Choosing contexts for teaching

Science teaching and learning is both theoretical and practical. It is also embedded within the culture of Aotearoa and with ākonga who are aware of and connected to local and global issues.

The NZCER report Enduring competencies for designing science learning pathways moves beyond content to competencies that students need in the short term and that are also ‘lifeworthy’:

• Drawing on different knowledge systems.

• Enacting a range of science inquiry practices.

• Working with literacy practices of science.

• Using science for decision making and action.

With all this in mind, how do we choose what to teach? How do we design robust context-driven units? The teachers in this video briefly explain what constitutes a ‘gold standard’ context for their science teaching.

Prompting questions/ngā pātai

• How do you choose what to teach?

• How do school expectations and curriculum coverage influence what is taught?

• Is there a difference between contexts and topics?

• Is there flexibility within the programme to choose contexts for science teaching?

• What are some important contexts for school science? Why?

• How might contextual teaching enable you to design a programme that meets curriculum coverage and content knowledge while growing capabilities and competencies?

• If this sounds overwhelming, what are some steps that you might take to make this type of planning achievable?

Transcript

Melissa Coton

I look for things that are really high interest that kids are going to find really engaging and that have a real-world application. A gold standard context is going to have so many affordances to look at, different science practices, lots of cross-curricular links, being able to take it in so many different directions. But it also needs to be something real, something that’s going to be engaging.

Lian Soh

The context you pick will not just have relevance now but relevance in their future as well. This idea of a context that’s lifeworthy.

Mairi Borthwick

If they’re never going to continue on with science past, say, year 11, what is it that we want them to actually know before they leave that’s going to actually help them in their lives?

Dianne Christenson

That really is a gold standard context that you’ve chosen when the kids become so passionate that they follow up on the learning out of school.

Acknowledgements

Melissa Coton, Teacher, Boulcott School
Lian Soh, Science and Chemistry Teacher, Pāpāmoa College
Mairi Borthwick, Head of Science, Freyberg High School
Dianne Christenson, Teacher, Whareama School
Students on coastal field trip, student with dead rat, and students exploring rocky shore, by Lian Soh. © Pāpāmoa College
Students experiencing beekeeping, by Dianne Christenson. © Whareama School