Panel session: Practical work in a post-Covid era

Speakers: 

David Montagu, Senior Policy Adviser, Royal Society (Chair) 

Steve Jones, Director, CLEAPSS 

Alistair Moore, Research Fellow, University of York Science Education Group 

Caroline Neuberg, Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education, Leeds Trinity University 

Ed Walsh, Science Education Consultant, Ed Walsh Consulting 

This was one of several sessions at this year’s Annual Conference to focus on the findings of the 2023 Science Education Tracker (SET).  

The particular focus of this session were findings in the SET regarding practical science. These include that between 2016 and 2023 there was a significant reduction in young people’s access to opportunities to engage in hands-on practical science, a trend that became more pronounced between 2019 and 2023. Students were also increasingly less likely to watch a teacher demonstrate a practical. By contrast, SET shows there has been a significant increase in the use of videos of practicals, particularly since 2019. In fact, it appears that young people are now more likely to watch a video of a practical than to carry out a practical activity themselves. This is deeply concerning because taking part in high quality hands-on practical science is vital for developing: 

• a wide range of technical and transferable skills; 

• for developing conceptual understanding; 

• for understanding how science works; and 

• as other SET findings show, for motivating students to study science. 

These, and other relevant findings (see the accompanying slides), formed the backdrop to a discussion in which experts with a wealth of experience in science education reflected on the accelerating decline of hands-on practical work and put forward their ideas of how we might address this in our schools and colleges.  

In addition to the specific negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on science education, it was suggested that the decline in hands-on practical science resulted from teacher shortages in some subject areas (caused by persistent under-recruitment and poor retention), shortages of science technicians, the fact that there are now many less experienced teachers and technicians, and greater pressures on school budgets.  

In addition to combating these issues, the panelists proposed that restoring the status of hands-on practical science would require: 

• recognition, as recent research has shown, that watching a video of a practical is less effective than carrying out hands-on practical work or watching a teacher demonstration in helping students learn science; 

• developing a culture within the teaching workforce, based on well-established principles for running successful hands-on practical classes, that practical science should be Guided, Active and Purposeful, and geared to achieving specific, desired, learning outcomes that can be recorded and celebrated. 

• encouraging teachers to innovate and learn through reflective practice, understanding that effective practical learning requires engaging heads, hearts and hands.