Connotation Of Science

Surrounding the subject of science, there are a number of damaging pre-conceived ideas from both pupils and teachers on the teaching of science. However, more recently there has been literature to help quash these ideas, Clegg (2007:2) states that “Science ought to inspire a sense of wonder”, which as a subject, because of its nature, it has the opportunity to do. The connotations of science include closed questions and right and wrong answers, this is not what science is, it involves a lot more speculation and varying answers. Children get a lot of enjoyment out of the practical nature of science and being able to find out something new. Such work motivates them to find out more and collaborate in their learning (Loxley et al, 2014: 4), this

However, teaching science does not come without its difficulties, in relation to the ‘Thinking, Talking, Doing science’ initiative in primary science, teachers may have difficulty constructing lessons to successfully do that, especially thinking of an engaging practical, if their previous experience is negative or lacking. Science can also be a challenging subject to teach because of the pre-conceived ideas that are attached to the subject. This automatically creates a negative atmosphere around the subject in a classroom, “one of the problems that persist is that children continue to align science with masculinity” (Cervoni and Ivinson, 2010). As a teacher, it is important that these ideas are proven wrong, as that will have an influence on their attainment and success in the subject. This also projects to their prospective futures in science, girls should be given equal opportunity to have a science career and it should be possible to change a pupil’s mind on what they

The optimum wait-time to let children think is five seconds after you have asked them a question. In practice, most teachers only allow a two second waiting time and this therefore significantly reduces the amount of thinking they are able to do, decreasing the quality of their answers (Clarke, 2001:87). In a subject like science, where children generally have limited experience of it in school, the thinking time is vital to allow further thinking and developing questions they have on the topic. It is the questions that they think of which will inspire further want to learn, and encourage them to enjoy finding out new information. It is less important for them to have the exact answer, but more important that they have thought about it and are ready to ask relevant questions to focus the learning. The ‘Thinking, Talking, Doing science” project, has suggestions to promote extending thinking and “The Big Question” (Education Endowment Foundation, 2015) is a good example of how the project focuses children to thinking further and more out the box for answers, which instantly inspires them to be more involved in science. When planning for thinking opportunities, a good place to start would be to involve one of these extended thinking questions in the starter of the lesson, as this sets the mood for inquisitive thinking. As well as “The Big