There is lots of buzz at the minute about mastery in mathematics. Over the past two years, my own understanding of mathematical mastery has changed greatly … for the better I believe. Going from something that “only the more able children do”, to now considering that mastery can be accessed at any ability – the journey to find mastery in the mathematics classroom has been a long and winding one. However, little has been said or written about mastery of science in the New Curriculum. We know we should be planning for it, but how?
As part of my role as Assistant Headteacher, I not only lead on Primary Science, but I also teach it to Year 6 each week. I am continually looking for ways to make my science lessons fun, enjoyable and challenging, but I am still looking for that ideal ‘mastery’ session.
In maths, we give our children opportunities to challenge themselves – maybe through different starting points, exposing all ability groups to the same questions or through variation. However, what would that look like in science? And how can it be achieved?
The children that I teach vary in ability and experiences. During a recent unit of work, electricity with Year 6, I presented the children with all the equipment, some ‘challenge’ questions and no teacher input. Is this mastery? There were of course those children who ‘got it’ straight away, whilst others were slower to start – all achieving the end result by the end of the lesson. However I am not convinced that these different starting points gave the children an opportunity to experience ‘mastery’. The task was certainly accessible to all children and they could all make the progress needed in order to solve my challenges.
This might be easier in science than in mathematics as often new concepts are exactly that. Even when children bring ideas with them to a new unit of work, many come with misconceptions. In science, we can explore these together and move on the learning journey together – presenting different expectations to those who are more familiar with a concept. Is this mastery? In the new Curriculum, the End of Year Expectations (EOYE) encourage and support this approach whilst the level of challenge ensures (hopes) for greater progression. In a recent investigation, again with Year 6, five trays were presented to the groups, each with a scientific statement about light. The thinking behind the task was not necessarily to answer the question correctly, but instead I wanted to see how the children explained their reasoning. Explanation and justification is used lots in mathematics mastery curriculum and its place in the science curriculum seems obvious. In this particular session, I allowed children to present their results and reasoning as either diagrams, text or a combination of both. This variation allowed me to see who had a true understanding of the concepts.
In mathematics, both Year 5 and 6 present their children with the same questions, but in a varied way, supporting and following the NCETM approach to variation. In science, the Concept Cartoons often present children with a discussion or stimulus which could be a good starting point. I have also used the ‘results’ of a fictional investigation to form the basis of the children’s new investigation. Giving the children the end point as a starting point could be another example of variation in science.
Finally, back in September I shared the Learning Challenge Curriculum with the teachers at school. This is an amazing resource that keeps science fun, engaging and completely open-ended. Rather than objectives and lesson plans, each ‘session’ is simply a question for the children to investigate. Questions include: ‘Why do footballers in a night match often have four shadows?’ (Year 3), ‘Does sound have the same intensity the further away you go from the source?’ (Year 4) and ‘Could Spiderman really exist?’ (Year 6). A brave teacher will give their class a question and simply say “off you go!” and luckily we have lots of those! Even if you feel the need to give a some structure, these open ended questions allow the children to go off in many different directions. For true mastery, it also gives them the opportunity to apply skills and concepts from other curriculum areas in order to help them to better understand the question that they are answering.
My journey to find mastery in science is in its infancy, but as I continue my quest to find mastery in the subject that I lead, I hope I can share the more outcomes and successes soon.
