Primary Science: Teaching Theory and Practice

John Sharp is Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the University of Lincoln.Graham Peacock is Principal Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University. He has taught children across the primary and secondary age ranges. Rob Johnsey, formerly a primary school teacher, lectured in primary science in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick for several years. Shirley Simon is Lecturer in the School of Education at King′s College, London. I was appointed Lecturer in Sociology in 2012. I am currently PhD Programme Co-ordinator and convenor of three undergraduate modules. My research and teaching is concerned with the everyday life of urban public spaces. I am interested in, and encourage students to take an interest in, both the street-level politics of city life and the mundane accomplishment of mobility practices and interaction. These themes have been addressed through research on everyday sense-making in regenerated space, practices of street-based welfare and vulnerable urban groups and, most recently, an investigation of co-operative mobility practices. I also have an abiding interest in social science methodology as a topic of inquiry.

• IntroductionThe nature of scientific understandingProcesses and methods of scientific enquiryChildren’s ideasScience in the Foundation StageTeaching strategiesPlanningClassroom organisation and managementAssessment, recording and reportingUsing ICT in scienceHealth and safetyCreative curriculum approaches