Asking questions about primary science and TIMSS

Large scale data provide opportunities to explore relationships between factors associated with teaching and learning.  The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data collected from schools, head teachers, classroom teachers and pupils in primary classes (Year Five) collected internationally on a three yearly basis are presented in this session.  With a focus on the experiences of teaching and learning science, we had three aims : 1. to explore the professional development experiences of teachers. what they had experienced, and what they identified as their PD needs; 2. to explore the relationship between instructional time, and achievement ; and 3. to explore the use of specific teaching strategies and the relationship with achievement. This work has come about because of the perceived status of primary science, that it has been 'downgraded' as a primary subject since formal, external assessment of science ceased at Key Stage Two (KS2). Given the breadth of subjects primary teachers cover and the different demands of the year groups, ensuring a high quality and developmental science curriculum across all the years is challenging. Pre-service and in-service professional development is essential to enable teachers to deliver an engaging, stimulating and cognitively demanding learning experience. TIMSS surveys asked teachers, schools, about the experiences of teaching science including their academic background, duration of teaching, PD experiences, teaching strategies, use of resources, topics taught, attitudes towards teaching including their confidence in teaching science. Pupils were asked questions on internationally agreed science topics and their experiences of and attitudes towards learning science , such as whether they liked learning science, if they felt confident in learning science and about ‘instructional clarity’. These constructs were framed as child-friendly questions, such as whether they knew what their teacher expected them to do, if their teacher was good at explaining, was easy to understand, for example. Findings to be presented will include an international comparison of PD across countries participating in TIMSS and discussed in the light of current recommendations for PD provision and participation. The low level of teacher participation in the survey England limits what we can usefully draw from these data. However, there are some points for discussion and exploration. For example, teachers expressed a wish for PD to enable integration of science across the curriculum. We constructed a model using data from pupils and teachers, including school level index of deprivation (IDACI), pupil background, home resources, parental education and occupation. The level of deprivation has the greatest impact on Year Five pupil achievement, as did home resources of the pupil and prior knowledge.  Additionally, positive ‘affect’ seems to be important, and it is worth pointing out that a smaller number of pupils in England felt very confident compared with their international peers.  We will also discuss our analysis showing that some aspects of investigative work have a greater and positive impact on pupil learning.