Key Changes In Primary And Elementary Education: Study Science

The introduction of a broad science programme for all classes was one of the key changes in the revised Primary and Elementary School Curriculum of 2000 (Department of Education and Science, 2000a). This report presents the findings of an evaluation carried out in forty Primary and Elementary schools during 2009 that focused on how effectively the science curriculum was being implemented in classrooms and in schools.

Science was included in the Primary and Elementary School Curriculum in 2000 as one of three subjects in the area of Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE). Although some focus on Elementary Science had been included in the 1971 curriculum for senior pupils, the 2000 curriculum is significantly more comprehensive than the previous one in a number of respects. The curriculum requires teachers to implement the science programme from junior infants to eight class. It sets out a minimum weekly time allocation for each subject.

Science is allocated forty-five minutes per week in infant classes and one hour per week in all other classes. This contrasts with the 1971 curriculum, in which Elementary Science was included as a subject in fifth and sixth classes only. In practice, this element of the 1971 programme was not widely implemented. The science curriculum is structured so that pupils can learn about the biological and physical aspects of the world in four content strands: Living things, Energy and forces, Materials, and Environmental awareness and care.

The 1971 curriculum, in contrast, offered a limited range of topics for senior classes only. A key element of the 1971 Environmental Studies programme was ‘nature study’, which focused on animal and plant life in all classes. This programme was absorbed into the science curriculum under the strands, Living things and Environmental awareness and care.

However, the curriculum now requires pupils to adopt a scientific approach to the study of living things. While the 1971 curriculum emphasised the importance of learning through activity and discovery, this emphasis is more central to the 1999 curriculum. The curriculum now aims to develop scientific skills as well as understanding. Practical investigation is central to scientific activity and the curriculum emphasises the importance of providing pupils with opportunities to test and develop their ideas.

The science curriculum includes two further new emphases. Pupils in every class are introduced to technology through a specific technology section entitled Designing and making. Additional emphasis is also placed on the interrelationship between science, technology and the environment. As a result, the curriculum incorporates the strand unit Science and the environment which aims to develop the pupils’ understanding and appreciation of the ways in which science and technology can help us to use the Earth’s resources for the social, cultural and economic benefits of humanity.

Structure of the science curriculum

The science curriculum aims to develop two types of understanding among pupils: conceptual understanding and procedural understanding. Conceptual understanding refers to the pupils’ knowledge of the biological and physical aspects of the world. Procedural understanding refers to the pupils’ understanding of scientific procedures. These two forms of understanding are not developed independently. In particular, a secure understanding of scientific procedures is necessary for the on-going development of conceptual understanding.

Conceptual understanding

Pupils’ conceptual understanding is developed through the study of four areas or strands: Living things; Materials; Energy and forces; and Environmental awareness and care. Each strand includes several topics called strand units. These are shown in Table 1. 1. Teachers are required to complete work from each strand every year and work from each strand unit over every two-year period. The curriculum is often described as having a spiral structure. This refers to the fact that, as pupils progress from class to class, they revisit each topic, developing and refining their understanding. In the strand unit Forces, for example, pupils in the infant classes are enabled to predict whether an object will float or sink on the basis of the material from which it is made.

In first and second class, these pupils learn that the shape of the object is also a factor in floating and sinking. In third and fourth classes, they discover that objects float differently in fresh and salt water. In fifth and sixth classes the pupils begin to understand floating and sinking in terms of gravity and the opposing force exerted by water. Pupils’ procedural understanding is developed through two skills sections: Working scientifically and Designing and making. The curriculum emphasises thatwhat distinguishes a scientific activity from other forms of enquiry is not the sophistication of the ideas used but the process through which these ideas are developed. (Department of Education and Science, 1999b, p. 2) The section of the curriculum entitled Working scientifically presents a procedural model of how scientists work and outlines the various skills and knowledge that are required.

The skills to be developed by this section of the curriculum are

• Questioning
• Observing
• Predicting
• Investigating and experimenting
• Estimating and measuring 3
• Analysing
• Sorting and classifying
• Recognising patterns
• Interpreting
• Recording and communicating results.

The development of the pupils’ understanding of what constitutes ‘a fair test’ is particularly important. Pupils learn that in order for a test to be fair, there are always certain things that must be kept the same. For example, when testing various brands of kitchen paper to find out which is most absorbent, pupils learn that the size of the sheet of paper and the volume of water used are among the variables that must be controlled if the results are to be accurate. The curriculum envisages that pupils in middle and senior classes will be enabled to design and conduct their own investigations, controlling relevant variables. This involves pupils in formulating the question to be answered by the investigation and making key decisions about the investigative procedure to be followed.

The skills of Working scientifically are included also in the Geography curriculum under the heading Geographical investigation skills. Designing and making is the technology component of the curriculum. Designing and making aims to provide children with an understanding of the technological process and the ability to apply their scientific skills and knowledge in solving practical problems. Exploring, planning, making and evaluating are the four key elements in Designing and making. It is important that pupils are enabled to work independently in this process, particularly in the middle and senior classes. Designing and making “should provide the children with the scope to generate their own designs and the freedom to devise their own solutions to problems” (Department of Education and Science, 1999b, p. 134).

Principles of learning in the science curriculum

The science curriculum and the accompanying Teacher Guidelines highlight certain key principles that form the basis for effective learning and teaching in Science. These principles provided a significant focus for this evaluation.

Children’s ideas as the starting point

The constructivist philosophy underpins the science curriculum and it emphasises that the child’s existing knowledge and experience form the base for subsequent learning. All science activities should begin with the teacher eliciting the pupils’ existing ideas on the topic. Meaningful learning occurs when the pupils construct their understanding by modifying their existing ideas in the light of new insights gained from scientific investigations. Thus, Science may be seen as the active process of the personal construction of meaning and understanding. (Department of Education and Science, 1999a, p. 7) The teacher’s main role, therefore, is to identify the pupils’ existing ideas on a particular topic and to enable them to test and develop these ideas in a scientific manner. The assessment of changes in pupils’ concepts and skills is an on-going feature of the constructivist approach.

Practical investigations

The importance of activity and discovery methods has been accepted as a key principle in Irish Primary and Elementary education since 1971. In the context of Science, it means that pupils should be given opportunities to test and develop their ideas about the physical world through hands-on, practical problem-solving activities and open-ended investigations.

The local environment

The child’s immediate environment provides the main context for learning across all four strands of the curriculum. The local environment is a particularly valuable resource for learning in Living things. Local habitats are the most appropriate place to start learning about plants and animals. Schools are encouraged to use the habitats that are available locally and to create new habitats in the school grounds. The environment should also be developed and used as a resource for learning in the other three content strands and the skills sections of the curriculum.