Access to Science

Curriculum Planning and Practical Activities for Pupils with Learning Difficulties

Claire Marvin, Chris Stokoe

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781134150175
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This accessible and practical teaching resource focuses on access to the science curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties. Within an inclusive framework of participation and achievement for all, the core of the book provides support and ideas for the effective planning and implementation of well-differentiated science-focused activities.

The book offers activities that are designed to motivate and challenge pupils with diverse individual needs; guidance on differentiation in early years and across all key stages; suggestions for teaching early developmental skills through sensory science; defined learning outcomes that demonstrate progression in curriculum content and experience; assessment and recording opportunities; and guidance on how to incorporate science in a cross-curricular way.

Written by authors who have direct experience in the field, this book will provide practical help to all those working with pupils with learning difficulties in early years settings and in mainstream and special schools.

CHAPTER ONE

The importance of science for pupils with learning difficulties

We’re trying to make them shoot. Press that button over there. It went whoosh, it went pop!’

Playing with syringes and investigating changes in pressure. Daniel, Year 6

This chapter brings the reader up-to-date with the issues surrounding the inclusion of science in the National Curriculum. This is followed by a justification for teaching science to pupils with learning difficulties and a brief description of the content of the science programmes of study together with a consideration of their relevance for pupils with learning difficulties.

Science in the National Curriculum

Before the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1989 (DES 1988) science was regarded as an optional extra in many primary and special schools despite government intentions to introduce ‘science for all’ in an earlier policy document (DES 1985). So, in 1989, it came as a surprise to most teachers when the subject was elevated to the status of ‘core subject’ alongside English and mathematics – an added importance greeted by many with apprehension and restraint (Ritchie 2001). Further difficulties arose as a result of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate reporting inadequate provision for teaching science in special schools (HMI 1986, 1990). Practitioners felt that attempting to teach scientific concepts to pupils with learning difficulties would be an irrelevant addition to the school day, fuelled in part by lack of resources and by their own feelings of inadequacy for the accompanying subject knowledge and understanding. As Coltman (1996: 243) suggested:

a common response when matters of science are raised during adult conversation is a total shut down. Many of us have an antipathy to the subject founded on hours spent in school laboratories which smelled of coal gas…and a teacher who presented incomprehensible hypotheses attributed to a cavalcade of assorted historical personae.

Many years on from the introduction of the National Curriculum, and despite a continuing lack of confidence in how best to teach scientific knowledge and understanding (Bell 1998), few practitioners appear to question the validity of science for pupils with learning difficulties. The publication and subsequent revisions of the materials have had a major impact on curriculum development in schools. The entitlement of all pupils to a balanced and broadly-based curriculum is now fully accepted. In addition much work has been done in individual settings to build on the principles of inclusion (DfEE/QCA 1999b) that replace and extend the statements on access in earlier editions (DfE 1995). Schools have been encouraged to develop their own inclusive school curriculum in ways that match their aims, meet the varied needs of their pupils and fulfil statutory requirements. In the same way this has included careful consideration of the relevance of individual subjects of the National Curriculum.

In order to give all pupils appropriately challenging experiences and learning opportunities associated with individual or linked subjects, processes for modifying the programmes of study were described in several early documents (NCC 1992a, SCAA 1996). More recently they are considered and exemplified in the QCA/DfEE guidelines Planning, Teaching and Assessing the Curriculum for Pupils with Learning Difficulties (2001a, b, c). Written collaboratively by practitioners and experts in the field these materials draw on effective practice across a range of schools and offer long awaited yet comprehensive support to the range of services that support pupils with learning difficulties. For these reasons the guidelines are frequently referred to in this book.

It is our belief that science is now one of the success stories of the National Curriculum, a view supported by findings from reports of inspections in mainstream and specialist settings (Ofsted 2001). The teaching of science, it is noted, has improved significantly in over 40 per cent of schools, and in the majority of special schools pupils ‘make satisfactory or better progress’. Despite these encouraging results however, the same document states that many special schools are struggling to achieve a satisfactory balance between subjects and an insufficient amount of teaching time is allocated to science. Government initiatives, for example the literacy, numeracy and Key Stage 3 curriculum strategies, added to lack of guidance on balancing different curriculum components, contribute to these tensions.

Encouragingly the QCA/DfEE (2001b) General guidelines have been designed to provide support for curriculum organisation. Taking account of several factors, for example, their own school aims, the needs of the pupils attending the school and the requirements to provide a broad and balanced curriculum (which includes the subjects of the National Curriculum and RE) the guidelines state that it is for individual schools to determine and justify the amount of time allocated to different parts of the curriculum. Decisions about balance and time, as well as breadth, will need to be continually reviewed and revised in light of pupils’ changing individual needs. In support of this guidance, Lawson et al. (2001) suggest that schools may now feel more confident in allocating time to curriculum components. Future inspection reports will, no doubt, record the progress in this direction.

Thinking and learning – the relationship to science

Learning and development in humans is so complex that no single theory can adequately account for all the interrelated processes involved. While detailed explanations can be found elsewhere (for example Donaldson 1978, Fontana 1995, Wood 1998), put simply there are several accepted principles fundamental to learning which relate to all children. Learning is usually an active and, initially, sensory process that often takes place in a social context. By acting on the world, sometimes alongside a more experienced other, the child develops anticipation and understanding of actions and events that represent the beginning of taking control of their environment. For example, if a baby notices that a mobile placed over his cot moves when he happens to strike the cot side he will, after a period of time, intend to produce this anticipated result through his own actions.

Meaningful contexts help children to make sense of new experiences and learning opportunities by relating them to what they already know. They hypothesise, experiment, test the theory, discard it or accept it and thus go on to develop further personal theories. Most children are enthusiastically curious by nature and like to be challenged and excited by an environment that encourages exploration and discovery, whether with assistance or independently.

Ryan

Ryan is in the playground on a windy day in autumn. He runs around kicking the leaves and trying to catch them. He pauses every now and then to pick some up and he puts them in his pocket. After a while he stops running and goes over to one of the trees that are shedding their leaves, and reaches up to the branches, looking carefully. He can’t reach so he gets one of his collected leaves out of his pocket and begins a game of throwing it in the air and trying to catch it again. He watches the wind whip the leaf away and chases it laughing.

Ryan already knows that leaves come from trees when he sees them attached to the branches. Now he is beginning to make the connection that the leaves on the ground have come from the trees by being blown off in the wind. He then imitates the wind by throwing them up in the air.

As stated in the introduction, we believe that first-hand, concrete, science-focused experiences provide an exceptional opportunity for learning. To justify this statement we have first examined the ways in which children learn. A consideration of the relevance of these principles to the content of the science programmes of study and to pupils with learning difficulties follows next.

Requirements of the science curriculum

The statutory content of the curriculum – pupils’ entitlement to science – is outlined in the programmes of study for the National Curriculum (DfEE/QCA 1999a), and, for pre-Key Stage 1 pupils, the early learning goals, although not statutory, set out what might reasonably be expected of pupils in the foundation stage (QCA/DfEE 1999, 2000). Long-term planning for units of work may involve reference to both documents in addition to accredited schemes, and t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter One The importance of science for pupils with learning difficulties
• Chapter Two Teaching approaches
• Chapter Three The practical planning materials – how to use them
• Chapter Four The practical planning materials – what they are
• Chapter Five Practical materials – scientific enquiry
• Chapter Six Practical materials for Key Stage 1
• Chapter Seven Practical materials for Key Stage 2
• Chapter Eight Practical materials for Key Stage 3
• Chapter Nine Practical materials for Key Stage 4
• Chapter Ten Planning for progression
• Conclusion – meeting the challenge
• Resources
• References
• Index