1. Getting Practical Ian Abrahams NSLC July 7th 2010

2. Getting Practical-Improving Practical Work in Science
£800k DCSF funded project
Designed to improve the effectiveness and affective value of practical work

3. Methodology
A condensed fieldwork strategy
Tape-recorded interviews
Observational field notes

4. Sample
30 schools – 20 secondary and 10 primary
1st Round of observations completed end of March 2010
2nd Round of observations to all 30 schools scheduled to start September 2010

5. A model of the process of design and evaluation of a practical task (from Millar et al)

6. 2x2 Effectiveness matrix
Intended outcomes
in the domain of observable objects
(Domain o)
in the domain of
ideas
(Domain i)
at level 1
(what the pupils do)
Pupils operate equipment in a way that generates the phenomenon that the teacher intended.
Pupils talk about the task and phenomenon using scientific ideas and terminology teacher intended.
at level 2
(what the pupils learn)
Pupils state what they have learnt about setting up and using equipment and what they observed.
Pupils use intended ideas and terminology to link their observations with the correct scientific theory.

7. The focus
The focus of our observations has been on the extent to which:
the practical work observed exhibited level 1 and 2 effectiveness.
its affective value as evidenced through discussions with the pupils and teachers.

8. Preliminary findings
The teaching of science in primary schools has shown evidence of being effective at both levels.
There was evidence not only that the pupils were doing and learning about objects and materials but also doing and learning with ideas.

9. Time allocation
Compared to secondary teachers primary teachers tended to:
Divide the lesson time more equitably between doing and thinking.
Have a shorter ‘doing’ part of the lesson that was embedded within the lesson rather than occupying most of it.

10. Affective value- Primary
Primary pupils were generally enthusiastic about science and particularly liked doing practical work (they referred to this as doing experiments).
Their claims were of an objective nature

11. Empathy
Some primary teachers, those with a non-science degree background, spoke of empathising with their pupils.
They sought, in their lessons, to address the issues they too had found difficult such as the meaning of new scientific terms and what scientific ideas actually meant.

12. Secondary
Much (although not all) of the practical work in secondary schools tended to focus on the production of phenomena
A large proportion of the lesson time is devoted to the presentation of procedural instructions and the carrying out of the procedure using ‘recipe’ style tasks.

13. Not all pupils understood the meaning of scientific terms – and these were not always explained by the teachers who assumed the terms would be known and understood.
We observed cases in which whilst pupils generated the phenomena they did not understand how or why they were doing so.

14. For example, in testing a leaf for starch, the pupils followed the instructions but none of them knew why they were boiling the leaf or subsequently the reason for placing it in ethanol and then into warm water.

15. Skills
Many teachers, in both primary and secondary, spoke of the importance of developing skills.
However, although teachers spoke about this they did not appear to plan for this in the sense that the development of such skills was not made explicit in their lesson plans.

16. Rather, and this was particularly so with secondary teachers, teachers felt that the fact that the pupils were doing practical work, and using equipment (sometimes ineffectively), meant that they were – as if by osmosis - necessarily learning scientific skills.

17. Publicity
Comments and s from some secondary teachers indicates that the ASE’s focus on practical work in professional journals [in particular Millar and Abrahams (2009) Practical work: Making it more effective. School Science Review. 91 (334), ] is having an effect on how they think about and use practical work.

18. Realistic expectations
Teacher: “ I have read your article in the latest SSR... Shall I plan my lesson with a strong emphasis on demonstrating the effectiveness 2?”
Wednesday, 16 January 2019

19. Now there is also:
Abrahams, I., & Reiss, M. (2010). Effective practical work in primary science: the role of empathy. Primary Science, 113,

20. Affective value
Primary pupils spoke of liking practical work for its own sake
Many secondary pupils claimed to prefer it to writing or doing ‘other’ types of work in science lessons.

21. Phase 2
It is planned to revisit all schools before the end of 2010 once the training has been completed.

22. Impact criteria
The impact of the study will be evaluated both in terms of the effectiveness model, discussed earlier, and using Guskey’s 5 levels of professional development model.

23. Guskey’s 5 levels of development
Participants’ reflection
Participants’ learning
Organisational change
Participants’ use of new learning
Impact on pupils
Wednesday, 16 January 2019

24. Evidence found/expected
Evidence of Levels 1-2 has already been found
Evidence of Level 4 ‘Participants’ use of new learning’ considered to be highly probable given the training and the fact that they are expecting to be observed
Evidence of Level 3 ‘Organisational change’
possible but considered less probable
Evidence of Level 5 ‘Impact on students’?

25. Thank you
Wednesday, 16 January 2019