Primary Science
A Guide to Teaching Practice
- Mick Dunne - Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Alan Peacock - University of Exeter, UK
Why is science hard to teach? What types of scientific investigation can you use in the primary classroom?
Touching on current curriculum concerns and the wider challenges of developing high-quality science education, this book is an indispensable overview of important areas of teaching every aspiring primary school teacher needs to understand including: the role of science in the curriculum, communication and literacy in science teaching, science outside the classroom, transitional issues and assessment.
Key features of this second edition include:
• A new chapter on science in the Early Years
• A new practical chapter on how to work scientifically
• Master’s-level ‘critical reading’ boxes in every chapter linking topics to relevant specialist literature
• Expanded coverage of creativity, and link science to numeracy and computing
This is essential reading for all students studying primary science on initial teacher education courses, including undergraduate (BEd, BA with QTS), postgraduate (PGCE, School Direct, SCITT), and also NQTs.
Mick Dunne is Senior Lecturer in Science Education at Manchester Metropolitan University
Alan Peacock is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter
What a helpful book. It covers the current issues in primary science education, providing an overview and dealing with the detail, identifying the areas that teachers and student teachers find most challenging and offering valuable guidance. It is challenging and reassuring, thought-provoking and enjoyable. I can’t recommend it too highly.
What a good read. This book covers everything an aspiring teacher would want from a Primary Science publication. Inspirational writers, clearly defined introductions to each chapter, insight into a range of issues linked to Primary Science. Opportunities for self reflection supported by references to current and relevant research all in one place. Perfect.
This book is invaluable in supporting trainee teachers at all stages of their degree programme in their teaching of science in the primary classroom. It covers a broad range of topics incorporating all aspects of science teaching and learning across the primary age range. There are ample opportunities throughout the book for the reader to reflect in order to develop themselves further as an effective teacher of primary science.
This book is extremely useful for trainees to use as reference material for assignments as it covers all of the main issues in science education today. Moreover, every chapter has a further reading list, reference list and web links. I would recommend this book to my peers, but also to teachers who feel less confident in teaching science. An accessible read, quickly digested and easy to understand with the depth of content needed for advanced study.
The 'food for thought' and 'critical thinking tasks' are excellent and provide a stimulus for discussion.
An effective and comprehensive guide for primary trainees
An excellent comprehensively written book to be used by students who need to understand the importance of delivering practical and theoretical science teaching. It's features are easily accessible enabling the reader to fully comprehend key scientific concepts. The reflective questions support developing practitioners to think critically about the delivery of their Science lessons. Highly recommend this text.
This book is a very useful as a reflective teaching tool for any primary practioner. Although the book focuses mainly on science, it extends far beyond into essential realms of planning, formative assessment, inclusion as well as providing ideas for meaningful cross-curricular links. This book is mainly theoretical with relevant research and further reading at the end of every chapter along with some very practical web links to resources that would be helpful in the classroom.
A clear textbook linking theory to practice.
Very helpful text for aspiring primary teachers and for those already in post who want to brush up their science, boost their confidence or engage in research. Nice to see science outside the classroom given such thorough treatment, but it is strange that 'evolution' or 'STEM' are not listed in the index as both now have a role in primary science.
