This week the Education Endowment Foundation have released its new ‘Improving Primary Science’ guidance report . This report makes several recommendations on ways primary schools can improve the teaching of science.

These recommendations are:

• Develop pupil’s scientific vocabulary
• Encourage pupils to explain their thinking whether verbally or in written form
• Guide pupils to work scientifically
• Relate new learning to relevant real-world contexts
• Use assessment to support teaching and responsive teaching
• Strengthen science teaching through effective professional development, as part of an implementation process.

I’ve attempted to summarise the key points from the report below. Read the full guide for much more detail on each of these points.

1. Develop pupil’s scientific vocabulary

1. Identify science-specific vocabulary.
2. Explicitly teach new vocabulary and its meaning, creating opportunities for repeated engagement and use over time.
   

Identify Science-Specific Vocabulary

Tier 1: Words that are encountered every day

Polysemous: Words that have an everyday meaning and a scientific meaning

Tier 2: Words that are important across many science topics

Tier 3: Words that are specific to a science topic

Explicitly teach new vocabulary and its meaning, creating opportunities for repeated engagement and use over time.

•             Model the use of the new word in context
•             Create context for words that need to be learned
•             Expose Pupils to new Vocabulary across all literacy activities
•             Use vocabulary approaches that promote rich language connections

2. Encourage Pupils to Explain their thinking whether verbally or in written form

a. Create a collaborative learning environment.
b. Capitalise on the power of dialogue.
c. Cultivate reasoning and justification.

Create a collaborative learning environment

Talk Behaviours

•             Support the development of listening skills where needed
•             Take turns to contribute
•             Respect others views and ideas

Expectation Setting

•             Establish clear expectations around participation

Task Design

•             Design tasks that encourage participation
•             Consider group sizes
•             Scaffolding for some pupils

Capitalise on the power of dialogue

•             Plan key questions and discussion points in advance
•             Use strategic follow-up questions to guide dialogue
•             Balance teacher and pupil voice

Cultivate reason and justification

•             Explain -> Discuss -> Re-explain
•             Odd One Out
•             Concept Cartoons

3. Guide pupils to work scientifically

The seven-step model provides a useful framework to support pupils towards becoming independent scientists who can work scientifically by:

• explicitly teaching the knowledge, skills, and processes required to work scientifically;
• guiding pupils to apply this in practice;
• incorporating opportunities for discussion and reflection.

The seven step model:

1. Activating prior knowledge
   a. Link learning to prior knowledge
   b. Identify what pupils already know
   c. What you have taught previously
   d. What they need to know to access the lesson
2. Explicit strategy instruction
   a. Be clear what the learning intentions are
   b. Address common misconceptions
3. Modelling of learned strategy
   a. Build understanding through demonstrations
   b. Model expected behaviour or thinking
   c. Provide examples, partially-worked examples or non-examples
4. Memorisation of strategy
   a. Check if pupils have understood
   b. E.g. Low stakes quizzes
5. Guided practice
   a. Introduce practical work to reinforce learning, encourage recall or deepen understanding while developing skills to work scientifically
   b. Ensure you have clear idea of the learning outcomes of the practical work and how you know this has been achieved
6. Independent practice
   a. Reduce support so pupils can work more independently
7. Structured reflection
   a. Provide opportunities for pupils to summarise what they’ve learned and receive feedback.

4. Relate new learning to relevant real-world contexts

a. Consider real-world contexts
b. Engage with science concepts supported by virtual models.

Consider real-world contexts

Use applications of science and real-world contexts that support pupils to develop an understanding of science, demonstrate its purpose, and show its relevance to them by connecting it to pupils’ experiences, the local context, or wider contexts.

• What is it you want pupils to know/understand/do?
• Does the context support this? How?
• Are there potential challenges with this context? A risk of unfamiliarity or misunderstanding?
• When and how should you introduce the key concepts, processes or skills you are trying to teach in relation to the context?
• What connections does this context have with the wider curriculum? How can you make these connections explicit?
• How can you consolidate learning from the context?

Engage with Science Concepts supported by Virtual Models

Scientific phenomena can sometimes be complex and hard to visualise. A model is a way of representing these concepts in a simplified and accessible way to make it easier to comprehend.

Virtual models relate to the real world by making an abstract idea, concept, or process visible.

Consider:

Does the virtual model accurately represent the scientific concept being taught?

What are the limitations of the virtual model?

Does the virtual model offer clear, visually appealing, and relatable representations of the concept making it accessible to pupils? Does the virtual model provide interactivity and engagement for pupils?

5. Use assessment to support teaching and responsive teaching

a. Plan teaching that builds on existing knowledge and experiences.
b. Monitor pupils’ learning to inform responsive teaching, feedback and next steps.
c. Summarise what pupils have learned against planned criteria.

Plan teaching that builds on existing knowledge and experiences.

• Recognise what you want to assess
• Reveal their understanding
• Respond in your planning

Monitor pupils’ learning to inform responsive teaching, feedback and next steps.

• Clarify, share and understand learning intentions and success criteria
• Elicit evidence of learning
• Reflect on any teaching adjustments

Summarise what pupils have learned against planned criteria.

• See TAPS for guidance on school assessment
• TAPS uses information from formative assessment, collected over time, to inform summative reporting which evaluates pupils’ overall understanding at the end of a unit, term, or year.
• The approach can be summarised using its pyramid tool, which provides a framework to help schools evaluate and develop their primary science assessment processes using a ‘formative to summative’ model of assessment across the school.

6. Strengthen science teaching through effective professional development, as part of an implementation process.

a. Use a range of information to identify development priorities and professional learning needs.
b. Consider factors of high-quality professional development to plan or evaluate provision.
c. Reflect on senior leadership support at the strategic to classroom level.

Use a range of information to identify development priorities and professional learning needs.

• Which areas of pupils’ science learning need strengthening? What evidence is there for these?
• Which aspects of science teaching are teachers finding most challenging? Is this reflected in pupils’ learning?
• Are teachers using assessment effectively in science lessons? How is this impacting teaching?
• Do teaching plans and content support delivery of a well-sequenced curriculum?
• Which areas of improvement will be most impactful to pupils’ learning?
• Does the support required for this align with senior leadership strategic goals or the school development plan?

Consider factors of high-quality professional development to plan or evaluate provision.

High quality professional development should:

• build knowledge—consider the amount of information that can be reasonably handled in one go and revisit learning to support recall of the approach or topic;
• motivate staff—empower teachers to set their own goals to achieve as an outcome of the training and demonstrate a robust supporting evidence-base so they can trust it; once implemented, positive reinforcement can encourage continuation;
• develop teaching techniques—show teachers how to integrate the approach into their practice using modelling, rehearsal, peer support, and delivery, with feedback, to hone technique;
• embed practice—support purposeful plans and accountability, to use techniques, monitor progress, and reinforce implementation, so it becomes second nature.

Reflect on senior leadership support at the strategic to classroom level.

Ways in which a science lead can be supported are:

• science is included in the school development plan;
• science features on the school’s professional development plan;
• science leads have appropriate time to fulfil their leader role;
• science leads are able to access science-specific professional development to support their role;
• systems and processes empower science leaders to support teachers and monitor need