Widening the divide: the impact of school closures on primary science learning

Prolonged Covid-19-related school closures in the UK raised concerns that science teaching and learning at primary level would be negatively impacted. This paper reports the findings of phase 1 of a study that the authors are conducting with teachers and parents to explore this issue. We found that a significant proportion of teachers were providing less science during lockdown than in the normal school week. Teachers, particularly those working in more deprived areas, reported that translating the science curriculum for home learning had been difficult, with concerns around resources, internet access and parental ability to help. Some areas of the curriculum posed particular difficulties, leading to a narrowing of topics being taught. Both teachers and parents felt that schools prioritised English and maths above science. Meanwhile some parents reported that their children had engaged in sophisticated extracurricular activities, bolstered by resources available at home and knowledgeable adult help, but others said that their children had done no science at all. Parents who had studied science at post-compulsory level were much more comfortable in helping their children with science home learning. These factors combine to create conditions which may exacerbate existing inequalities as to who can access science education and careers

Challenging the Science Curriculum Paradigm: TeachingPrimary Children Atomic-Molecular Theory

Solutions to global issues demand the involvement of scientists, yet concern exists about retention rates in science as students pass through school into University. Young children are curious about science, yet are considered incapable of grappling with abstract and microscopic concepts such as atoms, sub-atomic particles, molecules and DNA. School curricula for primary (elementary) aged children reflect this by their limitation to examining only what phenomena are without providing any explanatory frameworks for how or why they occur. This research challenges the assumption that atomic-molecular theory is too difficult for young children, examining new ways of introducing atomic theory to 9 year olds and seeks to verify their efficacy in producing genuine learning in the participants. Early results in three cases in different schools indicate these novel methods fostered further interest in science, allowed diverse children to engage and learn aspects of atomic theory, and satisfied the children’s desire for intellectual challenge. Learning exceeded expectations as demonstrated in the post-interview findings. Learning was also remarkably robust, as demonstrated in two schools eight weeks after the intervention, and in one school, one year after their first exposure to ideas about atoms, elements and molecules

The impact of science curriculum content on students' subject choices in post-compulsory schooling

This chapter considers the impact of school science experiences on students’ post-compulsory subject choices. We view student choice as a ‘dynamic process’ rather than a rational decision made at a point in time. This process is influenced by a range of socio-cultural factors and students’ developing sense of agency and identity. Using a combination of questionnaires and individual narrative interviews we examine how high school students (aged 16–18 years) in two schools in England reflect on the process of their subject choices. A distinctive feature of this study is that in these schools students are following a science course with a strong focus on socio-scientific issues and the nature of science, taught by teachers with commitment and enthusiasm for such teaching. Consistent with previous studies, these students refer to a broad range of influences including perceptions of future careers, and school-related influences such as subject attainment, teacher quality, and enjoyment of the subject. Science curriculum content is one influence amongst many within these students’ reflections on subject choice. The distinctive focus on socio-scientific issues and the nature of science appears to encourage many students to consider pursuing science, but such choices need to align with other factors such as attainment and career aspiration. However, some students are ambivalent about, and in some cases dismissive of, such teaching. A minority of students in our sample talk of an early commitment to a science route through schooling. For other students, their reflections on the choice are characterized by ongoing uncertainty and indecision

Children versus curriculum: who wins?

Today’s children live in a world surrounded by the mass media, encountering scientific words and ideas early in life. Jakab (2013) found 8 year olds had everyday understandings of molecules, and that some of this knowledge came from the mass media. Recent research involving Jenny Donovan and Grady Venville, using samples located in three Australian states, further highlighted this. The 141 children who completed a survey on their use of mass media were found to spend an average of 5 hours 10 minutes with the mass media daily, of which just over 2 hours was with television (TV). Despite being aged 10–12 years, 79% of the children watched crime shows rated for ages 15+, particularly NCIS, Bones, Law & Order, The Mentalist and CSI. Of the 62 interviewees, 89% knew of DNA, 60% knew of genes, and 97% knew or surmised that humans have DNA. Although the interviewees had minimal knowledge of the biological nature and function of DNA, 77% related DNA to solving crime, 65% related it to identification and family relationships (e.g. adoption, unknown soldiers, paternity) and 31% related it (particularly genes) to disease. The interviewees recognised TV as the source of their knowledge, citing particular TV shows

Moving forward: In search of synergy across diverse views on the role of physical movement in design for stem education

Inspired by the current embodiment turn in the cognitive sciences, researchers of STEM teaching and learning have been evaluating implications of this turn for educational theory and practice. But whereas design researchers have been developing domain-specific theories that implicate the role of physical movement in conceptual learning, the field has yet to agree on a conceptually coherent and empirically validated framework for leveraging and shaping students’ capacity for physical movement as a socio–cognitive educational resource. This symposium thus convenes to ask, “What is movement in relation to concepts such that we can design for learning?” To stimulate discussion, we highlight an emerging tension across a set of innovative technological designs with respect to the framing question of whether students should discover an activity’s targeted movement forms themselves or that these forms should be cued directly. Our content domains span mathematics (proportions, geometry), physics, chemistry, and ecological system dynamics (predator–prey, bees)