3/4 -Week 7 - KK Question and Answer

How does school /community culture infleunce instruction in science in K-12?

Over the past few years some schools are moving on improving their science instruction by expanding their science offerings to lower primary school grades and by aligning these offerings from K-12. As such, science is becoming a key focus area for primary schools. The reaction from school principals has been mixed. Some have embraced the opportunity to expand and deepen the learning opportunities for science for their teachers and students. Some have cited the crowded curriculum as an issue preventing exploration of science curriculum within their sites. And others have been angry that they are expected to stretch resources, already strained by the need for literacy and numeracy support, to cover another learning area, especially in schools where very little science has been taught in the past and foundational work will be needed to support change. Thus the culture of a school may be one of positive embrace of science, status quo or down right rejection of science.
Parents’ views range from the belief that science education in the early years is of paramount importance, to believing that science should be taught only in secondary schools and that it should be the acquisition of reams of facts – perhaps a reflection of their own science education. Parents’ views are powerful drivers of school culture through school councils, participation in classroom activities and other formal and informal interactions with teachers and school leaders. Any teacher seeking to change the way science is taught and learned in primary schools will need to pay attention to the views of the extended community and work with parents in particular to foster the very best science education outcomes for our young people.
When asking quite a few teachers when they taught science during the week the answer has often been that it is scheduled in the afternoons, when students are restless, and that it will entertain them, and that it might be dropped from the program if other imperatives arise.
A common culture in school timetabling structures is that literacy and math tend to be taught in the mornings and other subject areas, perhaps deemed to be less important, are taught in afternoons.
During a recent conversation about primary science education, a classroom teacher commented that the majority of teachers in our primary schools have an arts or humanities background. Low confidence in teaching science through teachers’ perceptions of their lack of knowledge in the subject is often cited as a reason not to teach science.
Perhaps a culture in which it is regarded as being acceptable to learn with students rather than know all facts and skills before them may support and promote higher participation by both teachers and young people in scientific investigations through an inquiry approach.