• Understand how children’s thinking scientifically can be assessed meaningfully in outdoor primary science • Explore a research informed Thinking Scientifically Assessment Matrix that supports progression across primary phases • Engage with examples of how the matrix has been co designed and trialled with experienced teachers in real classrooms • Consider how assessment can strengthen, rather than constrain, outdoor science learning • Reflect on how a shared assessment framework can support trainee teachers, Early Career Teachers and whole school professional learning
Outdoor science offers rich opportunities for curiosity, talk, investigation, and sense making; yet many teachers report uncertainty about how to assess thinking in these spaces. In this interactive session, participants will be introduced to a Thinking Scientifically Assessment Matrix designed to support assessment for learning in outdoor primary science. They will explore how the matrix makes children’s scientific thinking visible, supports progression over time, and aligns with everyday classroom practice rather than adding to the teacher's workload. Drawing on real examples from classrooms, the session will share how teachers have trialled the matrix outdoors, what has been learned through co-design, and how assessment has been embedded into practical, exploratory learning. Participants will be invited to engage with sample learning scenarios, consider where evidence of thinking might be captured, and reflect on how a shared framework could support consistency across year groups or within professional learning communities. The session will be relevant for classroom teachers, subject leaders, mentors, and those supporting teacher development.
By the end of the session, participants will be able to: • Identify key features of progression in children’s scientific thinking across the primary age range, in outdoor contexts. • Use an assessment matrix to recognise and interpret evidence of thinking in outdoor science lessons • Adapt assessment approaches to support exploratory, enquiry rich learning • Apply shared assessment language to support planning, reflection, and professional dialogue within and across schools • Support trainee teachers and Early Career Teachers in developing confidence with assessment of primary science, particularly in outdoor and enquiry based contexts • Integrate a research informed assessment framework within ITE programmes to strengthen coherence between university based theory and school based practice • Consider next steps for embedding the assessment of thinking scientifically within their own settings
This session draws on EdD research, which focused on the creation and application of a Thinking Scientifically Assessment Matrix designed to articulate progression in children’s scientific thinking. The research explored how early career teachers used the matrix to support planning, teaching, and assessment in primary science, particularly in outdoor learning contexts, where assessment is often perceived as challenging or impractical. Building on this work, I am currently collaborating with experienced primary teachers through a structured programme of professional learning and classroom trialling. Together, we are refining the matrix through lesson observations, peer discussion, and shared analysis of children’s learning. This knowledge exchange approach values teacher expertise alongside research informed pedagogy, with the long term aim of making outdoor science learning assessable, sustainable, and impactful beyond the Early Years.
Aims: This session aims to share research findings and new professional development resources for purposeful practical work to support inclusion in primary science. We will consider examples of adaptive teaching and how practical work can be used to enable children to sense that science is ‘for them’ and is accessible to their needs.
The purposeful use of practical work in primary science provides a range of opportunities for inclusive practice. Drawing on research from the Nuffield and Comino Foundation funded practical work project (2023-26), this session will consider how purposeful practical work can be used most effectively to support all learners. With examples from across the four nations of the UK, we will discuss adaptive teaching and the importance of essential experiences to support disadvantaged learners. We will use the outcomes of the research projects and the examples from a range of schools to stimulate discussion and reflection on the nature of inclusive practical work in primary science. Links will be made across research projects such as SEERIH’s ‘Shining a light on inclusive science’ and the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) projects, to show how key messages align across the primary science community.
Outcomes: Attendees will develop an awareness of the research base for practical work in primary science and become familiar with the proposed pedagogy model. By discussing examples selected from the professional development materials, they will reflect on practice in their own context.
Background: The Nuffield Foundation funded research project (2023-25) considered practical work from a primary perspective, proposing a pedagogy model to support practice. With support from the Comino Foundation, the project follow-on (2025-26) involved visits to 30 teachers in 20 schools across the four nations of the UK. The new bank of professional development videos model adaptive teaching and purposeful use of practical work in primary science.
Professor / Director, SEERIH, University of Manchester
Vice Dean for Social Responsibility, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility Director of Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub Comino Foundation Associate Great Science Share for Schools Campaign Director Principal Fellow of the HEA RSA Fellow
Professor of Science Education, Bath Spa University
Sarah Earle is Professor of Primary Science Education at Bath Spa University. Previously a primary school teacher, she now leads the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS), the Focus4TAPS professional learning programme and Nuffield research into practical work projects. She... Read More →
At the Nottingham Institute of Education, we have remained committed to ensuring that professional curiosity, agency and joy underpin our science provision across our primary initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. Maintaining this ambition against a national context of financial pressures in the university sector while meeting government reforms as articulated through the Initial Teacher Training Early Career Framework (ITTECF), the introduction of ITAP (Intensive Training and Practice) and the new OFTSED ITT Inspection Framework has not been easy. Our concern is that some of these challenges are contributing to a constrained provision of primary science in ITE.
We know that we are not alone and we would like to use this session as an opportunity to collectively celebrate and identify next steps in nurturing professional curiosity, agency and joy for our next generation of primary science teachers. We invite you to join us in this interactive presentation where you will be able to share and reflect on how science is positioned in your own teacher educator settings. (Outcomes) By the end of the session, you will: • Gain a developed awareness of practice-based approaches (e.g. outdoor learning, informal contexts, micro-teaching, practitioner research projects) for embedding professional curiosity and developing critical research engagement in primary science ITE. • Critically reflect on how ITE programmes currently develop research engagement and how this can establish professional agency. • Consider wider possibilities, through the ASE and beyond, that will empower student teachers and ECTs in their professional development of their subject, curriculum and pedagogical knowledge in primary science.
Aims: • Understand how science can be given a strong, coherent and joyful profile across a primary ITE curriculum • Explore how purposeful and critical engagement with research can be scaffolded for student teachers and ECTs. • Collaborate as a community of teacher educators to support the identification of practical strategies that can embed professional curiosity and joy in primary science ITE.
Background: At the Nottingham Institute of Education, we have remained committed to ensuring that professional curiosity, agency and joy underpin our science provision across our primary initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. Working as a team of primary science initial teacher educators in England, we have reflected on how to maintain this ambition against a national context of financial pressures in the university sector while meeting government reforms as articulated through the Initial Teacher Training Early Career Framework (ITTECF) and the introduction of ITAP (Intensive Training and Practice. Our concern is that some of these challenges are contributing to a diminished and constrained provision of primary science in ITE.
Our approach has evolved through our ITE undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum design, collaboration with expert practitioners, specialist science expertise within our university and local partnership schools. External examiner feedback and student outcomes have supported the development of this approach, highlighting its impact on confidence, agency and subject knowledge.
We will reflect on how we have deliberately designed, within our primary ITE curriculum, opportunities that encourage a critical engagement with research in primary science. This includes utilising external evidence-informed professional support such as the Primary Science Enhancement Award (PSEA), embedding science within ITAP so that foundational teaching foci, such as high-quality talk and questioning, can be developed through the lens of primary science and promoting practitioner enquiry in primary science within our final dissertation action research projects.
Associate Professor of Science Education, Nottingham Trent University
I started my professional career as a classroom teacher and science lead in a London primary school. I was and remain passionate about classroom learning that promotes a scientific mindset alongside the development of an understanding of key scientific concepts. This professional... Read More →
Climate change is one of the most significant challenges that humankind has ever faced and providing high quality climate change and sustainability education is imperative. The session will explore the interdisciplinary nature of climate change within the primary curriculum. It will consider how learning might be best sequenced and connected to instil in pupils an understanding of the science, geographical impacts, possible mitigations and adaptations of climate change.
The government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review clearly positions climate change and sustainability education within the remit of science and geography. Through a range of practical activities the session will demonstrate how to plan and implement a coherent approach to the teaching and learning of climate change. Delegates will be prompted to discuss the specific elements that are to be taught within and across the two subjects as well as the possible connections with other foundation subjects such as citizenship and DT. Ofsted outline the importance that learning does not occur in silos and this is particularly pertinent for global issues such as climate change where pupils need to gain an in-depth understanding of the processes that underpin anthropogenic climate change as well as the wide range of impacts. The session will explore how to ensure that climate change education is relevant, hopeful and accessible in part be focusing in on small scale local impacts as well as the large scale global affects of climate change.
There will be the chance to discuss how geographical thinking can be used to interpret scientific data and imagine a range of possible futures, empowering pupils to be part of the solution as informed and active global citizens.
Outcomes: > Understanding of how to effectively embed climate change content across the primary curriculum > Make connections between the causes and effects of climate change
This session will explore: • Teachers and students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of student-led questioning and feedback in engaging students in science. • Share a more effective model of classroom discourse and how it has enhanced teaching and learning in the science classroom. • Provide participants opportunities to share ideas and knowledge on pedagogical approaches to authentic assessments and opportunities for collaboration.
To address the underlying concerns regarding students’ learning in science, a more responsive teaching approach and assessments are relevant. This must be student-led to promote self-regulation, feedback, identify areas of weaknesses and support peers in the process (Chen & Chang, 2022). This can be facilitated through a constructivist learning environment where students can collaboratively share knowledge and ideas whilst making meaning from different concepts (EEF, 2024), with added benefits of reducing cognitive load.
This presentation will: • Share how we trained students to use taxonomy of learning to create questions for their peers through modelling and locating these question types within their epistemological framework for learning (Elby & Hammer, 2010). • Discuss how the OSLA (2012) model was used to assess and grade students’ presentations and implications on learning. • Highlight teachers’ roles as facilitators of learning and reviewers of epistemological resources and framing (Elby & Hammer, 2010). • Discuss how problem-based learning (PBL) was used to develop problems and scenarios used in the study, and how this promoted pedagogy and students’ learning.
By attending the session, participants can learn from the approach to this study as discussed above and would be able to contribute other areas not mentioned, share knowledge and network with others for future research collaboration.
Background information: Working with various secondary schools and teachers has enabled me to provide different types of support ranging from research to pedagogy and linking theory to practice. This presentation is inspired by research conducted in a secondary school with science teachers and their students. At the time, the school was concerned about students’ lack of interests in science and poor outcomes from GCSEs. This became an opportunity for me to conduct research and find possible means to improve teaching and learning at the school. I was familiar with the school due to insider knowledge in the science department and from working with the science teachers. The school was in one of London’s deprived Boroughs where achievements is below the national average and fewer students move on to post-16 let alone studying science subjects at A’ levels and BTEC.
