Integrated approach a big winner
An innovative scheme to boost science teaching in Australian primary schools by making it part of literacy programmes is having a big impact on the nation's teachers, pupils and schools.
Called Primary Connections, the programme embeds scientific principles into literacy teaching in a whole-of-school approach so that science becomes an integral part of learning.
The scheme incorporates professional development for teachers, background information, practical classroom ideas and activities, and assessment guidelines.
Pupil interactions and use of technology, including CD-ROMs and website support, give teachers confidence in a subject that most have not studied beyond the last year of school.
The programme is sponsored by the Australian Academy of Science in partnership with the federal Education Department.
Fellow of the academy and dean of science at the University of Melbourne, Professor John McKenzie, said the results of initial trials of the programme were 'spectacular'.
'In primary schools if you try to embed a science programme into the curriculum you're probably doomed to fail because their focus is on literacy and numeracy,' he said. 'But by putting science modules into the literacy programme, kids learn about science while also learning to read. This has had an amazingly successful outcome.'
Last year, eight units from the Primary Connections curriculum resource underwent trials in schools and were then refined for use this year. The units span all years of primary school and map the four strands of the national curriculum: life and living, Earth and beyond, energy and change, and natural and processed materials.
Many of the more than 100 teachers in the trial had low confidence about their ability to teach science but the programme significantly boosted their confidence.
'[The programme] increased the amount of time devoted to science teaching and science moved from being an afternoon-only subject to one taught across mornings and afternoons as science and literacy teaching were integrated,' a programme report said.
Professor McKenzie said student-directed investigation allowed students and teachers to share the passion 'of the climb and the excitement of scientific discovery and reaching understanding by doing'.
The number of students studying science at university had fallen nearly 30 per cent in the five years after 2000 while enrolments in chemistry and advanced mathematics among final year secondary students had dropped more than 40 per cent.
'For the national good and international competitiveness, we must insist on innovative curricula and signals that encourage students to participate in mathematics and science at every level of education,' Professor McKenzie said.
In October, Primary Connections won the 2006 Australian Publishers Association Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing in the primary teaching category.
