The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools

Wynne Harlen, OBE, PhD, has been involved in teaching and research in science education, evaluation and pupil assessment throughout her long career, during which time she has been Sidney Jones Professor of Science Education at the University of Liverpool, UK and Director of the Scottish Council for Research in Education.

Now in its seventh edition, this evaluation of the essentials of teaching primary science relates practice to up-to-date research accessibly.

Part 1: Compelling Reasons for Teaching Science in Primary Schools Chapter 1: The importance of primary school science Chapter 2: Primary school science curricula in the UK Chapter 3: Primary science in action Chapter 4: Experiences for learning science Part 2: About Children's Learning Chapter 5: What we know about children's learning Chapter 6: Children's ideas Chapter 7: Learning through talking Chapter 8: Learning through inquiry Chapter 9: Learning with ICT Part 3: The Teacher's Roles Chapter 10: Teachers' and children's questions Chapter 11: Helping progression in scientific ideas Chapter 12: Helping progerssion in inquiry skills Chapter 13: Teaching for enjoyment, motivation and scientific attitudes Part 4: Assessment and Learning Chapter 14: Assessment purposes Chapter 15: Gathering evidence to help learning Chapter 16: Interpreting and using evidence for feedback Chapter 17: Children's role in formative assessment Chapter 18: Summative assessment and reporting Part 5: Planning Environments for Learning Science Chapter 19: School level planning Chapter 20: Class level planning Chapter 21: Sources and resources for practical inquiry Chapter 22: Providing for leanring outside the classroom Chapter 23: Inclusive science education Part 6: Formative Evaluation of Practie Chapter 24: Evaluating provision at the class level Chapter 25: Evaluating provision at the school level Chapter 26: Enhancing provision for children's learning in science Questions for discussion