The Science of Teaching Science

The media has been recently debating the issue as to whether primary school teachers are equipped with the necessary skills to teach science.  Science is deemed by some to be a ‘specialist’ subject; one which ‘generalist’ primary teachers should not be teaching in the classroom. Science is not purely a subject in which fun experiments are conducted, but it develops students’ skills of questioning and exploring, as well as their natural sense of curiosity, in a safe and supportive environment. Due to the poor academic performance of Australian schools in the science area, specialist teachers are being brought in to teach science as opposed to the regular classroom teacher. The short answer is that primary teachers are primed and equipped to teach science in their own classroom and they certainly should do so.

   Why? Well, firstly, primary teachers know their students. They know what engages them, how they learn best and how to manage them. If a specialist teacher were brought in with the sole purpose of teaching science, then they would not understand the students as well as the regular classroom teacher. Additionally, there would be no integration of science into other areas of the curriculum, such as maths and literacy, as the specialist teacher would have no knowledge of  the content been taught in other subject areas, while the regular classroom teacher would have no knowledge of what was being taught in science.

   Secondly, teachers and students do not need a high level of maths knowledge in order to teach or learn science. Dr Desmond Murray (2013) states that ‘the fact is in most of science people don’t use much more mathematics than a grocery store clerk’. Teaching science is not outside what any literate adult already knows or understands. Science is not about using maths to solve complex problems, but is more about questioning and investigating the world around us. It is not merely for ‘smart’ people, but for everyone. However, if a specialist science teacher is brought into the classroom to teach science, then the idea that only smart people can teach science is implemented in the minds of the students. If their own teacher is not ‘smart’ enough to teach them science, then are they smart enough to learn it?

   Yes of course they are! Why? Because, thirdly, students are naturally curious and it is the role of the teacher to build upon these curiosities. Teachers do not need to have a PhD in physics or a Master’s degree in Chemistry in order to teach a subject that is designed to nurture the valuable human trait of curiosity. Scientists themselves are not geniuses, they are just simply, according to Dr Desmond Murray (2013), ‘equipped with the powers of innate curiosity like every other human’. In the subject of science, the students take the lead, often investigating their own questions and explaining results and outcomes in their own words. In fact, the very first aim in the Australian Curriculum (2015) for science is to expand the students’ ‘curiosity and willingness to explore, ask questions about and speculate on the changing world in which they live’. The job of the teacher, therefore, is not to stand out the front of the classroom and lecture about the laws of motion or the life-cycle of a butterfly, but to merely act as a facilitator as the students take charge of their own learning. It is the students who do most of the teaching, not the teacher.

   Finally, teachers have multiple high quality teaching resources at their disposal to assist them in their confidence to teach science. One of the many reasons primary teachers do not teach science in their classroom is a lack of confidence in their own ability. Often this lack of confidence arises from the teacher’s own science experiences in their schooling days, such as them having a poor teacher, or even not being taught science at all. For some, it is merely the fact that they have not been taught science for a number of years. I am lucky in this regard as I loved science in school and studied it all through my high school years.  Furthermore, there certainly seems to be a strong focus on the ‘more important’ subjects in the school curriculum, such as maths and literacy as a result of the NAPLAN testing. As a pre-service teacher, I certainly find this to be true as I have one semester on science, combined with design, while I have several which focus on teaching mathematics and literacy. To combat this, the Primary Connections series was developed by the Australian Academy of Science to support teachers in teaching science. The series is fully aligned with the Australian Curriculum and aims to enhance the teacher’s science confidence and competence. The series focuses on the Foundation to Year 6 science curriculums with a total of 34 units available. Each unit includes detailed lesson plans as well as all the necessary resources needed for the topic. It also contains ideas for integration into other learning areas; something that you would not get if there were a ‘specialist’ science teacher. Furthermore, every teacher (In service and Pre-service) will have easy access to the Primary Connections series as every Government school was given a full set of the units and they are also free to download off of the Scootle website.

Primary school teachers certainly have the necessary resources and ability to teach science in their own classrooms. What they are missing, however, is confidence in their ability; something which will certainly be boosted thanks to the Primary Connections resources. You do not have to be a genius in order to teach science, but you do need to understand your students and how they learn, which I believe every primary school teacher certainly does. In the end, it is from providing the best educational environment for your students to thrive which achieves the best results. I, for one, feel confident and competent to teach science in my very own classroom one day.

References

Murray, Dr Desmond (2013) ‘The Myths of Teaching Science and Their Consequences’. Benton-Michiana Spirit Newspaper August 13, 2013 pg.7. Retrieved on September 16 2015 from http://flo.flinders.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1472323/mod_resource/content/1/Myths%20and%20Consequences%20of%20Teaching%20Science.pdf

Australian Curriculum (2015) ‘Science Curriculum Aims’. Retrieved on September 22 2015 from www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/science/aims