The input of the researchers in the process was openly acknowledged and valued
by the teachers, especially the clarification of scientific ideas and feedback on
teachers’classroom implementation of their professional learning related to inquiry
learning in science. Although somewhat misunderstood during thefirst cycle of the
study, most teachers came to recognise CoRe design in the second cycle as a useful
tool for collaborative thinking and sharing of teaching expertise and knowledge
within the teaching teams before conventional unit planning began. These experi-
ences ultimately led to school-wide ownership by teachers of the need for a con-
ceptually based science education plan for the school promoting learning in ways
that mirrored authentic scientific inquiry.
Teachers welcomed the redevelopment of the SIP and made a number of sug-
gestions and recommendations about its structure and content. The researchers also
made observations from the projectfindings, which they raised for the school to
consider when developing the plan and meeting teachers’professional learning
needs.
54.8 The Design of the School’s Science
Implementation Plan
Late in the year of the project, a group of interested teachers known as the Science
Development Group (SIG) met on three separate days to design the school’sSIP.It
was notable that while the research team and the Principal did provide some
‘seeding’ideas and broad direction for the plan, the SDG effectively took over the
planning process. On the basis offindings from the project, including their col-
leagues’views on what form of guidance they sought as teachers of science, this
lead group with input from researchers designed a detailed set of principles, which
were to underpin future science programmes in the school. They included:
- Collaborative CoRe design and unit planning as a means of strengthening
teachers’science content knowledge, PCK and feelings of self-efficacy. - A school-wide science implementation plan with a conceptual framework that
provides direction and guidance for students’learning progressions in science as
they move through their six years of primary schooling. - Pedagogies where students engage in inquiry-based learning that mirrors
authentic scientific inquiry. - The development and fostering of scientific capabilities and dispositions in stu-
dents (i.e. engage with science and ask questions, design investigations, gather
and interpret data, use evidence, critique evidence, and interpret representations). - School-wide assessment of sufficient depth to allow students to show that they can
perform in increasingly more complex ways from school entry to Year Six.
Evidence in any year to include a range of data to exemplify conceptual devel-
opment, and science capabilities and dispositions linked to the school’s SIP.
808 A. Hume