Undervisningstraditioner i naturvetenskaplig undervisning i relation till svenska utbildningsreformer i skolår 6 <br/> Teaching traditions in Science Education in compulsory school and its relation to educational reform in Science Education in year 6

Abstract

In this paper we survey different teaching traditions in Swedish Science Education. The purpose is to map and investigate patterns in teachers’ views of what constitutes “good” Science education in the middle years of compulsory school in Sweden. This is done with the background of a new curriculum with national testing and grading being introduced, which could potentially alter teachers’ views of what is relevant content. A web-based questionnaire to teachers all throughout Sweden (response rate 43%, N=796) was used. The results show that groups can be formed with teachers emphasizing different teaching objectives including emphasis on; scientific facts and concept, laboratory work, everyday knowledge, and political and moral questions, even though the groups had a lot of similarities. The teachers indicate that they changed their instruction to a considerable extent after the three parallel reforms carried out 2011-13.

Science teaching in upper primary school through the eyes of the practitioners

“…The study also found that despite teachers' lack of knowledge and confidence in science, they still reported positive feelings and attitudes towards science. This agrees with recent results from Lidar, Engström, Lundqvist, and Almqvist (2019) which showed that many Grade 6 teachers view science as 'their subject', meaning that they are engaged by and eager to teach the subject content. In another study, early elementary teachers were found to often assume that their students' abilities to engage in science are very limited (Chen, Hand, & Norton-Meier, 2017).…”

“…Whether this view is expressed through presentational-style teaching or other practices remains unclear, but it raises some concern regarding the quality of hands-on tasks in primary school as pointed out by Tytler (2010). Perhaps Lidar et al (2019) are closer to reality in their finding that Grade 6 science is mostly taught through whole-class seatwork. This would partly explain why teacher descriptions revolved around talk almost as much as practical work.…”

“…Some of these can be explained by differences in study design. Results from a survey of Grade 6 teachers (Lidar et al, 2019) enabled the grouping of teachers into four groups depending on their views of the important elements in science instruction. Lidar et al (2019) identified these groups as scientific facts and concept, laboratory work, everyday knowledge, and political and moral questions (p. 175).…”

“…Results from a survey of Grade 6 teachers (Lidar et al, 2019) enabled the grouping of teachers into four groups depending on their views of the important elements in science instruction. Lidar et al (2019) identified these groups as scientific facts and concept, laboratory work, everyday knowledge, and political and moral questions (p. 175). However, despite these differences in perceptions of science education, the results implied that the teachers were much less varied in their teaching practices.…”

“…Whether the teachers actually use practical work in class, or rather like the idea of doing so or at least talk about doing so, remains unclear since interviews and surveys provide one piece of the puzzle but do not offer detailed information about actual classroom teaching practices (cf. Lidar et al, 2019).…”