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There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun offprint. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
- Introduction
- Ambition For All
- Curriculum Progression: What It Means to Get Better at Science
- Organising Knowledge Within The Subject Curriculum
- Other Curricular Considerations
- Curriculum Materials
- Practical Work
- Pedagogy: Teaching The Curriculum
- Assessment
- Systems at Subject and School Level
This review explores the literature relating to the field of science education. Its purpose is to identify factors that can contribute to high-quality school science curriculums, assessment, pedagogy and systems. We will use this understanding of subject quality to examine how science is taught in England’s schools. We will then publish a subject r...
Aims of science education
Science has been designated a core subject of the national curriculum, alongside mathematics and English, since the Education Reform Act of 1988. As such, a science education forms an important entitlement for all young people.[footnote 3] Although the precise purposes of science education have been contested for some time,[footnote 4] there is general consensus that it involves pupils learning a body of knowledge relating to the products and practices of science.[footnote 5] By learning abou...
Workforce challenges
Any attempt to capture the national context for science education needs to recognise that schools face a number of challenges in recruiting and retaining specialist science teachers. The 2019 school workforce census shows that 26.6% of teaching hours in physics were taught by teachers with no relevant post-A-level qualifications.[footnote 34] The figure was 17.3% and 6.9% for chemistry and biology respectively. At primary, estimates suggest that just 5% of teachers hold specialised science de...
Learning science: from novice to expert
Research exploring the differences between expert and novice scientists is useful to inform our understanding of what successful learning in science looks like. Experts differ from novices not only in the extent of their domain-specific knowledge, but also in how this knowledge is organised in their memory.[footnote 37] Experts know more science than novices and this knowledge is better structured. When knowledge is well structured, it becomes meaningful, flexible and easier to access. This k...
How this review classifies scientific knowledge
As outlined above, at the core of scientific expertise lies extensive, connected knowledge. This means that as pupils travel through the school curriculum, they need to build their knowledge of scientific concepts and procedures. By doing so, pupils can reason scientifically about phenomena with increasing sophistication and can use their knowledge to work scientifically with increasing expertise. A useful framework for constructing science curriculums makes the distinction between the follow...
Disciplinary and substantive knowledge: the importance of interplay
There is a risk that by categorising knowledge as either disciplinary or substantive in the curriculum, it is taught separately. For example, pupils may be taught disciplinary knowledge only in standalone ‘skills’ units. This should be avoided.[footnote 74]A curriculum focusing on either substantive or disciplinary knowledge leads to at least 2 problematic models of curriculum design that misrepresent the discipline of science. The first problematic curriculum model treats science as only a b...
Sequencing substantive knowledge
There are several reasons why pupils may find learning science difficult.[footnote 81] These difficulties stem from the intrinsic nature of science – that is, the abstract and counter-intuitive nature of scientific knowledge and its use of language – as well as the limited capacity of human working memory.[footnote 82] An individual’s working memory capacity correlates strongly with their performance in science.[footnote 83] Pupils with little prior knowledge are particularly susceptible to w...
Sequencing disciplinary knowledge within the most appropriate substantive contexts
Like substantive knowledge, evidence suggests that disciplinary knowledge should be articulated and sequenced in the curriculum. This supports progression of important disciplinary concepts[footnote 100]and procedures. Sequencing disciplinary knowledge needs to first take account of its hierarchical nature (for example, teach variables before validity) and then the progression of substantive knowledge. This is because certain substantive concepts provide a better context to learn certain disc...
Coherence between mathematics and science
As well as seeking coherence within and between the scientific disciplines, pupils need to make relevant connections between knowledge from other subject disciplines, for example between mathematics and physics. Subject leaders and teachers of mathematics and science should work together to understand how and when knowledge taught in their respective subjects is similar and different.[footnote 104] Where there are good reasons for differences, it is important that these are made clear to pupi...
Time in the curriculum for consolidation
A curriculum that includes time for extensive practice will help pupils to consolidate knowledge before moving on to new content. This involves pupils repeatedly solving problems that increase incrementally in complexity and receiving feedback.[footnote 108] This ensures that knowledge becomes more accessible over time, which frees up pupils’ working memory capacity. Eventually, this allows pupils to engage in more complex problem-solving tasks.[footnote 109] Consolidation of knowledge takes...
Reading, writing, talking and representing science
To learn about science, pupils need to learn about the different ways in which scientists engage in their work: through reading, talking, writing and representing science.[footnote 110] This is called disciplinary literacy. It is not the same as teaching generic literacy strategies needed to interpret any text. Instead, it involves pupils learning how individuals within a discipline ‘structure their discourses, invent and appropriate vocabulary and make grammatical choices’.[footnote 111] Res...
Misconceptions and the curriculum
Some substantive concepts are more difficult to learn because the scientific knowledge conflicts with everyday knowledge.[footnote 114] Often, these concepts are from subject areas rich with sensory experiences that pupils encounter outside of the classroom. For example, Newtonian mechanics and heat and temperature are concepts where, despite careful instruction, pupils frequently maintain their misconceptions. For example, many pupils (and adults) think that objects require a force to keep m...
Online resources and their (unintended) consequences
Curriculum materials, such as textbooks and worksheets, play an important role in implementing curriculum intent. The quality of these resources, and how they are used, can either support or undermine curriculum coherence.[footnote 130] For example, there is a growing trend of using websites to provide curriculum resources.[footnote 131]Websites usually include only smaller units or activities, meaning that a fully resourced curriculum will likely use resources from many different places. Thi...
Science kits
Science is taught using science kits in some primary schools and early years settings. These kits help teachers and pupils do experiments and other enquiry activities. However, 2 systematic reviews suggest that using science kits is not associated with positive achievement in science.[footnote 132] This contrasts to positive effects for programmes that did not use kits but instead provided teachers with professional development that aimed to improve their science teaching generally. Slavin an...
Textbooks
There is evidence that some textbooks in England have become narrowly linked to examinations[footnote 134] and can be a source of misconceptions.[footnote 135] However, high-quality science textbooks fulfil several valuable roles in supporting pupils’ learning.[footnote 136]For example, they can give clear delineation of content with a precise focus on key concepts and knowledge. They also provide a coherent learning progression within the subject. Unfortunately, using textbooks has wrongly b...
The purpose of practical work in relation to curriculum content
At its heart, science involves the study of the material world. Practical work[footnote 140] therefore forms a fundamental part of learning science[footnote 141]because it connects scientific concepts and procedures to the phenomena and methods being studied. However, the specific purposes of practical work in school curriculums are not always clearly defined.[footnote 142] This means that discussions around effectiveness are sometimes confused and not particularly productive.[footnote 143] A...
Practical work to help pupils learn substantive knowledge
Millar outlines 5 related, but distinct, purposes of practical work in helping pupils learn substantive knowledge.[footnote 147]These are set out below in table 2, along with our own examples. Importantly, he stresses that practical work should form ‘part of a broader teaching strategy’. This means that there needs to be sufficient time after or before the practical for pupils to interpret and explain the observations and measurements made, or that are about to be made. Table 2: Millar’s diff...
Practical work and disciplinary knowledge
Millar also identifies that practical work plays an important role in teaching specific disciplinary knowledge.[footnote 148] Often, this involves learning to use laboratory apparatus to carry out specific procedures, or about specific aspects of scientific enquiry.[footnote 149] At times, pupils will need to carry out their own scientific enquiries, so they can learn about the often dynamic and unpredictable aspects in which scientists work,[footnote 150] such as the challenges with measurem...
Teacher-directed instruction
Analysis of pupil responses and outcome data from PISA 2015 reveals that teacher-directed science instruction is positively associated with science performance in almost all countries.[footnote 167]Teacher-directed instruction (as defined by PISA) involves the following: 1. the teacher explains scientific ideas 2. a whole-class discussion takes place with the teacher 3. the teacher discusses our questions 4. the teacher demonstrates an idea Quality teacher instruction is not lecturing and sho...
Enquiry-based teaching
Before we explore the evidence relating to enquiry-based teaching, it is important to stress that enquiry-based teaching, which is a pedagogy, should notbe confused with scientific enquiry as a curricular goal, or with practical work generally. Enquiry-based teaching involves pupils acquiring substantive and/or disciplinary knowledge through exploration. This involves simulating the scientific enquiry process so that pupils develop their understanding of concepts using methods similar to prof...
Reading, writing and talking in science lessons
There is strong correlational evidence to show that reading achievement is associated with science achievement generally.[footnote 194] Research suggests that any school approach that improves pupils’ reading will, in turn, help pupils to learn science and vice versa.[footnote 195] Reading well-written scientific texts helps pupils familiarise themselves with key vocabulary and the conceptual relations between these words that form explanations.[footnote 196] Younger pupils who cannot yet rea...
Assessment for learning: formative assessment
Formative assessment involves providing feedback for teachers and pupils[footnote 202] that is then used to improve teaching and learning.[footnote 203] One study found that formative assessment in science is most effective for pupils when it is embedded within a lesson sequence, occurring at the same time as new knowledge is taught.[footnote 204]In this way, teachers can see whether the pupils have learned and can remember important component knowledge. If not, teachers can give feedback. Fo...
Assessment as learning: the testing effect
Assessment as learning draws on the cognitive principle that pupils are more likely to remember knowledge if they practise retrieving that knowledge over extended periods of time. This is known as the testing effect. It involves pupils recalling information successfully from long-term memory into their working memory. To be most effective, research shows that retrieval practice should always be followed with feedback so even incorrect answers can be correctly retrieved in the future. Each ret...
Assessment of learning: summative assessment
Summative assessment identifies whether specific curricular goals have been achieved. It therefore plays an important role in evaluating the impact of the curriculum. In science, it consists of assessment of substantive and disciplinary knowledge, including pupils’ ability to carry out specific practical procedures and investigations. Concerns have been raised that high-stakes summative assessments have unintentionally distorted the way that science is taught in schools. This has been particu...
Teachers’ knowledge and expertise
Shulman identified the importance of both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to teacher education.[footnote 224] Pedagogical content knowledge is important because it allows teachers to transform their ‘content knowledge’ into something that pupils can learn from. Although we think about content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge separately, the latter depends on the former.[footnote 225] Content knowledge is therefore at the heart of expert science teaching.[footnot...
Teacher retention
Science teachers are more likely to leave their school and the profession compared with non-science teachers.[footnote 245] This is particularly the case for newly qualified teachers (NQTs). The odds of them leaving the profession within 5 years is 20% higher than for non-science NQTs. This may be because science teachers are more likely to teach multiple subjects, which increases their workload, or because they can earn more outside of the profession. Given the shortage of chemistry and phys...
School timetabling
Careful timetabling plays a significant role in reducing science teachers’ workload and developing expertise. This is because many science teachers are routinely teaching outside of their specialism. Allocating a higher proportion of a teacher’s timetable to their subject specialism can reduce their workload and increase opportunities to develop their subject expertise. Workload can also be reduced, especially during the early stages of a teaching career, by assigning teachers specific key st...
Higher Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects - Science and Technology Committee. Contents. CHAPTER 2: Definition of STEM. 15. One of the first issues which we had to address when we began this inquiry was how to define a STEM subject.
Feb 25, 2010 · In this article we argue for greater complementarity between formal school science education and the opportunities offered for science learning that are available outside of school, in what we will call the ‘informal sector’.
May 17, 2021 · We interpret these statistics to mean that “high_school” and “college” cover a large number of different areas of interest within the science education research literature—for example, high school biology, physics, and chemistry, high school attainment, and high school teacher preparation.
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the verb offprint. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
These standards reflect the principles that learning science is an inquiry-based process, that science in schools should reflect the intellectual traditions of contemporary science, and that all Americans have a role in improving science education.
