Action + talk = science

More hands on science in early and primary education please! That's the message from new reports. Jane Blaikie reports

Whether it's nature tables or playing shadow tag, kids need to be more actively engaged in experiences that leads to good science, says Ally Bull from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
"New research shows that children learn in the same way as adults   all they lack is the necessary experiences on which to build their learning."
But the current emphasis on literacy and numeracy can deflate the passion inspired by engaging science. It’s now being suggested that to hook children on science, and boys in particular, they need to be doing things first, the experiments, the investigations   then they do the numbers and the writing.
The Prime Minister’s science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman is pushing hard for more science in primary schools. His report, Looking Ahead: Science Education for the Twenty-First Century, says New Zealand has a well-performing system of science education, but the changing nature and role of science means a forward-looking system is fundamental to our future success in an increasingly knowledge-based world.
Ally agrees. “What we’re looking for is ‘science for citizenship’. Of course, some – hopefully many – students will go on to pursue a career in science, but it’s important the rest have an interest and knowledge of science. Research suggests that much of what we do is even switching kids off from science.”
She says all citizens need to be able to critique science – to understand the debates around science and technology. “They need to be scientifically literate – and to have a continued interest in science to keep this up.”

Standards + science = ??

The debate has many ironies – funding to empower teachers to teach science well in school has been cut, to make way for numeracy and literacy, and the research also suggests that science requires “resilient learners”.
Top scientists need to be resilient learners: they may fail at a problem, but then they look at it a 100 different ways to find the solution. Educators need to produce students with the disposition to keep on learning.
But this flies in the face of research that shows students who do well in “high-stakes” systems, such as National Standards which involve a lot of testing, are more likely to be fragile learners, that is, they’re less likely to come back at a problem after a set-back.
In the meantime, NZCER is encouraging educators to nurture children’s interest in the world around them and develop positive attitudes to science. They are producing resources for educators on how to bring science alive for kids. We’ll report more in the winter EA.
You can read the Gluckman report, and its supporting NZCER paper, Inspired by Science, at www.pmcsa.org.nz