Science in English Primary Schools: Trends in Attainment, Attitudes

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Science in English Primary Schools Trends in
Attainment, Attitudes Approaches
A Summary of a Review for the Wellcome
Trust Peter Tymms, David Bolden Christine
Merrell Durham University d.s.bolden_at_durham.ac.uk
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Outline

• Introduction
• What we were asked to do
• How we did it
• Short decade-by-decade history
• What we found
• What we concluded
• Recommendations.

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Introduction

• Review was to build on work Tymms Merrell
  (2007) did for the Primary Review.
• Standards of reading and maths in primary schools
  over time.
• questioned large rises in attainment in reading
  maths
• http//www.primaryreview.org.uk/
• Extend to include primary science.

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What we Did

• In Jan 2008 we began a review of evidence
  relevant to science education in primary schools
• Focus on England
• From the past 50 years
• Reviewed evidence across a range of indicators
• Affective (e.g. attitudes, confidence)
• Cognitive (e.g. attainment - national and
  international evidence)
• Flow (e.g. who is taught what for how long).

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How we Did It

• Review focussed on primary age range (5-11
  years)
• Literature search trawled online databases and
  search engines
• ERIC, ECO, WorldCat, BEI, Google Scholar, CERUK.
• Over 200 articles etc. were reviewed.

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A Very Brief History ofScience in the Primary
CurriculumPre-National Curriculum
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• 1940s
• little science taught in primary schools

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• 1950s
• govt. concerns about shortage of scientists

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• 1960s
• - golden age for science?
• - Piagets ideas prominent.

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• 1970s
• science teaching increased but ad hoc

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• 1980s
• major growth period for science

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Post-National Curriculum
- Science arrives as a core subject - with
statutory assessments and rigid inspection system.
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Indicators We Examined

• 1. Affective
• 2. Cognitive
• 3. Flow

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I Attitudes Confidence

• Swing away from science in many countries has
  stimulated research into attitudes
• Consensus that
• pupils attitudes to school science become less
  positive in late primary years

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TIMSS 1995 v 2003 Year 5 Pupils (9-10 years)
across 26 countries I enjoy learning science.
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• Two Studies on Teachers Attitudes
• 1. Leverhulme (Wragg et al. 1989, 1991)
• 2. Murphy Beggs (2005)

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Leverhulme Primary Project

• surveyed 901 teachers (152 schools) in 1989
• follow-up 450 teachers in 1991
• rate competence to teach NC subjects
• scale 1competent, 2Yes, with some help from
  colleagues, 3maybe, with some CPD, 4not
  competent

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Teachers perceived competence to teach English,
mathematics science in 1989 and 1991 teachers
giving a 1 in 89 91.
Rank 8th
Rank 3rd
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• Murphy Beggs (2005)
• - surveyed 300 primary teachers
• asked to rate confidence in teaching subjects
• (1low to 5high)

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Murphy Beggs (2005) teachers confidence to
teach curriculum subjects.
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• Despite this,
• 50 of sample also identified lack of confidence
  knowledge as most significant issue facing
  primary science teachers.
• However, authors suggest teacher confidence in
  teaching science has improved.

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Summary of Attitudinal Evidence

• Pupils attitudes to school science become less
  positive at age 10/11 years
• They like science less than they used to
• English pupils attitudes towards science are
  below average of other nations
• Teachers lacked confidence in knowledge
  competence but improving

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II Cognitive (Attainment)

• Three Sources of Evidence
• 1. Governmental sources end-of-key-stage data
  (DCSF)
• 2. A QCA-commissioned comparability study
  (Massey, 2003)
• 3. International studies (TIMSS)

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1. End of Key Stage Results (DCSF)
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Tymms (2004) reviewed independent evidence

• Twelve independent studies
• Two thirds of a million assessments
• Concluded that the rises seen in maths and
  English at the same time overestimated the extent
  to which standards were increasing in primary
  schools.

• Statistics Commission agreed.

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2. Massey (2003) study

• Commissioned by QCA and costing 300,000
• Tested equivalence of standards in science tests
  from 1996 2001
• Given to matched groups of children in N.
  Ireland
• Proportions achieving Level 4 compared
• Similar proportions would suggest equivalence
• Concluded tests not equivalent, i.e. the 2001
  test conferred a significant advantage over 1996
  test.

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3. International Studies

• International Association for the Evaluation of
  Educational Achievement (IEA) The TIMSS Studies
  (1984 1995 2003)

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TIMSS (1984 1995 2003)
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Summary of Achievement Evidence

• Steep rise in end-of-KS2 results not supported by
  independent sources
• International surveys suggest science performance
  has improved relative to others
• Weaknesses of international surveys raise concern
  over reliability validity.

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III Flow

• Boyle at al. (2004 2005)
• since 1996 contracted by QCA
• longitudinal study to monitor primary schools
  implementation of curriculum (N802)
• percentage teaching time by subject by year
• between 96 04 only 4 subjects increased at
  KS1 and only 3 at KS2

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Percentage Teaching Time (KS1)
2.1
1.9
-1.5
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Percentage Teaching Time (KS2)
3.7
2.6
-1.6
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This despite

• science being core, and tested at KS2
• the concerns about the low pick-up of science
  subjects in secondary school and higher
  education and,
• one priority target of the PNS (2003) being to
  extend the sort of support provided by the
  literacy and numeracy strategies to all the
  foundation subjects.

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Overall Conclusions

• Science increased after 1989 but is being
  undermined as a core subject
• Concern remains about primary teachers
  perceptions of their capacity to teach science
• Indicators of levels of attainment are mixed
• Current approach does not foster scientific
  curiosity

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Conclusions (Contd)

• Not helped by league tables of results harsh
  accountability system
• Teachers under stress teach to the test
• We need to be cautious with the data
• Much evidence is correlational not deliberate
  intervention

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Recommendations

• 1. Debate concerning the purpose of science in
  primary school
• 2. Systematic review of what is known (what
  works?)
• 3. New approaches to primary science need to be
  developed
• 4. These new ( existing) approaches need to be
  evaluated scientifically.