Did new science teaching approaches work any better than the usual ones?
In a second, linked project the researchers worked with teachers to design and then evaluate new teaching sequences based on a detailed understanding of when and where students were most likely to hold misconceptions about science. They explored the impact of new teaching sequences on students’ knowledge and understanding of: • plant nutrition • changes in matter in terms of particles • behaviour of simple electrical circuits. The researchers found: • in all but two of the 17 intervention classes, between 20% and 74% more students offered explanations more consistent with science principles than students in control classes • teachers who had been involved in the design stage generally achieved larger improvements in results than the teachers who used the new sequences, but had not been involved in their design. The latter group, however, also achieved significant improvements in student learning • teachers thought that the new teaching sequences were better at covering curriculum conte
