Learning and Teaching Primary Science

Preface

When I first started the development of this book, my intent was to deliver a ‘good news story’ about primary science learning and teaching. The focus was to tap into what primary school teachers characteristically do really well – that is, create conditions for meaningful learning – and apply this lens to the science learning area. This, in fact, is not a difficult job. Science sits comfortably in primary classrooms because as a discipline it requires a sense of curiosity and creativity; it promotes questioning and invites critical examination; it has the potential to spark the interest of an individual, but also requires a collaborative approach. Essentially, the learning of science is perfectly suited to the ways in which primary school teachers already approach their practice and nurture student learning. However, such rich approaches have been continually challenged by age-old traditions which perpetuate the idea that school-based science learning and teaching should be about a teacher delivering content as a series of indisputable facts for students to memorise and regurgitate. As a result, teachers have been lead to believe, particularly through their own educational experiences, that this teacher-directed model is how science should be learnt and taught. Unfortunately, compliance with this thinking has produced a version of school science that is largely out of step with the ways scientists actually practise science, and with the ways in which we best learn.

This book aims to open up and challenge primary school teachers to rethink such traditional approaches to science learning and teaching. Whether they are at the start of their journey to becoming a teacher or towards the end of their career, the book encourages all primary teachers to reconnect with pedagogy that enhances effective learning in science. At the heart of the stories presented here is a belief that primary teachers can move beyond traditional notions about what science in schools should be, to recognising that what they currently value in their teaching practices is applicable and relevant to what science learning and teaching could be.