Appraisal

last updated:December 2004

Robustness   
This wide-ranging group of research projects aimed to explore some of the ways in which science teachers drew on science education research to enhance their practice and to improve their students’ learning. Altogether the four component projects involved over ninety teachers and their classes in twenty schools. The research involved teachers and researchers working together to explore new approaches to teaching and learning of science, such as developing and using tools for diagnostic assessment. Data about teacher and student learning were collected using multiple complementary sources, including: student test data, classroom observation, interviews with teachers, questionnaires and focus groups. The researchers worked with a group of science education practitioners, including twenty teachers, to design diagnostic probes which were implemented by teachers in eight schools. Twelve different student samples, from Key Stages 2,3 and 4 each of 200+ students, were involved in this work. Nine teachers undertook collaborative working with researchers to develop, implement and evaluate new teaching schemes based on research about students’ understanding and common misconceptions in science. The study found that the improvements in students’ learning were also achieved in classes in which the teaching schemes were implemented by another group of teachers who had not taken part in designing the schemes. In all cases data relating to students’ test results included comparison data from similar classes in which the new strategies were not used.

Together the projects provided extensive and well-supported evidence that science teaching and learning was more effective when it started with students’ everyday understandings of science, then worked towards more comprehensive and scientifically accurate concepts. The researchers highlighted the part played by open-ended questioning by the teacher and collaborative working among students in helping students develop their scientific thinking and improve their scientific language. Importantly, the study found evidence that teachers were more likely to use findings from research when they were first transformed into useful tools and strategies.

Relevance   
The findings of the research relate to science teaching and learning at key stages 3 and 4. However, the messages contained in the reports – about the language of science teaching and learning, the use of discussion in lessons and about the way students form concepts in science – are also relevant to practitioners who teach science in other phases.

Applicability   
The research contains many illustrations of classroom interactions in science classrooms which teachers will be able to relate their own experiences. There are also examples of diagnostic probes and approaches to science teaching and learning which are based on research evidence about the way students learn science. Science teachers will find the work of the EPSE team will help them to reflect on how they can build on their students’ talk about science when planning approaches to teaching.

Writing   
On the whole, the outputs of the four projects are presented and written in a way that practitioners of science education will find helpful. The longer outputs (in the form of papers and conference presentations) are, in places, geared to an academic rather than a practitioner audience because of the emphasis upon the various schools of thought about students’ thinking in science. Whilst the language is relatively jargon-free there are some exceptions, such as the ‘Delphic study’ approach to collecting research data, which would benefit from greater explanation. The shorter project summaries are more user-friendly and provide overviews which teachers will find useful.