Science

Teaching School Subjects 11-19

Vanessa Kind, Keith Taber

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134226832
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In recognizing that new teachers often feel disempowered by the subject expertise they bring into teaching, this book not only covers the training standards for NQTs and the Induction Standards, but takes the reader beyond this by fully exploring issues relating to subject knowledge in learning to teach.

Divided into three sections the book covers:

• framing the subject - defining subject knowledge and focusing on questions about science as a school subject
• teaching the subject - looking at pedagogical, curricular and pupil knowledge
• science within the professional community - focusing on the place of science within the wider curriculum and the teaching community.

This refreshing new book provides stimulating assistance to subject specialists, from new teachers of science in the early years of professional development to those on a PGCE course or in their induction year. It is also suitable for subject leaders with mentor responsibilities and Advanced Skills Teachers undertaking specialist inset and teaching support.

Chapter 1
Introduction

An invitation to be a professional science teacher

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said.

(Anonymous)

AN INVITATION

This book is one of a series on teaching school subjects, focusing on teaching science to 11–19-year-olds. The reference to science as a ‘school subject’ means more than teaching science in a school context. SCIENCE (see Glossary for explanation) is something undertaken by professional scientists working in academic and industrial situations. School science, by contrast, is a curriculum subject taught by members of the teaching profession in educational institutions. A key theme of this book is the notion that ‘school science’ is an entity with its own identity, having limited overlap with SCIENCE itself. This means that teaching science in school involves (among other things) developing a familiarity with the entity known as ‘school science’. More significantly, for those persuaded by our argument that the relationship between SCIENCE and school science is not straightforward, then ‘school science’ becomes something:

• requiring justification;
• developing independently of science; and
• open to being moulded by policy-makers.

These characteristics lead us immediately to questions about school science:

1. Why is science worth teaching in schools?
2. What causes school science to develop?
3. Who determines (and who should determine) what school science is?

Without wishing to spoil any intrigue these questions may create, we reveal at this early stage that our view of who should be moulding ‘school science’ is very much tied to our vision of what being a professional science teacher means. Consider an analogy between teaching and the practice of SCIENCE.

Imagine working on a practical project where you are given full training on the use of the laboratory apparatus, and closely supervised as you learn new techniques. In this scenario, you are given responsibility for selecting specific techniques for answering certain key questions, but it is not considered your role to know which theoretical considerations drive the research programme, or even why the research is being undertaken. We feel that such a scenario is actually quite common, except we would normally consider the person undertaking this type of work to be a technician rather than a scientist.

This is in no way meant to denigrate the work of technicians, which is essential in both science and teaching, but we do not feel science teachers should be limited to being educational technicians. Echoing the sentiments of the series editors in their introductory comments, ‘we doubt the veracity of any model of teaching and learning that designates the teacher in a relatively powerless technician role’.

We do not feel this analogy is fanciful. We all know that some technicians are well trained, highly skilled, very creative within their sphere of responsibility, are given much due respect by peers and others, and can be trusted to work with minimal supervision on important work with precious materials. Yet, if they have no input in determining the aims of the work, and are not privy to discussions about its meaning and consequences, they are still undertaking technical rather than professional roles. We feel that some key aspects of the way the education system is currently structured and judged tend to de-professionalise teachers and, for that matter, teacher–educators.

We would suggest that the matters discussed in this book are of fundamental importance to science teaching, and to the development of science teachers, individually and collectively, as professionals. It is especially important to raise this issue at the start of the teaching career, as the ‘inductee’ will naturally expect to be taking advice and instruction from tutors, mentors, heads of department and so forth. It is important to realise that once you have earned the title of qualified teacher you should expect to be given a level of responsibility commensurate with that professional status.

This process of becoming a professional science teacher is at the heart of this book. It would be satisfying to suggest that reading this book will enable such a process – but that would be naive, because we do not think that the profession has yet fully grasped what being ‘professional’ means, and arrogant because few books change lives significantly of themselves. Reading requires critical reflection to lead to significant learning and the resultant thinking has to be integrated into action if the learning is to have a practical outcome. We have a view of what being a professional science teacher means. We will share that with the reader to show how our notion of professionalism is tied to questions such as what school science is, could and should be. We might also convince you to share our view of the professional science teacher, but we will settle for critical engagement with the issues as a minimum.

So, we address this book to those who seek to become professional science teachers. We envisage the readership to be largely new entrants to the profession, such as trainees seeking Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) or those working through the newly qualified teacher (NQT) year. However, we hope this book will be read by those exploring what being a professional science teacher means: whether considering teaching as a career, about to embark on teacher training, seeking a new leadership role in a science department, or simply wishing to engage with issues as part of continuing professional development.

EXCLUSIONS – THE SMALL PRINT

Here, we clarify what our book does not do. Reading this book will not tell a reader all s/he may need to know about the curriculum, modes of assessment or teaching approaches. We have things that we feel are important to say about these issues, and we will alert you to some key themes and debates, but we will not provide comprehensive accounts of what to teach, how to teach or how to assess. Nor will this book provide an in-depth account of government policies, guidance and initiatives, or details about what to include in a lesson on metals to 14-year-olds or how to set up apparatus to demonstrate convection. (There are some very good books available that do provide detailed discussion on such specifics, and the latest government requirements and advice are readily available from various official websites.) This is because we focus on the central ideas we believe are fundamental to becoming a professional science teacher.

We believe strongly that you should be very clear about exactly why you wish to teach, or are teaching, science and that you have in place solid foundations for your subsequent professional learning. These foundations could be described as an explicit personal philosophy of teaching that will guide your thinking and action as a teacher. This is one aspect of what we mean when we talk about being a professional science teacher.

This book introduces what we consider are fundamental issues for the professional science teacher. We aim to provide a framework for thinking about the key areas involved in acting as a science teacher. New entrants are encouraged to read this book first, using the ideas presented to inform subsequent (critical and reflective) reading. Our intention is to provide insights that will underpin reading about teaching science throughout a developing teaching career. We hope that, despite changes to curricula, assessment procedures and other educational policies, the foundations we offer will continue to be relevant.

We also expect that most readers will see themselves as scientists or engineers (something we discuss in Part I) used to studying science at a high level. Accordingly, we do not anticipate familiarity with ideas and approaches from the social sciences. We warn you that we are no longer, in a professional sense at least, natural scientists. Our research is published in education journals, not SCIENCE journals. Although we hold science degrees and both have considerable experience in teaching science and in helping others to teach science, our professional work has made us into social scientists. We think this is a very important transition to appreciate. After all (and this may come as a shock) any inductee is undergoing the same transition.

INCLUSIONS – THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

The book is divided into three parts, intended to reflect stages in the professional development of a science teacher. Loosely, these sections concern the nature of school science, teaching science and researching your own teaching.

The rationale for the first section is simple, following from what we have said above. To be an effective teacher of school science means having a good understanding of what school science is. This does not mean just learning which topics are included in the curriculum, but also understanding the process by which the curriculum comes about, while appreciating the teacher’s professional role in forming and interpreting the curriculum.

The second part focuses on teaching science in a secondary school or post-16 college. Although some readers may think this is the most important part of the book, we recommend that this section is best read in the light of the first section. Here, we look at some important aspects of classroom work – such as planning teaching, the place of practical work, assessing students’ learning and understanding the learning process. Teachers have to make many important decisions on a daily basis, based on their knowledge and understanding of these areas. To know if these are the right decisions, teachers need to have an underpinning personal philosophy of teaching. This section will discuss three stages in the teaching process, each necessary for overall teaching effectiveness:

• planning to teach science;
• acting to teach science;
• evaluating teaching.

The final part develops the importance of evaluating our professional work, focusing on the need for teachers to reflect upon their practice. This section discusses aspects of educational research that influence the professional science teacher. A key part of our thinking here is that educational research concerns all professional teachers in two ways. The first is obvious: professionals have a responsibility to ‘keep up to date’ by following the latest developments in their field. As a science teacher you will want and need to ‘keep up’ with major developments in the SCIENCES, so that your reading (and viewing of documentaries, etc.) will inform your teaching. We certainly encourage this, but with the reminder that SCIENCE is no longer your primary professional field. As a professional educator, this brings a responsibility to be aware of important developments relating to the understanding of teaching and learning, as well as to developments in understanding superconductors or gene expression.

This type of keeping up may seem quite difficult for teachers, as although there are many education journals, most are very expensive and not readily accessed in schools (although useful material is becoming increasingly available through the world wide web). However, there are ways of keeping informed through courses, links with Education Faculties in the local universities, and research digests in the educational and quality daily/weekend press.

The second way that we think that educational research should inform the work of professional science teachers is through a personal involvement in the research process. Time and resource constraints do not allow most teachers to undertake substantial research activity, but we believe that all professional teachers should undertake small-scale, classroom-based enquiries within their own contexts. A key here is the notion of ‘evidence-based practice’: that our actions as professionals should be justified in terms of available evidence. Some of that evidence may come from published research, but other evidence derives from the work of the individual teacher taking an enquiry-based approach in her own classroom.

WHAT ARE WE AIMING FOR?

This book is about what becoming a professional science teacher means in a school or college context. Consider yourself in this context by thinking of the values you wish to bring to your teaching and how you would wish to be remembered by the children or students you teach. Here is an account of an event that happened to one of the authors:

I taught for a time in the late 1980s at a boys’ school in east London. The science course for 11–14-year-olds involved a lot of practical work, including technologically based activities. One, with year 7 (11-year-olds) was building a ‘balloon machine’. This was a device to be constructed from assorted lab equipment, string, cardboard and anything else available with the premise that a candle had to be lit to burn a string to set off a chain of events leading to a pin popping a balloon. The boys got deeply involved in the task and came up with some very good, complex machines. We demonstrated the most ingenious at a parents’ evening. I really did not give the lesson much thought until years later, when giving a lecture at an A level chemistry conference. The organisers came up to me and said that there were some ‘young men’ who wanted to meet me. ‘Great! A fan club!’ I thought, somewhat ironically. I vaguely recognised the enthusiastic group who greeted me with ‘Do you remember the balloon machines?!’ Embarrassed that I could not remember a single one of their names, they went on to re-introduce themselves and described how these early lessons had influenced them and that they had ended up continuing to study science as a result. It was humbling to realise that they had remembered what to me had been a ‘one-off’ event and that they perceived me as having had so much influence on them.

One very important point comes out of this story – children remember their teachers, much more than teachers remember the children, hence the quote at the start. The author in question was embarrassed by hardly being able to recall the lesson, let alone a single name of the children, then young men – yet the boys could recall many more details. The impact this simple activity had had on the audience went far beyond what the teacher imagined at the time. As a professional science teacher, therefore, you are in a much more influential job than you perhaps realise.

The potentially long-lasting nature of the influence you wield means that the job deserves to be done as well and thoroughly as possible. We aim in this book to set out our personal beliefs about taking on this profess...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• GLOSSARY
• CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: AN INVITATION TO BE A PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE TEACHER
• PART I: SCIENCE AS A SCHOOL SUBJECT
• PART II: TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL
• PART III: REFLECTING ON SCIENCE LEARNING: THE PLACE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
• REFERENCES