Project Update Area
Queen's University, Belfast
Science Students in Primary Schools (SSIPS) Project
June 2002
The SSIPS Project started in September 2001 and aims to improve primary confidence and expertise in teaching science and technology.
The project comprised three phases:
Phase 1 - student placements in schools for science and technology teaching (half a day per week for ten weeks)
Phase 2 - focussed science workshops
Phase 3 - school development
Phases 1 and 2 are now complete and phase 3 is underway. We have collected evidence from confidence audits, teacher and student journals, individual interviews and participant observation.
So far we can report the following:
participant teachers have gained a lot more confidence in carrying out science and technology investigations. They have worked with students in the planning and teaching of a range of investigations
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some teachers, as a result of their increased confidence, have been successful in obtaining Science Year grants for their schools
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the students have gained a wealth of valuable experience in teaching science and technology. They have greatly enhanced their classroom management skills with the support of the classroom teachers
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students commented on their increased level of confidence as they embarked on their full-time school experience placement as a result of their participation in the project
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children enjoyed the investigative approach to science which was promoted by both participant teachers and students
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children enjoyed more individual attention in science lessons because of the extra 'teacher' in class
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one head teacher has changed the school approach to student placements as a result of participation in this project. She has seen the value of encouraging more joint planning by students and classroom teachers both before and during the placement
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one school, which is a recent amalgamation of a boys' and a girls' school, has developed a 'culture of science' since the project started. The participant teachers have produced schemes of work for the year groups involved. Next year the whole school science scheme will be completed.
Teachers working with us on the project realised the value of a team teaching approach, especially for investigative science. They felt that it allowed more quality time working with small groups of children. Team teaching also made it easier to assess what the children had learned through individual questioning. One teacher stated, "This is the way forward to teach science".
Non-participant schools can benefit from this project in many ways, for example:
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we will be producing subject video material showing examples of good investigative primary science teaching in practice
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we will also produce video material illustrating team teaching between classroom and student teachers to enhance the children's science experience
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subject materials from the science teacher workshops will be made available on the AZSTT Website. These will include ideas for investigative science teaching with both KS1 and KS2 children in the following areas:
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Light
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Sound
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Living things
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Forces
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Technology
There is also advice on using ICT in science teaching and whole-school planning for science.
We will publish guidelines for all schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who may wish to adopt this approach to initial teacher education. The approach involves specialist science student teachers carrying out a science-focused placement in school (in our project the placement is ½ day per week for about 10 weeks) working alongside a classroom teacher in the planning and teaching of investigative science as part of their methods course. Our results show that this scheme has provided enormous benefits for schools, students and children, as well as enhancing the links and partnerships between schools and HEIs.
For further information about this project please contact:
Dr Colette Murphy
c.a.murphy@qub.ac.uk
Head of External Relations and Publicity
Graduate School of Education
Queen's University, Belfast
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