ASE 2027 Annual Conference

Physics in primary classrooms can sometimes feel difficult to teach confidently. Children often arrive with strong existing ideas about forces, light, sound or electricity, while practical activities can easily become focused on “doing” rather than understanding. This workshop explores simple, evidence-informed approaches that help teachers make physics teaching clearer, more purposeful and more accessible for all learners.

Using a range of classroom examples, participants will explore how to start with children’s thinking, make practical work more meaningful and develop pupils’ ability to talk and reason about physics. The session will examine approaches such as prediction questions, purposeful practical design, diagnostic discussion strategies, explicit vocabulary teaching and structured classroom talk.

The workshop focuses on small changes that can have a big impact on pupil understanding without requiring specialist equipment or advanced subject knowledge. Participants will leave with practical routines, questioning techniques and adaptable strategies that can be used immediately within primary science lessons.
This session is particularly suitable for primary teachers, science leaders and teachers who may feel less confident teaching physics but want to strengthen pupils’ conceptual understanding and engagement.

As a result of attending, participants will be able to:
> use strategies to elicit and respond to pupils’ existing physics ideas and misconceptions
> adapt practical activities so that the physics learning is explicit and purposeful
> structure classroom talk to support reasoning, explanation and participation
> teach and reinforce key physics vocabulary more effectively
> apply evidence-informed approaches to improve pupil understanding in primary physics lessons
> identify at least one practical change they will implement in their own classroom practice immediately

Background: This workshop draws on my work supporting primary science and physics teaching through classroom practice, teacher development and subject-specific CPD. Over time, I have become increasingly interested in the small pedagogical shifts that can make a significant difference to children’s understanding of physics concepts.
The session is informed by evidence and guidance from organisations including the Education Endowment Foundation, the Institute of Physics and the Ogden Trust, alongside research into purposeful practical work, oracy and misconceptions in primary science. It also reflects extensive work with teachers who often feel less confident teaching physics than other areas of science.

The approaches shared have been developed through trialling and refining strategies that help teachers move beyond “busy practicals” towards lessons where children think, talk and reason more effectively about the physics taking place.