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Page 1: 1 of 4 Moving forward with teaching scientific enquirywsassets.s3.amazonaws.com/ws/nso/pdf/761a3419d6643... · Moving forward with teaching ... or sitting end-of-unit tests, the

Moving forwardwith teachingscientific enquiryMuch work has been done to secure improvements in the teaching and learning

of scientific enquiry skills but the outcomes in the national tests indicate that

there is still room for improvement. Pupils need to understand and apply the

skills of scientific enquiry in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Although

they may carry out a number of investigations throughout Key Stage 3,

without the explicit and progressive teaching of the skills required there will

be only a minimal improvement in their understanding of scientific enquiry.

Pupils generally enjoy practical work, but often fail to appreciate the lesson

objectives. The scientific enquiry may be presented in such a way that they

make few, if any, decisions about the outcomes of their work.

A lack of time is often seen as a barrier to teaching scientific enquiry and

yet there is evidence from HMI that valuable learning time in Key Stage 3

is frequently spent repeating material from the Key Stage 2 programme of study,

copying notes that are rarely used afterwards, or sitting end-of-unit tests, the

results of which are often not used formatively. By reducing the time allocated

to such tasks, more time can be given to teaching investigative skills.

How to make a difference in your department■ Plan the progression of scientific enquiry skills into your existing scheme

of work using the programme of study and pupil data to build on those skills

developed in Key Stage 2. There is no need to rewrite the scheme of work –

annotations will do.

■ Ensure that lesson plans include opportunities to teach scientific enquiry

skills and that teachers make these explicit in their lesson objectives and

learning outcomes.

■ Make it clear to pupils whether a practical activity is being used to develop

skills or scientific knowledge and understanding. Teachers need to be clear

about the purpose of any practical work. Sometimes it is used to

demonstrate a piece of scientific knowledge (e.g. the relationship between

newtons and grams). In these lessons all pupils will be doing the same

practical and following the teacher’s instructions. If the practical is about

developing scientific enquiry skills, then pupils should be making some

Moving forward with teaching scientific enquiry and intervention | Overview DfES 0196-2005Key Stage 3 National Strategy © Crown copyright 2005

1 of 4Overview

Page 2: 1 of 4 Moving forward with teaching scientific enquirywsassets.s3.amazonaws.com/ws/nso/pdf/761a3419d6643... · Moving forward with teaching ... or sitting end-of-unit tests, the

Moving forward with teaching scientific enquiry and intervention | Overview DfES 0196-2005Key Stage 3 National Strategy © Crown copyright 2005

decisions about how the practical is planned, recorded or evaluated.

This too should be reflected in lesson objectives and learning outcomes.

It is very common for pupils to miss the point of a practical because they

think the intended outcome is to find out or discover scientific knowledge,

when in fact the purpose is to develop an enquiry skill.

■ Ensure that teachers understand how the interaction between the procedural

and conceptual demand of an investigation or practical activity can affect

the learning.

If pupils are learning new scientific enquiry skills then the context chosen

should be simple so that it does not get in the way of the learning. Similarly,

the use and refinement of scientific enquiry skills can take place in a more

demanding context, thereby developing knowledge and understanding.

Giving pupils a demanding context while trying to develop new skills at the

same time can be a recipe for failure! For example, when teaching pupils

how to weigh accurately (procedurally demanding), it is more likely to be

successful if the scientific context chosen is a simple one, for example,

loss of mass by evaporation over time (lower conceptual demand). More

information can be found in the Scientific enquiry unit (DfES 0348/2002).

■ Remember that scientific enquiry does not mean a whole investigation

every time. Once pupils have been taught a skill they need to practise

it throughout the unit of work. This may be:

– as part of an investigation (e.g. pupils have been taught what they need

to do in order to interpret data so they are given a prediction and a table

of results from an investigation and asked to look for patterns and

whether the data supports the prediction);

– undertaking an investigation in which the teacher has made some

decisions and the pupils have made others (e.g. pupils have been taught

how to decide on the appropriate scales for the axes of a line graph and

how to interpret a line graph. They carry out an investigation where the

teacher has decided the method they will use and the format of the

2 of 4Overview

Increasing proceduraldemand (scientific

enquiry skills)

Complex skillsSimple context

Complex skillsDemanding context

Simple skillsSimple context

Simple skillsDemanding context

Increasing conceptual demand (knowledge and understanding)

Page 3: 1 of 4 Moving forward with teaching scientific enquirywsassets.s3.amazonaws.com/ws/nso/pdf/761a3419d6643... · Moving forward with teaching ... or sitting end-of-unit tests, the

results table, and the pupils decide how they will display and interpret

those results).

■ Make it clear to pupils and teachers that scientific language must be used

with precision. Pupils often give everyday reasons when they are asked

to explain or evaluate data. For example, ‘Yasmin’s conclusion is more

scientific’ or ‘it would not work’. Teachers should challenge pupils when

they do this and explain why the answer is not acceptable as a scientific

explanation or evaluation.

How far along the way are you?Most science departments have identified the importance of teaching scientific

enquiry well and many are beginning to build improvements into their schemes

of work as a result. The steps below show one manageable way to do this.

Remember that your science consultant can help with this process or support

teachers in the classroom using some of the resources.

Step 1

Use the coloured grid to identify or review opportunities for

teaching the scientific enquiry skills and ensuring that there is

progression across the key stage. Select one skill area per unit.

Although the skills are mapped against the QCA units, the

contexts are from the Key Stage 3 programme of study and will

therefore apply to any scheme. These are suggested activities for teaching the

different skills over the year and the department may prefer other contexts.

The important point is that teachers know that a particular skill (e.g. evaluation)

will be taught and practised in a particular module (e.g. forces).

Step 2

Find out what the pupils can do well and where they have weaknesses.

Some possible ways to find this out are by:

■ looking at your national test analysis;

■ using the five ‘Teaching scientific enquiry’ sheets (available under the

‘Teaching scientific enquiry’ section from the main menu) to audit what

you already do and where you need to include more opportunities for pupils

to learn scientific enquiry explicitly;

■ looking at examples of pupils’ investigations.

For example, if you find that pupils can generally identify variables but do not

understand the difference between dependent and independent variables you

could further annotate the Year 7 unit on forces that has planning as its focused

skill to say that ‘pupils need to be taught about dependent and independent

variables using the appropriate mini booster’.

Moving forward with teaching scientific enquiry and intervention | Overview DfES 0196-2005Key Stage 3 National Strategy © Crown copyright 2005

3 of 4Overview

Page 4: 1 of 4 Moving forward with teaching scientific enquirywsassets.s3.amazonaws.com/ws/nso/pdf/761a3419d6643... · Moving forward with teaching ... or sitting end-of-unit tests, the

Moving forward with teaching scientific enquiry and intervention | Overview DfES 0196-2005Key Stage 3 National Strategy © Crown copyright 2005

Step 3

Either highlight or annotate the scheme of work to show where the scientific

enquiry skills and whole investigations will be taught, or use the spreadsheet

version to complete this task electronically. This is about tweaking the scheme

of work and not about rewriting it.

Pupils need to understand the investigation cycle and what an investigation

is for. They need to see how the different skills fit together.

Step 4

Identify where time for scientific enquiry can be found. This could be

achieved by:

■ giving pupils good revision guides or prepared notes, instead of copied

notes in exercise books, to help factual recall;

■ changing the emphasis in lessons to developing skills and helping pupils

to apply their knowledge and understanding in different contexts;

■ reducing the number of end-of-unit tests and using instead assessment

for learning techniques to monitor pupils’ progress.

Step 5

Build the resources listed into the scheme of work (these are on the CD-ROM).

This could be done at a department meeting so that staff become familiar

with them.

To ensure implementation and to monitor effectiveness, ask teachers to try

identified and agreed resources in their lessons and then feed back to the

whole department.

4 of 4Overview

Step 4

Review current

practice and

modify to allow

time for pupils

to develop and

practise scientific

enquiry skills

Step 7

Review progress,

e.g. audit to find

a reduction in

pupil weaknesses

Step 3

Annotate the

scheme of work

with any changes

Step 2

Audit pupil

strengths and

weaknesses

Step 1

Use the grid

to review

opportunities

for teaching

scientific enquiry

and to check

for progression

Step 6

Incorporate

the changes

into classroom

practice

Step 5

Build in resources