Since the summer, I have been in a friendly argument with colleagues from the world of primary science – especially…
Convincing Evidence that Teacher Centred Instruction is More Effective Than Hands-On Pupil Centered Lessons.
This is a very short summary of a research paper published by Nature last December: A RCT for assessment of…
Why Primary Science Education is So Important
This is a 6 minute video describing the outcomes of a twelve year longitudinal study by Novak in the states.…
Does It Matter What We Teach in Primary Science?
Does it matter what we choose to teach in primary science, or is it more important that teachers teach what…
First Thoughts on The ASE Enquiry Panel Discussion Jan21
Yesterday I took part in a panel discussion at the ASE conference on enquiry in science. Chris Harrison and Jane…
Retrieval and Transfer: It’s Not Just ‘Can They or Can’t They?”
When you check whether pupils in your class can do something they either can or they can’t. Then you decide…
“Didn’t You Learn This Last Year?
A class of year 7 pupils stare blankly at a teacher who has asked a question they could all answer…
Entitled to Know
I’ve been arguing about the content of the primary science curriculum; not so much with primary teachers, but with secondary…
England’s Primary Science Performance (2018).
This post is my response to reading the STAs 2018 Key Stage Two science monitoring report (here). We were due…
The Problem Solving Methods Learners Use – and How to Develop Them
Solving problems, especially in physics, has been well studied (e.g. Larkin, McDermott, Simon and Simon 1980: here and Chi, Glaser…
Reading for Learning 