Teaching, Learning & Assessing Science

			Science	Social Subjects
			ICT	Technology
			Health Education
Home Page	Site Guide	Investigative Approach & Teaching Strategies	Strands & Targets in Guidelines


Planning for Science	Teaching, Learning & Assessing Science	Strands & Targets	Specific Issues in Science	Resources

Close window

Interactive Guidelines -
Teaching, Learning & Assessing Science

Introduction

The quality of interactions between teachers and learners is the critically important feature of effective teaching.

Effective teaching, learning and assessment comprises a wide range of important and interacting features. These can be gathered under four key organising principles that lie at the heart of effective learning and teaching and that are widely accepted as the basis of good practice. They are concerned with teachers :-

making learning clear for the learner using a variety of approaches giving & receiving clear, regular feedback monitoring attainment & progress in learning.

Learning in science

Pupils come to science activities with a number of ideas already formed from previous experiences. They are early attempts to make sense of the world around them and as such they must be valued. Since science is frequently at odds with common sense' these ideas will often be limited to concrete, observable features and may be inconsistent with the currently accepted theories of science.

The focus of science education is to find out what the learners think and then to provide learning experiences that help them to consider and modify their ideas and to develop further their scientific understanding. It is essential to consider the pupils' ideas as the starting point for science activities. To modify and change these alternative ideas and misconceptions it is necessary for pupils to become consciously aware of their own ideas and to have these ideas challenged and debated. Meaningful learning occurs when pupils construct their understanding by modifying their existing ideas in the light of new insights gained from scientific investigations. Thus, science may be seen as an active process involving personal construction of meaning and understanding.

During their scientific activities pupils should be provided with opportunities to try out, challenge, change or replace their ideas about how things are, thus developing more scientific understanding through their own ideas and experiences.

Making learning clear for the learner
Teachers can support pupils in their learning by :-

revisiting prior learning - exploring with pupils what they already know and can do e.g. what do we already know about light? - summarising for pupils the main points of previous learning.

One teacher used the following as a basis for eliciting pupils' ideas about light.

ensuring the learning task and purpose is clear by asking questions
e.g. Do you understand :-

what you have to do? how this links with what you already know? what you are going to be learning about? what you will know and be able to do at the end of this?

In addition, concept maps, flow diagrams, big ideas' and connections diagram displayed on the classroom wall, key words displayed on a poster or given to pupils are all ways of sharing the learning with the learners.

ensuring the language of instruction, description and explanation is clear

Language in science can often present a barrier to learning. This not only includes the technical language, for example friction, digestion, element, but also a range of non-technical words commonly used such as average, factor, rate, valid. These non-technical words should be explored with pupils, and teachers should ensure that pupils have a firm understanding of their meaning.

creating the right conditions for learning and ensuring that the classroom organisation is suitable and appropriate for all learners by :-

ensuring that a range of resources are available & that they are appropriate for the age range making flexible use of the classroom layout to allow different ways of working, as appropriate encouraging pupils' work to be shared and displayed.

Planning for Science Teaching, Learning & Assessing Science Strands & Targets Specific Issues in Science Resources

Making learning clear for the learner Teachers can support pupils in their learning by :-
revisiting prior learning		- exploring with pupils what they already know and can do e.g. what do we already know about light?		- summarising for pupils the main points of previous learning.
One teacher used the following as a basis for eliciting pupils' ideas about light.
ensuring the learning task and purpose is clear by asking questions e.g. Do you understand :-
what you have to do?	how this links with what you already know?		what you are going to be learning about?		what you will know and be able to do at the end of this?
In addition, concept maps, flow diagrams, big ideas' and connections diagram displayed on the classroom wall, key words displayed on a poster or given to pupils are all ways of sharing the learning with the learners.
ensuring the language of instruction, description and explanation is clear
Language in science can often present a barrier to learning. This not only includes the technical language, for example friction, digestion, element, but also a range of non-technical words commonly used such as average, factor, rate, valid. These non-technical words should be explored with pupils, and teachers should ensure that pupils have a firm understanding of their meaning.
creating the right conditions for learning and ensuring that the classroom organisation is suitable and appropriate for all learners by :-
ensuring that a range of resources are available & that they are appropriate for the age range		making flexible use of the classroom layout to allow different ways of working, as appropriate		encouraging pupils' work to be shared and displayed.