Increasingly, reading specialists are realising that to be strong readers, pupils need strong background knowledge. When teachers teach subject knowledge,…
How Much Science Knowledge is Too Little?
Some people don’t know much science, but it doesn’t seem to hold them back. Is there a limit to how…
Reducing the Cognitive Load of Reading in Science Lessons
I suspect we all tried to get pupils to read a science explanation when we were training. I did. It…
Should We Explain a New Concept to a Class, or Ask Pupils to Read an Explanation Instead?
Could teachers make their lives easier by giving their pupils a well-crafted science explanation to read instead of explaining it…
Can We Use Stories to Teach Disciplinary Knowledge in Science?
When the Ofsted Science report came out in 2021, there was a lot of talk about substantive and disciplinary knowledge:…
A Checklist of Scientific Visuals
Primary and secondary teachers, skip seductive pictures of explosions, pandas and smallpox – they reduce comprehension and learning (see here).…
Primary Science in a Nutshell
Exciting news! Leigh Hoath and I have written, with the support of many others (see below), a new book. Our…
Reading for Learning or Learning for Reading?
Back in 2014, when I started this blog, I was a primary school teacher with a special interest in science…
Making Abstract Physics Concepts Physical
4 years ago, I was promoting making abstract quantities in physics, such as current and energy, visible using representations such…
What Makes an Explanation in Science Lessons Effective?
A review of “Towards a framework for effective instructional explanations in science teaching” by Christoph Kulgemeyer (2019) This paper provides…
Reading for Learning 