Aims of this session: > To raise awareness of the link between the primary National Curriculum content and the lived experiences of children and families. > To help delegates pre-empt potentially emotive issues within the science National Curriculum and consider sensitive pedagogical responses.
Emotive issues in science, really? Science is often considered to be a fact-based subject; we don’t always anticipate that science lessons may evoke emotional responses from children (or their families).
During this session, we aim to consider the primary science curriculum through the eyes of a child who may find some topics challenging. These are not always the topics that we expect, and there are more than you might think. If you’re a child who does not live with biological relations, how do lessons on inherited traits in humans feel to you? If your parents struggle to afford good-quality food, what do activities highlighting a healthy diet mean to you?
We will consider how topics such as these can be addressed with sensitivity in the classroom without watering down or avoiding the scientific content.
Outcomes: Delegates will be introduced to a different mindset when teaching science. Delegates should be able to identify aspects of the primary National Curriculum which may evoke an emotional response or cause unintended upset to the children they teach and their families. Delegates should leave the session with some ideas about how they would/would not teach potentially emotive topics.
We are experienced teacher educators who have supported student teachers to get to grips with the science National Curriculum. We have also sat with students who have regretted the approaches they took in lessons when they taught the science curriculum in a factually correct way but did not fully consider the lived experiences of the children they teach. This prompted us to develop a taught session, called ‘Teaching science with sensitivity’, which we deliver to all our trainees. Feedback from students is always positive, and we would be keen to share our work with a wider audience. In doing so, we appreciate that many delegates have rich experience that they could contribute to discussion within the session.
Topics that we include are:
The human body, including physical differences, the importance of exercise, a healthy diet, hygiene/dental health and hygiene, drugs and alcohol. Potential concerns: Body differences, body image, addiction within the family, and the impact of socio-economic backgrounds.
Living, dead and things that have never been alive - Potential concern: death. Food chains – Potential concern: awareness of the brutality of predation. Fossils and evolution - Potential concern: conflict with science and families’ cultural/religious beliefs. Living things and their habitats, life cycles and reproduction - Potential concern: sustainability/habitat destruction. Inheritance and Selection – Potential concern: upset caused to children who do not live with their biological parents.
