Good Practical Science: Planning for progression

The starting point for the session was to suggest that we expect students to have developed a degree of proficiency in practical science by the age of 16, not only in terms of being able to follow instructions and manipulate equipment but also to understand the processes of enquiry.  In particular ity is useful to pose these questions: 

• How well are these skills being developed from KS2? 

• Is KS3 doing its job in terms of continuing this development? 

• Are skills being targeted effectively in the investigations being carried out? 

It is useful to refer to the report ‘Good Practical Science’ (Gatsby, 2017); in this five purposes for conducting practical work are identified.  One of the key assertions of the ASE project that followed this report was that practical work is more effective if teachers rein in the number of intended learning outcomes they expect practical work to achieve but also that they provide a ‘wrap around offer’ with explicit teaching beforehand and follow up assessment to drive home those key points. 

We reviewed the programmes of study for upper KS2 and for KS3 to see how the latter progresses from the former and then to ask whether the practical work we get students to do in KS3 reflects this supposed increase in challenge.  If students are encouraged to explore questions such as: 

• Does the data fit what we expected? 

• What is the relationship between …? 

• What is the pattern in the data? 

• How could we measure …? 

… then it inducts them more effectively into the levels of understanding that will support better outcomes by the end of KS4. 

Our discussion focused on: 

1. We can’t assume that students will acquire skills and understanding by a kind of osmosis – just being in a room where equipment is being used.   

2. We need to make the processes explicit and can do this by considering factors such as the vocabulary used, the questions asked and the implications of the enquiry explored.