Regarding lower school science

I have experience of both scenarios.

For me, the advantages of 'separate science' teaching are in use of subject
specialist teachers. ie chemists, biologists and physicists teaching their own
disciplines.

It is much easier to avoid introduction of misconceptions when teaching a
subject that you also teach up to A level/18. As a chemistry teacher, I can
avoid some of the crazy KS3 National Curriculum ideas (eg solubility always
increases with temperature, chemical changes are irreversible, particles in a
liquid have spaces inbetween them etc.) When I have taught physics and biology
to KS3 I am sure I have been less effective. I might have covered the
curriculum, but not set the best foundation for GCSE, A level and beyond.

So many KS3/NC curriculum resources - text books etc are packed with errors and
misconceptions. When teaching out of your own subject area, the tendency is to
rely much more on these resources and to be less discriminatory about what and
how you teach.

The challenge for all us science teachers is to simplify content without helping
pupils build models based on misconceptions. Pupils hate it when GCSE and A
level teachers subsequently tell them to 'unlearn' previously held ideas.

For these reasons I would advocate 'subject specialists' teaching chem, Phys and
Bio from Y7/age 11,.

Gail Lydford
----- Original Message -----
From: layhomer
To: learning-science-concepts@...
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 12:16 PM
Subject: LSC: lower school science



Has any any views or research on the benefits of Lower school science
compared to separatres science teacing.

We currently teach sciences separately throughout the school. We
will be discussing whether science should be taught lower down. But
to help with this decision I would like to receive
views/experiences/actual research.


Many thanks


andrew hammersley





About this list:

Purpose: an international forum for discussing aspects of learning in science,
and for circulating news about publications, projects, etc., related to this
theme.

Membership: open to teachers at any level, researchers into learning in
science and related fields, and any others interested in the topic.

This list gives you the choice of receiving e-mails individually, or as a
single daily digest of all messages circulated that day.

homepage:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts/
bookmarks to other sites:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts/links
bibliography on learning in science
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts/files/

This list is a moderated discussion group (ie postings are vetted for
relevance to the group theme).

Moderator: Dr. Keith Taber, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html


to join an un-moderated general science education discussion list, please
visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/science-education/




Yahoo! Groups Sponsor



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links

a.. To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts/

b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
learning-science-concepts-unsubscribe@...

c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]