Ahead of his workshop on this topic, NACE Associate Ed Walsh shares seven key components of a challenging KS3 science curriculum…

“Is our KS3 course doing its job?” This is one of the most powerful questions a science leader in a secondary school can ask.

The new GCSE courses are no longer really new; many teachers are finding their way around the specifications, developing aspects such as the running order of topics, time allocated to activities and applying emphasis to areas that results analyses indicate are deficient.

There, is, of course, a limit as to what can be achieved within KS4. If students are starting on their GCSE courses with limitations in their grasp of science then the more effective solution may lie in KS3. I’d like to share some ideas as to how learners, especially the most able, can be effectively catered for at this stage. It is, of course, relatively easy to pose questions and harder work to identify answers. With this in mind I’ve also included some links to useful references and resources.

1. Talk the (science) talk

What language is being used in lessons? Are students being supported, challenged and expected to ‘talk science’? This needs to go beyond knowing the right names for objects, to also having a command of connectives. Would an observer in your classroom catch use of words and phrases such as ‘because’, ‘therefore’ and ‘as a result of’ – not just by the teacher but by students as they are developing explanations?

Read more: Useful materials on speaking and listening can be found in Session 4 of the National Strategies Literacy in Science Training Materials.

2.  Ensure practical work adds value

What is the role of practical work in your science teaching and learning? Is it exploratory as well as illustrative? Does it prompt questions and ideas? Is it effective at developing the apparatus and techniques skills needed at GCSE so that able learners have, for example, mastered the use of microscopes by the time they start GCSE courses and can then concentrate on other aspects of investigations?

Read more: The newly published ASE/Gatsby report Good Practical Science provides benchmarks to support departments seeking to improve the effectiveness of practical science teaching.

3.  Review your use of questioning and command words

What kind of questions are being asked? A good starting point is to look at the command words used in GCSE specifications and consider whether students are being exposed to these all the way through their secondary science experience. As well as ‘describe’ and ‘explain’, are able learners being asked to evaluate, compare, contrast and suggest? As well as closed and specific questions, are you posing open and exploratory questions?

Read more: Guidance on questioning is provided in unit 7 of Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools (DfES).

4. Develop writing (quality, not quantity)

What is the role of writing? This is not a plea for lengthy, exhaustive (and exhausting) experimental writeups or even necessarily for anything of any length. It’s more that there is a case for getting students producing short pieces of high-quality writing that do a particular job well. This might be, for example, comparing and contrasting different materials for a car body, suggesting and justifying an energy provision plan for a particular location or analysing a graph that shows how different carrier bags respond to loads.

Read more: Useful materials on writing can be found in Session 3 of the National Strategies Literacy in Science Training Materials.

5. Ensure key concepts are covered and revisited

Have the ‘cornerstone concepts’ been effectively introduced and revisited? Is the concept of energy well developed and do students understand what is meant by an ecosystem? Such key concepts can be seen as tools that scientists can reach for when developing explanations; able learners should become more proficient in doing this.

Read more: An overview of how key ideas can be planned for in KS3 is provided in AQA’s KS3 Science Syllabus.

6.  Respond to learners’ needs

How responsive is the teaching to nurturing able learners and focusing on their learning needs? If these students are going to realise their potential at the end of GCSE then their KS3 experience needs to be tailored to areas in which they need a good grounding. For example, if they’re confident with the concept of a chemical reaction but less familiar with different types of reaction, can the latter be made a particular focus? Students who feel they are ‘treading water’ may not perform to the best of their ability.

Read more: A really good reference source on this is Dylan Wiliam’s Embedded Formative Assessment (2011, Solution Tree, 978-1-934009-30-7)

7. Develop science capital

Students are more likely to succeed if they see a purpose to their learning. Are there opportunities for them to see the doors that are open to young people who are competent and keen in STEM subjects? A good example of resources recently published to support this are the Royal Society’s series of videos with Professor Brian Cox – as well as demonstrating how experiments can be done in schools, they also show why these ideas are important and useful in society and highlight the cutting-edge research in each area.

Read more: This blog post from The Science Museum’s Beth Hawkins provides a useful introduction to the concept of science capital and how it can be developed. Plus, watch our webinar on this topic (member login required).

For additional support to develop your provision for more able learners in science, sign in as a NACE member to access Ed Walsh's NACE Essentials guide to realising the potential of more able learners in GCSE science, and recorded webinar on effective questioning in science.

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