What is the National curriculum depth and breadth of chosen topic?
ASSIGNMENT 1
Critique the teaching of a topic from within the science programme of study.
This assignment aims to support the development of your subject knowledge for teaching, through thoroughly researching subject knowledge and pedagogy for teaching a chosen topic and writing an essay (2000-2500 words) critiquing the teaching of the topic within science.
To prepare for writing the assignment you need to:
1.Decide on a topic or idea that you intend to explore. This can either be something that you need to teach this placement and know little about or something that you need to develop your subject knowledge to meet your targets. It needs to link to the National curriculum e.g. force, respiration, photosynthesis, bonding, elements and compounds. Choose a specific topic on GCSE, KS3 or A level.
2.Research the current state of knowledge about your topic/idea using the educational database(s) and find out how this is assessed in your current placement, to understand the progress students need to make and what they find challenging. Read a few recent journal articles (at least 8, but more is better and within the last 5 years) and get a real feel for the current state of knowledge about the issues that surround the teaching and learning of this topic. Look at: schemes of work, teaching resources, examiners` reports -anything that gives you information about teaching and learning this topic (you can even do short interviews with a few pupils to shed some more light on it).
How is it taught? What difficulties are there (either conceptually or procedurally) with the topic or the way it is typically taught? What are the misconceptions associated with the topic and how would you address them from your teaching and that of other teachers? How the misconceptions are addressed by literature and how is it different from what you do in the classroom? What suggestions have been made about possible ways forward?
You may consider the following as a guide in addition to the above:
What is the National curriculum depth and breadth of chosen topic?
What are misconceptions in science?
You will need to research the common misconceptions that pupils hold about the topic you are going to teach. You could elicit the children`s prior understanding of the subject before you teach it. You should include the evidence of this elicitation of children`s ideas in your work or appendix to the assignment and refer to it in your discussions.
Analyse one or more misconceptions associated with your topic drawing upon your school experience and literature. Discuss how they might have arisen and ways of addressing them. Could the use of models, role play, experiments, images etc. be useful in addressing the misconceptions? Refer to your classroom experience of dealing with this and support with relevant literature to show the link between theory and practice. Are there any formative assessments you carried out to address the misconceptions? Describe them and any evidence/outcome. You should aim for all students in the class to enjoy the lesson and make progress.