NZCER has considerable expertise and an established work programme in science education, mainly assessment resource/test development, and research-based curriculum support. Recently, a cross-organisation science team was set up to coordinate and think strategically about NZCER’s science education activities. This team has three “spheres’ of activity:
resource development;
professional development activities; and
research.
Work in this area will investigate the issues that need to be addressed as we begin to develop 21st century school science education programmes. There are two new projects in the 2011–2012 financial year, the first having a theoretical basis and the second having more of a practical focus.
Assessment Resources for Classroom Teachers (ARCT) is NZCER's current contract to the New Zealand Ministry of Education to provide assessment support for New Zealand teachers. There are three main areas of work: research and development; resource development; and assessment services.
Back to the future - teachers and change aims to scope and pilot a small action research project involving NZCER researchers working with a cluster of teachers to explore the development of ‘21st century’ science teaching.
This project is looking at the role of knowledge in a 21st Century curriculum and the place of the Nature of Science strand of science in the NZC in relation to this.
This working paper draws on a small-scale study carried out with a group of teachers on foregrounding 'thnking' in science classrooms. It includes a discussion of what thinking in science actually is and explores the sort of changes that need to happen in order to realise the vision of a thinking curriculum for the 21st century.
A. Bull, J. Gilbert, H. Barwick, R. Hipkins, and R. Baker
2010
NZCER for the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor
Research report
This paper was commissioned by the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor in conjunction with the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology to encourage debate on how better to engage students with science, with a particular focus on the role of schools. The focus of this paper is the current provision of science education. It discusses a range of purposes for science education and reviews New Zealand and international evidence on what students think about science and how well they achieve in it.
Nature of Science is the core strand of science in The New Zealand Curriculum. This resource aims to support teachers to understand the different aspects of the Nature of Science and what this might mean in practice. All aspects of this strand are covered: Understanding about science; Investigating in science; Communicating in science; and Participating and contributing. The authors ask a key question, “what might Understanding about science look like in the classroom?” and then go on to suggest many practical activities.
In 2010 the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) commissioned the Nielson Company to conduct a repeat of two previous surveys of public attitudes to science. Rosemary Hipkins was asked to provide a commentary on the findings. She wrote an article for New Zealand Science Review.
Recently Miles Barker asked what might ‘lifelong science learning’ actually look like? This article adds to that conversation, with a specific focus on the possibility of using science in the media as a source of teaching and learning materials.
In a recent “Assessment News” we wrote about an impending new series of standardised science tests for Years 7–10. The tests, Science: Thinking with Evidence, have now been published and were launched earlier this year with a series of information afternoons around the country.
Being a “question asker” is an unfamiliar role to many students yet within a 21st century learning framework this is a competency they need to develop. In traditional assessment events students are primed to be “question answerers”, a role that is both familiar and predictable to all concerned. Asking students to develop questions or identify appropriate questions to investigate is unsettling and, for many students, an unpractised skill.
One of the hot topics at a small science education conference I recently attended was the Nature of Science strand of the new curriculum. There was considerable discussion about the kind of support that would assist teachers both to understand what Nature of Science is about and to change their teaching of science to incorporate the intentions of this strand. Teachers may (legitimately) ask: Why would we want to change the way science is taught?
How we use contexts and the part we expect them to play in conceptual learning and in engagement with learning may need to be rethought, Rosemary Hipkins explained at the Science Education Research Symposium (SERS) in November 2009.
Chris Joyce, Ally Bull, Rosemary Hipkins, and Bill MacIntyre
2008
NZCER Press
Journal article
The water cycle is an important context for school science, but the uncritical use of diagrams to simplify ideas may lead to misconceptions. Incorporating learning about how representations such as water cycle diagrams function, helps students to explore and understand the complexities of such a system.
This report examines students’ attitudes towards science in Years 7 and 8, and looks at what it might mean for their interest and engagement with science in their later years of schooling.
This article uses a specific curriculum innovation—a focus on the nature of science—to illustrate the complex dynamics of curriculum change.
Snapshots from the professional learning of two teachers, one primary and one secondary, are used to discuss why teachers’ personal learning may not translate into changes in their taught curriculum unless additional support helps them to rethink traditional teaching and learning practices.
Using assessment information formatively to contribute to teaching skills and knowledge that underpin the key competencies. The example used is from a study of 600 student scripts answering questions on the water cycle.
This Assessment News article explores the possibilities for "noticing" when there are opportunities for providing feedback about key competencies as students are learning in subject areas. The context discussed is a model used for demonstrating evaporation to science students.
This article proposes that if we want students to care about and for the environment they need to develop an understanding of the "big picture"—that is, how the separate elements of a system interact.
A small research project explaining students' understanding of the interconnectedness of the elements of a waterway is discussed.
This research reports on the impact of Level 1 NCEA on the teaching of mathematics and science. It provides an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of change in the study teachers’ mathematics and science classrooms in response to the NCEA implementation. A range of aspects of classroom practice were identified where one way of working or set of emphases could be balanced against another way of working/set of emphases. Findings with respect to shifts in the balances of the alternatives outlined for these aspects of classroom practices are presented.
Rosemary Hipkins, Josie Roberts, Rachel Bolstad, and Hilary Ferral
2006
NZCER, for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST)
Research report
his report identifies and discusses the many interwoven factors that impact on students’ decision making with regard to the ongoing study of sciences, both in the final year of secondary school, and on transition to tertiary level studies.
It addresses two closely related key questions:
Why do students choose to continue with sciences in Year 13 of their school studies?
Why do students plan to take up (or not take up) sciences in their tertiary level studies?
This small study provides some evidence that even at a young age, students are able to begin developing self-regulation skills in the context of science investigations.
Jane Gilbert, Rosemary Hipkins, and Garrick Cooper
2005
NZCER
Conference paper
Feminist and post-colonial research have highlighted learning issues for students who do not see a place for themselves within science, as this is traditionally represented in school science education.
The use of narrative pedagogy is seen by some as a means of overcoming some of these issues, but translating the intention to use narrative into actual classroom resources is less well understood.
Teaching approaches which support the development of students’ “critical thinking” skills, and the use of socioscientific contexts for learning, have both been advocated as necessary and desirable directions for secondary school science education.
In 2004 we were asked to evaluate a teaching resource, distributed to all New Zealand secondary schools, which aimed to support both these approaches at Year 10 level.
Teaching approaches which support the development of students’ “critical thinking” skills, and the use of socioscientific contexts for learning, have both been advocated as necessary and desirable directions for secondary school science education.
In 2004 we were asked to evaluate a teaching resource, distributed to all New Zealand secondary schools, which aimed to support both these approaches at Year 10 level.
This report evaluates a teaching resource called "Entering the debate on Genetic Modification by developing a critical thinking response" (also known as "Time for critical thought"). Designed for students at Year 10 level, the resource focuses on the controversy surrounding the introduction of genetically modified crops. It aims to encourage students and their teachers to engage in critical thinking, dialogue, and learning around this socio-scientific issue.
This article provides some insights into patterns of science choices made by year 12 students from six New Zealand secondary schools, and the reasons that they gave for choosing these subjects. Outlines findings from the Learning Curves research project
The full journal article is published in: New Zealand Science Teacher, 106, 2004. p.27-31
Research on self-regulation of children's learning is seldom set at lower primary school levels. Indeed, there are conflicting views about the ability of young childen to self-regulate their learning. We have found that, with appropriate teacher support, and the use of purposefully constructed learning materials, Year 1, 2, and 3 children were able to demonstrate what we consider to be foundational aspects of self-regulated learning. This paper reports on an exploratory study of a sequence of four lessons in one Year 1-3 class.
Research on self-regulation of children's learning is seldom set at lower primary school levels. Indeed, there are conflicting views about the ability of young childen to self-regulate their learning. We have found that, with appropriate teacher support, and the use of purposefully constructed learning materials, Year 1, 2, and 3 children were able to demonstrate what we consider to be foundational aspects of self-regulated learning. This paper reports on an exploratory study of a sequence of four lessons in one Year 1-3 class.
This research report evaluates an initiative called The Business of Science, a Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) initiative that ran in the Waikato region in 2003. The initiative was targeted at Year 13 students who have studied science subjects at school, but intend to enter courses such as business, law, or commerce at tertiary level. The aim of the project was to encourage these students to retain some science (or science/technology) papers in their tertiary degrees.
This chapter provides a brief overview of the organisation of science in the curriculum within the Asia-Pacific region and highlights the ongoing challenge of achieving the multiple purposes of learning science. Key influences of curriculum change are outlined, including the role research has played in influencing the teaching and learning of science in the region. Finally, challenges for the future are posed.
Videotaped sessions of students working on 'fair testing' investigation scenarios were analysed (N = 204).
The analysis suggested avenues for the development of strategies that could help develop teachers' pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the skills used during a simple 'fair testing' investigation. Most conversation during each activity focused on specific aspects of measuring or task completion so that the overall investigation appeared to become a series of disjointed episodes.
This research builds on an earlier NEMP probe study which found that many teachers do not appear to actively teach students the key objectives of the "Developing Scientific Skills and Attitudes" strand of Science in the New Zealand Curriculum (Gilmore, 2001). The project sought to develop rich descriptions of children’s investigative actions, and to analyse these findings in the light of research literature that describes children’s actual and potential investigative skills development.
Some of the findings from a research project that aimed to document the role that a visit to one New Zealand science and technology centre played in the educational activities of six visiting primary school groups are reported.
This paper advocates for clearer distinctions to be drawn between school science and scientists’ science, particularly with respect to the investigative processes that typify each.
It draws on the findings of a recent survey of public attitudes to science in New Zealand, and on recent international research in science education.
Rosemary Hipkins, Wendy Stockwell, Rachel Bolstad and Robyn Baker
2002
NZCER/ACNielsen for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST)
Research report
Report on an investigation into what the public thinks, knows, and feels about science.
The research involved a telephone survey of 800 members of the New Zealand public, and small-scale focus group discussions with four different groups.
The research identified six sectors of New Zealand society, each with a different profile of attitudes towards and beliefs about science. These sectors showed many similarities to the sectors that were found in similar recent UK research.
Māori and Pasifika students are over represented amongst students who are underachieving in school science. New Zealand's science curriculum aims to be inclusive of these students and to that end suggests contexts for learning that take account of different types of life experiences. While equity is intended, such approaches may stereotype students, appropriate their cultural backgrounds, and alienate them from experiences of school science learning that could encourage their subsequent participation in science-related careers and/or democratic debates.
Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Baker, R., Jones, A., Barker, M., Bell, B., Coll, R., Cooper, B., Forret, M., Harlow, A., Taylor, I., France, B., and Haigh, M.
2002
Ministry of Education
Literature review
This review of research on effective science education is aimed at informing the broad area of "teaching and the dynamics of learning".
The review covers the significant international and New Zealand research (including teacher research) on effective pedagogy, and the links between student learning, curricula, pedagogy and assessment in science education across the compulsory sector.
Have we neglected to communicate key ideas about how science is different from other types of knowledge building, and so unwittingly sustained a communication gap between 'science' and 'the public'?
This paper explores five broad principles for developing communication strategies that address the substance of science while still meeting the challenge of varying the tone of the message for six different sectors of the New Zealand public.
Four small focus groups of adults were observed while they interacted with material related to a science-technology issue. The results shed light on some basic issues in science teaching, such as how teachers can instil the confidence that “significance” can be open to critical scrutiny, and help their students to become more discriminating about the validity of “evidence”.
This paper explores differences between scientists’ experiences of science and the investigations that are a common type of learning activity in school science. The first half of the paper makes a case for distinguishing between investigative processes that build new knowledge and those that help students learn knowledge that is only “new” for them. The second half of the paper examines the implications of this rethinking for the assessment of practical investigations – and in particular for the implementation of NCEA Achievement Standard 1.1 at Year 11.
Descriptive content - the 'what' of science - has become the neglected component of science education, to the detriment of many learners' ability to link science theories to their direct experience of the natural world.
