Trust Projects

An action research partnership to enhance learning in science focusing on the KS2/3 transition

This innovative project will seek to answer the overarching research question:
‘Is action research an effective strategy for enhancing pupils’ engagement in science education?’
Despite increased attention being paid to curriculum and pedagogic issues in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education there is still a national concern that pupils’ STEM skills need to be improved in order to provide employers with the skills they need in their workforce, maintain the UK’s global competitiveness and make the UK a world-leader in science-based research and development. To address this concern teachers of science have the clear but often difficult task of persuading their pupils that science is exciting and worth studying. This is the issue that is addressed by the proposal outlined below.
 

Overview

The project will build on previous research at SELL in the ESRC/TLRP project 'Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education' and promote pupils’ engagement in science by helping teachers to transform the learning culture in their science classrooms. The project intends to develop teachers’ knowledge of science pedagogy through engagement in action research which seeks to bridge the gap between research-based knowledge and practice. 

The setting is the largest comprehensive school in England (Exmouth Community College, ECC) and its 14 feeder schools. Action research begins with a ‘reconnaissance phase’ to examine potential actions that can be taken. This process has already begun through discussion with many of the key personnel in ECC (members of the Senior Management Team and Science Department), the science co-ordinator in a large feeder school and the Exmouth Learning Community (Head of ECC and all the feeder primary schools). These discussions have identified some exciting lines of inquiry that teachers are very enthusiastic to explore. These include:

• innovative plans to develop and act on pupil voice to plan the content of science lessons so that they better engage pupils’ interests;
• improved communication between ECC and its feeder schools through construction of a project website to enable the schools to share resources and discuss ideas about pedagogy in an electronic forum;
• development of a novel scheme in which able year 9 pupils plan and teach lessons to year 6 pupils in each of the feeder schools. The latter idea has generated particular enthusiasm since it has the potential to encourage social links between older and younger pupils that could be maintained as the pupils move through the school. The older pupils with particular enthusiasm for science could act as mentors to the younger pupils, potentially influencing their subject choices and encouraging them to pursue an interest in science.

Action research follows a ‘Plan, Act, Observe, Reflect’ cycle. The role of the University tutors will be to act as collaborative consultants who facilitate meetings, provide suggestions for further reading and possible actions and help to devise appropriate questionnaires, observation and interview schedules. The teachers will be responsible for deciding on the detailed action taken.

 

Aims

Aim 1: Improvement in teachers’ knowledge of science pedagogy and how to use pupil voice and peer mentoring scheme to enhance engagement and learning. 

Outcomes
Lesson plans, resources and interventions which:
• Build on research findings concerning pupil.
• Build on best practice in peer mentoring schemes.
• Promote engagement through building on existing knowledge about KS2/3 transition and enhancement of learning.
• Build on best practice in action research e.g. through recognizing that it is a form of interpretive research which is transferable to other contexts when actions are based on theory and its findings are re-interpreted according to the new context.

Aim 2: Improvement in pupils’ experience, enjoyment, engagement and attainment in science.

Outcomes
 Evidence of positive impact of the materials and interventions outlined above gained from questionnaires, interviews and lesson observations within an action research framework.
 Lesson plans and resources devised by Y9 pupils which provide stimulating learning for y6 pupils.
 Evidence that Y6 pupils and Y9 pupils develop their understanding of and engagement in science gained from questionnaires, interviews and lesson observations.
 Evidence from questionnaires and interviews conducted when participating pupils have moved into y7 and y10 that their engagement in science has been enhanced by the project.
 Evidence of a positive attitude to continuing to study science post-16 in the y9 pupils participating in the project.

Aim 3: Development of mutually beneficial links between teachers within the Exmouth Learning Community and with Science Educators at the University of Exeter.

Outcomes
 Sharing of ideas by primary and secondary teachers about good practice in KS2 and KS3 science teaching through contributing resources and plans to a website and engagement in e-discussion about these contributions
 Sustained and substantial long term improvement in the practice of science teaching in participating schools through establishment of a connected learning community that promotes dialogue between teachers’ professional craft knowledge and HEI research-based knowledge.

 

Programme

Participating schools will be divided into groups: a ‘central’ group (ECC + three of the larger feeder primary schools) and three ‘satellite’ groups each made up of three or four of the remaining feeder schools linked with a central group feeder school.

Evaluation

The internal evaluator will monitor all stages of the project as set out below.
Autumn Term 2009
• Evaluation of the planning and dissemination meetings through attending the central meeting and one of the peripheral dissemination meetings
• Critical appraisal of the plans devised.
• Critical scrutiny of the conclusions drawn from the pupil questionnaires and interviews focusing on pupil voice and peer mentoring and their relationship to the teaching and learning of science.
• Critical appraisal of the project website.

Spring term 2010
• Evaluation of the action research projects devised by a selection of participants.
• Monitoring the development of the project website.

Summer term 2010
• Observation to evaluate a sample of lessons designed to prepare the y9 pupils for peer teaching.
• Observations to evaluate the actual peer teaching sessions.
• Critical appraisal of the impact of this intervention through discussion with a sample of the teachers and pupils involved.
• Continued monitoring of the project website
• Critical evaluation of the project meeting held at the end of the term and the representation of the project findings as set out in the first interim report.

Autumn term 2010

• Critical evaluation of the final project meeting and the representation of the project findings as set out in the second interim report.

Additional

Outline Dissemination Plan:

• Resources, lesson plans and the good practice in science teaching and learning which develops out of the project will be made available through developing the project website into an open access site that could be linked on other appropriate sites e.g. the AZSTT site, the ASE website, the DCSF website.
• Papers for both academic and professional journals will be written and presented at both academic and professional conferences and submitted for publication in appropriate journals.

Contact

Dr Nigel Skinner - Contact e-mail N.C.Skinner@exeter.ac.uk