Primary teaching comes with challenges. None more so than the fact that primary teachers are not specialists in all that they teach.
It is estimated that just 5% of primary teachers have a science degree and concerningly, many primary teachers have been shown to have the same scientific misconceptions as the children they teach. Alarmingly, one study which looked at similarities in teacher and student conceptions, found that most of the primary teachers who took part thought ‘gravity increased as objects increased their height above the ground’ and a third of teachers ‘believed all metals were magnetic’.
If teachers pass their incorrect ideas onto children and those ideas help the children to make sense of the world around them, then misconceptions may form. These alternative conceptions can be extremely resistant to change and can become problematic when new scientific concepts are introduced.
Inevitably, many primary teachers do not feel confident in their science teaching. This is a worry as teacher confidence is a repeatable predictor of children’s improvement, highlighting the need for teacher access to high-quality subject-specific CPD.
Not only do teachers need support to address gaps in their knowledge, they also need to know the pedagogical approaches to teach science effectively in their classrooms. New scientific concepts must be taught on the building blocks of prior knowledge and misconceptions must be identified and addressed.
Confidence must be built so that purposeful enquiry and investigations can be planned for. Just ‘doing a practical’ with little thought to the prior knowledge needed to understand what is going on has been shown to hinder progress. Children remember the task rather than the learning. Effective curriculum design ensures lessons and learning are sequenced appropriately so that activities embed previously learnt concepts through a purposeful context.
The Wellcome Trust report, Great Science Leadership at Primary School recommended that a primary science leader:
…should have a deep understanding of the scientific concepts within the primary science curriculum, supported by an understanding of progression into the next phase of education.
As subject leadership in primary schools is not necessarily assigned according to a teacher’s specialism, many science leads have gaps in their knowledge or weaker areas of understanding. The residential CPD held at the National STEM Learning Centre in York is designed to support primary science leaders and teachers to grow in confidence and address gaps in knowledge and understanding.
Join us on the four day course which provides the specific, in-depth subject knowledge needed to lead and deliver the primary science curriculum effectively and confidently. You will also discover how to bring science to life through applying subject knowledge to age-appropriate practical activities.