Summary and key points

Table of Contents:

A beginning teacher’s PCK is a vital prerequisite for successful science teaching. In this chapter:

  • • We advised that one of your primary concerns as a mentor should be to ensure that a beginning teacher has a correct grasp and a broad appreciation of subject knowledge.
  • • With reference to the Teachers' Standards in England (DfE, 2011), we suggested a variety of approaches that a mentor can employ that might enhance a beginning teacher's subject knowledge and PCK.
  • • We acknowledged that linking a beginning teacher’s subject knowledge with their PCK is frequently overlooked, but having one without the other means a science lesson is unlikely to be taught successfully.
  • • We took the position that nurturing a beginning teacher's PCK should be the overall aim of every aspect of mentoring, not merely actions concerning subject knowledge development.

Further resources

Allen, M. (2016) The Best Ways to Teach Primary Science, Maidenhead: Open University Press. Although originally written to help develop primary teachers' subject knowledge and PCK, this book has much to offer secondary specialists. Mentors can discuss, with a beginning teacher, some example misconceptions that are common across a wide age range, to support their learning progressions in a wide range of science content. This learning progression development can also be used by mentors to identify and rectify a beginning teacher's misconceptions while assessing their subject knowledge.

Association for Science Education (ASE) (undated) School Science Review, viewed 22 January 2020, from: www.ase.org.uk/resources/school-science-review

This quarterly journal is produced with secondary science teachers in mind. It comprises articles that focus on science teaching and learning for the 11-19 age range. Many articles are written by serving teachers, not researchers, and are a useful source of innovative lesson ideas to enhance a beginning teacher's PCK. Other articles are more academic and summarise the latest findings relating to how pupils learn science, and tried-and-tested approaches that have been found to be successful in helping them construct appropriate concepts, and develop their process skills.

Driver, R. (1983) The Pupil as Scientist? Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

This seminal book almost single-handedly triggered the emergence of the constructive view of science teaching and learning in UK schools and universities in the 1980s. Mentors can present this book to a beginning teacher to aid the development of PCK over a period of time, as the book highlights the basis of how contemporary school science has evolved to become what it is today. The easy-to-follow PCK ideas from this book can be discussed during weekly mentoring meetings to emphasise the need to elicit pupils' ideas prior to teaching, and how to use practical work effectively to help pupils reconstruct subject knowledge.

Goldacre, B. (2009) Bad Science, London: Harper Collins.

Not an academic text, but this popular science bestseller debunks 'dodgy' scientific claims in the media and elsewhere. Writing in a readable and amusing style, Goldacre calls into question how organisations such as advertisers and drug companies stretch the truth when trying to sell us their latest wares. The book could help a beginning science teacher to link their own critical faculties that they developed during their science studies with examples from the world at large.

Appendix 10.1 Subject knowledge audit for beginning teachers

Subject knowledge audit

Rate your subject knowledge for each of the units of work in the curriculum using the three-point grading criteria

Unit of work

This column lists units of work, for Biology, Chemistry and Physics, which are taken directly from England's Key Stage 4 science curriculum for pupils aged 14-16 (DfE, 2014).

The unit of work on cell biology is presented in this column. These are taken directly from the DfE (2014) curriculum guidance document.

Grade

Next steps

Grade 1 Outstanding knowledge

Grade 2 Good knowledge

Grade 3 Knowledge requires improvement

You could ask the beginning teacher to fill in the rest of this column, for the other units of work, in the similar way, using the curriculum guidance.

You can adapt/adopt these units further according to your country's science curriculum.

You could also use the same template to introduce the curriculum for age groups 11-14.

Biology

1. Cell biology

Aspects of unit of work:

  • • ‘cells as the basic structural units of all organisms; adaptations of cells related to their functions; the main sub-cellular structures of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells.'
  • • 'stem cells in animals and meristems in plants.'
  • • 'enzymes; factors affecting the rate of enzymatic reactions.'
  • • 'the importance of cellular respiration; the processes of aerobic and anaerobic respiration' 'carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids as key biological molecules.’ (DfE, 2014, p. 7 and 8).

2. Transport systems

3. Health and disease

4. Photosynthesis

5. Homeostasis and response

6. Inheritance, variation and evolution

7. Ecosystems

Chemistry

1. Atomic structure and the periodic table

2. Bonding, structure, and the properties of matter

3. Quantitative chemistry

4. Chemical changes

5. Energy changes

6. The rate of chemical change

7. Organic chemistry

8. Chemical analysis

9. Chemistry of the atmosphere

10. Using resources

Physics

1. Energy

2. Electricity

3. Particle model of matter

4. Atomic structure

5. Forces

6. Waves

7. Magnetism and electromagnetism

Other units of work

Appendix 10.2 A CoRe matrix to develop PCK, adapted from Eames,Williams, Hume and Lockley (2011, p. 3)

CoRe matrix

Important idea 1

Important idea 2

Important idea 3

What do you intend the pupils to learn about this idea?

Why is it important for the pupils to know this?

What else is there about this idea that you do not intend pupils to know yet?

What difficulties/limitations are connected with teaching this idea?

What do you know about pupil thinking that influences teaching about this idea?

Are there any other factors that influence your teaching of this idea?

What teaching appoaches would you use, and why, for this idea?

How would you ascertain pupil understanding of, or confusion about, this idea?

Appendix 10.3 An example of a completed CoRe matrix, for teachingenzymes to 14–16-year-old pupils

CoRe matrix

Important idea 1

Important idea 2

Important idea 3

What do you intend the pupils to learn about this idea?

Enzymes catalyse specific reactions in living organisms

Enzyme activity is affected by a number of factors

Digestive enzymes convert food into smaller, more soluble products.

Why is it important for the pupils to know this?

Enzymes control the speed of chemical reactions in the body, without them reactions would be too slow for life to survive

Enzymes function correctly at optimum pH and temperature - link to homeostasis

Because it helps to explain what happens to the food we eat.

What else is there about this idea that you do not intend pupils to know yet?

Induced-fit hypothesis.

Primary, secondary, tertiary structure

Enzyme inhibition

What difficulties/limitations are connected with teaching this idea?

Particles are too small to see. Collision theory is an abstract idea

Can be difficult to relate to pupils' everyday experiences

What do you know about pupil thinking that influences teaching about this idea?

Pupils may think enzymes are 'used up1 in a reaction

Pupils may think enzymes are living, and can be 'killed' by high temperatures

Enzymes are involved in all metabolic processes, not just digestion.

Pupils may think enzymes only break down molecules.

Are there any other factors that influence your teaching of this idea?

Maturity of pupils - are they able to work with abstract ideas? Pupil understanding of collision theory (links to chemistry)

What teaching approaches would you use, and why, for this idea?

Analogies (lock and key), modelling (using plasticine, for example)

Practical work -consider if all factors would be taught through practical work (if not all, how many, and which ones?)

Creative writing - pupils write a story imagining they are a piece of food passing through the digestive system.

How would you ascertain pupil understanding of, or confusion about, this idea?

Translation activities - pupils draw pictures to show stages in enzyme and substrate combining, and formation of product.

POE (pupils predict, observe and explain). For example, teacher demonstration of raw and cooked liver added to hydrogen peroxide

Use of key words and ideas in the story could illustrate pupil understanding or misconceptions.

Appendix 10.4 A three-step process to help a beginning teacher to developtheir subject knowledge and PCK [SK refers to subject knowledge]
 
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