pupils. The unit is structured so that the tasks listed towardsthe beginning are simple and quick to implement. More challenging activities cometowards the end. The unit contains case studies and tasks for you to undertake. Italso contains ‘reflections’ which will help you revisit an idea or change your ownpractice. It includes practical tips and tasks, which will help you consider the adviceor try out new techniques in the classroom. The summary of research is containedtowards the back of the unit and will offer some suggestions for further reading.The final page invites you to reflect on the experience of having tried out newmaterials and set some personal targets for the future. You can work through thematerials in a number of ways:


• Work with your science consultant on developing and planning your classroomclimate with one class. After three weeks meet together to review how it isgoing. Discuss which strategies have been the most effective with one classand plan to use these with other classes.





You will need access to video sequence 3 when working through this unit.


Task 1

Improving the learning climate


1 Improving the physical environment in the laboratory 5

2 Creating a climate of success 11

3 Starting well 14

4 Structuring the learning 19

Summary of evidence 20

Next steps 23


References 24

IntroductionThere have been several Key Stage 3 Strategy materials produced on the subject oflearning climate over the last two years. In science training materials the subjecthas been discussed during the training units Effective teaching and learning inscience and Increasing pupils’ rates of progress. By undertaking this unit of workyou will have the opportunity to study the subject in more depth and make changesto the learning climate in your department.

So what constitutes a good climate for learning?

What makes a good learning climate? 20 minutes

If you are working on this unit with another teacher, produce a joint map of whatyou already think makes up or influences the climate for learning. If you are working alone you will have to rely on your own imagination.

Put the words climate for learning in the centre of a piece of paper then allow your mind to produce a map of all the connected parts of the subject. Write allthese on the paper, use colours and diagrams to help your train of thought.

Please do not turn the page until you have thought about this.

Give yourself about 15 minutes for this. Now take two different coloured highlighter pens and mark all the features associated with the physical environment and those which are concerned with teaching and learning.

Keep your map safely as we will refer to it again at the end.


The following grid pulls together some statements about learning climate from twosources: Key messages: Pedagogy and practice (DfES0125/2003) and Improvingthe climate for learning (Unit 17:Teaching and learning in secondary schools: (DfES0423-2004). Compare your map with the list given below and consider whether youhave reflected all the aspects of learning climate that you could. This list should notreplace your map, but complement it.


Pupils recognise that the teacher treats them fairly Classroom and laboratory routines are consistent and effective

There are departmental strategies in place for Pupils feel secure, both physically and making learning dynamic, interesting and emotionallychallenging

Science classroom displays support learning Displays in the science classroom are up-to-date and attractive

Seating arrangements are varied to suit different Different pupil groupings are used to enhance teaching strategies learning

Pupils have regular opportunities to work within Pupils are appropriately challenged to reach their own preferred learning style beyond their existing development level

Lesson design and classroom routines make Teaching and learning builds explicitly from effective use of beginnings and endings pupils’ prior attainment and knowledge

Teachers use language positively to influence The science classroom is clean, attractive and pupils’ security, motivation and learning safe

Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for The teacher is the ‘lead learner’their own actions as learners

Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for Science displays demonstrate the best their own actions as individuals achievements of all pupils

Homework is used to ‘set the mind’ and to inform Teacher and pupils share a common assessment of understanding understanding about what is being learned and

what needs to be done to show that learning has taken place

It can be seen from your maps and the above list that learning climate covers a vastamount of the job of a science teacher. The following sections require you to reflecton what happens currently and give some practical examples of how the learningclimate in your laboratory or department can be improved.

Improving the physical climate in thelaboratoryThe physical climate and make up of your laboratory or classroom has a significantimpact on how your pupils feel about their learning. In laboratories that are effective,teachers work hard to create a room where it is evident that learning is at the heartof its purpose. Teachers attempt to make the appearance exciting and interestingso that pupils want to learn there. As pupils enter the room they are given very clearmessages about the importance of learning and the expectation the teacher has ofthem. Within the room there is information and other support that they might need,for example, colourful periodic tables displayed. The benches may not always be inthe same place, although this is difficult if they are the fixed type! But the importantthing is that the furniture is organised in such a way as to support the learning.

If you teach in several rooms, such as biology in one laboratory and chemistry inanother, it is desirable to work with the teacher who shares the room with you tocreate an effective learning environment. This can have advantages as there issomeone to share ideas and tasks with. If the department has a policy of lots ofshared space then there is a need for corporate responsibility for the rooms. Pupilsappreciate some consistency in approach, so it may be possible for artefacts like‘word walls’ to be in a similar place in each room. Wherever possible teachersshould share their ideas and all be involved in the process helping the enthusiasmsustain their efforts.

Display

Research has shown that an important component of the classroom climate is theuse and quality of the display contained within it. Display is intended to supportpupils’ learning and not simply to be attractive. Often it will reflect your enthusiasmfor science and make a dull laboratory more fun to be in. Some research alsostates that there may well be some subconscious learning undertaken, as pupilsare attracted to display that is not directly designed for them. Planning and puttingup a display is not necessarily time-consuming, they do not have to be works ofart. Teaching assistants, technicians and the pupils should be encouraged to help.Display is used for a number of purposes. It can:

• provide vital information in the form of key words, facts, for example, periodictable or currently used equations; paint the big picture of a topic;

• reinforce good habits through the use of key questions: what, when, how, Walt,Wilf, predictions;

• stimulate curiosity, by offering new information, for example, science in thenews, puzzling science questions ‘When you snap spaghetti from each end itusually snaps into three pieces – why?’ (lots more of these available fromwww.newscientist.co.uk/lastword);

• affirm and inspire through examples of effective pupils’ work or quotations.


Task 1

To be most effective, displays should be positioned just above eye level. Rememberthat the height of laboratory stools will necessitate display being positioned higherin laboratories that other classrooms. Research has shown that, when the brain isin visual mode, the eyes tend to look up so this is why display just above eye levelis the most effective. Not surprisingly when pupils are in listening mode the eyestend to be level and when in kinaesthetic mode (engaged in a practical task) theeye level tends to drop. The brain is stimulated by novelty so display needs to bechanged regularly, again pupils should be involved in this.

Reviewing what is currently in place 20 minutes

Sit in the laboratory that you use the most and reflect on the following questions:

• How much display is currently used and how much usable space is there?

• Are there any / enough display boards?

• What condition is the current display in, when was it last changed and who put it up?

• How much of the display supports the current teaching?

• How much pupils’ work is included?

• Does the display make the room look more attractive?

• What do the pupils think of it?

• How much display is located in the corridor outside the lab?

• What condition is this in?

• What are the other visible features of the room?

In light of your observations try to answer the following questions.

• What improvements can be made to the laboratory as it stands?

• Does the lab need additional resources to improve the display, for example,display boards, shelves for artefacts, plants, specimens, resources and pupils’books?

• Are there coat pegs so that bags and coats are not strewn around the benches?

Make a note of what you think you might need and approach your head ofdepartment with a plan of how you intend to use the new items.

Having reflected on what you might need, you will need to approach whoever isresponsible for these kinds of resources in the school. If for some reason theresources cannot be made available, do not give up as plenty can be done toenhance display without a great deal of expense.

Planning your display

There are some items that you will need to have permanently displayed in thelaboratory, for example, fire exit notice, gas shut-off valves, form notices, etc. It is agood idea to have these laminated as they begin to look tatty after a couple ofmonths and they will probably be required for at least a year. Whatever you choosefor the remaining display will reflect your ideas and interests as well as those of thepupils. The purpose for the display will predetermine what you include. It couldinclude objectives for topics and overviews of the plan for current learning. Thefollowing may be used as a checklist for the purposes of display.


Modelling good practice This can be achieved either with pupils’ work or byusing published texts. This demonstrates to the pupils the features you are lookingfor in a quality piece of work. It is a good idea to add a teacher commentary or linkassessment criteria to the piece of work so the pupils can see exactly what it isabout the work that constitutes quality. Displaying the criteria for Sc1 assessmentsis a good example of this. It goes without saying that, for this reason, heavilymarked and annotated pieces should not be included. Displaying the work of olderpupils’ often raises pupils expectations of what can be achieved and the standardsrequired. On occasion the older pupils are stunned by the quality of work producedby younger pupils and it spurs them into better things. (More information onmodelling techniques can be found in Unit 4: Improving teaching and learningthrough the use of modelling techniques).

Raising pupils self-esteem Over time it is desirable that the work of all pupils isdisplayed. The display of only the very best or neatest work should be avoided asfor some pupils this is just too aspirational.

Providing information There is good quality commercially produced informationavailable. The Institutes of Chemistry and Physics provide visually appealing andinformative materials. The Natural History and Science museums have verycolourful posters and many large pharmaceutical and engineering firms also provideinformative posters free of charge to schools. Material that is only relevant to aparticular topic should only be displayed for the length of time the topic is beingtaught. However, if Sc1 planning posters are being used they may be a permanentfeature and the yellow stickies changed to show a different investigation.

Practical tip

Having a separate display for news items can prove very powerful in maintainingpupils’ interest in science topics. These usually only have a short life span and include newspaper and magazine cuttings that pupils have found interesting. Make a group of pupils responsible for the display and for changing it monthly.

Creating a quality board

The essential elements of a quality board are:

• a good piece of pupils’ work;

• a quality picture frame, which is large enough to contain the piece of work andthe surrounding commentary;

• teacher annotations either written, if the handwriting is clear, or computerproduced, which explains why the work is good.

This should be related to the topic you are teaching, or if it is a piece ofinvestigational work it should focus on the skill you are trying to enhance. You mustbring the pupils’ attention to it and use it through your teaching.


Task 3

A teacher of Year 9 pupils used a quality board to demonstrate to pupils what wasexpected of them in terms of analysing evidence during an investigation into thereactivity of different metals with hydrochloric acid (QCA unit 9F).

He displayed a piece of Year 10 pupil’s work which clearly demonstrated a goodpiece of analytical writing about a ‘rates of reaction’ investigation. This highlightedwhere the Year 10 pupil had identified some patterns in his evidence and then usedthe evidence to construct a graph. He had then used this graph to draw aconclusion about the temperature of the reaction, which was consistent with hisexperimental evidence. At each point where the pupil had succeeded in matchingthe assessment criteria the teacher provided a simple commentary as to how thecriteria had been matched.

This piece was used to first model the way of writing to the pupils and then referredto as the investigation took place.

Pupils reported that they had a far greater understanding of what was required ofthem as a result of this.

Creating a quality board 30 minutes

Think about a topic you are about to teach. Find and then photocopy a piece of apupil’s work that demonstrates quality in the topic. Plan your annotations and place the documents on a frame.

When you come to teach the class, explain to them what you have done and model for them the features of the work that constitute quality.

After the pupils have completed their own work, ask them if they found the qualityboard useful in the formulation of their own work and ideas.

Evaluate the quality of the work produced by the class of pupils this time compared with their last piece of work.

Try to choose one piece of work from the class to place on the quality board.Annotate to show why it deserves its place there.

Planning a display

It now remains for you to plan and put up a new display using some of the ideascontained in this unit. Enlist the help of a TA or a small group of pupils. Have a veryclear idea of how you will split the laboratory into different display areas. Rememberto leave space for notices that will not change over time. Start with about threedistinct areas, which will reflect topics you are about to teach, or skills that youwant the pupils to develop such as word banks or writing frames. If you are usingpupils’ work straight away, you will need to have collected it in advance.

Start by:

• clearing away all existing display;

• preparing the chosen area – some areas may look better if you cover them withbacking paper;


Case study

Task 4

Task 5

• repositioning any items that are going to remain, but make sure they still lookfresh. Reframing them might help;

• dividing up your ‘areas’ using paper strips or ribbon so that the areas aredistinctive;

• deciding the position of any commercially produced poster materials.

Your new display 30 minutes

Share with your colleague or ‘volunteers’ the ideas you have for the display. It is agood idea to have made some sketches of the room to show what you want andwhere.

Spend some time mounting the items and trying them in different places before you commit yourself to the stapler!

When it is finished, look around and admire the work you have done.

When you have finished the topic you are teaching, ask the pupils what theythought of the display and how it helped their learning.

Arranging the benches

The arrangement of furniture in a laboratory should reflect and support the way inwhich you want the pupils to learn. This can be very difficult where fixed benchingis concerned, as it does not give you the flexibility to move things as necessary.There are many challenges when it comes to moving laboratory furniture perhapsthe most important being the requirements of heath and safety legislation. Movingold heavy teak benching on your own is not a good idea. The type of activity youhave planned will determine how the laboratory is laid out. Practical issues must betaken into consideration such as access to gas taps, electricity supply and water.

Look at the current teaching layout 30 minutes

Consider the laboratory that you teach in most often. What is the dominant furniture layout? How does this influence the teaching and learning approaches that you can use? Do any of the following present barriers to change?

• The benching is fixed and offers very little scope for flexibility.

• Some classes would not respond well to either having the furniture in differentpositions or to moving it.

• You have no experience of teaching with the furniture in different positions.

• The positioning of gas, electricity and water supplies limits scope for flexibility.

Points to consider

• Can any of the benching be moved or got rid of all together, especially if youonly use it for a reason such as storing books?

• If all the benching is in rows this is fine for pupils working individually. However,if the pupils will be required to move around and engage with some groupworkthis is the worst possible layout.


➝

• For effective group work the pupils need to face each other to talk so that theydon’t need to shout and can keep eye contact.

• Using squared paper, make yourself a scale map of the room.

• Draw on the map all the fixed pieces of furniture and other items.

• Make scale cut outs of those items of furniture which can be moved.

• Think of a lesson that you are about to teach when, in order to improve thepupils’ learning, it would be a good idea to move the furniture into a differentconfiguration.

• Move the pieces of paper around and explore the possibilities. Remember toleave room around a demonstration bench in case you want to bring the pupilsto you.

Pick a class to work with that you think will respond positively to a new approach.Teach the lesson and then evaluate how effective the furniture movement was interms of the pupils’ engagement.

Practical tip

Where you stand in the room will influence the pupils you address, particularly when it comes to question and answer sessions. Research has shown thatteachers tend to focus on pupils in a fairly narrow arc. Simply by moving yourposition you can involve a wider range of pupils.

In this diagram the teacher has the pupils around a front demonstration bench. You can see that by moving position three times the teacher can involve all pupils.

Make sure that you move regularly but don’t overdo it, as you will make the pupils dizzy!


Pupils

Position of teacher

Task 6 Laboratory layout 20 minutes

Look at video ‘Improving the learning climate’ clip 1.

This shows a fairly typical laboratory with mains services and some fixed and some movable benching. As the camera pans around the room reflect on how the room could be arranged for the following activities:

1 a whole class practical activity looking at the use of enzymes to speed up a reaction, for example, pectinase on apple pulp;

2 a class debate on the effects of pollution in a local stream;

3 a research activity into planetary movements;

4 a demonstration of the effects in water of reactive metals;

5 using data loggers to measure temperature change over time.

For one of your classes, pick an activity you are going to use which is similar to theones listed above. Consider how you can maximise the laboratory facilities tosupport pupils’ learning. Plan your lesson and try out your ideas.

Putting pupils into groups and how to select those groups is dealt with in Unit 1Strengthening group talk and argument, and is not repeated here.

Once you are in the habit of moving the furniture around with the minimum amountof fuss, in your lesson plans indicate which format would be the most useful for aparticular lesson. Explain to the pupils why you have chosen a particular layout. Bykeeping them informed you will alleviate the niggles that can be caused by askingthem to change a routine. Once pupils are used to the routine, they may be askedto sit in different places. Tell them the content of the lesson and the types of activitythey are going to be undertaking and then ask them to choose the mostappropriate layout for the activity. You will be pleasantly surprised by their positivecontributions.

Creating a climate of successIn the previous section we looked at how the physical environment in the laboratorycould influence pupils’ learning and highlight pupils’ successes, for example, thecreation of a ‘quality board’. In this section we will look at the action of theteacher’s language and interactions on creating a climate of success.

Science teachers spend a great deal of time explaining both science andinstructions for practical work. How these explanations are delivered has influenceon how the pupils perceive the relationship between themselves and the teacher.This in turn affects their commitment to learning. It is the way in which teachersshow their dedication to the principles of respect, fairness, challenge, support andsecurity.

Effective teachers often demonstrate their commitment by:

• warmly greeting pupils by name when they arrive at the lesson;

• offering a positive comment to each pupil individually over a period of time andthanking pupils at the end of a good lesson.

In Strategies for closing the learning gap (Network Educational Press), Mike Hughesdescribes the types of language that teachers use to influence pupils motivationand learning.


Pupil: I can’t do The student is actually saying, ‘I don’t believe I can be successful with this and practical work. therefore I don’t want to take the risk.’It’s boring. Note: It may or may not be boring.

Teacher: Of course Inadvertently, we have denied the validity of the pupil’s feelings. Exhorting her toyou can. Just keep ‘keep trying’ is not motivating if she believes the task is beyond her. Asking her to trying and put a bit put a bit more effort presupposes she is not trying hard enough and it’s her fault.more effort in and Again – not motivating.you will get it.

A simple change in language may have the desired effect

Pupil: I can’t do practical work. It’s boring.

Teacher: OK, it’s By initially agreeing with the pupil, we are validating how she is actually feeling, a little tricky at which will always (sic) be correct. This is a start to gaining rapport and therefore the moment. effective communication. However by reframing the problem as a ‘little tricky at Which bit of the the moment’, we have also diluted the severity of the problem and made it a experiment can temporary stage.you not do yet? ‘Which bit can’t you do yet?’ repeats the pupil’s words (can’t), which she will

accept and also lessens the difficulty by presupposing it’s only a bit. The inclusion of the word ‘yet’ serves to emphasise the temporary nature of the difficulty and retains a connection to the possibility of things improving.

Task 7

– The language of success This means giving pupils the message that you can have confidence in them and their abilities. For example, saying to a pupil ‘I know you can …’ is far more encouraging than saying ‘I think you can …’

– The language of hope Ban phrases such as ‘I can’t do this.’ Instead encourage the pupils to adopt the attitude ‘I can do it but I need some help.’ Display phrases such as ‘You can do it.’ ‘What help do you need?’

– The language of possibility Pupils often put limits on what they think is possible, believing that in some way a task or even a subject is beyond their capability. They may describe their supposed inabilities with phrases such as ‘I’ll never be good at science’ or ‘I always mess up science experiments’. Unsurprisingly, their belief affects their motivation and their commitment to learning. By careful choice of language, teachers can create a climate of greater possibility, which will influence pupils’ views of themselves.

Reviewing your use of language 15 minutes

The grid given below is adapted from Strategies for closing the learning gap. It shows how a slight shift in your use of language can make a difference to theoutcome of a typical classroom situation.

Think about a recent situation in which you have responded to a pupil in the waydescribed in the first example.

How could you have changed what you said in order to encourage the pupil?

How will you manage to remember to adopt the language of possibility more often?


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Task 8

We all fall into the trap of using negative language at times, even when it does notaccurately convey what we are thinking. You may find that a colleague will describe9C as ‘unteachable’ when what they really mean is that the lesson did not go toplan for some reason. We need to be sympathetic to these feelings in pupils andcolleagues. Remember, however, to use language to support learning.

As well as adopting positive language you can also:

• Remove the language of failure: Try to avoid telling the pupils they are wrong.As well as being demotivating it does not encourage pupils to see mistakes asa vital part of learning. To say ‘you are a step nearer’ is much more powerfulthan saying ‘wrong again!’ The use of words like ‘rehearsal’ or ‘trial’ can be very useful.

• Use no-blame language: Avoid appearing to blame the pupil for their lack oflearning. Phrases such as ‘which bit did I not explain clearly’ will stop pupilsfeeling that it is all their fault.

Other useful positive words and phrases include:

• When you finish …

• I know you can …

• Which part did you not see me do?

• I’m sorry I should have made that clearer.

• It is important to remember here …

• OK, you might not have mastered it yet, but …

• Up to now this has proved tricky …

• Today you have a brilliant opportunity to show yourself how much you haveunderstood so far.

• You will remember …

• Your choice/it’s up to you/you need to decide …

• That’s right, isn’t it?

Using support strategies 60 minutes

The following checklist provides a list of strategies that can create a better learningclimate. Look at the list and tick the strategies that you use currently. Pick a couplethat you would like to develop. When you plan your next lesson look foropportunities to incorporate them into your teaching. It would be good if anotheradult could watch the lesson and share their observations about how successfulyou were at the new techniques. Alternatively you could video the lesson and lookat it later.


Starting wellMany of us have had the experience of a lesson that has not gone as well asexpected because the pupils were slow to settle and get on with their work. It iseasy to blame the previous teacher for not disciplining the pupils sufficiently, or thatthey were slow to finish P.E. However, common features of effective lessons are theestablished classroom routines that pupils are familiar with. Some routines are moreeffective than others! The grid below is adapted from Closing the learning gap, andcontrasts some effective and some ineffective routines.


Currently use or would like to develop further

Smile often, it promotes confidence.

Use open and welcoming body language.

Although you cannot speak individually to every pupil every lesson, over a short period of time try to notice something positive to say about each of them.

Make eye contact with pupils, especially when you are doing a demonstration or asking them questions.

Use polite language to model the tone of respect that you expect.

Use names frequently in an affirmative way, such as ‘Steve has just given me the names of two halogens with a reason for his choice’. Avoid pointing at pupils.

Try to keep your voice pitched low and avoid shouting.

Try to use praise, frequently, but not indiscriminately. Reward progress towards targets. Pupils value praise if it is clear that it is deserved. This is particularly true in challenging classes, as pupils tend to respond to praise given directly to them even if their work is acknowledged more publicly.

Encourage pupils to be supportive of each other, to listen and respond with respect, your own modelling should demonstrate this, for example, ‘I agree with Steve that ..., however I also think that ...’

Avoid putting pupils on the spot. Use tactics that allow pupils to feel safe to answer – for example extend the wait time (try to count to eight before continuing); use, think, pair, share; preface challenging questions with ‘this is going to be hard for us to answer, so I will ask several people to have a go, then we will try to find the best answer together’.

Task 9 Review your routines 15 minutes

Read through the chart of routines outlined above. Reflect on your own lessons.Where on the continuum between more and less effective do your laboratoryroutines lie?


More effective Less effective

The teacher is waiting at the laboratory door to Pupils arrive before the teacher who is often several welcome pupils. minutes late because of rushing around to collect

practical apparatus.

Pupils arrive promptly, enter the lab in an orderly Pupils drift in, in twos and threes, take their time to way and have out books and equipment ready settle and leave books in their bags.for the lesson to start.

Latecomers enter quickly and quietly. Their Latecomers arrive casually over time and are presence is acknowledged and they expect to chastised individually for their lateness before the be spoken to about their lateness during the lesson gains any momentum.lesson.

The teacher begins the lesson promptly by As some quiet is established, the teacher takes the making the context for the lesson clear and register and collects in last week’s homework. sharing the objectives with the pupils in a way Most pupils hand this in but a significant number they understand. This conveys the expectation take a long time to explain why the tasks have not that pupils are about to learn something of value. been completed.

The teacher describes and explains the structure The teacher debates with some frustration (and of the lesson and gives the timings for the various occasional amusement) pupils’ reason for not elements, e.g. group task, practical activity, and completing their homework. By this time over eight discussion. The first activity is quickly underway minutes have elapsed and no meaningful activity making explicit demands for pupils’ full attention. has taken place.

Pupils engage positively with tasks, anticipating Some pupils are beginning to get restless and are challenge and interest. Textbooks, if used, are tempted to fiddle with the gas taps and water efficiently distributed in a well-understood routine. supply. Anticipation of an exciting lesson is fading

fast.

The end of the lesson is identified by a period The lesson draws to a close with pupils dashing of reflection on what has been learned. Pupils around, trying to get an extra few readings to plot know and play an active role in this. on a graph and putting equipment away.

There is sufficient time to explain any homework Pupils’ attention has already turned to more and its purpose. This is sometimes done part important things such as TV or games practice. way through the lesson to avoid rushing at Homework is hurriedly set and not all pupils record the end. the task effectively.

The teacher controls how the pupils leave the Pupils scramble out, knocking over equipment and lab, so that the lesson is orderly. The opportunity breaking glassware. They are unsure of the is taken to say something of a personal nature homework task; most have already forgotten the to one or two pupils as they leave. lesson.

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The importance of lesson beginnings cannot be overemphasised. In Closing thelearning gap, Mike Hughes explains:

• Students learn more at the beginning and end of a learning experience thanthey do in the middle. This is sometimes called the BME (beginning, middle,end) principle.

• The beginning, in particular, is the time when the potential for learning is at itsgreatest, when the relatively high concentration, but particularly anticipation,makes the learner more receptive.

The BME principle


recencyeffect

learning

primaryeffect

time

The primary effect is that, when pupils arrive at a lesson, they are full of anticipation.The recency effect is that, at the end of a lesson, they can reflect on recent learning.

Exploiting the BME principle

Lessons should have lots of beginnings and be based on a number of activities.Many lessons are based around only one learning activity. This means that there isonly one beginning, lots of middle and long periods of time when children are attheir least receptive.

The most effective time to introduce the key learning point is at the beginning of alearning activity. By key learning point, I mean the bit they all must know – the keypiece of information that is central to the whole topic.

So careful consideration must be given to when a key learning point is introduced.Doing this in the middle of a lesson could be counter-productive. In order to beeffective, key learning points should be introduced within the first five minutes of any lesson.

learning

time

Task 10

At the start of any lesson the class should be engaged with something abouttoday’s lesson or something positive and memorable about the last one. Astimulating starter activity is a good way to do this. Examples of interestingstarter activities can be obtained from your local science consultant. The lessonobjectives should be shared with the class. Often these are written on the board,but it is no good asking the pupils to simply copy them down without interactingwith them, otherwise they pass from the board to pupils’ books without anythingbeing learned! Plan when you will introduce the key learning point and make it asearly as possible. The collection of homework and the taking of the register can beleft until the pupils have engaged with the first task so as not to disrupt thebeginning of the lesson.

Improve the starts 15 minutes

Choose a class that you feel confident to experiment with.

At the end of one lesson explain that you are going to change the way you beginthe next lesson and why. Tell the pupils to be prepared or give them a question to think about.

Plan an improved start to their lesson, keeping in mind the tactics previouslysuggested. Include a challenging task, for example:

• tell your partner one fact you know about the way cells are specialised;

• find out what evidence there is for global warming;

• write down two key words from last week’s lesson on energy sources; be prepared to explain to a group of four why these are the key words for you.

Begin the lesson as you have planned. During the lesson you can follow up theresponses to your initial questions, if necessary modify what you teach to moreclosely match what the pupils already know. This will raise pupils’ self-esteem byacknowledging what they already know.

Towards the end of the lesson ask the pupils what they thought of this new way of working.

With your partner, teacher review the effectiveness of your lesson start.

Don’t expect miracles. Pupils will need to be taught new routines and their purposebefore they will engage properly. As you restructure your lesson beginnings, explainto the pupils the purpose and your change in expectations of them. Explain how itwill help them to learn more effectively. Once you introduce a new routine it shouldbe used every subsequent lesson until it becomes embedded.

To really make the most of pupils’ potential for learning, you can increase thenumber of beginnings in a lesson. Effective lessons are often constructed from anumber of episodes, each of which offers an opportunity for new beginning. For more on planning episodes of teaching, see science training unit Effectiveteaching and learning in science (DfES 2003).


The challenge of lesson endings

If we take Mike Hughes’s research ideas it can be seen from the first graph on page16 that much learning is also undertaken at the end of lessons. In order tomaximise this there are a number of tactics which can support you to make thetime more organised and productive.

• End early. Don’t try to cover too much material in one hit. Don’t mistake pacefor manic activity. Leave at least eight minutes to finish off the lesson properly.

• Use a structured plenary to end the session. This should be a group orindividual reflection on what has been learned.

• Ask the pupils to identify two or three key points they have learned from thelesson. These can be shared in small groups either written or as drawings andcartoons. A review of these points could become a regular feature of ahomework routine.

• Summarise the learning.

• Set the scene for the following lesson.

• Have clear routines for an organised departure. Don’t fall into the trap of notclearing away apparatus in good time. Make sure that pupils put on their coatsas a last task before leaving the room.

• Vary the way in which the pupils are dismissed, for example, row-by-row, smallgroups, alphabetically, one by one after answering a question. This will helpkeep the lesson focus right until the end.

Planning plenary activities

Your Key Stage 3 science consultant can help out by providing lots of ideas whichare both generic and activity-specific. The big challenge is to make these as variedas possible. The Key Stage 3 Strategy leaflet Making good use of the plenary liststhe purposes of the plenary as to:

• draw together what has been learned, to highlight the most important ratherthan the most recent points, to summarise key facts, ideas and vocabulary, andstress what needs to be remembered;

• generalise from examples generated earlier in the lesson;

• go through an exercise, question pupils and rectify any misunderstandings(misconceptions);

• make links to other work and what the class will do next;

• highlight not only the progress that has been made and remind them aboutpersonal targets;

• set homework to extend or consolidate classwork and prepare for futurelessons.

You can also find ideas for plenary activities in the science-training unit Effectivelessons in science (2003).


Task 11 Improving endings 15 minutes

As with the previous task, choose a class you are confident to work with.

Keep in mind the tactics mentioned above, plan a lesson ending to include aplenary activity.

At the beginning of the lesson explain to the class what you have planned for theplenary and why. This will help them to prepare.

With your teacher partner, review how the lesson ending went, then plan toincorporate more into future lessons.

Structuring the learningYou will have been asked on a number of occasions through your career to state whatyou believe constitutes a good lesson. While we all have a slightly different view of thisthere is some consistency in the views held by the majority of teachers. Most wouldagree that the requirements for good teaching and learning require that teachers:

• focus and structure their teaching;

• actively engage pupils in their learning;

• develop systematically pupils’ learning skills to support independence;

• use assessment for learning to reinforce learning and support reflection andtarget setting;

• have high expectations of each pupil’s effort and achievement;

• make the learning motivating (well-paced, stimulating activities, range oflearning styles);

• create a settled and purposeful atmosphere.

Within this there are some fundamental aspects of a lesson designed with thelearner in mind which can be summarised as:


Locate the lesson (scheme of work, prior knowledge, preferred learning styles)

Identify the essential objectives (knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes,personal development)

Decide how to teach each episode (pedagogic approach, teaching and learningstrategy, organisation)

Ensure coherence (starter, transition between episodes, a final plenary)

Structure the lesson as a series of episodes

Task 12

This diagram demonstrates how lesson planning needs a number of different inputsin order to be successful for pupils. In this unit we have looked at climate andorganisation which should pervade each ‘episode’ of the lesson.

Reflection 20 minutes

Locate the map that you drew for task 1. Think about the tasks and reading thatyou have undertaken through completing this unit. Look for areas that you havedeveloped and perhaps some areas that you know about now but were unaware of before.

Alter your map to reflect your current thinking about the learning climate.

Summary of evidence Summary of research

Summarised from Effective teaching: a review of the literature, by David Reynoldsand Daniel Muijs, available at www.teachernet.gov.uk

In any lesson a major factor in determining how effectively pupils learn is time ontask which is in turn related to classroom management. Five significant aspects ofclassroom management have been identified:

• Starting the lesson

• Seating arrangements

• Establishing clear rules and procedures

• Maintaining momentum during the lesson

• Ending the lesson

Starting the lesson

Teachers can ensure as fast and smooth a transition to appropriate classroombehaviour as possible by instituting some set procedures for dealing with lessonstarts. These might include: writing instructions on the board before the pupilscome in so they can get started on the lesson immediately, training pupils to takethe roll and read instructions and having certain set activities that pupils can startdoing as soon as they come into the classroom.

Seating arrangements

These need to be suitable for the type of lesson teachers intend to give. For co-operative group work it is recommended that groups sit around tables to allowthem to interact easily with each other, an arrangement which is not effective ifpupils need to work individually. Seating pupils around a big table or in a circle orsemicircle can facilitate whole-class discussion, whereas seating in rows must beavoided.


Establishing clear rules and procedures

This is one of the main factors for ensuring lessons run smoothly. Rules are moreformal, usually written, statements that specify what pupils are allowed to do orexpected not to do. Procedures are more informal arrangements that specify howthings are to be done in a particular classroom. Rules are usually school-wide andhave been identified as distinguishing more effective from less effective schools.Procedures can also be school-wide but are often specified by a teacher for theirown class. Effective teachers have been found to spend a considerable amount oftime and effort on specifying and clarifying procedures at the beginning of theschool year. While this may seem at odds with the principle of maximising pupils’opportunities to learn, the additional time taken at the beginning of the year is morethan made up by time saved through less time-wasting during the year.

For rules and procedures to work they need to be actively taught to pupils. It isbetter to stick to a small number of clearly understood and consistently enforcedrules.

Maintaining momentum during the lesson

One of the most fruitful ways of preventing pupil misbehaviour during lessons is toensure the smooth flow of a lesson, keeping the momentum going. Sometimesteachers can themselves slow momentum by, for example, stopping an activitywhich is under way in order to do something else (sometimes referred to as adangle); where the teacher returns to the original activity afterwards this issometimes called a flip-flop. Both can leave pupils confused about their task andpriorities. Overdwelling occurs when teachers go on explaining instructions wellafter the pupils have grasped what they have to do. Fragmentation is where a taskis broken down into too many very small steps. All these can easily be avoided bycareful planning.

Ending the lesson

Problems include not leaving enough time to finish planned activities, lessonsrunning over time and instruction for homework getting lost as pupils rush to collecttheir belongings. Effective teachers experience fewer problems with ending thelesson than less effective teachers through planning and pacing their lessons,sometimes giving out homework before the end of the lesson and establishingprocedures for pupils leaving the classroom.

Classroom climate

Aspects of classroom climate which affect pupil achievement include:

• the relationship between teacher and pupil;

• teacher enthusiasm;

• displays;

• the physical environment;

• teacher expectations.

Teachers who appear understanding, helpful, friendly and who show leadershipwithout being too strict have been found to enhance pupil outcomes. Teachersshould try to create an unthreatening environment in which pupils’ opinions arevalued, respected and solicited. All of these encourage pupils with problems to


request help. The classroom climate should reflect teacher enthusiasm for theirsubject and for learning. Attractive displays help to make the classroom a morepleasant place to be as well as giving pupils a chance to have their work displayed.Clean and tidy classrooms, hallways and toilets can create a better atmosphere inschool. A highly visible way of improving the classroom climate is to greet pupilswhen they enter.

Ofsted evidence

Individual lesson planning has improved in over half of the schools. Therecommended three-part lesson structure is used in nearly all schools and pupilstake part actively in all aspects of the lesson. Lessons start promptly with good useof starter activities and a brisk pace is maintained throughout the lesson. Clearlearning objectives are spelled out and form the basis of learning and assessment.Teachers are doing more to build on pupils’ prior experience, most often throughquestioning. Plenary sessions are used where appropriate.

In lessons where the teaching was judged to be unsatisfactory, learning objectiveswere either not shared with the pupils or did not in fact form the foundation for thelesson (OFSTED report The Key Stage 3 Strategy: evaluation of the third year HMI2090, March 2004).

Principles from School improvement: what can pupils tell us?

In their book School improvement what can pupils tell us? Ruddick, Chaplain andWallace put forward a set of principles which were found to make a significantdifference to learning:

• respect for pupils as individuals and as a body occupying a significant positionin the school;

• fairness to all pupils irrespective of their class, gender, ethnicity or academicstatus;

• autonomy – not as an absolute state but as a right and a responsibility inrelation to physical and social maturity;

• intellectual challenge that helps pupils to experience learning as a dynamic,engaging and empowering activity;

• social support in relation to both academic and emotional concerns;

• security both in relation to the physical setting of the school and in interpersonalencounters (including anxiety about threats to pupils’ self-esteem).

Summary

The quality of classroom management has a direct effect on the quality of learning.The most significant aspects of management are the start and end of lessons,seating arrangements, the establishment of clear rules and procedures and themaintaining of momentum during lessons. In addition, teachers need to considerthe classroom climate – in particular, interpersonal relationships, displays, thequality of the physical environment and the level of expectation of the pupils.


Next stepsIn this unit there have been several suggestions for you to twin up with anotherteacher or your science consultant as a means of support while you develop yourconfidence in improving the learning climate. Here are some ideas to consider inorder to take this work forward.

• Start small: choose one class to work with. Year 7 would be a good choicebecause these pupils still have vivid memories of their primary school wheredisplay is more prominent and furniture arrangements less stable. However, ifyou have another class you feel would respond well to this, then use them.

• Ask another teacher or your science consultant to help you. You may have anAST in school who is not a member of the science department but whorecognises and uses some of the techniques in this unit. They would be a goodsource of help.

• Technicians and teaching assistants can be very useful in helping you to re-arrange the room and put up display materials.

• Make sure your line manager or head of department or subject leader knowswhat you are doing. This will enable dissemination to happen much more easily.

• Read some research about learning climate from the range of referencesprovided.

• Talk to the pupils about how changing the laboratory helps them to learn.


Observe an AST or leading teacher in science who will be able to demonstrate howto establish a positive climate for learning.




Setting targets


Specify:

• the outcomes you will seek in terms of developing an effective learning climatein your classroom;


References Closing the learning gap, M. Hughes (Network Educational Press 1999).Reproduced by permission of the publishers, Network Educational Press, PO Box635, Stafford, ST16 1BF; fax: 01785 228566.

Strategies for closing the learning gap, M. Hughes with A. Vass (NetworkEducational Press 2001). Reproduced by permission of the publishers, NetworkEducational Press, PO Box 635, Stafford, ST16 1BF; fax: 01785 228566.

Effective teaching: evidence and practice, Sage, D. Muijs and D. Reynolds (Paul Chapman 2001)

School improvement: what can pupils tell us? J. R. Ruddick Chaplain and G. Wallace (David Fulton 1996)




Ref: DfES 0699-2004 G



www.dfes.gov.uk







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Ref: DfES 0700-2004 G

Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesUnit 4: Using models and modellingtechniques

Disclaimer




Acknowledgements

Page 11 – Table taken from Physics for Life, written byPeter Warren. Published by Hodder Murray, January1988. © Peter Warren, 1988. Reproduced bypermission of Hodder Murray.


Unit 4 Using models and modelling techniques

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Unit 4: Using models and modelling techniques DfES 0700-2004 G

How to use this study unitThis study unit offers practical suggestions for you to use in the classroom whenconsidering using modelling to teach pupils a new technique or procedure. All thestrategies suggested have been tried and tested by teachers in their classrooms.They draw upon both academic research and the experience of practising teachers.You may have looked at Teaching and learning in secondary school materials(DfES 0423-2004). While there are similarities with these materials you will find thatthis unit gives science specific advice that will be immediately relevant for use inyour laboratory.

Your science consultant can help you work through this unit but it would be betterto twin up with a colleague who also wishes to enhance the quality of models usedand modelling techniques. The unit is structured so that the tasks listed towardsthe beginning are simple and quick to implement. More challenging activities cometowards the end. The unit contains case studies and tasks for you to undertake. Italso contains ‘reflections’ which will help you revisit an idea or your own practice. Itincludes practical tips and tasks which will help you consider the advice or try outnew techniques in the classroom. The summary of research is contained towardsthe back of the unit and will offer some suggestions for further reading. The finalpage invites you to reflect on the experience of having tried out new materials andset some personal targets for the future. You can work through the materials in anumber of ways:


• Work with your science consultant on developing and planning your approachto modelling with one class. After three weeks meet together to review how it isgoing. Discuss which strategies have been the most effective with one classand plan to use these with other classes.





You will need access to two video sequences located in the Using models andmodelling techniques section on the DVD, when working through this unit.


Using models and modellingtechniques


1 Why is using a range of models effective? 5

2 When to use different models 6

3 Effective modelling 14

4 Modelling scientific writing 15

Next steps 20


References 22

Demonstrations in science teaching 22

Appendix 24

IntroductionThis guide is in two related but distinct parts:

• Using models in science teaching

• Modelling good practice to pupils

Within the section on models we consider how scientists and teachers use modelsto explore hard-to-visualise phenomena, concepts and ideas. In modelling weconsider how a teacher shows pupils both how to work and what the outcomes ofeffective work might look like.

Models in science

Within the scientific community models are an important mechanism for advancingscientific understanding. Teachers use models to help pupils make sense of theirobservations, findings and abstract ideas through the visualisation of:

• objects that are too big, for example, solar system, an ecosystem;

• objects that are too small or not seen easily, for example, cell, heart;

• processes that cannot easily be seen directly, for example, digestions, erosion;

• abstract ideas, for example, particulate nature of matter, energy transfer.

There are many different ways of describing models and analogies across thecurriculum. There can be much overlap between the two and teachers of Englishmight argue that they are both specific applications of metaphor. Within the sciencestrand of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy we have used a simple method forclassifying models and analogies, sufficient to meet the needs of teachers andpupils in this age range. Models have been grouped into either scientific models(that is, consensus models, often pictorial, although sometimes mathematical


Task 1 What models and analogies do we use 15 minutes

Look at the list given in Figure 1 for some examples and brainstorm with acolleague all the models and analogies that you have used in your science teaching recently.

Keep this list, to reflect on when you have finished this unit.

Models and analogies are often dynamic and they may be modified or achieve adifferent status during their useful life. All have benefits and limitations. Someteaching models, developed in the 1960s are now thought to be less useful, suchas the use of Worcester circuit boards or the water circuit to illustrate flow ofelectricity.

Figure 2 summarises models and analogies in the context of school scienceteaching and learning.


Figure 1

Examples of teaching models in schoolscience include:

Spheres representing Earth, Moon and Sun toshow night and day, etc.

Limbs as a lever system, antagonistic muscles

‘Domain’ theory of magnets

Ball and spring models of particle structures

Moving belt through pressure pads for current,voltage and resistance in a circuit

Transfer of sound or waves (for example, wavemachines, slinkies)

Food web to represent feeding relationships

Balloons in bell jar model of lungs

Visking tubing representing digestion

Examples of analogies (a subset of teachingmodels) appropriate to school science include:

Energy as money

Bank statement for energy audit

Cakes and biscuits that resemble, for example,igneous or metamorphic rocks

Toffees as elements, mint toffees as compoundsand mints and toffees as mixtures

The eye as a camera

Squeezing toothpaste as peristalsis

Digestive enzymes as scissors

representations like the arrangement of particles in solids, liquids and gases) orteaching models (pictorial representations, ways of explaining abstract phenomenaor three dimensional models, such as the motor kinetic theory model or computeranimations to illustrate the particulate nature of matter). Analogies are taken as asubset of teaching models, which are based on comparisons with familiar objectsor processes, being useful illustrations but often having only superficial parallels withthe abstract idea being illustrated. This is summarised in Figure 1.


Scientific model(or consensus model)

This represents the acceptedscientific view of a concept oridea:

• it provides a representationor an explanation for acomplex process;

• it is a consensus view heldby the scientific community;

• it can be a mathematical ora physical representation oran explanatory theory;

• it can help predict thebehaviour of systems orevents.

Teaching model

This is used to help a learnerunderstand or visualise an idea,a process or a system:

• it is a visual or a physicalrepresentation;

• it is a teaching method tohelp pupils visualisesomething abstract orinvisible;

• it helps explain the abstractidea or invisible structure tothe learner.

Analogiesare a subset of teaching models

Analogies are:

• based on an object orprocess very very familiar topupils;

• often stated as ‘it’s ratherlike …’;

• based on superficialsimilarities or parallels to theabstract idea;

• usually illustrative rather thanexplanatory;

• often ‘stories’.

Why is using a range of models effective?

A small-scale survey was reported in School science review in March 2000 (Trgidgoand Ratcliffe ‘The use of modelling for improving pupils learning about cells’), whichinvolved two parallel groups of mixed-ability Year 7 pupils. Both groups used thesame orientation exercises, elicitation of prior knowledge followed by expositionusing whole-class teaching and a worksheet. The approach taken with each groupwas then changed. Group 1 used 2-D illustrations and drawings to label diagramsand locate various organelles. The other group produced 3-D models using thesame stimulus. Modelling cells with the 3-D group presented some interestingteaching opportunities. The pupils made tissues by stacking their cells, made insmall plastic bags, in a large clear perspex box. A single cell (constructed using aclear perspex box, visking tubing and green plasticine – chloroplasts) was placedon the overhead projector. This bore a remarkable resemblance to the real thing.

This illustration shows some cells made in a similar way. You may recognise themfrom the Science Key Stage 3 training unit ‘Misconceptions’.

When the pupils had finished their learning in this topic, both groups were given thesame end-of-unit test. Some general patterns emerged from the results of the test. The 3-D modellers:

• achieved accepted responses more often;

• expressed new learning in their answers more frequently;

• were more likely to apply their knowledge to new and novel situations;

• held fewer misconceptions;

• successfully used difficult terminology.

Case study

Figure 2 – Models in Key Stage 3 ScienceModels in science teaching can mainly be classified into two groups:

Task 2

Although this was only a small-scale study the teachers involved were convincedthat using 3-D models was instrumental in the deeper understanding of the pupils.They also stated ‘further more, lower attainers in the 3-D group had a better graspof the overall concept than high attainers from the 2-D group’. For the full version ofthis report see School Science Review, March 2000, 81(296) pages 54–59.

This study would lead us to believe that constructing models of this type enhancespupils’ learning and understanding. This type of model using the definitions givenearlier would be described as a teaching model.

When to use different modelsModels can take many different forms, not just the three broad categoriesmentioned earlier and each one can be used for a different illustrative purpose.

Different types of modelling 60 minutes

Look at this list of models:

• Scientific model

• Consensus model

• Historical model

• Teaching model

• Verbal model (analogy)

• Materials model (physical objects/models)

• Visual models (graphs, flow charts, diagrams)

• Symbolic model (mathematical, formulaic)

Using your scheme of work for the module you are about to teach, look throughthe activities that you have planned and begin to categorise the models that youwill use. If you see an opportunity to add a model that you have not thought of,include it.

If you teach two parallel classes, try using models with one class and not with theother. Pair with another teacher and try the two approaches between you. Beprepared to analyse the results of pupils’ learning in the two groups to look forstrengths and weaknesses in the methods you have used.

When you are using a model of any type with groups of pupils you should make itclear to them that it is a model that you are using. Be explicit about the model asyou cannot guarantee that the way you see a model, or want the pupils to see it, isthe same way that the pupils do. Introduce the idea that models can change overtime and that models need only be ‘good enough’ to explain a particular conceptor idea to meet the needs at that time. Explain that in science once a model doesnot illustrate or explain a concept or idea adequately any more, it should bechanged. Scientists (and science teachers) do this all the time. In Key Stage 3,teachers are being asked to introduce the idea of a model in Year 7, refine andchallenge the model in Year 8 and then ask pupils to begin to come up with theirown models in Year 9. An example of this could be to introduce 3-D cells models in


Task 3

Year 7; consider in Year 8 how these models are not really effective at explaininghow the products of digestion are absorbed in the cells of the small intestines. InYear 9 pupils can be asked to produce a model to help illustrate respiration in cells.You will see that this principle is supported by the yearly teaching objective in thefive key ideas in science (Framework for science 2002).

The programmes of study for both Key Stage 3 and 4 identify some models andtheories. Very few abstract ideas are introduced at Key Stage 2, this being a majordifference between Key Stage 2 and 3. The introduction of abstract ideas in KeyStage 3 requires modelling for and with pupils so they can progress to the higherlevels of the national curriculum. Abstract ideas and models begin to featuresignificantly in the level descriptions at levels 5, 6 and 7.

Planning to use models 60 minutes

The list below illustrates outcomes for learning at different levels for each attainment target. They illustrate the need for effective modelling with pupils.

• Work with a colleague and look through your departmental scheme of work for Key Stage 3.

• Does what you have planned to teach allow pupils to understand and usemodels appropriately in each of the three years?

Extracts from the attainment targets

Science 1Level 5 ‘Pupils describe how experimental evidence and creative thinking havebeen combined to provide a scientific explanation.’

Level 6 ‘Pupils describe evidence for some accepted scientific ideas …’

Level 7 ‘Pupils describe some predictions based on scientific theories …’

Science 2Level 5 ‘Pupils understand the importance of classification.’

Level 6 ‘They use scientific knowledge and understanding … to describe lifeprocesses.’

Level 7 ‘They construct models to show feeding relationships.’

Science 3Level 5 ‘They use properties of materials to distinguish between metals and nonmetals.’

Level 6 ‘They recognise that matter is made up of particles and describedifferences between the arrangement and movement of particles in solids, liquidsand gases.’

Level 7 ‘They use the particle model to explain …’

‘They recognise elements and compounds can be represented by symbols andformulae.’


Science 4Level 5 ‘They use some abstract ideas …’ ‘They use simple models to explaineffects that are caused by the movement of the Earth …’

Level 6 ‘They use abstract ideas in some descriptions and explanations …’

Level 7 ‘They make calculations, using correct units of moments, speed andpressure ...’

Summary of these features

At level 5 pupils begin to use some abstract ideas and models to describe andexplain familiar phenomena.

At level 6 pupils use abstract ideas in some descriptions and explanations andrecognise the principle features of models of cell, particle, energy transfer, force andinterdependence to describe some phenomena.

At level 7 pupils link ideas together, construct and use a range of abstract ideasand models in descriptions and explanations.

Reflection time

Before pupils start to develop their understanding of the key ideas, particularlyenergy and particles, it would help them to understand why scientists constructmodels. Perhaps a session in Year 7 about ‘How scientists think’ rather than ‘whatscientists do’ would help. How could you incorporate this into Year 7?

The central heating system is not a relevant model to use to teach about electricalcircuits because both the teaching model – the central heating system and theconcept of current are both unfamiliar to the learners hence confusion! A bettermodel might be traffic flow or demonstrating the flow of water (This is a good wayto highlight limitations of the model). What model could you use to stimulate the imagination of those pupils with nointerest in cars?

The model of particles being all the same is a ‘good enough’ model to explainchanges of state but needs modifying to teach dissolving and density. How could you modify the model?

You need to consider whether the use of models is required. For example, theconcrete thinker who is not thinking in an abstract way is likely to find the use ofmodels to visualise abstract ideas challenging. However, to use models to explainthings that are too large (the solar system) or not accessible (human organs) is wellmatched to these pupils’ ability. These are good starting places to highlight theimportance of models to these pupils. It is likely that work on cells will be easier forthese pupils to understand than energy. What models do you use to teach cells and energy?

Learners need to be aware that models provide simple pictures that are ‘goodenough’ to help them understand more complex ideas and a range of phenomena.These simple models either need to be made more sophisticated or changed.


Developing a Model of Light

Scientific idea Scientific model Teaching model Can be used to explain

Light travels from Key Stage 3 – Light String can be used to How and why a shadow the source in rays travels in straight line represent light travelling is formed

in straight lines

Pencil laser light is made visible by dust particles

Light transfers Key Stage 3 – Energy Use money analogy to Light radiation transfers energy from the transfer/radiation show the transfer energysource to the receiver

Light reflected and Key Stage 3 – Light rays Table-tennis balls used Reflection, laws of scattered from travel in straight lines to show light bouncing reflectiondifferent surfaces and are reflected off plane surfaces

according to precise rules Table-tennis balls thrown Scattering of light

at egg boxes can show scattering of light

Task 4

Review

The purpose of models and the use of modelling as a process of thinking needs to be made explicit.

The teaching model needs to be relevant to the individual learner.

The teaching model should be matched to pupils’ ability and maturity.

By using modelling techniques, individual learners should be taught the scope and limitation of the models.

Developing models 30 minutes

Look at the following example of how a model (for the way in which light travels)can be changed and refined. The straight-line model is good enough to explainrefraction and reflection but not for other light phenomena.

Can you think of models that could be developed in Key Stage 4 to fill in thebottom three sets of boxes? You may want to work with a physics specialist in thedepartment.


➝


Scientific idea Scientific model Teaching model Can be used to explain

When light passes Key Stage 3 – the Rows of soldiers Refraction of lightfrom one medium to density of a medium marching into mudanother it is refracted with respect to the

transfer of energy Wheels on an axle travelling from floor to carpet

Plastic tube rolling down a slope which is split, shiny and rough

White light consists of a mixture of colours

Light can be absorbed and reflected by different coloured materials

Light filters can absorb some colours and transmit others

Polarisation Key Stage 4 – wave Slinky with rows of postsmodel

Diffraction Key Stage 4 – wave Ripple tank fronts 3 cm wave kit

Interference Key Stage 4 –

White light is made upfrom red, green and blue.Rainbows, dispersion,recombination

Key Stage 3 – differentcolours of light travel instraight lines atdifferent speeds indifferent mediums

Colour wheel andColour mixing

Pass white lightthrough a prism

Why objects appeardifferent colours underdifferent conditions


A carefully explaineddemonstration usingcoloured light filters

How white light andother coloured light canchange colour afterfiltering


A carefully explaineddemonstration (viewingdifferent coloured lightsthrough spectacleswith different colouredlenses) following onfrom reflection andabsorption of differentcoloured materials.

Light beam bendstowards the normalwhen light reducesspeed

Helping pupils identify strengths and weaknesses of a model

Pupils need help in order to see the strengths and limitations of the models they areusing. The following example of a frequently used physical model can be used withpupils after they have modelled the way particles move when heated. Show thepupils the evaluation of the model and challenge them to come up with strengthsand limitations of their own. Why does heat make solids expand? When a solid isheated its particles vibrate with more energy and move further away from eachother. The solid gets a little larger in every direction.

There are many models used in books, published schemes and the QCA schemeof work. Teachers will be familiar with them. The following three examples areincluded as examples of useful or novel models. These and many more whichmatch to the QCA scheme of work have been developed by the science consultantteam in Essex.


Evaluation Strengths Weaknesses

Familiarity Good, if acted out

Similarity People are particles: suggests that particles (people) do not get bigger, but greater jiggling takes up more space

Suitability Good for kinaesthetic and visual learners and for pupils working towards or at level5 or 6

Reference: Physics for Life John Murray (1988) Author Peter Warren

Does not show where energy comesfrom unless teacher shakes the row. The arms could indicate that the particleis getting bigger. It does not showexpansion in all directions

The ‘expansion’ of a line of people:

Year 8 exampleEnergy: Conduction, convection and radiationPupils model the processes of thermal energy transfer via conduction, convectionand radiation by passing a parcel of energy along a line of linked pupils forconduction, by circulating to pick up a parcel of energy and delivering it elsewherebefore circulating to pick up some more, etc. The teacher can model radiation bythrowing parcels of energy across a space.

Year 7 exampleReproduction: Model of placentaPupils need to have hands-on experience of using two ‘leaky hosepipes’ (seephose from a garden centre) side by side, in a surrounding waterproof case to modelhow oxygen and nutrients can pass from the mother’s blood system to the child’sblood system and carbon dioxide and waste can pass from the child to the motherwithout their blood supplies being directly linked.


Task 5

Year 9 exampleReactivity seriesPupils use large posters or cards to show order of reactivity. The cards are handedout to the pupils and they have to arrange themselves in the correct order ofreactivity.

Ideas for these models are reproduced with the kind permission of Essex CountyCouncil Science Advisory team.

Try them out 30 minutes

Use one of the models illustrated above with a class the next time you are teaching the relevant unit of work.

Encourage the pupils to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the model.

Share this with the rest of the department and discuss how the model could beadapted in the future.

Review

Use a clear TEACHING MODEL to help pupils VISUALISE the key idea.

Encourage pupils to USE their understanding to explain NEW phenomena duringYear 8.

Support pupils to identify strengths and weaknesses in any model, particularlywhen explaining unfamiliar phenomena.

Increase the SOPHISTICATION of the model when necessary or CHANGE themodel.


Where will you stand?

Effective modelling In order to be an effective modeller there are a number of steps you should take.

Prepare the lesson well, particularly if you are going to conduct a demonstrationthat is new to you. If you are about to model something new for the first time, youmight write out a script and rehearse what you are going to say (more of this at theend of this booklet). As you grow in confidence, it will no longer be necessary towrite out a script but you will still plan exactly what you want the pupils to learn.

Take into account pupils’ prior knowledge and experiences. Model your thinking toexplain links between an idea they have seen before and the one you are about tointroduce, for example, in chemistry you may have used ping pong balls torepresent atoms but in Year 8 different sized balls are used so that pupils can buildmolecules. Think out loud the connections and the reasons for developing orchanging this model.

See also the section on demonstrations in maintaining a view of the class whilewriting notes or instructions for them by using an OHP, a laptop or an interactivewhiteboard rather than turning your back to the class. By your behaviour when youare writing you are modelling the technique.

Maintain the pace of the lesson by using modelling for short periods only, especiallyif pupils are not used to this way of working. Until pupils’ listening skills havedeveloped, model just a small part of an activity, for example, the conclusion of aninvestigation.

Repeat the modelling of a process whenever necessary. Some skills are onlyacquired through repeated practice.

Modelling processes with pupils involves:

• establishing clear aims;

• providing an example;

• exploring thinking – yours and the pupils;

• demonstrating the process;

• working together through the example;

• providing prompts (or scaffolds) as appropriate;

• providing an opportunity for pupils to work themselves (alone or in pairs);

• drawing out the key learning.

Teachers can model a range of processes in science, for example, how to use aparticular piece of scientific equipment appropriately and accurately; how to recorddata from an experiment; how to evaluate an investigation; how to plan a morecomplex investigation; how to draw a particular graph; how to obtain specificinformation from a text or from the Internet; how to answer a test question; how toimprove scientific writing. The last of these is considered in more detail in the rest ofthis guide. However, the points made and learned can be applied to the otherprocesses described.

See also the section on demonstrations in The Science Framework page 42 andadditional text on page 24 of this unit.


Task 6

Modelling scientific writingMany teachers are frustrated at the way pupils will readily engage with practicalwork and talk activities in science but when it comes to writing things down thepupils often fail to express themselves adequately. The OFSTED report of the thirdyear of the National Strategy states:

‘More opportunities should be planned into lessons in order to improve therange and quality of pupils’ writing in science’.

(The Key Stage 3 Strategy: evaluation of the third year. HMI March 2004)

The report goes on to say:

‘In over half of the schools there is a good balance of theoretical andinvestigative work, although scientific enquiry is not being systematicallydeveloped’.

Although writing about investigations is only a small part of scientific enquiry,teachers would agree that there is a weakness in pupils’ report writing. How oftenhave you heard ‘They cannot write an evaluation to save their lives’?

The next part of this unit illustrates how modelling can help pupils improve theirwriting in science.

Modelling how to write an answer to an examination question is an excellentstrategy to use in all year groups (not just Years 9 and 11).

Modelling how to answer test questions 15 minutes

Locate the Science Intervention materials Teacher’s notes (DfES ref 0355/2004).Look at pages 11 and 12, which describes how modelling answers for pupils canbe demonstrated.

Sample questions for doing this activity can be found in the participant’s pack ofGetting more pupils to level 5 in science: Year 9 toolkit for science departments.Distributed at the core training in spring 2005 or downloadable from the sciencesection of the Key Stage 3 website.

Choose one of the questions and try out the technique with a class of pupils.

If another teacher can be made available, allow them to watch the lesson and notedown the pupils’ reactions.


Task 7

Types of writing

Below is a list of the main text types that pupils are expected to write across thecurriculum and in examinations.

Identifying text types 15 minutes

From the list above, identify which text types you are going to use in the next unityou are teaching.

Think about how you will introduce the writing tasks. What will you tell pupils aboutwhat is required when writing a specific text?

Each text type has a set of conventions at word, sentence and text level. In orderfor pupils to become proficient writers, they need to have explicit teaching for eachtype. This is not just a job for the English department. As science teachers we areonly too aware of those pupils who are unable to access higher levels, not becausethey do not understand the science but because they cannot communicate theirideas effectively. Writing is a skill that develops with continual practice andreinforcement. Pupils need repeated opportunities to learn about features of writing.They will not be as good at writing a conclusion the first time you model it for them,but will improve the more they do it.

Modelling a text type, showing pupils how to select and manipulate content, is aproven strategy for improving the outcome of writing tasks. It helps pupils to avoidmany common errors and substantially reduces marking. It raises pupils’confidence in their ability to undertake a task because they have a good model intheir heads of what they need to produce. This has a beneficial effect especiallywhen the pupils are preparing coursework for GCSE.

There are a set of generic conventions that can be applied to all texts.


Text type Examples

Instructions Recipes, directions

Recount Stories, experimental write-ups

Explanation The rain cycle, mathematical conclusions

Information Food in Roman Britain, the properties of mercury

Persuasion Advertisements, manifestos

Discursive writing Magazine articles, discursive essays

Analysis Literary criticism, analytical essays, data tables or charts

Evaluation Critical reviews, reflection on outcome

Reproduced from Literacy Across the Curriculum (DfES 0235/2001)

As a result of Literacy across the curriculum training, the school literacy coordinatorand Key Stage 3 school strategy manager (who happens to be a science teacher)at St Clere’s school in Thurrock, decided to collaborate on improving pupils’ writingin science. The teachers involved wanted to include the whole science department,but also undertake a small-scale investigation involving a lower-attaining group ofYear 7 pupils. They decided on a two-pronged model. See the Appendix for theway of working. You will see from the model that there was joint work undertakenwith the target group of Year 7 pupils that focussed on the use of connectives. Thisgroup of pupils had very poorly-developed literacy skills. Most pupils were workingat about level 3 or 4 in science and the majority were at level 3 in English. It wasfortuitous that the same class had the literacy coordinator immediately after theirscience lesson for English. This meant that what the pupils were learning in sciencewas then used as a context for the English lesson too.

The other aspect of the collaboration was the decision to concentrate on thepupils’ ability to write evaluations, particularly for GCSE work. The literacycoordinator met with the department after looking at some good examples ofcoursework. Although evaluation writing is not a feature of English teaching, theliteracy coordinator arranged for some English teachers to teach how to write agood evaluation so that science teachers could observe them. As a result of this,writing frames were produced to help pupils structure their evaluation writing.

The next few tasks will use video footage of the way this case study worked inorder for you to reflect on the way writing is modelled in your classroom.

If writing is to be modelled effectively there is a specific teaching sequence that will help.


Purpose Sentence Level

What is the purpose? Viewpoint (first person, third person, etc.)

Who is it for? Prevailing tense

How will it be used? Active/passive voice

What kind of writing is appropriate? Typical sentence structure and length

Typical cohesive devices

Text Level Word Level

Layout Stock words and phrases

Structure/organisation Specialised or typical vocabulary

Sequence Elaborate or plain vocabulary

Case study

Task 8 Using connectives in writing 30 minutes

Video sequence 1 (Using models and modelling techniques) shows a lesson during which Sarah (the teacher) is using literacy-based activities in science toenhance pupils’ ability to write using connectives. It also demonstrates pupils being taken through a staged writing sequence to produce pupils’ own versions ofinformation they had about reproduction. The video is representative of the wholelesson, but is cut at various stages in order for you to make notes and reflect onwhat you have seen.

Watch the video through once in order to understand what the lesson was all about.

Watch the video again and this time, using the grid below make a note of examples where the various writing sequences are being used. It would be good to share your observations with another teacher.

Establish clear aims

Provide examples

Explore the features of text

Define the conventions

Demonstrate how it is written


Teaching sequence for modelling writing

1 Establish clear aims

2 Provide examples

3 Explore features of the text

4 Define the conventions

5 Demonstrate how it is written

6 Compose together

7 Scaffold pupils’ first attempts

8 Move pupils on to independent writing

9 Draw out the key learning

Task 9

Task 10

Evaluation and next steps 30 minutes

Watch video sequence 2 (Using models and modelling techniques), which showsSarah (science teacher) and Ashley (literacy coordinator) evaluating the lessonSarah has just taught. They then go on to plan the next steps of their collaboration.

What effect has the use of connective frames had on the pupils’ learning?

What steps should Sarah and Ashley take next to ensure that the whole sciencedepartment become involved in the use of placemat prompts?

Classroom assignment: model writing 60 minutes

Identify a good opportunity to model writing in a unit of work you are about toteach.

Collect some good examples of text type (including some written by pupils) for the pupils to refer to. Have some textbook examples if this is appropriate.

Plan how you are going to model the writing in lessons, use the teaching sequence as a guide. For example, if the unit requires some investigative work, you might want to try modelling a prediction in the first lesson and build up toinstructions, recount, analysis and evaluation over the following lessons. If you areinvolved with some persuasive writing you may wish to try modelling the openingsentence in the first lesson and then build up the whole text over a number oflessons. Write yourself a script for the first lesson – remember to keep it short.

Decide whether you are going to model on a whiteboard or OHP.

If you can, make an audio or video recording of your lesson or have another teacher observe to help you reflect on it later.

Practical tip

Write out a script for the lesson you are going to teach.

Talk it over with the literacy coordinator.

Refer to your script when teaching the lesson.

Make sure you face the class because you can then observe pupils’ reactions and answer their questions.


Task 11 Evaluation 30 minutes

Use the following questions to help you focus the evaluation from task 10.

What worked well?

Were there any difficulties? If so what did you do to overcome them?

Analyse the written outcome from a previous lesson where you did not model thetechnique. Compare the scripts with the model lesson. What are the differencesbetween the two samples?

Next stepsIn this unit there have been a number of suggestions for you to pair with anotherteacher or your science consultant as a means of support while you develop yourconfidence in modelling. Here are some ideas to consider in order to take this workforward.

• Start small: choose one class to work with. Year 7 would be a good choicebecause these pupils still have vivid memories of their primary school wherethey were used to their teachers modelling. However if you have a class youfeel would respond well to this, then use them.

• Ask another teacher, the schools literacy coordinator or your science consultantto help you. You may have an AST in school who is not a member of thescience department but who is well versed in modelling techniques. They wouldbe a good source of help.

• Technicians and teaching assistants can be very useful in helping you todemonstrate a model while you explain to the pupils what is happening.


• Make sure your LM or HOD/LT knows what you are doing. This will enabledissemination to happen much more easily.

• Share the class with another teacher and you take responsibility for themodelling part of the lesson.

• Ask your science consultant to team-teach the lesson with you. You shouldeach take responsibility for parts of the lesson.

• Read some research about modelling from the range of references provided.




Observe an AST and/or leading teacher in science who will be able to demonstratethe use of effective modelling.



Setting targets


Specify:

• the outcomes you will seek in terms of developing effective modellingtechniques in your classroom;



References ‘Mental models, conceptual models and modelling.’ International Journal of ScienceEducation 22 (1), M. A. Moreira and I. M. Greca (January 2000, p.1–11)

‘Experienced teachers’ knowledge of teaching and learning of models andmodelling in science education.’ International Journal of Science Education 24 (12),N. Verloop and J. H. Van Driel (December 2002, p.1255–1272)

‘Modelling, teachers’ views on the nature of modelling, and implications for theeducation of modellers.’ International Journal of Science Education 24 (4), J. K. Gilbert and J. Rosaria (April 2002, p.369–387)

‘Science teachers’ knowledge about and attitudes towards the use of models andmodelling in learning science.’ International Journal of Science Education 24 (12), J. K. Gilbert and J. Rosaria (December 2002, p.1273–1292)

‘The use of modelling for improving pupils’ learning about cells.’ School ScienceReview 81 (296), D. Tregidgo and M. Ratcliffe (March 2000, p.53–59)

Demonstrations in science teachingIn this booklet we have not made any mention of the traditional sciencedemonstration lesson. This is not to diminish its value, rather to give some ideas foralternative models that science teachers are less familiar with. Some timelyreminders from Alan Goodwin from Manchester Metropolitan University about theusefulness of this specific type of modelling are reproduced here:

Science learning needs to be both meaningful and memorable. There are a goodnumber of practical experiences that it is inappropriate for students to carry outthemselves either because the process is too expensive, too complex or toohazardous. Often more than one of the above constraints applies. However, anexperience does not have to dangerous, expensive or complex to be worthy ofdemonstration – a quick demonstration is often useful as a conclusion to a classpractical (especially if students have ambiguous results), before a class practical(although beware not to reduce the impact of the practical – the students must notjust be doing it again!) or for revision. It may not seem much of a demonstration,but merely showing pupils examples of unusual materials can qualify as ademonstration if it engages the intellect and stimulates thinking and/or discussion.

By organising suitable demonstrations it is often possible for students to enjoy areally educational experience while minimising expense, complexity and hazard.Perhaps, more importantly, it also gives them the opportunity to share the teacher’smore extensive science expertise and observe the teacher engaging with their ownsubject knowledge.

Activities that are large scale or expensive are unsuitable for individual or grouppractical work. Hopefully, those used for demonstrations will be memorable, evenspectacular, but, if we are in science education, the key concern MUST BE toencourage thinking or learning about specific scientific ideas, applications or issues.The experience should also be enjoyable and entertaining, but the purpose is toengage and explore scientific understanding.


Practice makes perfect, but do not allow familiarity to breed contempt! You must beprepared to take responsibility for the demonstration before you attempt to do it.

Chemistry lends itself to the demonstration mode of modelling for all of the reasonsmentioned above. Some good resources are available to help teachers todemonstrate chemistry concepts effectively.

Annotated Bibliography (For Chemistry)School Chemistry Experiments – a collection of tried and tested experiments foruse in schools, R. F. Farley (Hatfield, The Association for Science Education 2001)

Lecture Experiments in Chemistry (5th Edition), G. Fowles (London, Bell 1957)

Chemical Magic (2nd Edition) – this is a revised version of an original 1959 text byL. A. Ford, E. W. Grundmeier (New York, Dover Publications, 1993)

Classic Chemistry Experiments: one hundred tried and tested experiments, K. Hutchins (London, Royal Society of Chemistry 2000)

Classic Chemistry Demonstrations: one hundred tried and tested experiments, T. Lister (London, Royal Society of Chemistry 1995)

Chemical demonstrations: a handbook for teachers of chemistry, B. Z. Shakhashiri(Madison; London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982–92)

Web Resources These are widely available and a good place to start may behttp://www.liv.ac.uk/Chemistry/Links/links.html. A particularly relevant site from theUniversity of Leeds is: http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/delights/texts/ (The School ofChemistry, University of Leeds)


AppendixFlow diagram to show the process of collaboration as described in the case study page 17

24l

Key S

tage 3 National S

trategyl

Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies

© C

rown copyright 2004

Unit 4: U

sing models and m

odelling techniquesD

fES

0700-2004 G

Evaluation writingnot taught in English

Literacy coordinatormet with individualteacher to look at

literacy with respectto specific SoW

Space –very verb based!!Reproduction – lots of

sequencing!

Joint work carried out withgroup on reproduction topic

Work continued inEnglish lesson using

science content

Students taught to useconnectives within the topic(following the ‘sequence for

teaching writing’ framework),to support writing. Evidencecollected to analyse impact.

Science department agreedthat they would like support

in writing evaluations

Department passed on anexample of courseworkwith a good evaluation Evaluation writing

is a high level skill

Literacy coordinator metwith science department

Science staff observedevaluation writing being

taught in an English lesson

Writing frames constructedto support students in

lessons

Science department agreedto work with literacy

coordinator to supportlearning



Ref: DfES 0700-2004 G



www.dfes.gov.uk







AS

HFO

RD

CO

LOU

R P

RE

SS

11-

2004

Guidance




Ref: DfES 0701-2004 G

Strengtheningteaching and learningin science throughusing differentpedagogiesUnit 5: Teaching the science ofcontemporary issues

Disclaimer




Acknowledgements

Page 4 – Extract from Teaching for scientific literacy:what could it mean? Written by Joan Solomon.Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, theAssociation for Science Education – www.ase.org.uk

Page 10 – Screenshot taken from the Association forScience Website. Reproduced by kind permission of theAssociation for Science Education – www.ase.org.uk

Page 14 and 15 – Extract http://www.bshs.org.uk.Reproduced by permission of The British Society for theHistory of Science/Clive Sutton.

Page 15 – Extract taken from Enhancing the quality ofargument in school science, written by J. Osborne, S.Erduran, S. Simon and M. Monk. Reproduced by kindpermission of the publisher, the Association for ScienceEducation – www.ase.org.uk


Unit 5 Teaching the science of contemporaryissues

1 l Key Stage 3 National Strategy l Strengthening teaching and learning in science through using different pedagogies © Crown copyright 2004Unit 5: Teaching the science of contemporary issues DfES 0701-2004 G

How to use this study unitThis study unit offers practical suggestions for you to use in the classroom whenteaching the science of contemporary issues. All the strategies suggested havebeen tried and tested by teachers in their classrooms. They draw upon bothacademic research and the experience of practising teachers. You may have lookedat Teaching and learning in secondary school materials (DfES 0423-2004). Whilethere are similarities with these materials you will find that this unit gives sciencespecific advice that will be immediately relevant for use in your laboratory.

Your science consultant can help you work through this unit but it would be betterto twin up with a colleague who also wishes to enhance their use of contemporaryscience in the classroom. The unit is structured so that the tasks listed towards thebeginning are simple and quick to implement. More challenging activities cometowards the end. The unit contains case studies and tasks for you to undertake. Italso contains ‘reflections’ which will help you revisit an idea or your own practice. Itincludes practical tips and tasks which will help you consider the advice or try outnew techniques in the classroom. Web links are provided to a selection of sites thatprovide resources which support the teaching of contemporary issues. The finalpage invites you to reflect on the experience of having tried out new materials andset some personal targets for the future. You can work through the materials in anumber of ways:

• Start small; choose one class to work with. Ask another teacher or subjectleader to help by providing a sounding board for your ideas.

• Work with your science consultant on developing and planning your approachto the use of contemporary issues in science lessons with one class. After threeweeks meet together to review how it is going. Discuss which strategies havebeen the most effective and plan to use these with other classes.


• Work with a group of teachers in the department. Use the unit as a focus forjoint working, meet regularly to share ideas and then review progress after a fewweeks.



You will need access to the Internet when working through some of this unit.


Teaching the science ofcontemporary issues

Contents

1 Introduction – Why is contemporary science important? 3

2 Exploring contemporary issues in science 6

3 Using contemporary science to promote debate 14

4 Putting contemporary science into existing schemes of work 16

Next steps 22

References 23

Useful websites 23

IntroductionWhy is contemporary science important?

Much has been written of the importance of placing learning into a suitable, relevantcontext. The following extracts summarise the evidence to date:

1 ‘Pupils need to recognise, describe, use and apply key scientific ideas to explainabstract phenomena even when they appear in unfamiliar contexts. Delving into keyideas can stimulate pupils’ curiosity and help them to make connections betweendifferent areas of science.’

2 ‘Where the teaching of science is concerned, better standards occur when:

• well-paced lessons offer challenging tasks that engage both girls and boys,including:

– oral and mental work to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding;– study of interesting examples of key scientific ideas in everyday life and

other subjects, to show how the ideas are often dependent on each other;– posing of non-routine problems to encourage pupils to think for themselves;

• pupils are taught and learn about the uncertainty of scientific evidence;

• lessons make links between scientific theory and experiment, so that pupilslearn how the practical applications of science are changing the nature ofsociety and the economy.’

3 ‘Effective science lessons include references to contemporary science applicationsor issues, including topical local examples or those in the national media.’

4 ‘To encourage positive attitudes towards learning science teachers should:

• without reducing demand or expectation, avoid portraying science as a ‘hard’subject;


1–4 See page 23 for references1–4 See page 23 for references

Task 1

• wherever possible make reference in teaching to topical and relevant scientificapplications or issues;

• include extended discussion in lessons so that pupils have opportunities to airviews, articulate ideas and hear the views of others.’

Every day the media carry stories of a ‘supposedly’ scientific nature, requiring thereader or viewer to engage for a short period of time with an application of ascientific concept or make a judgement about the validity or safety of a particularprocess or product. The expectation is that individuals will apply their scientificliteracy skills. Having read the information in the article, the individual will be betterprepared to reach their own conclusion on the issue and express their own opinion.

5 This individual’s ‘scientific literacy’ could be defined as:

• the ability to read about and comprehend science;

• the ability to express an opinion about science;

• paying attention to contemporary science now and for the future;

• participation in democratic decision-making;

• understanding how science, technology and society influence one another.’

Science in the media 20 minutes

Use a newspaper or magazine article with a current science-focussed theme. If you are really brave you could video tape an advert for a cleaning product thatclaims to be scientifically tested to have amazing effects.

Show either the printed materials or the video to a group of pupils’ and ask them to list all the science evidence that they can find. Then challenge them to thinkabout whether evidence is used appropriately or effectively.

You may be amazed by what the pupils know already and also by how manymisconceptions about ‘truth’ they have.

It is difficult to express a considered opinion about a scientific issue withoutknowing something of the science, having read about the issue and understood it.In order to do this, the reader must first be aware of the issue and its relevance. Ifwe want pupils to be able to contribute in the wider debate about the impact ofscience on society and the contemporary issues this raises, we need to preparethem by providing opportunities to learn how to engage in this way.

In August 2002, the programme of study for citizenship became statutory. Thisdocument, and the associated exemplar scheme of work, describe areas which linkto the exploration of contemporary issues in many subjects, including science.Work on this self-study unit may be supported by knowledge of the currentarrangements and materials used to enable pupils to meet the requirements of thissubject in your school.


5 See page 23 for reference

Task 3

Task 2 Citizenship 15 minutes

If you are not aware of the arrangements to teach the citizenship programme ofstudy in your school, spend some time finding out.

If you are not familiar with the programme of study for citizenship, or the exemplarscheme of work (especially Unit 21 which is very closely related to science), it isworth having a look at them. The programme of study can be downloaded from:http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Ci-3--POS.html

The exemplar scheme of work can be downloaded from:http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/citizenship/cit021/?view=get

Stop and think

Before reading ahead, jot down your own definition of the meaning of the phrase‘contemporary science’.

Under the definition, list a few examples that would illustrate your definition.

Is ‘contemporary science’ different from ‘the science of contemporary issues’? Jot down an example to illustrate your decision.

Keep your notes, we will refer to them in the next task.

Linking the content or concepts being explored during a lesson with examples fromthe world around us enables pupils to construct their new understanding within afamiliar context. Commonly in lessons, these examples are drawn from theexperience and knowledge of the individual teacher. They may be contemporary orhistorical examples; drawn from personal experience or from the experience orreflections of others; they may have a local or a national relevance. The examplesmay have a use shared by many teachers and be shared with different groups ofpupils, or they may be specifically employed by a particular teacher to enable anindividual pupil or group of pupils to explore their understanding or challenge amisconception. Almost all are valid, some are prepared in advance and plannedinto the lesson to enable pupils to make progress, others are used as part of theteaching response to a misconception which arises during the lesson, relying uponthe subject knowledge of the individual teacher.

When are contemporary issues contemporary? 15 minutes

Share your definition of ‘contemporary science’ with a colleague.

Do they agree with your definition and your examples?

Consider the following questions:

When are contemporary scientific issues contemporary?

For how long can a particular contemporary issue be used for discussion?


Task 4

By considering contemporary scientific issues, pupils are enabled to check theirknowledge and understanding by applying it in a new context. The relevance of thescience taught during lessons is reinforced in contexts that often excite andmotivate further enquiry and questioning by the pupil. This can in turn stimulatefurther conceptual development and engagement.

Reference to contemporary examples of science in action provides a relevant andmotivating context in which to study a particular concept or process. Goodexamples are provided in the Science and Technology in Society (SATIS) materialspublished by the Association for Science Education (ASE) and by many companiesand government agencies (such as water boards and DEFRA). In this context, wecould redefine ‘contemporary science’ as simply ‘current applications’.

What examples of contemporary science do we use? 15 minutes

Select a year group on which to focus.

Make a list of the relevant, contemporary applications of science which you refer to during your teaching of this year group.

Do all members of the department refer to these current applications?

When is the list of ‘current applications’ updated and revised?

Are the applications on the list relevant to the pupils in your school, in your context?

How extensive is your list?

The use of agreed examples from a departmental shared list helps to buildconfidence within the science team when considering contemporary issues.Individual teachers will have particular experiences which they can share, but it isunrealistic to expect a teacher to have contemporary experience of all aspects ofscience. A collaborative approach within the department enables pupils to benefitfrom a wider range of experience regardless of the topic or the teacher’s ownbackground. This approach also enables teachers to more easily addressmisconceptions raised by pupils during discussion.

Exploring contemporary issues in scienceIf we want pupils to be able to engage fully with contemporary issues as they arise,we need to go further than providing a context in which to study a particularconcept or scientific process. We must provide pupils with the skills they need tobe able to explore the information presented to them and reach a conclusion orjudgment decision after considering all possibilities. This is where teaching thescience of contemporary issues becomes more than, but builds upon, the use ofcontemporary examples drawn from the world of science.

Contemporary issues in science are often linked to famous scientists and theirwork. That work may be either contemporary or historical, but the application orimpact can be seen today. It is important that pupils are aware that the scientificissues which are relevant to current society have their roots in earlier discoverieswhich led us to our present state of understanding about a particular concept.Pupils should also be made aware that future discoveries may take our


Task 5

understanding further forward and may change the currently held view of aparticular concept or idea. By considering the role of science in contemporaryissues, we engage pupils in the thought process which has engaged scientiststhrough the ages. This in turns enables them to question the scientific informationpresented to them (sometimes as apparent scientific fact) and to make their ownjudgement about its worth.

What contemporary issues do we use? 25 minutes

What contemporary issues relating to science have appeared in the press duringthe previous couple of months? Make a short list of those you can remember. (If you wish, you could use a national newspaper to help you.)

Place a tick beside those issues that you have used in your science teaching.

What historical aspects of science have you taught during the previous couple ofmonths? What was the context for this work? Were pupils aware of the context ofthis work? Did you relate it to the contemporary world in which we live? If so, how?

Share your thoughts with a colleague and together make a shared list of ‘Enablersand Inhibitors’ which either encouraged or limited the use of these aspects ofscience in your lessons. Keep this list as it will be referred to in section 3.

Teachers draw upon everyday examples to stimulate interest and discussion aboutthe concepts they wish to explore. Teaching the science of contemporary issues isabout identifying the science which is apparent in everyday life, rather than simplyconsidering new examples of the application of the concept or idea. In essence, theaim should be to enable pupils to recognise the science that is all around them, intheir locality, at school, at home, in the media and encourage them to engage withit. Teaching about contemporary issues enables pupils to build their ownconceptual connections to examples and applications. Discussion of these issuesalso enables pupils’ misconceptions and alternative theories about the underlyingconcepts to be raised and clarified, enabling them to construct a deeperunderstanding. Group discussion enables pupils to enter into the Vygotskyan ‘zoneof proximal development’ which involves learning from others and hence makingmore progress than they would individually. In order to contribute to the discussion,pupils must convert the ideas they are forming into words which they then shareand upon which they receive further feedback from their peers. Further guidance onestablishing group discussion is provided in Unit 1 Using group talk and argumentin science and in the science unit Effective lessons in science (DfES 0550/2002).


Strategies to incorporate contemporary issues into science lessons

Contemporary science issues can be raised with pupils in a variety of ways. The table below summarises some of these approaches.


Approach Impacts upon

Discussion board in science prep room using UPD8 Prompt for teachers during lesson planning to remind/spark teachers’ creativity or while moving to lessons

Discussion board ‘Science daily/weekly news’ Starter or plenary of lesson. Acts as a posted in the corridor or all labs weekly using UPD8 prompt for bridging activities at any point in and other resources the lesson

Useful for science club discussions

Brief discussion of an issue from the news to put a Starter or plenary of a lessonlesson in context

Use of newspapers as source material for Use by pupils and teachers as relevant contemporary issues source material for any part of a lesson or to

support other learning activities

Interactive powerpoint on a news item of the week On entry to the classroom, or at the start of as a stimulus activity a topic or lesson

Use of a question or statement to stimulate a longer Whole lessondiscussion of an issue relating to a concept or idea which is being explored within a topic

Internet research of an aspect or view regarding an Whole lesson or homeworkissue from the news which relates to the current topic

Internet research of the history behind a particular Whole lesson or homeworkaspect or view regarding an issue from the news which relates to the current topic

Independent writing to communicate a particular Main part of a lesson or homeworkaspect or view of an issue from the news

Independent writing to communicate the role played Main part of a lesson or homeworkby a particular person (contemporary or historical) in developing our scientific understanding of a particular aspect or view of an issue from the news

Opportunities to discuss contemporary issues Any parts of lessons and all topics as built into the scheme of work for all years appropriate, implemented by all members

of the department

Opportunities for pupils to be taught how to explore As appropriate, but consistently provided for contemporary issues built into the scheme of work all pupils by all members of the departmentfor all years, ensuring progression from Years 7 to 11

Use of ASE and other science journals by teachers To provide information which is up-to-date to support teachers in their preparation for class or group discussions

News boards

A science department in a large 11–16 school in the Midlands decided that itwanted to raise pupils’ awareness of the relevance of science within society. Eachteacher asked their Year 7 pupils to scan the newspaper (local or national) everyweek for articles that had a connection to science and bring the articles into theirlessons. The articles brought in by pupils in a class were used as a brief ‘Newsroundup’ starter at the beginning of the first lesson of each week, the focus beingon the identification of the issues which had made the news during the previousweek. Having shared the articles briefly, they were posted on a class noticeboard.An area was provided for pupils to raise questions about the science in the articlethat they would like to explore further. Where possible, discussion of thesequestions was built into subsequent relevant lessons. If this was unlikely to occurduring the term, the questions were discussed as part of an ‘Any questions, anyanswers’ structured group discussion session at approximately four weeklyintervals. Broadband access to the internet enabled teachers to research answersto those questions which were beyond their own subject knowledge.

Newspapers can also be accessed from their websites, enabling pupils to searchfor articles on line (for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml).

Additional information on topics raised can be gathered from websites such as thatof the New Scientist (www.newscientist.com) which provides a summary of thenews of the week.


Case study 1

Information from sites such as this can be used by teachers to help them preparefor class discussions or by pupils as a further source of information. If necessary,the use of websites such as this can be modelled for pupils by the teacher. Thearticles are usually colourful and often have snappy titles to help attract theattention of the reader.

In addition, the New Scientist website includes a section entitled ‘Last word’. This isdevoted to the discussion of questions concerning everyday scientific phenomena.

Science UPD8

The science department had come across the ASE ‘UPD8’s when they looked atthe ‘Science Year’ CD-ROMs that had been sent into school during 2000. The cleardescriptions of contemporary science issues in the news caught their attention andthey subscribed (free of charge) so that they would receive the latest UPD8automatically by e-mail. (The prep room housed the departmental admin computerwhich was networked to the school system and could access e-mail and theinternet.) Each week, the technician downloaded the latest UPD8 and produced 8copies of the front page, one for each lab, one for the ‘Latest News’ notice boardin the corridor and one for the prep room. These copies were then posted inprominent positions and the attention of teachers and pupils drawn to them. Initiallyindividual items from UPD8 were used as starters (as written) with Year 7 pupilsduring the topics to which the items were linked, but pupil awareness and demandhas led to use with pupils in all years. As the weekly UPD8s have been downloadedto the departmental computer, they now form a resource which can be easilyaccessed and are now being built into the department scheme of work.

Science UPD8 is a joint initiative from ASE and the Centre for Science Education,Sheffield Hallam University. The following screen dump shows the top half of the03/07/2004 edition of UPD8. In addition to the weekly news stories, the extractshows a link to Red Hot Science, a weekly activity based on a contemporary issueand designed to motivate less-enthusiastic pupils. All of the activities in UPD8contain identified links to parts of the QCA exemplar scheme of work or the 14–16curriculum, helping you to identify where they could be used most readily.

There is also the facility for posting a question which will then be answered, eitherby e-mail or on the website. This could be useful to both pupils and teachers andthe formulation of the question could be an outcome from a class discussion on aparticular topic: ‘What do we still want to know?’


Case study 2


In the absence of permanent staff …

Despite being identified on the department development plan, staffing issues in amedium-sized comprehensive in the North East prevented the use of contemporaryissues being explored by all of the members of the department. Recruitment issuesmeant that a succession of supply teachers were employed in the department on aseries of short contracts. As part of the department handbook, the head ofdepartment included guidance for supply teachers. One of the aspects coveredwas the expectation that supply teachers would be prepared to enable pupils toengage with contemporary science issues. Supply teachers were provided withoutline lesson plans to support the teaching of contemporary issues relevant to thetopics being taught during the period of their contract, on their first day in school.

In another school in the North, supply teachers replacing absent colleagues wereused as ‘experts’ to lead class discussions on a contemporary issue. Lessonmaterials were provided from a bank of resources collected by the department. Thedepartment used the supply teachers to cover lessons for teachers who were still inschool, releasing them to ensure practical and investigative aspects of theprogramme of study are taught to all classes, including those affected by long-termstaff absence.

The case study above described two ways in which temporary members of staffwere deployed in order to support the teaching of contemporary science. Thecontribution of newly qualified teachers to the development of the teaching ofcontemporary science should also not be overlooked. These teachers often have awealth of contemporary science ideas and experience to contribute to thedepartment, as they will probably be closest to recent science employment andtraining. Parents are also often overlooked but can provide excellent up-to-dateinformation on scientific applications within which they are employed and may beprepared to visit lessons as an expert in their field. When did you last ask yourpupils if any of their parents work in the plastics, mining, steel, sports or healthindustry when you were about to teach a related topic? This is particularly relevantwhen that industry has just appeared in the local or national news.

Finding sources of information

There are many possible sources of information which can be used to support theteaching of contemporary issues in science. These include many websites, some ofwhich are listed at the end of this publication, newspapers, magazines, televisionand all forms of media. In order to be able to access the wide wealth of materialwhich is available, it is useful to develop a department bank of resources.

Case study 3


Task 6 Building a bank of resources

It is likely that there is a wide variety of material located within the departmentwhich can be used to support the teaching of contemporary science issues.

Establish an area in the prep room where materials to support contemporaryscience can be stored and catalogued.

Locate the Science Year CD-ROMs (or download a copy from the web). Registerfor Science UPD8s and arrange for them to be downloaded, circulated and addedto the bank of resources.

If your school library takes national newspapers, ask the librarian to help you collect and catalogue relevant articles.

Encourage and involve pupils in the process of researching different media sources to identify contemporary issues.

Keep your colleagues updated on your progress and encourage them to contribute to the department bank of resources.

Example 1 Contemporary science within a biological context

The topic of cell reproduction is covered during Key Stage 4. Related contemporary issues which are often in the news include the occurrence andcauses of cancer. Suitable classroom materials are available from the ‘Acclaim:exploring the lives of leading scientists’ materials produced by the Royal Societyand the Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University. In this example the materials on ‘To divide or not to divide’ by Paul Nurse FRS can beprovided.

Example 2 Contemporary science within a chemical context

While teaching the Environmental Chemistry Unit from the QCA exemplar schemeof work (Unit 9a), use the ‘Doom or delight’ resources from ‘Red Hot Science’.

The focus of this activity is global warming and a consideration of the evidence tosupport or disclaim the idea. The activity is designed to help pupils with poor text-manipulation skills work with small blocks of text which are isolated from largepassages and clued and linked with a strong visual image.

The materials can be downloaded from:http://www.ase.org.uk/htm/teacher_zone/upd8/upd8_25/upd8_doom.php


Example 3 Contemporary science within a physics context

While teaching a topic on Earth and space, get pupils to keep an eye on themedia for references to stories about space exploration or the solar system. These stories can be used to link a concrete experience (watching the television or reading the paper) with a conceptually demanding topic which is beyond theirown experience.

There are many resources to support this area of the science curriculum, butidentifying stories which will be reiterated on the local news heightens the impactof the topic. Great opportunities for work of this kind occurred during the relativelyrecent attempts to send probes to Mars and the recent eclipse. Some websitesinclude ‘pupil-friendly’ articles, some may provide further resources for you to usewith pupils. Such an example is shown below. Although this is an Americanwebsite, it provides a useful contemporary article about the planet Saturn whichpupils could access for themselves, or which could be used for whole-class workby using a data projector. The site also provides a worksheet with questions forpupils to complete during their discussion both before and during the visit to thesite. These questions are matched to Bloom’s Taxonomy and will provideappropriate challenge for all.

This American site is specially produced to provide information and activities forpupils of age 9–13. It is part of a wider publication, Science On-line which can beaccessed at www.sciencenews.org

Task 7 Trying out some alternatives

Select a group of pupils with whom you will work.

Identify a contemporary issue which relates to the topic you are studying and which you will feel comfortable discussing with the pupils.

Locate resources to help you plan the activity which will relate the issue to yourteaching. Suitable sources of resources include the ASE website UPD8s, PlanetScience, Science News for Kids and Acclaim. These sites provide outline plans forthe part of the lesson supported by the activity (often the starter), as well as all ofthe resources you might need during the activity. They also provide links toparticular topics in the QCA exemplar scheme of work for Key Stage 3 science.

Select the approach that you will use from the list on page 8.

After teaching the lesson, record your thoughts on the learning which took placeand if possible ask some pupils for their views too.


Review

Contemporary science: pupils should be provided with contemporary examples ofscience in action. These can provide pupils with useful examples of relevantapplications of the concepts we are helping them to explore. These examples helpthe pupils to understand why science is important and why they are studyingparticular concepts in their lessons.

The science of contemporary issues: pupils should be provided with opportunitiesto explore some of the issues which have a scientific background. Considering thescience which lies behind the contemporary issues which arise in the media helpspupils to develop their own scientific literacy and prepares them to engage morefully in the debates which affect society and their own lives.

Using contemporary science to promotedebateThe Programme of Study for Key Stage 3, requires pupils to be taught:

‘about the ways in which scientists work today and how they worked in thepast, including the roles of experimentation, evidence and creative thought inthe development of scientific ideas.’

Support for teaching about the history of science is provided by the British Societyfor the History of Science (www.BSHS.org.uk). Among the discussion documentsposted on their website is ‘Why history matters’, a brief explanation of theimportance of placing contemporary scientific issues into the context of thehistorical developments which preceded them as the following extract explains:

‘This is why history matters. For pupils to gain a real scientific literacy, theymust learn to discuss ideas, and to think of scientific knowledge more in termsof the major big ideas that scientists have contributed and less in terms of anaccumulation of discoveries. They must be able to enter into science-as-conversation, and therefore they should hear science-as-conversation in theirlessons. It can't be done without retracing some of our cultural history, tounpack knowledge which we now take for granted, and help the learners tounderstand the human effort that went into establishing it.’

Extract from http://www.bshs.org.uk

There are some aspects of understanding about contemporary issues which can bedeveloped best through meaningful discussion. One of these aspects is anunderstanding of the nature of evidence. During their lives, pupils will face a numberof issues and choices which involve science. Recent examples have includedwhether eating beef increases the risk of developing CJD, and ethical issues aboutgenetic engineering, cloning and the disposal of nuclear waste. Pupils need tounderstand some of the science involved in these issues, but they also need to beable to make judgements about the quality of evidence. This is an important aspectof citizenship as well as science. Pupils need to learn to challenge ideas that do nothave supporting evidence and to question the evidence behind an idea.

Task 8


Some simple strategies to help pupils recognise evidence include:

• Sorting statements into those which provide evidence to support an idea orconcept and those which do not.

• Text marking to identify evidence from explanation, conjecture, conclusion,advice and information. This works well when articles from newspapers andmagazines are used.

• Asking pupils ‘what is the evidence for’ any phenomena or statement aboutsome scientific ‘fact’. Such questions can be used as starters in lessons andmay be given as a homework for the previous lesson.

Consider one of the following as a way of introducing a topic or lesson, drawingupon a particular contemporary issue:

1 What is the evidence that exercise is good for you?2 What is the evidence that smoking is bad for you?3 What is the evidence that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System?

This type of question could also be used as a summary activity following a topic or setof lessons in order to make the pupils review what they have learned. A useful cardsort resource for this activity can be found in the Scientific Enquiry CPD unit 2002.

Pupils will meet occasions where conflicting theories and ideas are presented tothem. Discussion of issues such as the transmission of BSE to humans, illustratesthat even when the ideas may not be conflicting, they may be incompatible. Pupilsshould realise that scientists may not have all the answers and that differentscientists may arrive at different explanations because of the different evidence theyhave. Only through public examination and debate of all of the evidence can theideas of different scientists be checked. The example on the next page is takenfrom the topic light, illustrates the importance of considering all available evidence.

Theories on light 30 minutes

Light is an aspect of science which is often misunderstood by pupils. Use thefollowing activity on evidence with a class of pupils:

Theories of lightTheory 1: Light rays travel from our eyes to the objects and enable us to see themTheory 2: Light rays are produced by a source of light and reflect off objects intoour eyes so we can see them.

In groups of 3 or 4, decide which of the following pieces of evidence support theory 1, theory 2, both or neither.a light travels in straight linesb we can still see at night when there is no sunc sunglasses are worn to protect our eyesd if there is no light we cannot see a thinge we ‘stare at people’, ‘look daggers’ and ‘catch other people’s eye’f you have to look at something to see it.

(Taken from Enhancing the quality of argument in school science J. Osborne, S. Erduran, S. Simon and M. Monk, SSR 301 (2001) pp.63–70 ASE)

The principle behind the activity above can be applied to any scientific context inwhich conflicting theories are being offered.


Putting contemporary science into existingschemes of workIn Task 5, you drew up a list of enablers and inhibitors; factors which encouragedor limited the development of teaching about contemporary science. The ‘enablers’that you identified should be celebrated and if possible shared with your colleagues.

Some commonly quoted inhibitors are given below, along with some strategies tohelp overcome them. If the inhibitors you identified are not covered in the table, addthem in the empty rows and try to identify strategies to overcome them.

Inhibitors Possible support strategies

Contemporary issues take The programme of study requires that pupils consider the impact of time which I should be scientific development on the environment and society. Schools have using to teach the science also had to ensure that the programme of study for citizenship is programme of study. Our taught to all pupils. The inclusion of contemporary science issues in scheme of work is already lessons enables both requirements to be met.too full!

Review your scheme of work, perhaps with your science consultant. Is it a medium-time plan for teachers to use when planning their own lessons, or is it a document which contains routes to be taken by pupils of differing ability?

I don’t feel confident to There are many sources of information which can be accessed and teach contemporary science which will provide the necessary subject knowledge. Time to research issues. I don’t have the topic areas should be built into the planning for the development of the same depth of knowledge teaching of contemporary issues as part of the support needed to and understanding about work through this booklet. Ask your Key Stage 3 strategy manager or these aspects as I do about science consultant to help you organise this.my own subject specialism.

My pupils cannot access Although there are some ‘science specific’ words which pupils will the ‘new science’ because need to be introduced to, there are now resources available which are the language is too difficult. written by teachers to support pupils. Try using some of the science I have difficulty explaining it UPD8 material and Red Hot Science resources. If the language is still to them in words they too difficult, ask your science or literacy consultant for help. understand.

We have just finished A scheme of work should provide a minimum guarantee that pupils will rewriting our scheme be taught the relevant parts of the programme of study. It should of work. support not limit your short-term lesson planning.

We have no time this year Make sure this development is built into the department development to develop this far enough. plan and argue for time to enable the developments to be made.

Your work on this unit has started the process.

Task 9


Share what you have done

This might be a good point to share your work on this unit with your colleagues inthe department, if you haven’t done so already, the aim being to disseminate whatyou have found out and encourage others to join in. A good starting point might beto list collaboratively some of the contemporary issues which have appeared in thenews since the last meeting. A news update could then be shared to show howthese had been picked up and made available for you to use in the classroom. A subsequent discussion of how you used the materials and how the pupilsresponded might lead to the identification of an agreed course of action across thedepartment. This should be realistic and achievable – a plan to put contemporaryscience examples and discussion opportunities into every topic next week will bevery unlikely to succeed, while a plan to refer pupils to one contemporary issue afortnight during Year 7 is more achievable. The aim might be to integratecontemporary scientific issues into your scheme of work.

Linking pupils’ everyday experiences to school and contemporaryscience issues

In addition to making use of materials produced by others, remember that yourpupils bring their everyday experience of life to lessons. This experience will includeexamples of scientific applications and widely held views and explanations of someaspects of science. Some of these may be only partially understood and some ofthem may be incomplete and hence apparently incorrect. Discussion of theseexperiences can be used as a way to find out what level of understanding a pupilholds. A class discussion of issues relating to the next topic enables theseexperiences to be shared and valued and provides a hook onto which the learningwithin the new topic can be hung. As part of a lift off task for a new topic, we askpupils to think back to the last time they studied X and share the knowledge theycan remember. It is less common to ask the pupils to think of issues which mightbe connected to the topic we are about to study together.

Lift-off 60 minutes

Select a group of pupils with whom you will try this activity.

At the start of the next topic give pupils an outline of the areas which you needthem to learn about. Ask pupils to work in small groups (in threes or fours) todiscuss:

• what they know about each of these areas;

• any examples of these areas they have come across recently – either at home,or when talking with their parents and family, or from the media.

Get each group to share briefly the outcomes of their discussion, either by talkingthrough each one while you produce a class collective ‘thought-shower’, or on alarge piece of paper (Flip chart paper is ideal and often underused in sciencelessons).

➝

Task 10


After the lesson, reflect on the pupils’ level of motivation and engagement with thenew topic. The following questions might help:

• Was there any difference in the level of class motivation and engagement?

• Which pupils contributed most? Was this the same group as usual?

• Was this a threatening activity to use to start a lesson? For the pupils? For yourself?

• How will you make use of the information you have received from the pupils as you guide them through the topic?

Perhaps the last question is the most difficult one in the task above. Having foundout what the pupils know and have experienced, there is a need to build on this. Insome cases this may involve planning suitable activities to enable pupils to clarifytheir understanding of an aspect of the topic, without having to teach the whole ofthat aspect of the topic as advised in the departmental scheme of work. In othercases, it may involve remembering who has experience of what and making use ofthem as a resource to help other pupils understand particular aspects. It may bethat the experiences shared by the pupils at the start of the topic can be used ashooks onto which the specific learning of a lesson can be related during plenaryactivities.

Whatever the specific issues this class discussion raises, it will inform your short-term planning in which you adapt the departmental scheme of work to support thelearning needs of the pupils within your particular class.

Try it out

Before writing specific new activities into a scheme of work, it is important to try itout with several classes to see how specific groups of pupils respond. This alsoprovides an opportunity to check that the chosen activity allows the desiredlearning objectives to be met during the lesson. It also allows issues raised in thisprocess to be resolved before recommending the wider use of the materials tocolleagues.

How did the pupils respond to the activities you tried? 15 minutes

Talk to the pupils about the activities they have encountered. Questions you mightlike to ask include:

Did they find the activity helpful? In what ways?

Was it interesting? Had they heard about this area of science before?

How would you improve the activity for another class?

Personal review Where am I now?

Having tried one or more of the examples cited so far, reflect on your currentposition with respect to teaching contemporary issues in science.

Conduct a PMI analysis. This involves making three lists of features – those whichare Positives, those which are Minuses and those which are Interesting and mayneed further consideration or exploration.

Share your analysis with another teacher or the science consultant and decidewhich of the features you can develop further.

Strategies to help incorporate contemporary issues

We have already explored the potential use of contemporary science as a source ofrelevant examples for the topics that are already taught. This is a useful starting pointfor building contemporary issues into lessons which does not require significantamounts of planning. At the simplest level, the examples can be used to contextualisethe work planned for the lesson; at a more complex level, pupils can be provided withan opportunity to explore resources and the issues relating to the example quoted.

Use the resources identified in the previous section to identify opportunities for youto make use of contemporary science examples in your own lessons. Additionally,search the internet for specific examples of applications of the science you areteaching this term.

Make sure you have registered to receive the UPD8s and Acclaim news bulletins assoon as they are released as this will help to provide classroom-ready materials.

Build up a list of relevant websites from which materials can be received and display itcentrally in the prep room so that colleagues can add to it as they come acrosssuitable examples. Always ensure that you check the content of website links beforedirecting pupils to them. You may also need to get access to them put onto theschool network by the network administrator. (Further guidance on the use of ICT tosupport learning across the curriculum is provided in the Strategy publication packICT across the curriculum which contains specific guidance for science through anICT in Science booklet along with generic guidance for school managers).

Involve the pupils in the collection and evaluation of materials to support a particulartopic. Many pupils have access to the internet and the process of collecting andevaluating the useful of resources they find is one of the skills taught in ICT duringKey Stage 3.

Having obtained a range of materials which might support your lessons this term,plan how to use them. Remember that the use of contemporary science examplesand issues need not take the whole of a lesson. Plan to use the materials you havelocated in the best way to enable pupils to achieve the objectives you identify forthe lesson.



A contemporary science activity can:

• provide a stimulating lesson starter to engage pupils;

• provide an interesting plenary during which pupils apply the knowledge andunderstanding they have gained during the lesson in a new context;

• provide a means of assessing pupils’ understanding of the concepts exploredduring the lesson, so that you can adjust the teaching in the next lesson toaddress any misconceptions;

• provide an opportunity for pupils to construct their own understanding of theconcept being explored through discussion with their peers;

• provide a means of finding out what pupils know about a particular concept oraspect of science at the start of a new topic and hence enable you to avoid therepetition of material they are already secure with;

• provide a stimulating ‘lift-off’ at the start of a new topic;

• provide a context for pupils to undertake independent creative work in science.

Keep a record of those activities you try and how you used them. Which would yourecommend to colleagues?

Sharing practice more widely through the scheme of work

Having tried some activities, the time has come to share your work with othercolleagues and enable them to use contemporary science issues with their pupils.

If you have an electronic version of your scheme of work (highly recommended), itis relatively easy to flag up opportunities for other teachers to consider particularissues with their pupils by inserting a hyperlink to available resources. However,while this will introduce pupils to relevant applications of scientific concepts, it maynot develop their scientific literacy and enable them to engage with new issueswhich arise.

Pupils may benefit from having a lesson, or series of lessons, within the Year 7scheme of work which focuses on ‘Exploring the science in the News’. As well asengaging pupils in a contemporary science issue, this could also contribute to theteaching of the National Curriculum Citizenship skills. Resources to support thiswork are available on the third Science Year CD-ROM Can we, Should we? or fromthe website www.sycd.co.uk. The context for such lessons could be taken fromany science issue which is in the news during the week or month before the lesson.Pupils could be taught how to gather information from a range of sources, evaluatethe value of these sources and discuss the issues raised by the story. Suitablesources of information include the television as well as newspapers and theinternet. Depending upon the skills of the pupil, the lessons could also supportLiteracy across the Curriculum themes such as reading for understanding and linkto work on evaluation of sources carried out by the ICT department.


Mobile phones

On entry to an 11–16 secondary school in North East England, Year 7 pupils aremade aware of the school rules. One of these rules is that any mobile phonesshould be switched off when pupils enter the school and remain switched off whilethey are in the school building. Teachers follow the same rule during lessons andmeetings. The science department took advantage of this school rule. They madeuse of materials provided on one of the Science Year CD-ROMs to engage the newpupils in a discussion of the issues surrounding the use of mobile phones. Thematerials were originally designed to enable pupils to present an assembly on thiscontemporary issue. The science department has used them as prompts for aclass debate on the safety of mobile phones.

The Science Year CD-ROMs were distributed to every secondary school. If youcannot locate the copy in your school, the resources can be downloaded from theScience Year CDs website:http://www.sycd.co.uk/only_connect/pdf/excite/assemblies/assembly_pupil.pdf

Case study 4

Review

In order to raise pupils’ awareness of the role of science in their own surroundingsthey will need help in identifying where to look. During this unit, we have identifiedsome sources of information and materials, including the internet, television andnewspapers. Pupils need to have opportunities to identify the contemporaryscience issues within these sources. These opportunities could be identified withinthe scheme of work, in the form of both discussion and research activities withinlessons, and in the form of extended homework tasks designed to help pupilsconsolidate their understanding of the key scientific ideas.

A possible generic homework task is described below:

Example activity Homework

Towards the end of a term, pupils could be asked to identify a news story whichcatches their attention (in either a paper or on the television). Their task is then toconsider the science contained within the news story and relate it to either the keyscientific ideas (cells, interdependence, energy, forces and particles) or scientificenquiry. Having identified the science behind the story, the pupils are asked toshare their understanding of the story with the rest of their group, either through apiece of independent writing which can be displayed or through a presentation,perhaps using ICT to support them. Pupils could be asked to consider what theimplications of the story might be on themselves, humankind and the environment.

Task 11


Identifying every opportunity to consider contemporary issues in the completescheme of work for science (Years 7 to 11) will take a significant amount of time if itis done by one individual. Having identified opportunities in some topics collectively,the task can be significantly reduced if the department maintains a running log ofcontemporary science resources which have been used by individual teachersduring particular topics in each year. The task is further assisted if copies ofresources such as science UPD8s are downloaded and circulated centrally to allteam members.

Identifying opportunities in the scheme of work

Identify a group of colleagues to work with.

Initially select those topics which are to be taught during the coming term.

Using the scheme of work to guide you, identify opportunities for pupils to consider contemporary examples and issues during each topic. At each point ofopportunity, insert a link to relevant resources, such as science UPD8s.

Arrange for the resources to be made available to teachers during the term.

At the end of the term, briefly meet with your colleagues to identify those resources which worked well with your pupils.

Optional extra: Include the pupils in the process. Gather a small group of volunteers to review resources provided for topics they have just covered – Whichwould they recommend to other classes? Which were the most relevant to them?Which ones challenged them to think about the science they were studying?

Next stepsIn this unit there have been a number of suggestions for you to pair with anotherteacher or your science consultant as a means of support while you develop yourteaching of the science of contemporary issues. Here are some ideas to consider inorder to take this work forward.

• Start small: choose one class to work with. Year 7 would be a good choice butif you have a class you feel would respond well to this, then use them.

• Ask another teacher or your science consultant to help you.

• Technicians and teaching assistants can be very useful. As well as being asource of experience, they also have a role in managing access to theresources needed to support this aspect of science teaching.


• Make sure your LM or HOD/SLT knows what you are doing. This will enabledissemination to happen much more easily.

• Share the class with another teacher and you take responsibility for the part ofthe lesson which links to contemporary issues.

• Ask your science consultant to team-teach the lesson with you. You shouldeach take responsibility for parts of the lesson.

• Visit some of the websites identified overleaf to explore the range of materialsthat are available to support the teaching of contemporary issues in science.


• Talk to parents about the importance of considering contemporary scienceissues. This is important if you want pupils to watch television as part of theirresearch homework. You may find some offer to help!

References 1 Extract from Framework for teaching science: Years 7, 8 and 9 p.11

2 Extract from Framework for teaching science: Years 7, 8 and 9 pp.31–32

3 Extract from Framework for teaching science: Years 7, 8 and 9 p.43

4 Extract from Progress in Key Stage 3 Science, HMI 221, 2000

5 From Teaching for scientific literacy: what could it mean? Joan Solomon SSR March 2001

Useful websitesFor further reading, the following websites are recommended. These are a selectionof the sites which are currently available and are by no means the only ones whichwill support work on this unit. Some provide a wide range of materials to supportthe teaching of contemporary science; others provide significant resources forparticular areas.

Acclaim (including Science in the News):www.acclaimscientists.org.uk/main_site/home.html

Association for Science Education Science UPD8s:

www.ase.org.uk/htm/teacher_zone/upd8/upd8_links4.php

Science Year CD-Roms:www.sycd.co.uk/

Guidance on, and resources to support, Citizenship in Science:www.sycd.co.uk/can_we_should_we/everywhere/citizenship.htm www.sycd.co.uk/can_we_should_we/pdf/everywhere/citizenship/index_teach.pdf

Science Year CD-Roms resource list:www.sycd.co.uk/resource-contents.htm

Useful science weblinks, including companies and associations:www.ase.org.uk/htm/teacher_zone/weblinks.php

British Society for the History of Science: www.bshs.org.uk


dti – including Planet energy for Pupil use:www2.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/ www2.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/ed_pack/

Get Science (a website providing links to science websites):www.getscience.co.uk

New Scientist: Last word – a site to answer those difficult questions:www.newscientist.com/lastword/

Planet Science (formerly Science Year):www.planet-science.com/sciteach/index.html

Science News (American site):www.sciencenewsforkids.org

Teacher Express (a website providing searchable links to many others):www.teacherxpress.com/cat.php?gid=24

The Standards Site – Citizenship in science:www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/citizenship/cit021/?view=get

Key Stage 3 Programme of study for citizenship:www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Ci-3--POS.htmlwww.wrx.zen.co.uk/britnews.htm




Ref: DfES 0701-2004 G



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