Should science be taught in primary schools?

Kerr, Jack; Engel, Elizabeth

doi:10.1080/03004278085200021

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The limited success of these projects and the subsequent emergence of a greater concern for content in the planning of the primary science curriculum is well documented in the literature (e.g. Harlen, 1978;Black, 1980;Kerr & Engel, 1980), and need not be repeated here. The publication of the DES policy document Science 5-16 (DES, 1985) marked official government recognition of the importance of content and this, of course, is now manifest in the National Curriculum proposals.…”

Section: Rationale and Significancementioning

confidence: 90%

“…(DES, 1978) Since then, this same problem has been noted by numerous other commentators. Whittaker (1983), for example, states that "Too little attention has been paid to helping teachers to identify their own levels of understanding in science", while Kerr & Engel (1980) suggest that to ignore the low level of scientific training of many primary teachers "is simply escapist". More recently, paragraph 22 of Science 5-16 repeats the above quoted statement by the Inspectorate almost verbatim.…”

Section: Rationale and Significancementioning

confidence: 98%

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Primary School Teachers' Understanding of Science Concepts

Kruger

Summers

1988

Journal of Education for Teaching

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This article develops a rationale for research into primary school teachers' understanding of science concepts and describes research in this area conducted in 1987-88. In-depth interviews of an opportunity sample of 20 primary teachers were used to investigate the teachers' understanding of physical science concepts taken from the British Government's policy document Science 5-16. The findings show that nearly all the teachers interviewed hold views of science concepts that are not in accord with the generally accepted scientific viewpoint. Teachers' responses to the interviews are described with the non-specialist reader in mind, and four general categories of respondent tentatively identified. Some implications of the findings for teacher education are described.The work reported is the initial stage of an on-going project which will later seek to establish the prevalence of particular views in a large number of primary teachers and, in light of the results, produce in-service training materials to help improve understanding in areas identified as most problematical.

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Section: Rationale and Significancementioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Rationale and Significancementioning

confidence: 98%

Primary School Teachers' Understanding of Science Concepts

Kruger

Summers

1988

Journal of Education for Teaching

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“…Lack of basic training and knowledge on the part of teachers are the most often cited causes, see Bradley (1976), Kerr & Engel (1980) and Bassey (1981). A major difficulty suggested by Booth (1978) was that many primary teachers did not know enough science to formulate a coherent science curriculum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Facilitating science teaching

Terrell¹,

Gillies²

1986

British Journal of In-Service Education

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“…The emphasis of early programs like the Nuffield Junior Science Project and the Schools Council Science 5-13 Project was on the development of investigative procedures. Thanks to such papers as Black (1980), Harlen (1978), and Kerr and Engel (1980), there is now a growing interest in the fostering of concepts. Th date, however, there has been little discussion about how fostering might be achieved and work summarized by Driver, Guesne, and Tiberghien (1985), Gilbert and Watts (1983), McDermott (1984) and Osborne and Freyberg (1985) hints at trouble.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%