Before we explore the evidence relating to enquiry-based teaching, it is important to stress that enquiry-based teaching, which is a pedagogy, should not be confused with scientific enquiry as a curricular goal, or with practical work generally. As pupils learn science, they also learn about its uses and significance to society and their own lives. [footnote 7] This will highlight the significant contribution science has made in the past. For example, by eradicating smallpox and discovering penicillin. But pupils will also learn about the continuing importance of science in solving global challenges such as climate change, food availability, controlling disease and access to water. [footnote 8] Knowledge of how science uses evidence to develop explanations. This covers how evidence is used, alongside substantive knowledge, to draw tentative but valid conclusions. It includes the distinction between correlation and causation and knowing that explanation is distinct from data and does not simply emerge from it. [footnote 68] Pupils learn how scientific models, laws and theories develop over time, including the importance of technology and the role of the scientific community in peer review. Technology can play an important role in helping pupils to learn abstract scientific concepts. This can be through animations, simulations and videos when used as part of teachers’ lessons. [footnote 177] Enquiry-based teaching The most useful part I believe is the lists of misconceptions and a comprehensive index of keywords to help you find the common misconception for that topic/keyword.

It is therefore important to recognise that disciplinary knowledge, like substantive knowledge, is underpinned by knowledge of procedures and concepts ( Table 1). The curriculum therefore needs to break down complex disciplinary practices, such as drawing graphs, validating experimental data or using a thermometer, into their component knowledge. [footnote 71] The curriculum can then outline how pupils’ disciplinary knowledge advances over time. [footnote 72] Acquiring disciplinary knowledge is an important goal of the national curriculum. [footnote 59] This goes beyond simply doing practical work or collecting data. [footnote 60] It includes learning about the concepts and procedures that scientists use to develop scientific explanations which, in turn, have implications for the status and nature of the scientific knowledge produced. [footnote 61] Formative assessment can also be used to find out whether pupils retain and use specific misconceptions. Distractor-driven assessment tools can be especially helpful, such as multiple-choice questions that present pupils with both the scientific conception and misconception. [footnote 205] This is because misconceptions are not always identified in questions that assess general science content. [footnote 206] Evidence suggests that multiple assessment probes should be used, over extended periods of time and contexts, when making claims about learning. [footnote 207] This is because pupils regularly show variability in which conceptions they use when first learning a scientific concept. disciplinary knowledge (knowledge of how scientific knowledge is generated and grows): this is specified in the ‘working scientifically’ sections of the national curriculum and it includes knowing how to carry out practical proceduresTrends shaping education 2016’, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Publishing, January 2016. ↩

This resource is a booklet with lists of misconceptions, strategies for overcoming them, and quizzes for ascertaining main misconceptions in Forces, Electricity etc.

National curriculum in England: science programmes of study’, Department for Education, September 2013. These were introduced in 2010 to monitor standards over time after the removal of key stage 2 science national curriculum tests (SATs). The first year a matrix sampling approach was used was 2014. Direct comparisons cannot be made between results from this sampling approach and previous key stage 2 science SATs results. ↩ As outlined above, at the core of scientific expertise lies extensive, connected knowledge. This means that as pupils travel through the school curriculum, they need to build their knowledge of scientific concepts and procedures. By doing so, pupils can reason scientifically about phenomena with increasing sophistication and can use their knowledge to work scientifically with increasing expertise. In primary schools, there is at least one teacher who specialises in teaching science and science leaders have dedicated leadership time.