disseminating inquiry-based science and ... - Fibonacci-Project

10 FIBONACCI CONFERENCE 2012 ∙ THURSDAY 26 TH APRIL: 11.30AM – 1.00PM
classes and the growing skills of the children to use ICT has allowed us to encourage children aged 8-
11 to question results and follow their own lines of enquiry during science investigations. This in itself
helped children to create the important link between skills in science and mathematics. It also
encouraged us as professionals to consider ways of teaching and developing skills from both subjects
in a cross curricular way that gave these skills relevance and importance, supporting other key
learning in lessons.
As well as developing and consolidating key skills in ICT, children also developed their critical thinking
when analysing data. This in turn allowed the children to challenge and question their own scientific
understanding, with an opportunity to respond to data and make changes to an investigation during
the course of a single lesson.
As with all good teaching, using active graphing requires a patient, whole school approach and clear
scaffolding, encouraging children to develop independence as they become more confident with ICT
and the skills to challenge the data they produce. However, the impact of using active graphing and
the ‘mini-plenaries’ can lend themselves to powerful learning opportunities in practical
investigations. They also place objectives from the mathematics data handling curriculum at the
heart of investigative science skills, allowing teachers to support children in developing these skills
and their growing understanding of the need to be critical thinkers.
Teaching children how to talk: Raising attainment in
science and mathematics
Rory McGrath
Medway Community Primary School, Leicester
My research set out to explore whether teaching children how to speak and work collaboratively
would increase their attainment in Science and Mathematics. The focus on speech was based in the
context of my school, which has a significantly high number of students who speak English as their
second language. The research literature that underpinned my work was Mercer (2004) and (2006)
along with Monaghan (2005) and Cohen (2007).
I worked with two groups of older primary children. The main activities were based on small group
sessions for 40 minutes. I used a modified action research model to structure my research. The first
teaching session established the rules for talk that the children would use throughout the following
sessions. In the next few sessions children had a science or mathematics activity to discuss and a
problem to solve. This was closely linked to improving their language through the activities they were
doing. After the first cycle of intervention I reviewed and then moderated my practice and then
carried out a further set of teaching with a new group of children.
The children’s progress was being assessed constantly through a number of different methods, most
notably a USB microphone and a modified assessment grid. A pre and post assessment was carried
out and the children’s speech development was clear from the transcribed sessions.
Progress was broadly satisfactory, but one child was a particular disappointment whereas another
was a particular success. There were contextual reasons for this which will be explored in greater
detail in the presentation. The children all developed their language use, in the academic setting,
whilst 90% of them developed their understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts.
If other practitioners were to follow this as a means to improve science and maths in their
classrooms I would suggest giving the intervention longer to run. I was working on a restricted time
scale which meant that the children did not have as long as I would have liked to develop their
Fibonacci Conference, University of Leicester