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Premier’s Macquarie Bank Science ScholarshipImplications of classroom pedagogy for science teachingKevin CousinsNimbin Central SchoolSponsored by
The focus of the study is the implication of classroom pedagogy on the learning outcomes of students of mixed ability, particularly in small schools. One of the difficulties facing classroom teachers of science in small schools such as Nimbin Central School is the diversity of the abilities of the students. Typically, Nimbin, a rural Priority School Funding Program (PSFP) central school, has in year 7, a cohort which ranges in reading age from 8 to 18, requiring individualised learning plans. I would like to alter the delivery of the Science syllabus to the middle school, to involve all students actively in learning by changing the pedagogy of the classroom.SummaryWarwick University has, through its National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) initiative, implemented a program of curriculum reform based on pedagogical change. Through its ambassador schools and other contributing schools, NAGTY has promoted the implementation of curriculum review across a very broad spectrum of schools. This has resulted in a very diverse range of approaches being taken to accommodate the NAGTY guidelines while still complying with the National Curriculum. The approach taken by schools such as Northampton School for Boys, a state school of approximately 1500 students, is very conventional, with a program of visiting mentors working with gifted childrenduring lunch hours and after school. Campion school’s approach, on the other hand, has incorporated the Opening Minds program in Year 7 and is in the process of writing it into all junior classes by 2008. This program caters for all abilities within a non-streamed class by moving away from a traditional Science curriculum to a strongly thematic approach.Of the ambassador schools implementing a pedagogical change, most chose to implement a thematic approach to the Science curriculum. The reasons for this are many, but primarily a thematic approach allowed the schools much more flexibility in dealing with a wide range in abilities of their students and a diverse range of interests among their teachers. Campion School in Bugbrooke offered a non-selected groupof year 7 (2 classes out of 8) a radically different curriculum based on the Opening Minds project.1The success of this project has encouraged Helen Boyle, leading teacher, to implement a program for both year 7 and year 8 in 2007. Deer Park, Cirencester, also offers a thematic curriculum, particularly in middle school years. This is accomplished by means of a very close relationship the school shares with a number of nearby science-based businesses and allows the school to offer units in conjunction witha joint replacement manufacturer in one instance and an industrial chemistry workplace in the other. All of the schools visited in England offer a more globally oriented curriculum than is generally offered in New South Wales schools. This takes the formof reciprocal school exchanges, expeditions and school contacts across the world. Australia is isolated from much of the world; however, some English schools such as Cirencester are in continuous contact with schools as far away as Japan. Cirencester’s aim is to develop a global student for whom as much of the curriculum as possible is based on the principle that each student would eventually assume a place in a global society. In fact, global citizenship featured strongly in most of the schools visited.Implementation of thematic curricula makes application of cross-curriculum material easier and of more relevance. The ambassador schools of the University of Warwick’s NAGTY have embraced the idea of pedagogical renewal through thematic units of work and indoing so have stimulated many schools across the United Kingdom to follow a similar path.