Latest evidence on what works in primary science

Below are short summaries and the links to reports and reviews that will help subject leaders, classroom teachers and school leaders develop their science practice. The documents are in date order with the newest reports at the top. This page is updated in response to the release of new relevant publications.

Different approaches to teaching primary science: the role of the teacher is what makes the difference (2022

When teachers are planning their science lessons, consideration of their own role and the quality of the dialogue they have with the children is key. This article encourages teachers to focus on what is happening when effective teaching and learning are taking place in primary science classrooms, and why a particular approach might be best for a specific learning intention. An annotated lesson sequence is used to illustrate how the teacher can make effective use of a range of approaches, e.g. guided enquiry, open-ended enquiry, guided discussion, direct instruction, demonstration. At the end a checklist of questions supports teachers to choose appropriate approaches when planning their science lessons.  

The article can be accessed here (with thanks to the ASE for making it open access). 

Aspires3 Young People’s STEM Trajectories, Age 10-22 

Despite many years of interventions, key communities remain under represented in STEM and this research seeks to understand why. The research tracks the attitudes to and experiences in STEM subjects of 47,000 young people over a 14 year period as they moved through education from ages 10 to 22.  

Whilst it is mainly focused on secondary school and higher education, it does give glimpses of how children’s attitudes to STEM subjects are formed at an early stage. To understand how you can support and value young children’s STEM identities take a look at the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach. 

The report makes six main recommendations: 

• Support and value young people’s STEM identities over time and across contexts. 
• Challenge ideas of STEM competence (but particularly in mathematical areas) as being based on ‘natural talent’.  
• Address the impact of Double/Triple science GCSE qualification routes on STEM progression. 
• Challenge peer sexism on STEM degrees.  
• Support more equitable experiences and retention on STEM degrees, particularly among students from under represented communities.  
• Facilitate greater access to key forms of STEM-related social and cultural capital for young people from under represented communities, to support social mobility in STEM and beyond. 

The full report can be found here. Also available are free to print and download anti-sexism resources; the “Step up! Be an Anti-Sexism Ally in STEM” poster and information leaflet are intended primarily for university departments but are relevant to all educational contexts.

Improving Primary Science Guidance Report from the Education Endowment Foundation

This guidance is useful for all primary teachers wanting to make meaningful improvements to their science teaching, and particularly to support the progress of children from under-resourced backgrounds and to develop positive attitudes to science. It is designed to be used by science leads, class teachers, headteachers, and other staff with leadership responsibility in primary schools. It consists of six practical recommendations for improving primary science, each underpinned by high quality evidence. The six recommendations are:

1. Develop pupils’ scientific vocabulary
2. Encourage pupils to explain their thinking, whether verbally or in written form
3. Guide pupils to work scientifically
4. Relate new learning to relevant, real-world contexts
5. Use assessment to support learning and responsive teaching
6. Strengthen science teaching through effective professional development, as part of an implementation process.

Each recommendation begins with an illustrative scenario that outlines a possible challenge faced by teachers before posing questions to consider while reading the recommendation. The recommendations feature models, worked examples, and scenarios of what might work in the classroom. Teachers should consider the recommendations in the context of their own school’s specific circumstances and use their professional judgement about how best to implement them for maximum benefit for their school. The Guidance Report along with a Recommendations Poster and additional can be downloaded from the EEF website here.

Framework for a Future Primary Science Curriculum

What might a future primary science curriculum look like?

Written by a group of experienced primary science educators, the Framework for a Future Primary Science Curriculum (2023) provides the basis for the design of a curriculum that is contemporary, cognitively appropriate and relevant for all children, and that lays the foundation for future learning in science. With equity and inclusion at its heart, it aims to ensure that all children can access and participate in science.

While the PCAG Curriculum Framework is primarily intended to support the work of future curriculum design, its rationale and content are relevant to all primary teachers in classrooms now; it provides a clear and concise description of the purpose of children’s science learning, and shows how the new knowledge that children are acquiring underpins the development of an understanding of global and sustainable living. Find out more here and download a pdf of the framework here.

Being Focussed: Monitoring the 10 Key Issues to Improve Children’s Learning Experiences in Primary Science (2023)

This is a follow up report to the publication ‘10 Key Issues with Children’s Learning in Primary Science Report’ (2021). It helps take schools through how to monitor teaching and learning of science in school. Having worked with schools in three areas of England, the report

Based on immersive work in primary science classrooms in three areas of England, the report identifies a useful list of what children’s science experiences might look like if science learning is going well. It offers guidance about the purpose of monitoring, and how to facilitate a discussion between leaders in the school to identify priorities and agree approaches to monitoring. The professional views and perspectives from science subject leaders and senior leaders are clearly integrated into the report, providing helpful illustrative examples of monitoring progress happening in practice.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Finding the optimum: the science subject report, Ofsted (2023)

This report presents a range of evidence about science education gathered from routine Ofsted inspections in schools in England. It is split into primary and secondary findings, and includes evidence from reception classes.

Click here to read a summary of the main findings and recommendations relevant to primary science.

The full report and an executive summary can be downloaded here.

A response to the Ofsted Research Review for Science: Guidance for primary schools (2022)

This guidance was issued to help primary schools make sense of Ofsted’s Science Research Review (2021) which presented a summary of the literature relating to science education and outlined some of the factors that can contribute to high quality teaching, learning and leadership in science.

From this review, the guidance document identified five significant issues:

1. Subject leadership and developing teacher expertise in science is a necessity
2. Expertise in science requires children to build substantive and disciplinary knowledge
3. Improvement of children’s science learning needs to be curriculum-led and sequenced
4. Purposeful selection of a range of teaching approaches includes direct instruction and enquiry-based teaching
5. Teachers need sufficient subject knowledge to assess effectively

The guidance explores each issue in turn, with an outline of the implications for primary science expertise and leadership, prompts for next steps and a ‘myth buster’ to give reassurance about how to bring about change in practice.  The document is intended to stimulate reflection and dialogue between teachers, science subject leaders and senior leaders to enable the development of a whole school approach to identifying next steps towards high-quality science education.

The full guidance can be downloaded here.

The Ofsted science research review (2021) can be accessed here.

Sustainability and Climate Change Education: Creating the Foundations for Effective Implementation (2022)

This report is intended to support schools to implement effective sustainability and climate change education. It provides a starting point for schools to create their own guiding principles and a framework from which to work. It recognises that school leaders face hard choices, driven by priorities such as learning recovery and squeezed budgets, but points out that without an explicit focus, care of the environment often becomes an aspiration rather than a necessity.

The summary report can be downloaded here.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Early Science Guidance from the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project (2022)

Although science might not be explicitly specified in early years curricula, young children’s natural behaviour is often highly scientific. Illustrated with real examples from early years settings, this short booklet explores the importance of play and the role of the adult, and it considers the underpinning principles for effective and developmentally appropriate practice in science in the early years. 

The booklet can be downloaded here.

TAPS CPD for teachers has a positive impact on year 5 pupils’ science attainment (trial completed 2021)

A trial by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) demonstrated that the teacher CPD programme Focus4TAPS has a positive impact on year 5 pupils’ science attainment, including those children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Focus4TAPS aims to boost primary school children’s science outcomes by supporting teachers with key areas of their science teaching, such as deepening their understanding of how children progress through the science curriculum, applying formative assessment strategies, and providing appropriate levels of support or challenge for their children.

The EEF report of the trial can be accessed here.

The TAPS pyramid tool provides schools with a supportive structure to develop and implement assessment processes – find out more here.

Further guidance and support for assessment from the TAPS project can be found here.

10 Key Issues with Children’s Learning in Primary Science Report (2021)

Produced through a research collaboration between The University of Manchester, Science Across the City and The Ogden Trust, this report has a specific focus on the science learning experiences of primary school children. It highlights the impact of different teaching approaches and explores how these affect children’s engagement and progress in science.

The 10 key issues identified are that children’s:

• science learning is superficial and lacks depth;
• preconceptions aren’t adequately valued;
• science learning lacks challenge.

And that children:

• are over-reliant on teacher talk and direction, and lack autonomy and independence in learning science;
• experience ‘fun’ science activities that fail to deepen or develop new learning;
• are not encouraged to use their own curiosity, scientific interests and questions in their science learning;
• are engaged in prescriptive practical work that lacks purpose;
• do not draw on their learning from prior scientific skills, and do not build on repeated and regular experiences;
• rarely see themselves, their families, community members or their teachers as scientists;
• do not apply literacy and numeracy skills in science at the standard they use in English and Mathematics.

The report discusses each issue in turn, giving examples of the issue observed in practice and an outline of the impact of the issue on children’s learning, both in the short and longer term. It also includes helpful insights from stakeholder groups. The aim of the report it to help teachers, science subject leaders and school leaders identify key areas for strategic development in science, along with appropriate professional development for teachers.

The full report is free to download here.

Primary Science Capital: a whole school teaching approach – Teacher Handbook (2021)

This comprehensive resource for all primary teachers and school leaders outlines the concept of social justice and science capital. It explains how and why a social justice approach helps learners from all backgrounds to engage meaningfully with science. The handbook considers how teachers can plan their teaching by starting with the child and their experiences and interests, and how in their science lessons, they might support the voice and agency of every child.

The handbook includes detailed examples of how the approach works in the classroom, plus clear explanations of successful cascading practices within schools. Teachers show how powerful the approach has been for them and their children: they describe changes they have made to their practice and the positive effects these had on children’s engagement and interest in science lessons.

The handbook can be downloaded here.

Primary science education beyond 2021 – what next?

A commentary and guiding principles (2021).

Following a report by the Wellcome Trust (2021) on the impact of Covid-19 and school closures on primary science education, this document considers what is needed to continue to develop good primary science education, and it suggests appropriate principles for the future.

This report can be downloaded here.