Primary Schoolteachers' Understanding of Science Concepts

The introduction of a National Curriculum in British schools means that, for the first time, science will be a mandatory part of primary education for all pupils and all primary schoolteachers will have to teach the subject. A feature of the new curriculum is that there has been a move away from a process approach to primary science to one that stresses the importance of content In fact the final report of the National Curriculum Science Working Group [5] recommends a weighting of 35 percent for knowledge and understanding, while the Secretaries of State would prefer a considerably greater emphasis than this (see the comments of the Secretaries published at the front of the Working Group's report). Whatever the final weighting, the inclusion of a substantial amount of conceptual content clearly raises the question of whether primary teachers themselves have the knowledge and understanding to teach the curriculum. The recent Education Reform Bill's proposals for testing primary pupils at ages seven and ele...