The North Yorkshire AstraZeneca Science Pedagogy and Progression (NYASPP) Project

This project developed out of the highly successful Science Transition AstraZeneca York (STAY) project that provided 'bridging' units to smooth transition from primary to secondary school, for pupils learning science.

There had been discussions of the need to concentrate on curriculum and pedagogical aspects in transition work. This is particularly important in the area of teaching the process skills of scientific enquiry as this is work that underpins the science that pupils do either side of transition irrespective of the topic studied. 'STAY' project and other research has shown that:

• pupils in KS3 often repeat practical work that they have done before in primary school without any additional challenge. They find this boring and demotivating;
• teachers value an improved understanding of the ways in which each other work including how the language of teaching and learning can be made more contiguous;
• there has been a very significant and serious reduction in the amount of practical work done in Y6 classes and this is widening the gap between Y6 and Y7 teaching;
• there is a great need for continued professional development of teachers in the area of scientific enquiry, particularly in teaching about ideas and evidence;
• teachers in both phases are looking for ways of linking good quality opportunities for a range of types of scientific enquiry to their current schemes of work and to QCA units.
• Additionally teachers in both key stages are being focussed on progressing pupils' learning from scientific enquiry by the changes in SAT questions in KS2 and KS3 papers in 2003.

The NYASPP project addressed these issues through the development and teaching of 'Science Enquiry Progression Tasks' (SEPTs). Each SEPT was a pair of practical tasks - one to be taught in Y5 or Y6 in primary school and the other to be taught at some stage in KS3. Four SEPTs were produced each relating to the QCA schemes of work and the national curriculum programmes of study. SEPTs used harmonious pedagogical approaches and clearly showed teachers and pupils the expected progression in knowledge, skills and challenge as they move from primary to secondary work. The KS2 teacher was encouraged to communicate to pupils how the work will be developed in the secondary school, and the KS3 teacher was encouraged to recognise and build on pupils' previous achievements in the primary school.

For more information contact Martin Braund (mb40@yprk.ac.uk)

May 2008