Programme underway to improve science teaching

News release from the Royal Society of New Zealand

21 May 2012

Programme underway to improve science teaching in primary schools

With the quality of science teaching in primary schools in New Zealand under the spotlight, thirteen primary school teachers are part way through a teacher fellowship programme to help develop their science teaching skills.

The teachers are spending the first two terms of 2012 as Primary Science Teacher Fellows, under a scheme administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand and funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation

Science education in primary schools has been under discussion after the Education Review Office released a report at the start of May that shows that only 27 per cent of schools have effective or generally effective science programmes for Years 5 to 8 students.

Around 100 teachers have been through the Primary Science Teacher Fellowship programme, since it began in 2009 The programme was started following a report in 2008 from the National Education Monitoring Project, which highlighted a downwards trend in the attitudes of primary aged students towards science.

Under the scheme, teachers take leave from their schools to work with researchers at host organisations and learn more about science

and its application.

“The goal is to make these teachers science curriculum leaders,” says Richard Meylan, Manager – Education at the Royal Society of New Zealand.

“One of the conditions of the fellowships is that the principal and school must be fully behind the teachers and willing to make science a focus for the year following the fellowship.

“We hope the experiences the teachers have during their fellowships and the commitment the schools make to science will have a long-lasting positive effect on science teaching in these primary schools.”

The research topics for this group of teachers include dolphin monitoring, geology and earthquake studies, onion and fern research, conservation projects, dairying and physical exercise in athletes.

Host organisations for this group of teachers include organisations such as NIWA, Lincoln University, Department of Conservation, and GNS.

ENDS

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