Learning objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Introduce high-quality, effective Earth and space sciences learning and teaching opportunities in the primary classroom;
Address any concerns about content knowledge and pedagogical confidence when implementing an Earth and space sciences program;
Ensure that scientific integrity is not compromised when learning and teaching Earth and space sciences in socially relevant contexts; and
Enhance primary school students’ and teachers’ scientific critical inquiry skills and scientific literacy regarding Earth and space sciences.
Introduction
When we first start learning how to teach, it seems that confident primary school teachers have a bag of tricks that they dip into to help them teach specific aspects of science. It follows that if these teachers simply shared this bag of tricks with us, it would be easier for us to teach science too. Initially we feel that if we are confident, engaging, well-informed, and armed with a number of different strategies, then we can teach science well. It doesn’t take us long to realise that even if these teachers swamped us with resources we would be only marginally better prepared than we were before. This is because, even though we have a pivotal role in conceptualising, creating, coordinating, implementing, scaffolding, assessing and evaluating learning and teaching experiences, it is only when we focus on our students’ interests, desires and existing ideas and skills that we can figure out which approaches might actually work.
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