1 of 4 moving forward with teaching scientific...
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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
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
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Increasing proceduraldemand (scientific
enquiry skills)
Complex skillsSimple context
Complex skillsDemanding context
Simple skillsSimple context
Simple skillsDemanding context
Increasing conceptual demand (knowledge and understanding)
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
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.
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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