About
As with the other national curriculum subjects there are four strands to support high quality subject knowledge:
- National curriculum importance statements
- Authentic sources
- Subject associations
- Twitter communities
To help us get our bearings, it is worth quoting the purpose of science from the national curriculum programme of study: ‘a high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes’.
The national curriculum for science aims to ensure that: ‘all pupils develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics; develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them; are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future’.
Once the importance statements have been revisited, it is helpful for subject leaders and coordinators to discuss and agree with colleagues, the reason why their subject, in this case science, is important for the pupils in their school. One way of doing this, is to draw on a quote, in this case from Elon Musk, ’it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree – make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to’. This kind of prompt allows us to formulate our way of stating the importance of the subject. We might agree or disagree with such a statement and in doing so come to a form of words which expresses our view of the importance of this subject, in this school. This moves us away from the territory of ‘we teach this subject because of the SATS or GCSEs’. While the external tests and exams are important, they are not the totality of the subject.
Professional Communities
Subject associations are important because at the heart of their work is curriculum thinking, development and resources. The subject association for science is the Association for Science Education and it should be the case that any member of staff with responsibility for a subject should be a member of the relevant subject association, and this should be paid for by the school.
Twitter subject communities are important for the development of subject knowledge, because it is here that there are lively debates about what to teach, how to teach and the kinds of resources that are helpful. For science, it is worth following ASE on Twitter and the hashtags #ASEchat #scichat #stem #primaryscience #physicschat #biochat #physchat.
Links
- The Wellcome Trust
- Explorify
- STEM resources
- Primary Science Teaching Trust is full of resources and detailed planning to support high quality science in primary schools
- The Association for Science in Education
- BBC Terrific Scientific
- NASA
- Core Knowledge
- Developing Experts