department of education effective science education for innovation robin millar

Department of Education

Effective science education for innovation

Robin Millar


2Centre for Innovation and Research in Science Education (CIRSE)

• Based in a University Department of Education• Involved in pre-service and in-service education of

science teachers (for secondary school)

• Developing new approaches to science teaching and learning• To address perceived problems of current practice

• Informed by research and scholarship in science education

• In collaboration with practising teachers and with scientists working in research and industry


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A brief history

• Development of a series of ‘context-led’ science courses• 1983: a 1-year chemistry course for 14 year olds

to increase interest, and influence subject choices at age 14

• 1985: a two-year GCSE Chemistry course for 15-16 year olds

• 1988: a GCSE Science course (B,C,P) with the same approach

• 1991ff: A-level courses (for 17-18 year olds), first in Chemistry, then Physics, then Biology

• From 2002: Development of an inter-related set of GCSE courses (Twenty First Century Science) designed to address the diversity of students’ interests and aspirations• Centred on a core GCSE Science course with a ‘scientific literacy’

emphasis


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Textbooks for some CIRSE curriculum projects

• Available to schools nationally

• Schools choose from a list of officially accredited courses

• Courses taken annually by:

• 2500 - 8250 students (A-level sciences)

• ~150 000 students (GCSE Science)


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‘Context-led’ science courses

• Start from contexts in which students are (or might become) interested• Introduce abstract ideas only where they can be seen to

be useful

• Link science to students’ everyday lives• To questions students ask (or could be stimulated to

ask) about the material world


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Why ‘context-led’ science courses?

• To improve student engagement with science• All learning depends on getting – and holding –

students’ interest

• To improve learning by making science ideas seem more ‘worth knowing’

• To help students learn to apply scientific ideas to real situations

• To give students a better informed and more accurate image of modern science• How and where science is being used, and developed,

today


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From ‘context-based science’ to ‘scientific literacy’

• ‘Context-based science’• Increasing students’ motivation to learn science as

‘traditionally’ conceived

• A ‘scientific literacy’ emphasis• Asks that we review the role of science in the school

curriculum What is the contribution of science to a general education? What sort of understanding of science would we like

everyone to have?


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The primary goal of science education

“A central fact about science is that it is actually done by a very small fraction of the population. The total of all scientists and engineers with graduate level qualifications is only a few percent of the whole population of an industrialised country. Thus the primary goal of a general science education cannot be to train this minority who will actually do science.”

Ogborn, J. (2004). Science and Technology: What to teach? In M. Michelini (ed.) Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training (pp. 69-84). Udine: Forum.


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Beyond 2000 report

• “The science curriculum from 5 to 16 should be seen primarily as a course to enhance general ‘scientific literacy’.”

Millar, R. & Osborne, J. (eds.) (1998). Beyond 2000. Science Education for the Future. London: The Nuffield Foundation.


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“Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.

Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions.

A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it.”

Scientific literacy

National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards, p. 22.


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Beyond 2000 report

• “The science curriculum from 5 to 16 should be seen primarily as a course to enhance general ‘scientific literacy’.”

• How can we achieve this, whilst also catering for the needs of future specialists?


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• The school science curriculum has two purposes:

The ‘dual mandate’

to develop the

scientific literacy

of all students

to provide the first stages

of a training in science

for some students

• These require distinctively different approaches


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Previous curriculum model for 15-16 year olds

Double Award GCSE Science

20% of curriculum time

Counts as 2 GCSE subjects

Taken by >80% of students

- with <10% doing less (1 GCSE) and <10% doing more (3 GCSEs)


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GCSE Science

10% curriculum time

Emphasis on scientific literacy

(the science everyone needs to know)

for all students

GCSE Additional Science

10% curriculum time

or

GCSE Additional Applied Science

10% curriculum time

for many students

Proposed new curriculum model


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Twenty First Century Science

Core: for all students

Additional options: for some students


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Twenty First Century Science

GCSE Science

Core course for all students

With an emphasis on developing students’ scientific literacy


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GCSE Science: The central aim

• To provide students with a ‘toolkit’ of ideas and skills that help them to access, interpret and respond to science, as they encounter it in everyday life.

• To give students opportunities to practice using these ideas and skills


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So what science do we meet everyday?

• An emphasis on health, medicine, environment

• Risk and risk factors• Claims about

correlations and causes

• Issues that involve science and technology, but also go beyond these


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What do you need to deal thoughtfully with this?

• Some understanding of major scientific ideas and explanations

• Some understanding of science itself:

• The methods of scientific enquiry

• The nature of scientific knowledge

• The interplay between science and society


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What do you need to deal thoughtfully with this?

• Some understanding of major scientific ideas and explanations

• Some understanding of science itself:

• The methods of scientific enquiry

• The nature of scientific knowledge

• The interplay between science and society


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How is it different?

• More obvious links to the science you hear or read about, out of school

• Some new content, for example:• risk

• evaluating claims about correlations and risk factors

• the clinical trial

• More emphasis on understanding science as a form of knowledge and enquiry• in the context of evaluating scientific knowledge claims

• More opportunities to talk, discuss, analyse, and develop arguments• about science

• about the applications and implications of science


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What have we learned?

• It is possible to make a course with these design features• which teachers find workable, and many find attractive

• A ‘scientific literacy’ emphasis leads to higher levels of student engagement with science

• as reported by teachers (with supporting evidence)

• on the evidence of students’ post-GCSE subject choices (~30% increase in numbers starting AS-level courses in the sciences

• Understanding of science ideas not significantly different from students following more ‘traditional’ courses

• despite greater emphasis (and time) on ‘ideas about science’ and discussion of issues


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What have we learned? (contd.)

• Teachers need considerable support to take on new teaching approaches and methods, such as:

• analysis and evaluation of evidence and argument

• discussion of issues and implications

• We need to develop better ways of assessing ‘scientific literacy’, that encourage good teaching


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Research Curriculum development

• Research-informed curriculum development• Drawing on the best-available research evidence, and insights

arising from research, when developing new teaching materials and approaches

• Integrating this with practitioner knowledge

• Curriculum development as ‘knowledge generation’• “Curriculum development is the process of discovering the detailed

aims and objectives rather than starting with them.” (Campbell et al., 1994: 420)

• Research evaluation of innovative courses and teaching approaches


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Research to inform curriculum development

• Primary research: Students’ attitudes to science and to school science (Bennett) The impact of diagnostic assessment on classroom practice,

and student learning (Millar)

• Research synthesis (Bennett, Lubben and others): The effects of context-based approaches to the teaching of

science on understanding and attitudes The nature, use and effects of small-group discussions in

science The effects of the use of ICT in science on understanding

Some examples of recent research in CIRSE:


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Judith Bennett (2006):

Systematic review of the effects of context-based approaches to the teaching of science on understanding and attitudes


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Teaching science in context: main findings

• Attitudes to school science almost always improved (7 of 9 studies)

• Attitudes to science also improved, but not as much as to school science (7 of 9 studies)

• Both boys and girls demonstrated more positive attitudes, with the biggest change being for girls (4 of 4 studies)

• Some evidence of improved conceptual understanding (4 of 13 studies); no significant difference (7 of 13 studies)

• Some slight increases in numbers taking science subjects (2 of 3 studies)


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Small-group discussions: main findings

• Students often struggle to formulate and express coherent arguments.

• Explicit teaching about the structure of a good argument, and how to engage in a discussion, lead to more effective learning.

• Groups function more purposefully when the stimulus used to promote discussion involves both internal and external conflict, i.e. where a diversity of views and/or understanding are represented within a group (internal conflict) and where an external stimulus presents a group with conflicting views (external conflict).

• Single sex groups function more purposefully than mixed sex groups.


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“Science is a demanding activity. Adjusting it to a curriculum appropriate to the population as a whole is a formidable task. Scientific knowledge offers a materialistic worldview which, in its substance, is devoid of humane reference, whatever might be said of its practices and its implications. Science is profoundly successful, on its own terms, and scientific knowledge profoundly authoritative. In consequence, creating scope for the individuality of pupils to come into play is difficult. … these characteristics of science challenge pupils affectively and cognitively. They challenge curriculum developers. It might even be said that they are somewhat at odds with the tenor of modern cultural life.”

(Donnelly, 2003: 19)

The central challenge for school science education


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The central challenge for school science education

• To help students develop, and see the personal value of, an understanding of some key elements of a large body of consensually accepted knowledge• which uses a framework of abstract concepts and ideas

• which do not ‘emerge’ from experience, but need to be communicated by teachers and texts

• and which demand sustained engagement, attention to detail, careful reasoning and precise use of language

• whilst keeping open a ‘space’ for students’ ideas, questions, creativity, imagination ….


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Difficult , but not impossible

• To move towards improvement, we need:• Greater clarity, leading to greater consensus, about

intended learning outcomes which requires that these be operationalised

• in terms of questions and tasks that we would like students to be able to accomplish

• and which will therefore provide evidence of successful learning

• Support for teachers in implementing teaching programmes that maximise the active mental engagement of students

department of education effective science education for innovation robin millar

Documents

science courses

general science education

science education cirse

science ideas

science teaching

century science

contribution of science

role of science