Effective science education for innovation

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Effective science education for innovation

• Robin Millar

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Centre for Innovation and Research in Science
Education (CIRSE)

• Based in a University Department of Education
• Involved in pre-service and in-service education
  of science teachers (for secondary school)
• Developing new approaches to science teaching and
  learning
• To address perceived problems of current practice
• Informed by research and scholarship in science
  education
• In collaboration with practising teachers and
  with scientists working in research and industry

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A brief history

• Development of a series of context-led science
  courses
• 1983 a 1-year chemistry course for 14 year olds
• to increase interest, and influence subject
  choices at age 14
• 1985 a two-year GCSE Chemistry course for 15-16
  year olds
• 1988 a GCSE Science course (B,C,P) with the same
  approach
• 1991ff A-level courses (for 17-18 year olds),
  first in Chemistry, then Physics, then Biology
• From 2002 Development of an inter-related set of
  GCSE courses (Twenty First Century Science)
  designed to address the diversity of students
  interests and aspirations
• Centred on a core GCSE Science course with a
  scientific literacy emphasis

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Textbooks for some CIRSE curriculum projects

• Available to schools nationally
• Schools choose from a list of officially
  accredited courses
• Courses taken annually by
• 2500 - 8250 students (A-level sciences)
• 150 000 students (GCSE Science)

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Context-led science courses

• Start from contexts in which students are (or
  might become) interested
• Introduce abstract ideas only where they can be
  seen to be useful
• Link science to students everyday lives
• To questions students ask (or could be stimulated
  to ask) about the material world

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Why context-led science courses?

• To improve student engagement with science
• All learning depends on getting and holding
  students interest
• To improve learning by making science ideas seem
  more worth knowing
• To help students learn to apply scientific ideas
  to real situations
• To give students a better informed and more
  accurate image of modern science
• How and where science is being used, and
  developed, today

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From context-based science to scientific
literacy

• Context-based science
• Increasing students motivation to learn science
  as traditionally conceived
• A scientific literacy emphasis
• Asks that we review the role of science in the
  school curriculum
• What is the contribution of science to a general
  education?
• What sort of understanding of science would we
  like everyone to have?

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The primary goal of science education
A central fact about science is that it is
actually done by a very small fraction of the
population. The total of all scientists and
engineers with graduate level qualifications is
only a few percent of the whole population of an
industrialised country. Thus the primary goal of
a general science education cannot be to train
this minority who will actually do
science. Ogborn, J. (2004). Science and
Technology What to teach? In M. Michelini (ed.)
Quality Development in Teacher Education and
Training (pp. 69-84). Udine Forum.
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Beyond 2000 report

• The science curriculum from 5 to 16 should be
  seen primarily as a course to enhance general
  scientific literacy.

Millar, R. Osborne, J. (eds.) (1998). Beyond
2000. Science Education for the Future. London
The Nuffield Foundation.
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Scientific literacy
Scientific literacy is the knowledge and
understanding of scientific concepts and
processes required for personal decision making,
participation in civic and cultural affairs, and
economic productivity. Scientific literacy
entails being able to read with understanding
articles about science in the popular press and
to engage in social conversation about the
validity of the conclusions. A literate citizen
should be able to evaluate the quality of
scientific information on the basis of its source
and the methods used to generate it.
National Research Council (1996). National
Science Education Standards, p. 22.
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Beyond 2000 report

• The science curriculum from 5 to 16 should be
  seen primarily as a course to enhance general
  scientific literacy.

• How can we achieve this, whilst also catering for
  the needs of future specialists?

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The dual mandate

• The school science curriculum has two purposes

• These require distinctively different approaches

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Previous curriculum model for 15-16 year olds

• Double Award GCSE Science
• 20 of curriculum time
• Counts as 2 GCSE subjects

Taken by gt80 of students - with lt10 doing less
(1 GCSE) and lt10 doing more (3 GCSEs)
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Proposed new curriculum model
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Twenty First Century Science
Additional options for some students
Core for all students
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Twenty First Century Science
GCSE Science Core course for all
students With an emphasis on developing students
scientific literacy
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GCSE Science The central aim

• To provide students with a toolkit of ideas and
  skills that help them to access, interpret and
  respond to science, as they encounter it in
  everyday life.
• To give students opportunities to practice using
  these ideas and skills

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So what science do we meet everyday?

• An emphasis on health, medicine, environment
• Risk and risk factors
• Claims about correlations and causes
• Issues that involve science and technology, but
  also go beyond these

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What do you need to deal thoughtfully with this?

• Some understanding of major scientific ideas and
  explanations
• Some understanding of science itself
• The methods of scientific enquiry
• The nature of scientific knowledge
• The interplay between science and society

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What do you need to deal thoughtfully with this?

• Some understanding of major scientific ideas and
  explanations
• Some understanding of science itself
• The methods of scientific enquiry
• The nature of scientific knowledge
• The interplay between science and society

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How is it different?

• More obvious links to the science you hear or
  read about, out of school
• Some new content, for example
• risk
• evaluating claims about correlations and risk
  factors
• the clinical trial
• More emphasis on understanding science as a form
  of knowledge and enquiry
• in the context of evaluating scientific knowledge
  claims
• More opportunities to talk, discuss, analyse, and
  develop arguments
• about science
• about the applications and implications of science

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What have we learned?

• It is possible to make a course with these design
  features
• which teachers find workable, and many find
  attractive
• A scientific literacy emphasis leads to higher
  levels of student engagement with science
• as reported by teachers (with supporting
  evidence)
• on the evidence of students post-GCSE subject
  choices (30 increase in numbers starting
  AS-level courses in the sciences
• Understanding of science ideas not significantly
  different from students following more
  traditional courses
• despite greater emphasis (and time) on ideas
  about science and discussion of issues

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What have we learned? (contd.)

• Teachers need considerable support to take on new
  teaching approaches and methods, such as
• analysis and evaluation of evidence and argument
• discussion of issues and implications
• We need to develop better ways of assessing
  scientific literacy, that encourage good
  teaching

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Research ?? Curriculum development

• Research-informed curriculum development
• Drawing on the best-available research evidence,
  and insights arising from research, when
  developing new teaching materials and approaches
• Integrating this with practitioner knowledge
• Curriculum development as knowledge generation
• Curriculum development is the process of
  discovering the detailed aims and objectives
  rather than starting with them.
  (Campbell et al., 1994 420)
• Research evaluation of innovative courses and
  teaching approaches

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Research to inform curriculum development
Some examples of recent research in CIRSE

• Primary research
• Students attitudes to science and to school
  science (Bennett)
• The impact of diagnostic assessment on classroom
  practice, and student learning (Millar)
• Research synthesis (Bennett, Lubben and others)
• The effects of context-based approaches to the
  teaching of science on understanding and
  attitudes
• The nature, use and effects of small-group
  discussions in science
• The effects of the use of ICT in science on
  understanding

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Judith Bennett (2006) Systematic review of the
effects of context-based approaches to the
teaching of science on understanding and attitudes
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Teaching science in context main findings

• Attitudes to school science almost always
  improved (7 of 9 studies)
• Attitudes to science also improved, but not as
  much as to school science (7 of 9 studies)
• Both boys and girls demonstrated more positive
  attitudes, with the biggest change being for
  girls (4 of 4 studies)
• Some evidence of improved conceptual
  understanding (4 of 13 studies) no significant
  difference (7 of 13 studies)
• Some slight increases in numbers taking science
  subjects (2 of 3 studies)

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Small-group discussions main findings

• Students often struggle to formulate and express
  coherent arguments.
• Explicit teaching about the structure of a good
  argument, and how to engage in a discussion, lead
  to more effective learning.
• Groups function more purposefully when the
  stimulus used to promote discussion involves both
  internal and external conflict, i.e. where a
  diversity of views and/or understanding are
  represented within a group (internal conflict)
  and where an external stimulus presents a group
  with conflicting views (external conflict).
• Single sex groups function more purposefully than
  mixed sex groups.

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The central challenge for school science education
Science is a demanding activity. Adjusting it
to a curriculum appropriate to the population as
a whole is a formidable task. Scientific
knowledge offers a materialistic worldview which,
in its substance, is devoid of humane reference,
whatever might be said of its practices and its
implications. Science is profoundly successful,
on its own terms, and scientific knowledge
profoundly authoritative. In consequence,
creating scope for the individuality of pupils to
come into play is difficult. these
characteristics of science challenge pupils
affectively and cognitively. They challenge
curriculum developers. It might even be said
that they are somewhat at odds with the tenor of
modern cultural life. (Donnelly, 2003 19)
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The central challenge for school science education

• To help students develop, and see the personal
  value of, an understanding of some key elements
  of a large body of consensually accepted
  knowledge
• which uses a framework of abstract concepts and
  ideas
• which do not emerge from experience, but need
  to be communicated by teachers and texts
• and which demand sustained engagement, attention
  to detail, careful reasoning and precise use of
  language
• whilst keeping open a space for students
  ideas, questions, creativity, imagination .

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Difficult , but not impossible

• To move towards improvement, we need
• Greater clarity, leading to greater consensus,
  about intended learning outcomes
• which requires that these be operationalised
• in terms of questions and tasks that we would
  like students to be able to accomplish
• and which will therefore provide evidence of
  successful learning
• Support for teachers in implementing teaching
  programmes that maximise the active mental
  engagement of students