Is NZ primary science education in a crisis? (Part One)

Over the next three weeks Ian Milne, senior lecturer in primary science and mathematics teacher education programmes at the University of Auckland, is going to look at science education in primary schools and its decline and possibilities for the future.

Next week he is going to look at how the new curriculum can help and in the following week what needs to happen.

The findings of three recent research projects NEMP, TIMMS and NZCER that investigated primary student’s attitudes towards and performances in science and primary principals curriculum priorities suggest that primary science education in NZ is in a crisis.

Further more the findings suggest that curriculum leadership by primary school principals is required if the negative trends identified are to be turned around.

The results of the NEMP 2007 science survey not only identified a significant increase in primary students negative attitudes towards the science they are doing at school, but also reported that more students “never did experiments with everyday things, experiments with science equipment or visited science activities”.

The key findings from trends arising from NZ’s participation in the TIMMS 1994 to 2006 studies suggest that after steady increases in their science achievement and thinking between 1994 and 2002 NZ children’s performance returned to levels of achievement similar to those achieved in 1994.

This fall of achievement levels coincided with a drop off in the numbers of instruction hours teachers reported giving their students in science in primary schools.

The average number of teachers reported teaching science reduced from 66 in 2002 to 45 in 2006. At the same time the TIMMS study found that 80 per cent of the year five children surveyed expressed a desire to do more science at school.

The 2007 NZCER survey of curriculum priorities reported that 50 per cent of principals surveyed were considering using more inquiry learning in their curriculum and only two per cent of primary principals identified science as a current curriculum emphasis.

Have primary schools moved away from presenting science as being a practical, hands-on subject as exemplified in many primary classrooms when the Making Better Sense of the Material World and other titles in the series were introduced in 1999?

Do current school science programmes allow learners to explore and test their ideas as they seek answers to questions that help them develop an understanding of the natural world they live in?

The findings of the three research reports would indicate that yes there has been decrease in practical hands on science activity that had children doing science. It could be argued that the engaging science activity that attracted children to science is being replaced by an increased involvement in resource based inquiry learning that often uses a science context as basis for integrating curriculum areas.

Look out for part two of this series next week, looking at science and its importance.
For more information check out www.nzase.org.nz/primaryconference