SK4: Developing Scientific Capital through the School Community Take 4 primary schools in Stockport who are committed to exploring and developing children’s skills and understanding of working scientifically and encourage them to seek out and develop the Scientific Capital in their communities. Through the 5 E’s Instructional Model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend (or Elaborate), and Evaluate teachers will work alongside scientists and engineers to deconstruct what it means to be a scientist, exploring where science is in our communities, who is a scientist, what is science, why there is science and how we do science. Note: where ‘science’ is used in this paper, it is extended to science and engineering. ASPIRES Young people’s science & career aspirations, age 10‐14 (Kings College 2013) Science capital refers to science‐related qualifications, understanding, knowledge (about science and ‘how it works’), interest and social contacts (e.g. a parent, family member or even knowing someone who works in a science‐related job). Science capital is unevenly spread across societal groups. Those with higher levels of science capital tend to be middle‐class – although this is not always the case, and not all middle‐
class families possess much science capital. Students from families with medium or high science capital are more likely to aspire to science and STEM‐related careers and are more likely to plan to study science post‐16. Longitudinal tracking showed that students with low science capital who do not express STEM related aspirations at age 10 are unlikely to develop STEM aspirations by the age of 14. Very few young people (approximately 15 per cent) aspire to become a scientist. This aspiration remains consistently low across the 10‐14 age range. It is lower than many other types of aspiration and appears disproportionately low compared to students’ reported interest in science, although STEM‐related careers, such as in medicine, are more popular aspirations. Business is the most popular aspiration among secondary school aged students, with almost 60 per cent of young people agreeing that they would like a career in business. 5E’s Learning The 5E learning cycle is a constructivist based pedagogy to help students build their own understanding from experiences and new ideas. Constructivism is a philosophy about learning that proposes learners need to build their own understanding of new ideas. Roger Bybee (The Biological Science Curriculum Study) developed the Five Es instructional model for constructivism, from which other models have been adapted from this model including the 6E and 7E models. Each part of the model could be used to help schools structure their activity: engage with the community, explore what they do, share explanations about how they do ‘scientific things’ and how we do them in school, extend what we do in schools by incorporating SK4, Aug 2014, page 1 aspects of their practice, and evaluate the impact on those involved and the implications on the delivery of the new Science Curriculum. Explore with scientists and engineers how they interpret science/engineering capital, what they see it as and how they think schools can develop this with their communities including parents and families. Research Questions What is/Where is the Scientific Capital within a primary school community? What are the implications on the teaching and learning of science in exposing and exploiting the Scientific Capital within primary schools and their local communities? What influence does this approach have on children’s perceptions of and aspirations towards science as a career? Sub‐question: What does the interaction with scientific groups, local to the school, provide for teachers’ personal and professional development? The Project The project would run initially for the academic year of 2014‐15 and involve 4 primary schools in Stockport. It will focus on looking with fresh eyes at the scientific capital already in existence in our school communities: ‐
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on the school playground and within our extended family networks teachers, teaching assistants, support staff in our local business and industries in local educational establishments, High Schools, Colleges, Universities in the cultural assets around the school: museums, libraries etc. It will focus on working with scientists and engineers to make evident to children, through their National Curriculum learning themes and topics, what it means to work scientifically. It will deconstruct how scientists and engineers work and what it means to be scientific in our approaches, highlighting the opportunities and uses of such skills in the world around us. It will be important to be clear that the new curriculum topics are not simply there to be ‘delivered’ but they are there to help build interest and engagement in science for the longer term. We need to be focused on encouraging children to see science in action and to understand the relevance of what they are taught and why it matters to be scientific in our approaches. We will collaborate with parents, grandparents, teachers, scientists, museum curators etc. so that we create science learning from them and with them. There will undoubtedly be knock‐on benefits to all parties – allowing ‘outsiders’ to look inside our schools and our new curriculum and gain understanding of what is aiming to be SK4, Aug 2014, page 2 achieved. And allowing ‘insiders’ to look out and see how science and engineering applies in a contemporary workplace, exposing the real and often messy way in which scientific and engineering advancements are made, or by illustrating where science really is in the world around us. We must be committed to allowing children to talk, to share insights, questions and wonderings and be dogmatic in our persistence to listen to and respond to those interests. In effect each school could set up a mini public engagement with SET or EPS) programme which could include ideas such as: ‐
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regular visiting scientists and engineers from the school community coming into school projects that link science and engineering and the Arts EPS busking in community areas linked secondary school 5th/6th formers working as EPS ‘envoys’ EPS clubs or community/parent evening events including careers awareness, Teachmeets ‘Learnermeets’ (like a Teachmeet but between pupils) Problem solving events, quiz activities being involved in University public engagement activities, e.g. the UoM Science Spectacular etc. Research & Evaluation We will need to find appropriate means by which to audit the scientific capital of the ‘community’ along with the most effective strategies we can use to ‘build’ this and children’s initial and developing understandings of what it means to be a scientist, work scientifically etc. Intended Outcomes: ‐ to understand the make‐up of the Scientific Capital in the primary school settings. ‐ to case study how that capital can be developed through the curriculum and how it will influence the teaching and learning of science in the primary classroom for the better. ‐ to present the perceptions of children, their teachers and the local community about what, where and how science is used in their everyday lives, and their futures. ‐ to evaluate whether this type of collaborative work impacts on teachers’ personal and professional development, e.g. does it raise their own understanding of science/engineering SK4, Aug 2014, page 3 and what it means to work scientifically; knowledge of careers in science and engineering; improve confidence to teach particular aspects of the curriculum etc.. Implications It is of interest to work through this experience to reveal what is available in terms of knowledge, skills and experiences related to science that can support learning. In each and every school in the country parents and the community have a vested interest to nurture their children into well‐rounded individuals with a good knowledge of the opportunities that are available to them including those in science and engineering and related disciplines. The Aspires Report illustrates that where children do not express STEM related aspirations by age 10 that they are unlikely to develop them by age 14 when they are required to make subject choices for particular qualifications. Furthermore it identifies the high importance of addressing this by building youngster’s science and engineering capital and the key role of parents/families and the community in this endeavour. It is therefore increasingly important that primary schools build approaches into their teaching of the curriculum that expose children to the opportunities that particular subjects provide for their futures. Whilst we do not wish to impose careers education into a primary school setting for the sake of it, but rather to encourage careers awareness. We would argue that primary school science should be primarily about enthusing and stimulating interest in questioning and the world around us. It should be possible to create richer opportunities for illustrating how working scientifically plays a vital role in our daily lives and through that young people are much more likely to value and engage in the study of science and related subjects beyond the age of 16We believe that researching and finding ways to build science and engineering capital in our youngsters from the primary phase is likely to be a key to that goal. Dr Lynne Bianchi Head of the Science Education Research & Innovation Hub Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences University of Manchester Sackville Street Building ‐ Room C54 Manchester | M13 9PL T: 0161 306 3991 M: 07811 235793 E: [email protected] SK4, Aug 2014, page 4