Preparing a primary science or STEM inquiry unit plan

Unit planning is very important. It is something all teachers continue to do throughout their career as a teacher.

To me, unit plans are a great place for teachers to demonstrate their professionalism. To demonstrate their thinking, teachers should treat unit plans as dynamic accounts of their teaching, rather than static records of their intentions. Treating unit plans as dynamic accounts enables teachers to explain what they have done (for others or for the future), justify their plans and decisions, analyse the impact of their actions (for student learning), and evaluate their teaching.

I hope this post helps teachers to develop their unit plans as dynamic accounts and reflect on the purposes of planning and teaching.

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What is the role of curriculum? What makes a quality curriculum?

In a report released on Monday 27 November, 2023, educational reform consultancy Learning First claims to have conducted the first detailed benchmarking of the content of the Australian science curriculum against seven high-performing and comparable systems around the world.  

The claim that this is the first benchmarking activity is just one of many errors in the report, which is rife with unsubstantiated claims, incomplete evidence, and gross assumptions, the most disturbing of which is that more “content” is a key indicator of quality curriculum (with the implication that good teaching is all about transmission of content). 

Learning First is a company that claims to “build relationships… based on honesty, integrity and deep experience and expertise” and whose clients “include federal governments in various parts of the world.” Given their activities and clients, this report is worth scrutiny.  

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Is jelly a liquid or a solid? And why this is a great inquiry question

I’m a big fan of inquiry questions, and some in particular stand out as worth embedding in our teaching. One inquiry question (from the Year 3 year level description in the revised Australian Curriculum: Science) in particular — “Is jelly a liquid or a solid?” — stands out. It’s there to support learning of the Science understanding sub-strand Chemical sciences content description “investigate the observable properties of solids and liquids and how adding or removing heat energy leads to a change of state,” as well as several of the Science inquiry strand content descriptions. Read on to find out why this is such a useful question for driving learning in Year 3…

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You don't need a science degree to teach primary science

A science degree is not necessary for the effective teaching of science to young people. The scientific ideas suggested by the Australian Curriculum: Science can be understood by any interested member of the general population. And every primary teacher is not just any member of the general population! 

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The role of dialogic argumentation in science education for decision-making

A common rationale for science education is that learning science improves decision-making. It is argued that students will develop a strong understanding of the ideas and nature of science, which will inform their decisions. Toward this goal, science classroom activities aim to develop students’ scientific literacy, including their capacity to engage meaningfully with scientific ideas. Ideas about the nature of science are advanced through scientific inquiry, with emphasis on developing students’ capacity to articulate scientific explanations for phenomena. The success of this approach for developing students’ scientific literacy is demonstrated. However, evidence to support the success of this approach for students’ decision-making is scant.

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Certainty and open-mindedness in science

One of the hardest ideas about science to communicate is that we can never be absolutely certain in what it is we “know” through science. We must always be open-minded that our knowledge of the world might be wrong. However, the way that we teach science communicates certainty. This is a problem.

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Specialist science and maths teachers in primary schools are not the solution

One of the great strengths of a primary education is the opportunity to integrate content across subjects, and be flexible with when, where, and how to teach subjects, capabilities, and key ideas across the school week, term, and year.

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